Being Christian in the Twenty-First Century

Gould

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781498246187
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Teología cristiana

Being Christian in the Twenty-first Century was written to help struggling and doubting Christians develop an understanding of Christianity that avoids literalism, creeds, and doctrines--all factors which seem to be driving people away from the church. The book is well suited for individual or group study, complete with a study guide and sample lesson plans. It responds to the call for theological reform advocated by many contemporary clergy and religious leaders. Being Christian does not restate orthodox positions or drift into fundamentalism or sentimentalism. Instead it draws from a broad base of historical, theological, archaeological, and sociological scholarship to place Scripture within its original context, yet present it within a perspective suitable for the twenty-first-century mind. Being Christian is scholarly, yet readable, interesting, and often provocative. One reviewer put it this way, "the book reminds me of a baseball pitcher with a long wind up and a hard fastball getting better in every inning." By building upon progressive thought available today and throughout history, it offers an important resource for Christians and would-be Christians seeking a more fulfilling and thoughtful faith journey.

1

Being Christian

Some people keep silent because they have nothing to say, while others keep silent because they know when to speak.

Sir 20:6

I am writing this book from the perspective of a layperson concerned with the future of the church. As we have all witnessed, church membership has been declining over the past several decades with even the moderately growing nondenominational evangelical churches failing to keep pace with population growth. Part of the problem is undoubtedly the predominate rationalism of our time and the undergirding propositions advanced by the louder voices of evangelical conservativism, which many find unbelievable and unsatisfactory as a basis for a faith structure let alone a worldview.

If you are a person that accepts doctrines such as the virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, and bodily resurrection as literally true, then good for you. This book is not for you. Please read no further. But if you have given up on these notions and others as archaic expressions of the Christian faith, or if you have put these notions in the back of your mind and they only create dissonance for you on occasion, or if you are looking at an alternative way of being a Christian and can stand the accusations by some that you are not, then I urge you read further.

As a bit of personal history, I was baptized (sprinkled) a Lutheran (ELCA) and as a teen I attended a United Methodist Church, mainly because my high school sweetheart did. It worked out well, we have been married now for over a half century and she is still my sweetheart. After our marriage we lived in several different communities across the Midwestern, Southern, and Western United States. In each community we searched for a church in which we felt both accepted and challenged. As a result we have been members of Methodist, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, and United Church of Christ congregations. During our short tenure as Southern Baptist we had to be rebaptized, this time with full immersion. I have served in about every lay leadership position these denominations have to offer. Additionally, I worked for twenty years in a major Catholic university as a senior academic administrator. In other words, I have been “around the block” in Christianity. But additionally, I have studied theology on my own for over forty years. My confession is that I have grown weary of the conservative Christian message which spoke to me once, but which no longer does. For that reason, my study has been broad over these past decades but has found a home in Progressive Christianity.

I am very fortunate to have been blessed with an ability for independent learning and an aptitude for teaching others. These skills have been refined and honed through the disciplines of advanced graduate work and endless practice, both artifacts of my professional life. But I have been even more blessed by clergy who have inspired and nurtured me over the years and by fellow travelers and seekers that have sustained me in my faith journey. But, that’s enough about me. Let us return to the subject at hand. And that is, what does it take to be a Christian? What does being Christian mean, especially what does it or can it mean today, in the twenty-first century?

For starters, being Christian must entail more than subscribing to a static system of doctrines or beliefs. The Catholic theologian Hans Küng has written that Christian faith is simultaneously an act of knowing, feeling, and willing.1 Being Christian is not limited to a belief system, but is an action that flows from one’s beliefs that has a depth of knowing, and entails a proactive lifestyle along with the emotions that accompany it.

Knowing and believing are words often used interchangeably. But there is a distinct difference between them. Belief carries with it a degree of uncertainty while knowing encompasses certainty. But, can we really know anything? In the first century it was believed that demons caused illness. It was not until the late nineteenth century that the medical community understood that germs were a cause for illness and infection. From our infancy to our ongoing adulthood we learn new things that replace old beliefs and understandings. As we grow and time unfolds around us, both individually and collectively, we learn through experience. We learn what is true, what works and what doesn’t work, as we experiment and plow forward with informed trial and error. It is experience that gives us certainty and where we lack experience we must fall back on beliefs and their associated uncertainties. Experience gives us assurance.

So, what kind of things have a depth of knowing? Is it the doctrinal statements of orthodox Christianity? Is it creeds and dogma? And then a crucial question, “Does a failure to subscribe to these beliefs that in many ways defy experience disqualify one from being a Christian?” Or is there a more basic understanding of Christianity, a knowing that is appropriate for twenty-first century followers to which they can subscribe and be fully accepted as Christians?

Some have argued that the reason for the church’s decline is that progressives have entered the picture and watered down the faith doctrines. They might argue that under progressivism one can believe almost anything and therefore people are choosing to believe nothing. They argue that we must redouble our efforts and increase our fervor for church dogma. But this is not the 1960s or even the 1990s. As Albert Einstein allegedly said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Religion author, Phyllis Tickle, has written that Christianity reforms itself every five hundred years and that we are now due another reformation. Further, as theologian and author, John Philip Newell, has written, “Much of what is happening within the four walls of our household—liturgically, theologically, spirituality—is irrelevant to the great journey of the earth and of humanity’s most pressing struggles.”2 Perhaps what is needed is a rethinking of Christianity, a new understanding of the how and why Christianity formed and its relevance in a twenty-first-century postmodern world.”

