Scot McKnight is doing a series on 1 Peter right now, and I highly recommend you all check it out. Read the first post here.
He’s a pretty smart guy. I’ve added his feed to my newsreader. He’s one of the few prolific bloggers who seems to always be writing something smart… and good.
From the most recent post:
I’ve said this before: Holiness is not something fragile in need of protection, but something powerful in need of liberation. Holiness is not negative; it is positive. It is God doing what God does and it is humans living out the God-life in this world. It is loving God with a sacred, uncontaminated love, and therefore loving others as God loves them. That is holiness. Holiness is not the dark side of God, with love the good side. Holiness is love directed in the right direction and contained by the proper boundaries.
Scot McKnight: Emerging Peter: Abusing Holiness
At the beginning of the holiness post, he writes, “I’m willing to say that the emerging movement today is a holiness movement, and by saying that you might accuse me of nonsense.”
I agree, but we should try to steer clear of making the same mistake emerging critics make by lumping us all together. He gives some great reasons in his post backing up this claim, which will seem ridiculous to some, and his words very much resonate with me as I try to get a grasp on the heart of the emerging church movement. However, I am not sure I could qualify the whole movement as a holiness movement. Here’s why:
While the list of traits he quotes at the end from Gibbs and Bolger are characteristic of many emerging churches, our most common factor is still anti-establishment. Gibbs, Bolger, and McKnight offer a wonderful glimpse at what should be, but not yet is. I believe we are moving in that direction, but we are moving slowly. For some, the description of the emerging church fits exactly where they are at. I’m jealous. I’m not there, yet. I am just now “emerging” from being anti-establishment into finding a real flow and practical form for my faith which has been set free.
Of course, I could just be nit-picking, and he hit the nail right on the head.
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