Theology of Journey and the Emergent Church's Divergence

This chapter by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck entitled, "Journey: Are the Pilgrims Still Making Progress," is a highly recommended, lay-oriented resource for understanding something of the Emergent church and its divergence from orthodox Christianity. It is so good that I want to share some quotes from it.

Speaking of the self-ward focus of the emergent system...

If my grandparents’ generation could be a little stoic and not terribly reflective, my generation is introspective at a level somewhere between self-absorption and narcissism. We are so in-tuned with our dysfunctions, hurts, and idiosyncrasies that it often prevents us from growing up, because maturity is tantamount to hypocrisy in a world that prizes brokenness more than health.

The chapter points out that the emergent system exalts uncertainty and downplays specification. This quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones is recorded as he, though dealing with a different situation, accurately pinpoints man's yearning to keep his religion foggy:

First, these people generally object to clear-cut definitions; they dislike clarity and certainty. We need not at this point go into the specific reason for this. I think they object to clarity of thought and definition because of its demands. The most comfortable type of religion is always a vague religion, nebulous and uncertain, cluttered up with forms and rituals.
-Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 44

And, regarding the glorification of doubt in the emergent system...

For emergent leaders, faith is a personal trust commitment despite the uncertainty of our knowledge and the doubt we all experience. In other words, doubt is the good friend of faith.

He clarifies that doubt is not foreign to Christians, but something with which all of us deal all too frequently. But in orthodox Christianity, it is "something we are supposed to work through and fight against rather than embrace as the great friend of faith."