conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

bummer

I wish I could include something about this in my sermon.

Completed in 2006, Bass’s research and subsequent writing examined 50 moderate to progressive churches and the approaches that are energizing their parishioners—in contrast to the “prevailing wisdom” of recent times that suggests only conservative megachurches are growing. Progressive churches, said Bass, “made this really interesting move” in response to the biblical scholarship of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Basically, they’re saying it’s time to go back into the stories,” she said. “Instead of demythologizing them, we need to go back and reapply the integrity of the stories—to understand them as being real, true, and meaningful spiritual stories…. We can understand them, who wrote them, and why, but then something beyond that: there is an attempt to reach toward an ‘essential narrative’ in Jewish and Christian lives.”

Aggravated by what they see as religious rigidity, intolerance, outdated traditions, and political polarization, these members of the faith are intentionally planning and creating their own contemplative communities. They are doing so, apparently, with an enthusiasm and diversity that resembles Christianity’s earliest congregations.

Thanks be to Alban.

Posted by tripp at October 20, 2007 09:24 PM