Emergent Religion

Emergent religion is an approach to religious identity and belonging that, while rooted in historical precedent, is situated and made at home in postmodern, postestablishment settings. First evident among Christians in “post-Christendom” contexts in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia/New Zealand, it has since manifested itself among Israeli, North American, and British Jews, and there are signs of emergence in American Islam. The communal life of emergent practitioners is marked by holism, pluralism, and an acceptance of ambiguity. Rather than form a community defined by physical location or gatherings at certain times and places, emergents define their community as people who have a shared mission in the world.

Emergent practice is concerned with “authenticity”—that is, experiences consistent with the roots of the tradition but still contemporary and accessible [Page 340]in as many ways as possible. The inner life of the emergent religious practitioner may include meditation, contemplation, and body movement (e.g., yoga). The marks of spirituality are often outside the congregational service and in the everyday lives of the practitioners. In this way, emergents create a lived religious repertoire not only with other like-minded individuals but in the external world, where religious and secular forms of pluralism reign.

Many emergent religious leaders contrast their interest in and comfort with talking about God with the reticence and discomfort of their institutional counterparts. They frequently encourage their participants to talk about, or at least reflect on, spiritual life in the secular world, even using the secular world for theological reflection. The distinction between the sacred and the secular becomes blurred. They do not see a tension between science, religion, and spirituality.

Emergent religious communities are connected through shared narratives of the ancient past, rooted in their scriptural tradition. Narratives of liberation and redemption are revisited in their original textual form and reinterpreted for application to the contemporary context and as a prescriptive guide for community action. Among emergent Christians, these approaches are called “ancient-future” because they claim a return to ancient texts for the purposes of building a just future. Emergent religious reformers also use a narrative of having navigated a transition from institutional religion to spiritual community as a tool for community organizing.

Emergent communities see themselves as innovative, but not from a blank slate; instead, they create new modes within specific liturgical traditions. Often, emergent religion involves a return to liturgical languages and forms unused by denominational or institutional practitioners. Rather than assign ritual planning and execution to ordained or paid professionals, there is a high value placed on the involvement of lay and volunteer ritual experts.

Emergents often combine theological conservatism with social progressivism, rooting commitments to equality, human dignity, the environment, peacemaking, and social justice in close readings of scripture. They often frame their faith and practice in the context of a world that is broken and hostile toward them. One prominent example is the practice of hospitality, whether through community meals or through meals delivered to those in need (both crises and celebrations). A meal shared with neighbors connects faith and daily life into a meaningful whole.

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