there’s a string of thought running around the blogosphere and in many conversations that the emerging church is an anti-intellectual movement. i wanted to address that quickly, shortly and as succinctly as possible. there seems to be an expectation today in regards to the emerging church that people are going to swallow whole everything that they hear or read without critically evaluating what is being said (i agree that this does happen to an extent, but i think it’s an exception rather than the rule) and do nothing but regurgitate what they read and hear instead of joining in to make a contribution to the conversation. yet those who are critical of this “anti-intellectual” movement seem to have an “anti-intellectual” expectation of their people. it seems that they expect respect from their people that what they are saying is true and they should believe it without critically evaluating it. i think this is the crux of the issue and as a result are imposing the expectations they have for their people onto a movement that they have theological, ideological, ecclesiological differences with. so, the issue rests with those that are imposing the criticism rather than on the movement itself.

Related posts:

1. the anti-biblical, emerging church.
2. seeker-sensitive & emerging churches
3. emerging church.
4. my response to dr. macdonald’s critique of the emerging church
5. emerging doctrine.

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