If your relationship with “modern evangelicalism as an intellectual […] movement has always been strained,” Andrew, it’s probably because it’s not much of a movement on the intellectual level (the scandal of the evangelical mind, as the saying goes, is that there is no mind). It is a cultural force to be reckoned with, to be sure, but the intellectuals have largely been missing in action.

As ‘post-evangelical’, the emerging church is recovering what it means to think about our faith. And I think you have given a good example of what that can look like, as applied to the question of personal salvation. However, while ‘personal salvation’ (of the variety apparently assumed by marhorse—I could be wrong) is arguably an extrabiblical idea, I’m not sure the same can be said of ‘personal relationship’. I will certainly concede that the language of intimacy in Scripture is frequently corporate (God’s love is for Israel or/and for God’s Bride), but to me, that is readily transfered into the personal. How can I, as a member of the body of Christ, the people of God, who are called to love our Messiah, not have this love on a personal level? And while I would readily argue that this personal love is a facet of the corporate love (contra the evangelical tendency to centralize and absolutize the personal—as you have rightly noted) between Bride and Groom, I cannot for that matter deny its existence.

Of course, you only said you were ‘hesitant’ to speak of a personal relationship with Christ… so perhaps I may assume you are not entirely opposed to such (duly qualified) language? Certainly on an experiential level, there seems to be a ‘relationship’ of some sort—though of course, it is not like any other relationship (since God is not ‘visible’ in the way we’d like God to be). McLaren (and others) have been rediscovering the practices of the mystics, and the value of meditation and other disciplines. Surely these have an undeniably personal element to them!

The emerging church then, may not want to entirely discard the language of personal intimacy. It will certainly, however, want to reframe it within the narrative framework in which it belongs.

Cheers,

-Daniel-