Letters to Young Scholars, Second Edition

An Introduction to Christian Thought

Ringenberg

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781498242813
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Letters to Young Scholars is designed primarily for college students, advanced high school students, and church and parachurch study groups on spiritual development. As a college text, the book introduces beginning students to the general education (or liberal arts) portion of a Christian college education. It gives major emphasis to the humanities and social science disciplines, the integration of the Christian faith with those disciplines, and the application of Christian thought to daily living (applied Christianity). It seeks to challenge the students to become broader in perspective and appreciation, more compassionate toward all of God's creatures, and more confident and committed as they develop their worldviews and personal values.

Institutions and Structures

30. The Fellowship of Believers

. . . that you . . . may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

—I John 1:3b

. . . where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them.

—Matthew 18:20

The Church is a religious home, a sanctuary for worship, a school for religious instruction, . . . [and] it gathers into relations of mutual helpfulness people of every age and condition, . . . The Church is the most broadening and catholic organization among men, since its vision is to the ends of the world whither the gospel is being carried, and since its citizenship is in heaven as well as in the earth.

—Worth M. Tippy

Jesus foretold the Kingdom and it was the church that came.

—Alfred Loisy

The greatest sin of the church is that it holds the gospel from itself and from the world.

—Emil Brunner

The tragedy of [the spirit of “churchiness”] . . . is not difference of opinion, which will probably be with us till the Day of Judgement, but the outrageous folly and damnable sin of trying to regard God as the Party Leader of a particular point of view. No denomination has a monopoly of God’s grace, and none has an exclusive recipe for producing Christian character.

—J. B. Phillips

What a wonderful world this would be if we creatures sought more to be controlled by God and less to control others. Indeed, this desire to control is at the heart of human depravity, and if Christians in general have a better record in this respect than others, it is only a difference of degree rather than of kind. Indeed through much of church history the institutional church has displayed an embarrassing tendency to influence through intimidation and force rather than through a compelling love and an inviting grace.

—Anonymous

. . . the unloving fellowship is an heretical fellowship, so far as Christianity is concerned. How strange, in light of the biblical insistence on love as the principal thing, that we have emphasized it so little in comparison with other elements.

—D. Elton Trueblood

With all its faults, the Church is the best serving institution in the world. It has many critics but no rivals in the work of human redemption.

—E. Stanley Jones

The more a church—whether Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox—is not only called Christian but behaves in a Christian way, the more will it become open, welcoming, hospitable, truly credible; the more easily will it be to solve . . . church problems . . . and the more will it truly give hope to men and women.

—Hans Kung

Kneeling ne’er spoiled silk stocking: quit thy state

All equal are within the church’s gate.

—George Herbert

. . . religion . . . must limit itself strictly to the plane of supernatural love which alone is suitable for it. If it did so it would penetrate everywhere. The Bible says: “Wisdom penetrates everywhere on account of its perfect purity.”

—Simone Weil

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

—John 13:35

The basis for Christian fellowship is the Incarnation and its meaning! The Christian church dates from Christ. It develops from who he was, what he said, what he did, and what he offers.

The Church of Jesus Christ exists wherever there is the intersection of the divine love and fellowship of the Holy Trinity with the human love and fellowship of a group of believers. The fellowship follows and presupposes human faith but it transcends and expands from mental consent and verbal proclamation of theological constructs to the dynamic and electric reality of ultimate love and joy. It is eternal participation in the divine banquet and the divine dance.

It is important at the outset to distinguish between what Jesus called “the Kingdom of God” and Christendom. The former is the vision, the ideal, the potential, and even the earthly realization in Christianity at its best; the latter is the flawed, all too common historic record of the humanly administered organizations of those who have identified themselves as followers of Christ. Much of the criticism against Christendom is justified; however, most of the objections to Christianity are really objections to Christendom. Christendom is an organization based upon power; the Christian ideal is a fellowship based upon a common and mutual love. Of course, in practice the typical local church contains elements of both power and love. The wise church will seek to maximize divine authority and minimize human authority. The wise and humble church leader will not want and certainly will not seek, let alone demand, an unquestioning personal followership. Rather, in the Spirit of John the Baptist, he or she will ask the parishioners to “follow me no more than the extent to which I follow Christ, or better yet just seek to follow Christ as closely as you can.”

How then does “following Christ” express itself in a local church? The following are some basic characteristics:

1. The members of the fellowship want to meet together regularly. Is it possible to be a Christian without going to church? Yes, of course, but it is not natural and usually not conducive to mental and spiritual health. God made us as social creatures. Christianity is a social religion as well as a personal one. We rarely function well in prolonged isolation. We want to share and celebrate that which is most important to us. We need to regularly participate in an environment of mutual encouragement.

2. This fellowship is informal and readily available as well as formal and scheduled. If we are to pray without ceasing and meditate upon the Scriptures day and night, then it will be natural for the fellowship and its external witness to be easily accessed when needed. This concept is often understood well by Sunday School classes, small groups, rescue missions, shelter houses, coffee shops, and hot-line systems. Taverns understand well the universal need for social interaction; people patronize them for psychological no less than physical reasons—and they are readily available. Churches would do well to imitate the availability of taverns, perhaps by operating a late afternoon/evening eating and gathering pla...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• The Human Condition
• Encountering the Divine
• Neighborliness
• Toward Maturity
• Institutions and Structures
• Some Barriers to Belief
• Toward a Workable Philosophy of Life
• Appendix A: A Letter from a Young Scholar in Winter
• Appendix B: A Letter from an Old Scholar in Summer
• Appendix C: Some Marks of a Well-Educated Student
• Appendix D: Some Marks of a Good Teacher