1.3 Influences

1.3 Influences

Many of the ideas of the Emerging Church are inspired by a huge variety of writers. The most prevalent are New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, missiologist Lesslie Newbigin and theologian Stanley Grenz.[1]
N.T. Wright’s contribution exists mainly in his ideas on eschatology, and the gospel of the kingdom, which will be dealt with in chapter three. Newbigin’s books Proper Confidence[2] and The Gospel in a Pluralist Society[3] are very influential in Emerging circles. He writes a lot about faith, truth and this epistemology. His ideas will be further explored in chapter two. Stanley Grenz (died March 2005) was well known for his ideas on a communitarian triune God and how this affects Christian communities.

[1] Gibbs and Bolger also mention John Howard Yoder and David Bosch, however, I will restrict myself to the biggest influences. (Eddie Gibbs, Ryan K. Bolger, Emerging Churches, p.49)
[2] L. Newbigin, Proper Confidence, Faith, Doubt and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995)
[3] L. Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1989)