Reality, fantasy and ecumenism

By Charles Marsh

Recent conversations online and off have shown me something very curious. Some of what I believe to be Christian verity some other Christians take to be mere fantasy. They are cessationists and I am not. According to them, the things that I believe about tongues and prophecy and words of wisdom and of knowledge are sheer moonshine. So while in some churches I am thought orthodox enough, in others I am regarded as delusional or something rather like it.

There are other matters in which, in like manner, some Christians view certain beliefs of other Christians as no better than free imagination, runaway fantasy or perhaps something worse: damaging falsehoods not harmless nuttiness.

I admit to being somewhat dismayed by other Christians' newspaper novenas and Facebook prayer schemes. I do not think that is how prayer works. Their idea seems to be that if you repeat such and such a prayer x times, or republish it or "like" it or retweet it, then you will be blessed or come into some money or have your relationships healed.

On a more rarefied intellectual plane, there are hard line Calvinists who feel Arminians are heretics, some even maintaining that Arminians are not saved. Some Catholics hold that Protestants are not real Christians and should not be referred to as such.

A great many Protestants have problems with Roman Catholic ideas having to do with saints and relics.

Orthodox and Protestants have problems with the Roman Catholic concept of purgatory.

Even a good many Orthodox dismiss as pious imaginings the Orthodox traditional ideas about "aerial toll houses."

I hope all Christians everywhere have settled, to their own satisfaction, Pilate's question of "What is truth?" Here I look at what is, I think, an entirely different question. That is the distinction between what is known and what is merely supposed. It arises when claims are made that are not clear-cut matters of fact but depend on how you weigh the plausibility of truth claims. Christiandom is in agreement on the truths that really are inescapable. So the question is not, "what is truth"; it is a question of how you know if something is true when the matter is one you need to ponder. It is clear that there is a lot of divergence of opinion on how such questions should be weighed. There are lots of things held to be true by some Christians but found baseless, even ridiculous, by others. Of course that does not bode well at all for unity. As a charismatic I dislike being told that I am making it all up, and I am sure that something of the sort is felt by those holding other views dismissed by some or other of their fellow Christians.

Is there some way to make this problem innocuous? Here is one approach; I do not know if it will work. It has not been tried. Our disagreement on such matters is a question of epistemology, or a mix of that and axiology too. Some people will credit things as being true on grounds that others find unacceptable grounds for belief, such as basing a belief on an unsubstantiated ancient source, or personal experience as a lens to scripture, or arguments that seem compelling to some people but, somehow, are not so convincing to others. Perhaps all we can do is to declare--and this is completely an honest and honorable response--that we do not see things that way when it comes to toll houses or prayers on Facebook or damned (or at least damnable) Arminians or St. Somebody's miraculous bone. That is really what it comes down to. We do not see a good basis for the other fellow's claims.

Well then, let us say exactly that, for it is honest--we really don't see your basis for your belief in some things. Of course there are things all Christians believe in common, a set of beliefs without which one is not a Christian at all. Such things are much more central and important than a centuries-old theological squabble or a saint's miraculous bone.

To be loving you may hold out humility as your olive branch and say "it seems to me," with the implication that you might somehow be mistaken and the bone really might be miraculous after all, though you think not. Be gentle with each other, people, and keep your groaning and eye rolling at each other's views to a minimum. A simple shrug will suffice. Facepalms should be avoided as uncharitable. Is there a better solution to these issues where some Christians believe things that others find baseless or even ridiculous?