Tony Jones 
The New Christians 
Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

What the ‘Emergent Church Movement’ is all about-and why itmatters to the future of Christianity

Following on the questions raised by Brian Mc Laren in A New Kindof Christian, Tony Jones has written an engaging exploration ofwhat this new kind of Christianity looks like. Writing ‘dispatches’about the thinking and practices of adventurous Emergent Christiansacross the country, he offers an in-depth view of this new ‘thirdway’ of faith-its origins, its theology, and its views of truth, scripture and interpretation, and the Emergent movement’s hopefuland life-giving sense of community. With the depth of theologicalexpertise and broad perspective he has gained as a pastor, writer, and leader of the movement, Jones initiates readers into the Emergent conversation and offers a new way forward for Christiansin a post-Christian world. With journalistic narrative as well asauthoritative reflection, he draws upon on-site research to providefascinating examples and firsthand stories of who is doing what, where, and why it matters.

Table of Content

‘A LIVING WAY: Emergent Visions’.

Series Foreword.

PREFACE.

INTRODUCTION: What Is ‘Emergent’?

CHAPTER 1: Leaving the Old Country.

‘Church Is Dead’.

Signs of Death-and Life.

The Problem on the Left.

A Case Study: Go Where I Send Thee.

The Problem on the Right.

A Case Study: Don’t Ask Us About the Chickens.

The Real Problem: Left Versus Right.

Caught in the Crossfire.

Dispatch from the Blogosphere: Musings of a Postmodern Negro.

CHAPTER 2: Dispatches from the Frontier of the American Church.

An Allegory.

An Alternative Ending.

Geological Musings.

What Exactly Is Emerging?

The Beginnings.

‘The Bible Is Propaganda’.

The New Kind of Christian Effect.

Meanwhile, Across the Pond.

Then till Now.

The Church’s Choice.

Dispatch from the Rocky Mountains: Katie and Kristen.

CHAPTER 3: Who Are the Emergent Christians?

Hunches and Intuitions.

Influencing Culture or Influenced by Culture?

An ‘Envelope of Friendship’.

An Emergent Voters’ Guide.

Dispatch from I-35: The Terrific Tale of Trucker Frank.

CHAPTER 4: The Theology, Stupid.

Dartmouth Days.

What, Exactly, Is Theology?

Theology on the Rise.

Going Deep.

Skiing the Slippery Slope.

So, a Biblicist and a Relativist Walk into a Pastors’Conference.

The Expurgated Lectionary.

Dispatch from Seminary: Legalisms of the Left.

CHAPTER 5: After Objectivity: Beautiful Truth.

The Thrill of Interpretation.

Reading the Whole Bible.

‘Sonny, It Ain’t Nothing till I Call It’.

Truth (a.k.a. God).

After Objectivity: Dialogue.

Beautiful, Messy, Incarnational Truth.

Paradoxes.

Dispatch from the End of a Three-Mile Dirt Road:Recovering ‘Church’.

CHAPTER 6: Inside the Emergent Church.

It’s a Great Day at Jacob’s Well!

Wikichurch.

Tightly Knit: Journey.

Binitarians.

The People’s Liturgy: Church of the Apostles.

Time to Rethink Seminary.

My Church: A Paean to Solomon’s Porch.

EPILOGUE: Feral Christians.

APPENDICES.

Appendix A: ‘Emergent Village Values and Practices’.

Appendix B: ‘A Response to Our Critics’.

Appendix C: ‘Disastrous Statements’.

NOTES.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

THE AUTHOR.

INDEX.

About the author

Tony Jones (tonyj.net) is the author of many books on Christian ministry and spirituality, including The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. He is a theologian-in-residence at Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis and a doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Tony is a sought-after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality. Tony has three children and lives in Edina, Minnesota.