An evangelical critique of the emergent church's hermeneutics and its effects on theology, message, and method of evangelism.

摘要

This dissertation presents an evangelical critique of the emergent church. It argues that many of the emergent church's criticisms of the traditional church's weaknesses are insightful but most of its proposed solutions are biblically untenable. The present writer analyzes the unbiblical nature of the emergent church's hermeneutical approach and its effects on its theology and practice of evangelism. The main argument of this dissertation is that the emergent church's hermeneutics is biblically unwarranted and that this erroneous interpretive approach is one of the essential causes of its deviation from biblical theology, message, and method of evangelism.;The emergent church is the most liberal subset of the emerging church movement that advocates a radical revision of the traditional church's theology and practice. This study focuses on the writings of the emergent church's three prominent leaders: Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt. It specifically traces and analyzes the ill-effects of the emergent church's errant hermeneutical approach on its theology, message, and method of evangelism. This study concludes by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the emergent church's hermeneutics and evangelism.