Emerging Church theology compared to Irenaeus “lost Christianity”

In my thesis with the title; ”the dream of a perfect church – Emerging Church”, I compare Emerging Church theology, with the theology of Irenaeus and, the Christianity which has its roots in Asia Minor and Antioch.

The most significant exponent of the theology of the northeastern Mediterranean was Ireneus. Antioch is where Christianity first comes after Jerusalem. In other words it is the oldest Christianity we can trace back to the present day. I shall call this theology for Type C theology as explained below.

A part of my conclusion is that the church again is reminded about this “lost Christianity,” through Methodist writers like Geoffrey Wainwright, Justo González and Runyon. Other writers like Robert Farrar Capon, N.T Wright and Dallas Willard, and as I point out in my paper, many of the Emerging Church Leaders and personalities like; Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell.

For those of you following these two pastors and the emerging Church movement, and especially those who follow Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle knows that he wants to have as little to do with Rob Bell as possible. Rob Bell is the Pastor of Mars Hill Grand Rapids. Mark Driscoll says the following in a video on youtube:

“If you are a leader, Mclaren and Bell are probably good guys to read so that you know what‘s going on. But you know what though, I don‘t encourage them to our people I don‘t recommend them to our people and I would never sell them in our bookstore and I would never let them teach or preach at my church: Never. Unless i saw great repentance on some of their doctrinal instruction. The direction they are going I have strong concerns with. I know that will be very controversial…”

Rob Bell has as far as I am aware not made a comment on this.

But I want to ask; what do they have in common

?

Besides both calling there churches for “Mars Hill”, being pastors and influential leaders, the one thing they have in common is John Piper.

Rob Bell writes the following in a footnote to his book “Velvet Elvis”: “Read everything John Piper has ever written, beginning with the Dangerous Duty of Delight.” (you can read the 3 first chapters for free from John Pipers website.)

Mark Driscoll has this to say about John Piper on his blog: “Last week was a glorious week. Early Friday morning my wife Grace and I boarded a flight to Minneapolis for the national Desiring God conference hosted by my friend Dr. John Piper.

Interesting to note that two guys who are so far from each other theologically, find common ground in John Piper.

Read my thoughts on Heaven, Hell and Rob Bell here. (and his book “love wins”)

For an in depth look at there differences and similarities read my thesis on the Emerging Church, “The dream of a perfect church.”

You can now download below the paper I presented for my Bachelor of Divinity may 2008.

It is a paper on Emerging Church, Emergent Village and Justo Gonzalez, Type C theology. Read it to find out what it is all about.

It is in Norwegian, but parts will be published in English at a later date. You can for the time being, translate in, in Google translate, to whatever language you prefer.

Download from the link below:

The dream of a perfect church

A short presentation of various Emerging Church personalities.

Used together with the presentation of my paper: Drømmen om den perfekte kirke – Emerging Church (presented in Norwegian,English title:The dream of a perfect Church – Emerging Church)

The paper will soon be published here.

In my research of Rob Bell and the Emerging Church i came over this link collection from solarcrash that i thought could be helpful for those wanting to know more about him.

Check out the links below