Tony Jones | |
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 Jones in December 2012 | |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
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Tony Jones is a leader in the Christian emerging church movement, a theologian, and an author.
Tony Jones | |
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| Jones in December 2012 | |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College |
| Occupation |
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| Spouses |
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Tony Jones is a leader in the Christian emerging church movement, a theologian, and an author.
Jones grew up near Edina, Minnesota, and graduated from Edina High School in 1990. He later graduated from Dartmouth College and attended both Fuller Theological Seminary and Princeton University, pursuing a doctorate from the latter. [1] Jones divorced his first wife, Julie McMahon, in 2009. In July 2011, [2] Jones wedded Courtney Perry in a religious marriage, but not legally by the laws of Minnesota or the United States in solidarity with non-heterosexual couples who could not wed: "It was for this reason that Courtney and I decided to forego legal marriage until such time as our GLBT friends were afforded all of the benefits that accrue with a legal marriage." Twenty-eight months later, they were scheduled to legally wed at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on November 11, 2013. [3]
While attending Fuller Theological, Jones returned to his childhood church—Colonial Church in Edina—and worked there as a youth pastor for seven years before leaving for his doctoral work at Princeton. [1] As a spokesperson with the emerging church movement, Jones was invited by a similar Jewish organization, Synagogue 3000, to speak at their 2006 meeting. [4] On October 31, 2008, Jones's leadership position of the emerging-church organization Emergent Village was eliminated. [5] Jones began attending Solomon's Porch in 2005—a church in South Minneapolis, and by April 2012, he was the group's "theologian-in-residence" and helped run workshops about connecting with congregants with 21st-century means. At the same time, Jones was an adjunct professor with Fuller. [1]
In 2006, Jones was a contributor to Christianity Today magazine. [6] Jones is the author of the non-fiction book, The New Christians (2008). [7] Religion Dispatches ' Peter Laarman was pleasantly surprised by Jones' 2012 non-fiction book A Better Atonement; Laarman called Jones a celebrity in the emerging church movement, and recommended the book for "anyone who’s even considering whether 'that old-time religion' isn’t quite good enough any more." [8] Jones also turned his doctoral dissertation into a book—The Church Is Flat—about the emerging church movement. [1] In 2012, Jones also published the controversial mobile app Ordain Thyself, which offers a variety of religions in which the user can virtually ordain themselves; the app has options for Catholicism, Hasidic Judaism, Hinduism, and Klingon religions, each of which instructs the user on their new belief system and provides photo filters to apply the appropriate vestments to personal photos. [9] [10] Ordain Thyself retailed for US$0.99(equivalent to $1.17 in 2021). [11] In 2020, Associated Press Sports Editors named a Star Tribune publication—"Odyssey ahead in the BWCA", co-authored by Jones—the organization's number-one sports "project" of 2019. [12]
Tracing a North Woods border route of water and land that has transported people of every ilk for centuries, a group’s canoe trip in early June through the eastern lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was every bit a trip into the past. It also informed the present and was classic adventure. Over the next five weeks, we’ll tell of the trip on a historic water trail, of its joys and challenges, and of a new appreciation, for a father and son, of the BWCA’s diverse beauty. Join the adventure.
Nondenominational Christianity consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligning with a specific Christian denomination. Many non-denominational churches have a congregationalist polity, which is self-governing without a higher church authority.
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worship style and sometimes a founder. It is a secular and neutral term, generally used to denote any established Christian church. Unlike a cult or sect, a denomination is usually seen as part of the Christian religious mainstream. Most Christian denominations self-describe themselves as churches, whereas some newer ones tend to interchangeably use the terms churches, assemblies, fellowships, etc. Divisions between one group and another are defined by authority and doctrine; issues such as the nature of Jesus, the authority of apostolic succession, biblical hermeneutics, theology, ecclesiology, eschatology, and papal primacy may separate one denomination from another. Groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—are sometimes known as "branches of Christianity". These branches differ in many ways, especially through differences in practices and belief.
Michael Scott Horton has been the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California since 1998, Editor-in-Chief of Modern Reformation (MR) magazine, and President and host of the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, The White Horse Inn. Both Modern Reformation magazine and The White Horse Inn radio broadcast are now entities under the umbrella of White Horse Media, whose offices are located on the campus of Westminster Seminary California.
The emerging church is a Christian Protestant movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries that crosses a number of theological boundaries: participants are variously described as Protestant, post-Protestant, evangelical, post-evangelical, liberal, post-liberal, progressive, socially liberal, anabaptist, Reformed, charismatic, neocharismatic, and post-charismatic. Emerging churches can be found throughout the globe, predominantly in North America, Brazil, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) is a private ecumenical Christian liberal seminary in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, affiliated with neighboring Columbia University. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism, is a movement that interprets Christian teaching by taking into consideration modern knowledge, science and ethics. It emphasizes the importance of reason and experience over doctrinal authority. Liberal Christians view their theology as an alternative to both atheistic rationalism and theologies based on traditional interpretations of external authority, such as the Bible or sacred tradition.