For years, the voice of the liberal laity has been timid and louder conservative voices have predominated. Part of the reason for this is that conservative voices have their ready-made elevator speeches, i.e., simplistic reductions of complex thoughts into short messages that can be conveyed while riding on an elevator. It is these one-dimensional one-liners that condense and do violence to the beauty of the Christian message. You know what they are. “Turn away from sin.” “Repent and be saved.” “Jesus died for your sins.” “Jesus saves.” And there are more. In my small town a group with evangelical fervor can often be found shouting these pithy statements from a street corner at passing motorists. But it is time. It is time for those who have something more to say, to say it. The wisdom of Sir 20:6 quoted at the beginning of this chapter is appropriate. It is no longer acceptable, if it ever was, for those with more to say to remain silent.

This book reviews and comments on the work of numerous theologians, historians, sociologists, archaeologists, and biblical scholars, both contemporary and dating back decades and centuries. These scholars were and continue to be the prime movers for developing a new and deeper understanding of Christianity. With their help, in this book you should find more degrees of freedom in defining yourself as a Christian while at the same time appreciating truth wherever you may find it. You will be challenged to contemplate a different kind of world than the one in which we live. Hopefully your knowledge of “the way things are” and “the way they could be” will motivate a will to make things closer to “the way they should be.” The integral unity of knowing, feeling, and willing will lead to a Christian faith that is life-giving and fulfilling.

Some of the religious controversies over the decades have spun out of misunderstandings of the context in which certain doctrines originated. Certainly, one of these is the doctrine of “justification by faith.” What was Paul’s intention when he wrote in Rom 3:28, “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Did he mean to contradict Jas 2:26 which says, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” Were they actually talking about the same thing? What was the world like in the era that these statements were tendered? What does Paul’s challenge mean for us today? These are the topics that will be addressed and discussed in chapter 2.

Chapter 3 is titled “Jesus: the Fully Human One.” In it the life and times of Jesus are presented from a historical, political, familial, economic, public health, and religious perspective. Judaism’s efforts to solidify their identity during this period are introduced. This background information is presented in more detail in Appendices I and II, for those who wish a more elaborate description. Jesus’s likely socioeconomic status, education, and literacy are broached and his approach to Judaism that distinguished him from the prevalent Pharisaic teachings of the day are revealed.

In chapter 4 the topic proceeds from the pre-Easter Jesus to the post-Easter Christ. Here, with Jesus crucified, the story was supposed to end. There was to be no more annoyances from Jesus, no more followers, no more trouble for the Jewish aristocracy or the Roman overlords. But as we know, it was not the end. The scattered, weak, and bedraggled followers of Jesus regrouped and attempted to sort out what had happened. Who was this man? Was he the one Moses promised? Was he the messiah? Was he the son of man as describe in chapter 7 of Daniel? Perhaps even more importantly what do we think of this man today? Do we exalt him to a point where he becomes unfathomable, unfollowable, and unknowable? And as a result, do we, in the words of Howard Thurman, treat him as an object rather than a subject? Are some of the titles and thoughts we have about this post-Easter Jesus bathwater that should be discarded in a twenty-first century rethinking? If so, how is this done without throwing out Jesus? Further, is Christ God’s rescue operation or as Paul Knitter suggests an opportunity for an awakening? And if the latter, what does this mean? The chapter ends with a mystical moment I experienced a few years ago, expressed poetically.

In chapter 5 atonement is addressed. What is atonement, what are its roots in the cultic practices of ancient Israel? What does the New Testament have to say about it? What have been the major concepts attached to atonement and how did the idea of penal substitutionary atonement come about? What are the assumptions about God, Scripture, and humanity that underlie substitutionary atonement and what are some other contours for an alternative understanding? These issues are addressed in this chapter.

Is Jesus the only way to God? This is the topic for chapter 6. The thought is from John 14:6 which reads, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Oh boy! This has caused so much trouble over the years. It is the basis for so much disparagement and even violence against non-Christians. God must cringe when this is uttered as it is so often in our churches. The task of this chapter is to delve into the Johannine community that wrote this Gospel. How did this community develop? What were their motives? How does John differ from the Synoptic Gospels? Should John be interpreted literally? What were the competing religious movements of this time? These are the issues addressed in chapter 6.

Chapter 7 is titled “Scripture: Word of God or Word of Man?” In this chapter, some of the conflicting understandings of God are addressed. For example how can God be compassionate and loving yet vindictive and cruel, ordering the genocide of whole towns and kingdoms? The concept of metaphor versus literalism is addressed and examples are given. Humor in the Scripture is demonstrated and examples of the incursion of culture taming or watering down Scripture are discussed. Finally, some suggestions as to how we should read and interpret Scripture are provided.

God is the subject of chapter 8. God is approached from Bonhoeffer’s c...