Soloviy R. The Phenomenon of the Emerging Church in the context of theological and ecclesiological transformations in contemporary Western Protestantism

This thesis, for the first time on a national scale in theological and religious studies, carried out a comprehensive analysis of the Emerging Church as an alternative theological discourse, a religious and cultural phenomenon, and an innovative ecclesiological model of Western Evangelical Protestantism in a postmodern context. The author uncovers the social and religious background; the philosophical-theological context, together with historical and cultural factors in the formation of the Church. In addition, its denominational, theological and geographical expressions are clarified. Based on the analysis of primary sources, relevant characteristics of the Emerging Church were established, which, despite its structural amorphousness is defined as a coherent religious phenomenon expressed in discursive and practical orientations that provide the Church with unity and relative stability. The origin of the Church and formation of its theological discourse subject structure was significantly influenced by a post-liberal and post-conservative paradigm, Radical Orthodoxy, missional theology, as well as the new monasticism and the Christian movement for social justice. The author demonstrates that the Emerging Church is, by its nature, primarily an ecclesiological experiment with theological contours defined by its "chastened" epistemology, postmodern hermeneutics, optimistic anthropology and soteriological inclusivism. The author establishes that in Emerging Church theology the semantic field of the Kingdom of God expands toward an ethical and anthropological perspective, orthopraxy and social theology.