HT to an old colleague, Fernando Gros, for pointing to an interesting discussion on emergent-us and ThinkTank about the place of creeds (or otherwise) in the emergent church.
It's a big topic (as some of the comments and Track-Backs on the two sites demonstrate), but my own top-of-the-head response is that the distinction related to the functions of creeds is important. One of the strong emphases of emerging church is relationship and I wonder whether the reality is that the proper functioning of creeds is to guide us in relationship - with God and with our co–religionists. That being said, the question then becomes whether a (theoretical emergent) creed or statement of belief is likely to lead to a deeper or richer relationship with God or with our fellow travellers on the emerging journey.
Of course these things always come down to a judgement call, but my own sense is that for many emerging church people who have been shaped (or perhaps mis-shaped!) by a programmatic and propositional approach to relationship with God, a more apophatic or agnostic approach actually enables a new appreciation for God and a new richness of possibilities in the relationship.
Similarly, my instinct is that our current situation is much less shaped by a previous sense of Christian isolation - the so called 'fortress mentality' - in which a statement of shared belief acts as a cohesive force within a group which sees itself as in some senses 'against' the outside world. Instead the kind of cultural optimism, and sense of the Misseo Dei as being much wider than the work of the Church, which characterises much emergent thinking is (IMO) much more likely to find nurture and sustenance in approaches which are always open to new ways of finding / considering / imaging the divine, even if they are not entirely consonant with the language of many Christian creeds, be they 'modern' or 'catholic'.
What then of the question of the emerging church's catholic tendencies? I guess I want to have my cake and eat it too, by saying that while we deliberately identify ourselves with the faith community which has derived coherence from the ecumenical creeds, we can continue to say that we do not regard adherence to those creeds as a necessary self-descriptor.
But then again, I may be talking nonsense - it often happens before my first coffee. :-)
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