The “New Attitude” or “Humble Orthodoxy” appears to be a reaction to emergent. While it advertises itself as being a new attitude and humble way of living, the line up of speakers would betray that, featuring the likes of John Piper and Joshua Harris.
Thoughts?
About Brian Wallace
Hey Brian, this is the first I’ve heard of “humble orthodoxy,” care to explain anymore?
I’ve added a link to the newattitude.org page… I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.
Could this be the same old same packaged in new lingo?
Read the mission statement, and though couched in tactful language, they are making an attempt to argue against Emergent “buzz words” like deconstruction, or post-modernism. I spotted that right away.
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Of soul, spirit and song,
Gregory Lygon
Ravenwood Music Services, LLC
http://www.gregorylygon.com
AAA/Contemporary Folk Singer Songwriter
Nominated “Best Instrumentalist” Contemporary Folk by WAMA, 2003
Just a thought, but what if it is just the reformed crowd repackaged? Is that necessarily bad? I know the criticism gets old and frustrating, especially when some seem to completely misunderstand where you’re coming from. But it seems to me like God is working through the emergents in some lives and through the reformed resurgence in others. I mean, I know some of them straw man us to death, but bottom line, God is using Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Covenant Life Church in Maryland, Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, etc. It’s unfortunate there has to be such strong disagreements, but God’s using you guys and he’s using the reformed crowd.
I know for myself, the writers I’m most indebted to are Brian McLaren, John Piper, Rob Bell, Francis Schaeffer, Don Miller, and C.J. Mahaney. It’s a total mixed bag for me, and I think there’s a lot of people like me right now who feel torn between reformed and emergent and we feel like Piper and Driscoll are awesome but not quite where we want to be and we feel the same way about emergent village. So it’d be a great service to us if both sides could just accept their disagreements, and then go on serving as they feel called.
Just a few thoughts, I’m not sure it’s possible to be in the PCA and be presbymergent, but if it is, that’s me. Thanks for creating this space
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There’s an interview on their website called “Humble Orthodoxy and Church Trends” which has some hints as to their views on Emergent. In one spot he talks about the “liberal side” of Emergent, where people “don’t believe in innerancy and substitutionary atonement.” That shows pretty clearly the persepctive its coming from and its misunderstanding of the emergent conversation. For one thing, the label “liberal” is one that most emergent-ish people avoid for the sake of reducing binary oppositions such as liberal and conservative. For another, terms like innerancy and a singular method of atonement also betray a fundamentalist point of view. I assume the name “Humble Orthodoxy” is a play on “Generous Orthodoxy” as well. It seems to me like they’re just reacting against a poor understanding or a caricature of emergent.
Out of all honesty I listen to the emergent Vs. non-emergent arguments going on out there and all I hear is white noise. So they have a web site. So what? When the time comes I do not think God’ll say to me, “You were not emergent enough. Nor were you reformed in your theology enough.”
Looks like the same old stuff with a fancy website. *yawn*
Not necessarily a criticism of their beliefs, I just don’t see anything “new” about it.