Well my faithful 8.5 readers -- you may be wondering where the dizzle has been the past few days. I know you will find this hard to believe but I was at Yale Divinity School of all places! I had an opportunity to go to the 2006 “emergent theological discussion”. These events are organized by emergent (and since it was an emergent event I use the term “organized” very loosely) and occur (almost) annually. Part conference, part family reunion, part seminar (in the academic sense of the word), and part support group for recovering fundamentalist/evangelicals, these “theologic discussions” are a way for ‘friends of emergent’ to engage with current theologians and their ideas in a relaxed and casual but still somewhat academic atmosphere.
The theologian this year was Dr. Miroslav Volf and the topic was a discussion of Christian love, forgiveness and grace; which Dr. Volf unpacks quite accessibly within his last two books, Exclusion and Embrace and Free of Charge.
Overall, the gathering was wonderful. Just being able to ask questions about faith in a free and open environment with other christian sisters/brothers felt good. The other thing that makes an emergent conversation so awesome is the ecumenical flavor of the events. Almost every tradition of christianity was represented (mainline, anglican, free church, non-denomination, quaker, baptist -- I would, however, like to see more of our catholic sisters/brothers at the next event) and anytime unity of the body occurs it just feels right.
Below are some of my thoughts/broodings about the event. Understand that any critique I have of the event is meant only to stimulate thought in the minds of the organizers for next time and not to dissuade anyone from attending these amazing discussions. I encourage anyone who wants to move deeper and be challenged in their faith to attend one of these emergent discussions.
As a way to open up, I will start with my top 5’s...
top 5 things I liked about having the 2006 theologic discussion at Yale Divinity School
5. No humidity in New Haven and my hair looked great
4. I now know what Harry Potter felt like the first time he saw Hogwart’s
3. Four Thai Restaurants within 15 yards of my hotel (the Colony)
2. I was able to flaunt my Longhorns Football -- that’s right the National Champions -- T-Shirt 1600 miles away from where I normally floss it - “all right, all right, all right...”
1. Four words -- Yale Divinity School Bookstore
top 5 things I disliked about having the 2006 theologic discussion at Yale Divinity School
5. Do I really need to say anything about the coffee situation (it ran out thrice)
4. Do I really need to say anything about the wifi situation (none)
3. Having Dr. Volf presenting on his home turf seemed to make him guarded
2. There seemed to be less willingness to push the envelope on faith
1. Four words -- The Stink of Respectability (to quote my pastor/friend who has been to several emergent activities but this one just felt less ‘underground’)
In order to clarify my top 2 critiques listed above (the envelope of faith and the stink of respectability) let put it this way: The conversation at this event seemed to be more about “how do we DO ‘church’ better?” and less about “how do we DO our faith (this thing we call christianity) better?” For those that have not been involved in emergent for very long, this may sound like a subtle difference -- but for those who have been in the conversation awhile this is a huge shift away from what originally distinguished the dialogue.
The thing that first drew me to the ‘emergent conversation’ was the fact that within the discussion people asked deeper questions about christian faith and praxis than what was normally found/allowed in the context of conservative evangelicalism or protestant liberalism.
The flavor at this gathering seemed to be less about asking the dangerous questions and more about asking the ‘usual ones.’ One example is in the areas of racial reconciliation, gender roles, and economic-class reconciliation. Although great attention has been given to racial reconciliation and breaking down gender barriers, economic-CLASS reconciliation is still very much on the margins of the conversation. Consider the location of the discussion, Yale. Although Yale has made significant inroads into breaking down racial and gender barriers, can they claim any significant movement towards breaking down class distinctions? I do not believe so. I believe that the issue of classism is as significant (if not more significant considering the consumerist/domination mentality of this country) as racism and sexism and should be a major line of discussion within emergent.
In my next post I will reflect more on the actual theologic discussion with Dr. Volf, because I think his ideas on love and giving are useful in helping american christianity to develop a ‘theology of enough” (a phrase coined in Schools of Conversion).
paz,
m_dizzle
Good post. I don't know about that first photo, though, Rector Mike?
_____________________
Elder Burns,
Actually the pic would have been better if I was wearing a collar and still had the long hair, beard and my tatts showing. A man can dream...
paz,
m_dizzle
Posted by: Casey Burns | February 13, 2006 at 09:46 PM