Questions, questions

This week I picked up a book that Jerry (my new brother-in-law) and I decided to read together - Socrates Cafe by Christopher Phillips. So far I am only a little way into the book and it has mostly been about questions and the need to keep asking them to ourselves and others. His whole idea is that people should do philosophy rather than just read it, and who better to show us the way than Socrates?

While thinking about this book and looking at some sites that I frequent, I found myself back at The Ekklesia Project. Here is a little of what they are about:

The central questions of ecclesiology, in our time as in all others, remain stark and straightforward: to whom or what do we belong? To what body do we pledge our allegiance? What commitments do we recognize as those to which all others must bend or bow?
For too long, such questions of ultimate loyalty and allegiance were kept at bay by most Christian churches. The Church as the Body of Christ–the material, living community that crosses all borders and human divisions–has been too easily and often compromised and fragmented by unwise accommodations with states, ethnic and racial imperatives, and the naturalized imperatives of class, gender, and ideology. By minimizing or denying the distinctiveness of the life of discipleship...too many churches have turned the clear and unambiguous call of Jesus and the Holy Spirit into a confused and contradictory mix of caution and self-interest.
The intent of The Ekklesia Project is to remind the church of its true calling as the real-world community whose primary loyalty is to the Body of Christ, the priorities and practices of Jesus, and the inbreaking Kingdom of God. In doing so, The Ekklesia Project will work with, within, across, and beneath existing churches and structures.
We envision The Ekklesia Project as a means to provide coherence, leadership, and vision to some of the still developing, occasionally inchoate, stirrings of discontent and reappraisal within the Christian community...By calling attention to the Body of Christ as our “first family” in the world, we aim to put discipleship and a picture of the church as an alternative community of practices, worship, and integration at the center of contemporary debates on Christianity and society. This is the vision we share and the reality we seek.

What is interesting about this project is that Phil Kenneson, a professor from Suzy's alma mater -Milligan College, is one of the brains behind it. I heard him (but mostly his students - Kennesonites as Suzy calls them) talk about it when we were in Tennessee. I thought the idea and concept were still in the incubation stage, but it seems like things are really taking off. The recent conference they had in Chicago (to get back to the point) dealt with issues of Church and State. The way they introduced the topic included some questions that tried to get at the issue such as
How should citizens of God's commonwealth (Ephesians 2) understand and relate to the post-9/11 imperial designs and ambitions of American? When does respect for Caesar verge on having another god, committing idolatry, or taking the true God's name in vain? How does the church keep the commandments in the face of the New American Empire?
If you're interested, they will be posting transcripts of the presentations from the conference on their website - it should be interesting!