Subversive Christian Unity

Looking at the sad spectacle of Christendom divided, I note these few self-evident things when I look at our sundered church denominations. 1. When we do the gospel, what we do is remarkably similar. As I've remarked before, there are only so many ways to help the hungry or those who lack clothes, the sick, prisoners and so on. There is only one Lord Jesus toward whom to direct the world's attention. 2. When we talk about the gospel, what we say often sounds very different from one faction to another. Here centuries of division and doctrinal divergence have made a new Babel of Christ's church. 3. More doing and less talking are called for.

Looking at my web stats, I find that these are my the most-read posts. I list them in order of popularity. Science versus religion is a phony issue What is included in the kerygma? Jesus the Commie Fall of the West Catholic quasi-universalism Enough with the dinosaurs, already! Whither Anglicanism? Believable versus believed Enlightened ignorance The fault lines I cannot say that I agree with my readers' judgment about it. There are some posts I like better that languish in obscurity. But I am grateful to my readers just for showing up, and also for reminding me that some of my interests are not widely interesting to others...

New Atheists place great reliance on what I shall call the Bad Daddy argument: God is accused of numerous crimes and shortcomings. The idea is to portray belief as ridiculous by making God out to be a scoundrel, having done and said things inconsistent with being all knowing and all loving. The argument says that is more sensible, or even morally superior, to disbelieve in the character religion portrays as the supreme being. A milder form of this argument is that it is easier not to believe in a God guilty of sins of omission: an unanswered heartfelt prayer, a clear wrong that goes unrighted, an unbearable loss that you  must bear none the less. The goal of this argument is to undermine faith by equating the value of our faith with our wishes being met. Sometimes this form of the argument is given a metaphysical slant: If the universe really meant anything more than just our own experience of it, as accidental creatures, the universe would work better than it does. Our desires woul

Erasmus makes a very important point in the preface to his Manual of a Christian Knight . What most Christians need, most of the time, is good practical everyday Christianity, and that has little to do with the abstract wranglings of learned theologians. When put to practical use, in resisting evil and serving the cause of good, Christianity becomes a good deal simpler than the theologians make it out to be. If theology and the academic study of the faith is an ivory tower, the real work of the gospel gets done down at street level, and on the sidewalk out in front--in acts of kindness, mercy, forgiveness and truth telling, and in defying evil as it attempts, under one guise or another, to find its way into our lives.  What goes on in the upper floors of the ivory tower has little to do with the everyday, street-level work of the gospel. A point I've made before on this blog is that in the practical work of the gospel, Christians of various denominations look more alike than d