An article by Jana Riess from Publisher's Weekly on the concern of how the title of "Emergent" is used in the literary world. It seems that even despite some people's best efforts (I add that link more for humor than spite:), the word "Emergent" sells books. People are truly interested in
1) what is this "Emergent Movement"?
2) how it is relating to their own personal thoughts and lives.
But like all great things, abuses do occur.
Here's this great article by Jana Riess
I really like what she says at the end:
"There is something special going on here, which is why the growing co-optation of the label Emergent for the same-old-same-old Christian books is so annoying. Here's hoping that publishers (and authors) can restrain themselves before the label becomes meaningless."
This word means something to me. It has represented hope, joy, freedom, acceptance, etc... in my life. I certainly don't want this word to become meaningless because of misuse or overuse, because then "Emergent" can become like "Christian", it means differing things to different people!
UPDATE: An interesting response by Steve Knight over on Emergent Village's site to this article. Check it out here!
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