Subversive Christian Unity

In the previous post, I touched in passing on the concept of someone being minimally Christian: one who believes what is necessary for salvation but nothing further. It is doubtful such a creature can be found in real life. We all have some theological or reflective ideas about the faith. We have among us different practices regarding food and drink and holy days. We have further differences in all manner of grey areas and matters of interpretation. What is minimally Christian? I'm going to go along with Jesus on this one. Whoever hears his words and believes God who sent him has already passed from death to life. Of course, there is more to attend to after that. Someone good-hearted about it will see to honoring Christ's teaching in real life--being a doer, not only a hearer, of the word that gives life. But the ways of doing that might not look exactly alike for every person. We should all try to judge others by the standards of the minimum, for if we judge ot...

By Charles Marsh "I have come to believe that when people do not agree with certain views, often it is not because they will not but because they cannot. Their minds do not frame the questions in such a way. It is of no use to charge people with willfulness in the matter."  I have touched upon this point before . People, in general, are rational, but their minds work differently. I have difficulty crediting some points of Roman Catholic "popular pieties." Relics and reliquaries leave me thinking the worshipers have missed the point, and a whole dead saint on display strikes me as macabre. I cannot pride myself, though. I have beliefs that are as disquieting to some of my fellow Christians: Some Christians think my own Charismatic orientation is something akin to delusional belief. The examples go on and on and throughout the church world. Calvinism is seen by some as an essential belief of true and correct Christianity, but only by some. There are more such ...

Christianity is rapidly losing the favored status in Western culture that it enjoyed for centuries. Looking forward, we can hope for God's grace as we find ourselves in situations comparable to what is experienced by Christians living elsewhere, under regimes hostile to the faith. We can no longer afford the luxury of bickering with one another over religious disputes now centuries old. We must join forces across denominational boundary lines. The simplest way to do that is to serve each other mutually and with mutual love, in practical ways that silence theological objections. Every faction will have to set aside some cherished prejudice or other: That is called humility. Christ's call to us is to love one another as he loves us. Let us all give thanks that he loves the imperfect follower and the flawed theologian. Who among us is perfect? If you refuse your aid to fellow Christians because they do not agree with everything in the Westminster Confession, or the...