Emerging Concerns Part 5 – Society / Kingdom

We have laid the foundations and have come to the last stage in the cycle of post-modern or emergent thought. The culmination of the efforts of community and role models, leaders, activists.  When we bring together our culture and the communities living in the culture along with the role models and leaders we establish a Society. This section will follow a similar format to previous articles.  It will present the views of secular leaders of post-modern thought followed by views of emergent church leaders evaluating how post-modern thought has been integrated into the church as well as the concerns and problems this entails.

To recap where we have come from and where we are at now; The Renaissance ushered in the age of reason. People always believed that communication and understanding were possible but the idea that more of the world followed a natural order that could be understood combined with the invention of the printing press blew the doors open for Rationalism. The next step was Naturalism further expanding the idea of natural order into a closed system where only natural law could explain the world. Some people of “faith” embraced Deism, the idea that God got the ball rolling with an innate discernible ethic and cause, and then left it to run on its own. Others rejected faith altogether and embraced Evolution and a world without God. But without God what were people to believe in; we are to believe in ourselves said Secular Humanism. With a failure to reach a consensus even among like minded individuals and discontentment with hard theoretical thinking Secular Humanists became somewhat disillusioned with rationalism leading to the rise of post-modernism.  Post-modernism rejected the narratives of the past and rather than hoping in the future the focus became on the hear and now. This world view can be seen in the works of post-modern philosophers, artists, and spiritualists.

Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk. – Jean-Paul Sartre

“All you really need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.” – Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power of Now

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