From Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) in the chapter entitled, “Modernism: The Boogeyman Cometh”, Kevin DeYoung states:
The biggest irony about the emergent church may be just this: For all their chastisement of all things modern, they are in most ways thoroughly modern. Many of the leading books display a familiar combination of social gospel liberalism, a neoorthodox view of Scripture, and a post-Enlightenment disdain for hell, the wrath of God, propositional revelation, propitiation, and anything more than a vague moralistic, warmhearted, adoctrinal Christianity.
Much of what I have read of the Emergent Church is very reminiscent, in my mind, of turn-of-the-century (20th) liberalism – just repackaged. Perhaps there truly is nothing new under the sun. I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially from those who disagree – how is it different?
Before you comment, I do recognize that not every person who embraces the emergent movement believes the same things. The quote above is a summary of emergent movement “leadership” positions based on their writings.