Current students
Mr Daniel Wigner
Abstract
My research focuses on the utilization of practices from the Christian contemplative tradition by Emergent churches. Although the Emergent Church generally arises from a Protestant (particularly evangelical) context, many spiritual practices which are common to Catholic and Orthodox traditions are being used, such as: contemplative prayer, confession, liturgy, fasting, lectio divina, and spiritual direction. I will qualitatively study the use of contemplative practices in three or more US Emergent churches through documentary research, questionnaires, short periods of participant observation, and, chiefly, phenomenological interviews. Although I will touch on many issues in the course of research, my main focus is to investigate in what ways the Emergent Church is appropriating Christian mystical practices for the purpose of investing these practices with their own theological content.
Research Topic
Emergent Church Spirituality