Richard John Neuhaus was a prominent Christian cleric and writer. Born in Canada, Neuhaus moved to the United States where he became a naturalized United States citizen. He was the longtime editor of the Lutheran Forum magazine newsletter and later founder and editor of the monthly journal First Things and the author of numerous books. A staunch defender of the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on abortion and other life issues, he served as an unofficial adviser to 43rd President George W. Bush on bioethical issues.
Paleo-orthodoxy is a Protestant Christian theological movement in the United States which emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and which focuses on the consensual understanding of the faith among the ecumenical councils and Church Fathers. While it understands this consensus of the Church Fathers as orthodoxy proper, it calls itself paleo-orthodoxy to distinguish itself from neo-orthodoxy, a movement that was influential among Protestant churches in the mid-20th century.
Doug Pagitt is a progressive evangelical pastor and author associated with the emerging church movement.
Postliberal theology is a Christian theological movement that focuses on a narrative presentation of the Christian faith as regulative for the development of a coherent systematic theology. Thus, Christianity is an overarching story, with its own embedded culture, grammar, and practices, which can be understood only with reference to Christianity's own internal logic.
Brian D. McLaren is an American pastor, author, speaker, and leading figure in the emerging church movement. McLaren is also associated with postmodern Christianity.
Michael Leroy Bickle is an American evangelical leader best known for his leadership of the International House of Prayer (IHOPKC). As the leader of IHOPKC, Bickle oversees several ministries and a Bible school. Bickle has written a number of books and served as the pastor of multiple churches.
Cyril Forster Garbett was an Anglican bishop and author. He was successively the Bishop of Southwark, the Bishop of Winchester and the Archbishop of York from 1942 to 1955.
Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions by women, and an acknowledgment of women's value, are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christian feminists believe that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as sex and race, but created all humans to exist in harmony and equality, regardless of race or gender. Christian feminists generally advocate for anti-essentialism as a part of their belief system, acknowledging that gender identities do not mandate a certain set of personality traits. Their major issues include the ordination of women, biblical equality in marriage, recognition of equal spiritual and moral abilities, abortion rights, integration of gender neutral pronouns within readings of the Bible, and the search for a feminine or gender-transcendent divine. Christian feminists often draw on the teachings of other religions and ideologies in addition to biblical evidence, and other Christian based texts throughout history that advocate for women's rights.
African theology is Christian theology from the perspective of the African cultural context. It should be distinguished from black theology, which originated from the American and South African context and is more closely aligned with liberation theology. Although there are ancient Christian traditions on the African continent, during the modern period Christianity in Africa was significantly influenced by western forms of Christianity brought about by European colonization.
The Convergence Movement, also known as the Ancient-Future Faith movement, is a Protestant Christian movement that began during the Fourth Great Awakening (1960–1980) in the United States.
The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Occident, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and yet keep elements of Eastern Christianity, to varying degrees. Some of these denominations came into being, when existing Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship. Some others are the result of reformations of Orthodox beliefs and practices, inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries. Some Eastern Protestant Churches are in communion with similar Western Protestant Churches. However, Eastern Protestant Christianity does not constitute a single communion. This is due to the diverse polities, practices, liturgies and orientations of the denominations which fall under this category.
The "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" is a manifesto issued by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christian leaders to affirm support of "the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty". It was drafted on October 20, 2009, and released November 20, 2009, having been signed by more than 150 American religious leaders. On the issue of marriage, the declaration objects not only to same-sex marriage but also to the general erosion of the "marriage culture" with the specter of divorce, greater acceptance of infidelity and the uncoupling of marriage from childbearing. The declaration's website encourages supporters to sign the declaration, and it counts 551,130 signatures as of July 18, 2015.
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be growing errors, abuses, and discrepancies within it.
Jesuism is a belief system considering itself to be the true representation of the teachings of Jesus and contrasts itself from the teachings of mainstream Christianity. In particular, the term is often contrasted with Pauline Christianity and mainstream church dogma of Nicene Christianity.
Besides his work in social media, Jones is the theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch, an author, and the former national coordinator of Emergent Village.
Apparently Christians aren’t the only ones feeling the urge to emerge.
Leaders hope decentralizing power will revitalize the movement.
In part 2 of his post, Tony Jones addresses emerging church critic extraordinaire Chuck Colson. Colson sees the Emergent conversation as a threat to traditional Christian understandings of the 'truth.' Jones responds by discussing the interdependence of truth and community - the essence of the Emergent Village conversation.
The former Emergent coordinator blogs about his views on faith and sexuality.
Ever wonder what it’s like to become an ordained priest, rabbi, or swami?
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