I wrote this as a comment earlier, but was encouraged by a close friend to make it a post.
Everyone keeps throwing their hands in the air over emergent because we evangelicals are taught to look at something, shrink it down to it's essence, find the glaring problems, and then speak out against the problems. Emergent is a conversation that hasn't gelled yet, so it's near impossible to shrink it down, put it under the microscope, and write a paper criticizing it. It includes Catholics, universalists, Calvinists, and all sorts.
It's so hard for people to see that it doesn't have to be something concrete yet, and that's okay for now.
My take (I could be wrong): it will gel at some point and become a
movement. Then it will splinter into different pieces according to more
traditional divisions. But the changes it will bring to traditional
structures will be crucial, which is why I think the conversation is so
important now.
Why not let it be diverse for now and when the rubber hits the road let us go the ways we feel are most consistent with God's revelation?
