I found much to appreciate in this reflection, but for some reason your first point refused to be easily digested in my mind: “A theology for a community that is in self-conscious continuity with the biblical people of God and the calling of Abraham to be blessed and be a blessing to the nations of the world.”

First, this would seem to make the theology more Jewish than Christian. Or, reflecting on the theological tension between continuity and discontinuity between the covenants, this would seem to make one conclusion to that debate the basis for emerging theology, closing the door to certain understandings of what is “new” about the new covenant.

Most likely you simply meant that the narrative of emerging theology is in continuity with the narrative of the Old Testament, but I had to think for a while before I got there.

And then I found it odd to privilege this particular image—God’s promise to bless Abraham and through his seed to bless the nations—in a way that made it feel more incumbent upon Abraham than upon God. (I can more easily see in the narrative how Abraham was called to leave Ur, settle in Canaan, and obey God.)