Subversive Christian Unity

"I am convinced it won't be theologians who bring about unity among us. Theologians help us, the science of the theologians will assist us, but if we hope that theologians will agree with one another, we will reach unity the day after Judgement Day." --Francis Read the complete transcript of the Pope's remarks here:  http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/text-of-pope-s-videomessage-for-day-of-christian-unity-in-us It still appears to me that the Roman communion has no ecclesial mechanism toward unity besides conversion of others to Roman Catholic. Thus, as this pope has done before, in other matters such as accommodating gays and affirming atheists, he may sound like he is signalling something beyond what his Church is ready to deliver. We see the durable old Roman attitude toward other churches--my way or the highway--in the 'concession' to Anglicans through the Ordinariate. Anglicans may become Roman Catholics who happen to have something resemblin...

The Emperor of Japan invited the best swordsmen in the land to an audience in his palace in Edo. As it was summer there were flies buzzing around. A swordsman pulled his sword from its scabbard and, with a shout, cut a fly out of the air, neatly cutting it in half. Not to be outdone, another swordsman pulled out his sword and cut a fly into two pieces before it fell. A third swordsman drew his sword and cut, but the fly flew on its way and did not fall. The Emperor glared at the third swordsman. "Majesty," said the third samurai, full of bravado, "That fly will never reproduce!" I put this forward as a cautionary tale for all to ponder. If your efforts do not have evident results, you need not explain. We have enough pretense going on already in the fly-ridden palace that is Christendom today.

Confucius said (no, really) that clear reasoning begins by giving things their right names. Let us call the present societies of Western culture post-Constantinian. Constantine, of course, was the emperor who made Christianity the state religion of the Roman empire, beginning the long history of Christianity's concepts and values being intertwined with Western civilization. The influence of Christianity was never very thorough or deep, but biblical precepts did end up being reflected in some of our laws and cultural assumptions. Constantine Today things have changed very much. Society is turning indifferent, even hostile, to Christian teachings. Morally significant laws are being challenged and overturned, or rewritten. Churches that have tried to adapt their teaching to these times have gone off the rails. More influenced by the spirit of the age than the spirit of Jesus, they have produced travesty teachings that are incoherent with respect to historical orthodoxy. It is a...

Different theories and interpretations about the end of the world divide Christendom into several camps. Are you pre millennial, amillennial, post millennial? Pre trib, post trib or mid trib? And so on and so forth. I hope this is not a point of deep division, but it is a point of deep disagreement. It is the kind of discussion that we should take out of the public square entirely. Treat eschatology as an in-house debate if you like, but do not parade it before unbelievers. It is a stumbling block to people we are trying to evangelize, a complexity they do not need to hear about. We ought not distract them with something extraneous to what is really important that they know and accept. Any public disagreement, even a rather esoteric one like this, can cause hesitation when seekers try to sort out which church or preacher or theologian is right about it. But in in this case it does not matter who is right. Here is a fun game to play. When some Christian is defending some or other...