Forest, Grove, or Tree? Predilection and Proximity in Jones’ The Church is Flat
I come to Dr. Jones’ book with a muddled history in the emerging church movement (ECM). From 2001-2005 I was actively involved as a commenter on Spencer Burke’s TheOOZE website, fascinated by the simultaneous emergence of faith communities who were tired of evangelicalism-as-usual 
and interested in creating clusters of people who really wanted to live out the faith they confessed in ways that were connected to the deep history of the church, while at the same time exercising a prophetic voice in their present contexts. From 2003-2004 I was involved in co-planting a church in the Tidewater area of southeastern Virginia. Only years after that community ceased meeting would I come to understand that it was part of much larger movement of “emerging churches.”
By 2004 I’d grown weary of the siren song of postmodernism’s deconstruction of epistemology. The conversation was stuck—late-20th century Protestantism was deconstructed and no one was attempting to build anything from the rubble we’d created. I was also young, without means, unable to travel to the different gatherings held by Emergent, and hence, without a real voice in the conversation (or place... Read More
Jones’ Response to Jason Clark
I am appreciative of Jason’s generous and generative review of my book, The Church Is Flat. While Jason and I have fallen out of touch in recent years, we spent much time together in the early days of the emerging church movement (ECM). By reading Jason’s work in Church in the Present Tense, I suspect that he and I have moved in different directions ecclesiologically. Before delving into his review proper, allow me a brief moment of psychoanalysis... Read More
A sociality in search of an ecclesiology?: Jason Clark reviews Tony Jones’s ‘The Earth is Flat’.
A sociality in search of an ecclesiology? In this review I firstly provide a summary of Tony’s book and methodology, and then offer a response and some questions for Tony. If you are familiar with Tony’s book you might want to jump straight to the response. I understand Tony is going to engage here with me, and others reviewing his book and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do that with him. Overview of The Church is Flat If the Emerging... Read More
Upcoming Book Symposium – The Church Is Flat by Tony Jones
Beginning next week, we’ll highlight and review a unique new book by Tony Jones entitled The Church is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement. The book brings together much of Tony’s doctoral research and his experience as a pioneering leader in the Emerging Church Movement. Our reviewers include one of churchandpomo’s regular contributors, Jason Clark, as well as a new voice but regular reader, Andy Campbell.... Read More
The Relevance of Philosophy of Religion to Religious Studies: Of Gaps and Gratitude
By: J. Aaron Simmons (Department of Philosophy, Furman University), www.furman.edu/philosophy/simmons In 1996, William J. Wainwright edited a book entitled God, Philosophy, and Academic Culture: A Discussion between Scholars in the AAR and the APA. That book features contributions from some of the most influential philosophers of religion and theologians in recent history: Nicholas Wolterstorff, Merold Westphal, Walter Lowe, Stephen Crites, Philip... Read More
