Larry, these are interesting thoughts. Thanks for posting them.

I agree that in principle an open source theology could embrace a much wider set of issues, including those arising from interfaith conversations. I feel that the value of this site, however, lies in the fact that it is focused on the particular questions being asked by and about the ‘emerging church’. This has to do with much more than bringing those dissatisfied with organized church back into the fold - it certainly includes discussion of topics such as Jesus’ teaching on ‘hell’, organized religion, faith and action, etc.

It seems to me that the ‘theology’ that is done here is sufficiently contextualized and qualified (eg. by the phrase ‘collaborative theology for an emerging church’) for us not to have to worry about the potential scope of the title. ‘OpenSourceChristianity’ loses the theological focus. ‘OpenSourceEmergingTheology’ is getting cumbersome.

I am certainly of the opinion that the emerging church needs to start thinking seriously about the fact that the postmodern environment is a religiously pluralistic environment. There are enormous social, political, missional and theological challenges here that are barely being touched upon - note the disappointing lack of interest in the recent ‘Christendom vs Islamic Empire’ post. I also think that there is a need for dialogue between faiths - though I’m not sure that the emerging church knows its own mind well enough to start down that road just yet. In any case, it wouldn’t be approached simply as a matter of harmonizing religions, and it would be too much to do on this website.

There is a wikipedia article on ‘open source religion’ - you’ll notice that there are open source religion discussions.