Andrew,

I share your reservations and critique of the typically “evangelical” notion and use of the phrase “personal relationship with Jesus.” I wonder, though, if we cannot redeem such a notion through a more biblical (and in some ways, postmodern) understanding of the “personal” as a communal, intersubjective (hence, not private or “individual” in the modernist sense) relationship with Christ as the head of his corporate body? A redefintion of the “personal” is, in my judgment, high on the agenda of items an emerging/postmodern/biblical(!) theology needs to address and clarify in our context. It might be worth the effort to reclaim it.

Peace,

Lee Wyatt