What do we mean by Convergence in the emerging church conversation?
JB on December 21, 2009 in Practices & Experiences, Uncategorized, the interpretive - Religion No Comments »What could one possibly mean by convergence in the emerging church conversation, especially once recognizing and acknowledging that we remain, in the same instance, Anglimergent, Baptimergent, Cathlimergent, Luthermergent, Presbymergent and so on?
To the extent the conversation primarily involves a consideration of methods, practices and experiences and not, rather, belief systems, conclusions and propositions, and given the conversation’s postfoundational orientation, what emerges will not be in the form of arguments in the strict sense. Instead, we are discovering a convergence that is more so of nonpropositional nature.
This is to say that this convergence does not articulate, for example, a new narrative arch of a distinctly descriptive, normative or speculative nature, which would be a cosmological enterprise. Rather, this convergence has an axiological trajectory, which is to say that it fosters a harmonic resonance of an evaluative, interpretive or existential nature. Interpretively, we are coming away with a deepened sense of solidarity. Evaluatively, we share a profound sense of compassion. We share, then, a great unity of mission even as we recognize our diversity of ministry and acknowledge our plurality of belief systems.
What emerges, then, is not so much a convergence of metanarratives but, instead, of meta-perspectives. It is a convergence of perspectives that conditions HOW we will first see and experience reality, so to speak, desiring the Kingdom, and not of narratives setting forth WHAT we will eventually think about reality in order to somehow argue and prove the Kingdom.
A lot of people, who remain immersed in dualistic mindsets with their problem-solving orientation to all of reality, have a difficult time evaluating the emerging church conversation. These are likely the same tweeple who are repeatedly tweeting their frustration with trying to nail jello to the wall in their coming to grips with what the emerging conversation is all about. For so many, apologetics is primarily evidential, rational and presuppositional, proceeding with empirical, logical, practical and moral reasoning. And, by all means, this approach to reality is indispensable and necessary. When it comes to life’s deepest mysteries, more ultimate concerns and most significant value-realizations, however, we must go beyond this dualistic approach and engage reality with a more nondual, contemplative stance.
So, when we speak of a convergence in the emerging conversation, we are not suggesting a novel set of concepts and categories. Neither should one look for a specific political agenda. It is not a convergence of moral reasoning, such that emergent folk will all necessarily share the same positions on one moral reality or another. Even regarding cosmological matters, we are not suggesting a convergence of views regarding such things as philosophy of mind, theological anthropology, divine interactions and so on.
A distinctly nonpropositional convergence of shared practice and shared experience, of a deepened sense of solidarity and heightened sense of compassion, will very much condition our approach to environmental & social justice, ecclesiology, worship and Jesus. Notice how these are not primarily propositional realities but are, first and foremost, relational realities. We are not first preoccupied with getting answers right as if we were mostly dealing with ideas. This convergence is not about getting the correct relationships between ideas, whether through a harmony of reasons or even intuitions. This is about realizing the right relationships between humankind and God, ourselves and one another, ourselves and nature and even our relationship to our own self.
This harmonic convergence, then, is like a symphony of many instruments, each with its own sound and timbre, all playing together in the same key, in harmony and to the rhythm of the same Drum.
This is not to deny, however, that to the extent that we are conditioned, shaped and formed by a convergence of nonpropositional influences, that it will not eventually transvalue our more propositional approaches, effecting their convergence also. It will. But that requires a great deal of patience.
I have to run. The exigencies of life press in. But I will elaborate on all of this later and hopefully in a more accessible way.
Update: Really, the best articulation of the emerging conversation trajectory from a Catholic perspective is in this video clip of Fr. Richard Rohr: Fr. Richard Rohr describes the Emerging Church Conversation
Also, here’s the latest HomeBrewed Christianity Podcast of Fr. Rohr: Get your Non-dualism on with Richard Rohr
Day 3 – continuing
Beyond socialization, we are opening ourselves up to ongoing transformation and a deep desiring of the Kingdom. We experience a deep desiring for environmental and social justice in solidarity with and compassion for humankind and our cosmos. Ever more identified with Jesus and His deep desiring of communion with the Father, we long for the coming of the Cosmic Christ. Our ecclesiology is more ecumenical and egalitarian as we go beyond institutional structures (and not necessarily without them) seeking authentic community in manifold and multiform ways, wherever two or more can gather in His Name. Our worship becomes the practice of the Presence of God as we seek an abiding relationship with Him – not Whom we possess, but – Who possesses us.
In solidarity and sharing this same deep desiring, we may otherwise differ in HOW we see justice playing out morally, practically and politically, in HOW we see the Kingdom unfolding eschatologically and metaphysically. And we can abide with these differences because of our deep humility and deep love for one another, encouraging and forgiving one another, sharing a vision THAT in the Kingdom all may be well, all will be well, all shall be well and we will know that all manner of things shall be well.
The emerging church conversation is less about positions and more about dispositions, about being disposed to a Deep Awareness, Deep Solidarity, Deep Compassion, Deep Humility, Deep Worship, Deep Justice, Deep Ecology and Deep Community. That these realities will play out in our lives we are confidently assured. How they will play out is something we explore in humility and civility with all people of goodwill. Ours is foremost a shared axiology, interpretively and evaluatively, of what we deeply desire and deeply value. We share practices that shape, form, cultivate and celebrate these desires and values. We believe that, one day, this will lead also to a shared cosmology, descriptively and normatively, consistent with the best science and best philosophy.
“Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.” Thomas Merton
Below is a contribution evoked by Kevin Beck’s question re: empathy & compassion: (more…)
Below, I will employ a Strategic Plan paradigm to characterize and organize the emerging church conversation employing what might, at first, appear to be characteristically Catholic categories. In doing so, I hope to emphasize how this conversation proceeds more from a consideration of questions rather than answers, practices rather than conclusions, methods rather than systems.
Before laying out a Cathlimergent approach, I want to build a conceptual bridge to the approaches taken by many of our Protestant sisters and brothers. Dialogue about prescriptive realities is very much dependent on fair and accurate descriptive representations (avoiding unnecessary strawmen and ad hominems). When it comes to good scholarship and civil discourse, few have gone about it better than the author of 
The outline below is meant to be comprehensive but not exhaustive. In each category are sample strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities and sample resources. It is intended as a catalyst for constructive conversation and a guideline for dialogue, a conceptual bridge-builder or heuristic device. It is expected that you will engage this outline, perhaps even suggesting an entirely different paradigm, certainly adding different strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities and resources, raising new questions and concerns, breaking open new categories.
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Radically “rooting” orthodoxy in Jesus, orthopathy in contemplation, orthopraxy in social justice & orthocommunio in authentic community
If I had to choose one word to describe what many, many people seem to be searching for it would be reenchantment and I would reckon it is motivated by a nostalgia for an experience of the world prior to it being demythologized. (If only they understood our true myth.)
I would like to add that, in my view, the New Age movement has done violence to the wisdom of the Eastern traditions. It has engaged them at a very superficial level, especially where ontological monism is concerned. The East, for the most part, is not engaging in classical Western metaphysics. It’s practices are geared toward leading people into phenomenal experiences and not, rather, to metaphysical conclusions. The New Age movement, in my view, is a superficial engagement of the East that results in a perversion of those traditions, which I treat here, for any interested: 
