A Need
For nearly a year I've been musing about what I believe is a foundational activity for professors of the Christian faith. I hinted at this task last week in some comments about the psuedo-documentary "The God Who Wasn't There." (By the way I do have the film and have watched about half of it. Not much to report.)
A year ago I outlined the concept of a church taking a deep and lengthy look at the Apostle's Creed as a way of exploring and relearning the core tenets of the Christian faith. I'm not suggesting that there is something magical about the Apostle's Creed. Rather, it seems to me that both history and theology would affirm that the Creed would indeed be a great outline for understanding what it is that Christians believe.
Why would such a study be important? Because people show up in my study not knowing even the most basic tenents of the Christian faith. Because of a growing biblical illiteracy that plagues even church-going Christians. Because there are growing forces who are antagonistic to Christianity. But most importantly, I believe such inquiry is important because way too many Christians are merely culturally Christian.
Cultural Christians are folk who are Christian because they grew up in church but have never seriously explored the dimensions of faith and come to embrace the Christain faith as their own. Christianity for cultural Christians has more to do with respectibility in the culture, doing things at church in a certain way, voting for certain candidates (on the left and on the right), and seeking to integrate American culture and God's kingdom into one cogent unity.
Culturally Christian young people are leaving home and heading to college without the foggiest notion of how to integrate faith with scholarship, the religion of evolution with the practice of science, a pluralistic moralism currently dominating our culture with a robust Christian faith.
It's time for a change.
I don't think that I'm smart enough to have the answer to this. But I do intent to take a shot at it. It seems that such a task is foundational to my own identity and calling. So I plan to begin writing on the pages of this blog--from time to time--on matters of the Christian faith with a particular eye to how Christians give voice to faith. And, somehow or another, I believe that this endeavor speaks to an equally pressing matter. Namely, how do Christian people articulate the faith in a open and intelligible way to a non-Christian (who will likely put little stock in stock answers or in the authority of church history much less the Bible). We need to wake up and recognize that this is the world we are living in.
Will you help? I welcome your insights and comments in exploring Christian faith in a way that can be understood and in a way that can be retransmitted to others.
Carson Reed
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Reader Comments (4)
I don't know how much I can contribute answers to this topic, but I welcome its discussion. In my continuing journey of faith I have become more and more uncomfortable with sharing my faith in the basic terms I was taught growing up. I find myself asking how can I articulate my faith to sound meaningful to someone who has no context of a faith tradition rooted in Jewish history. I try to make the way I live my life a testimony, but frankly there are many people who live inspirational lives that don't do it in the name of God.
It's a start. It's a place to start talking about the time He washed the feet of His friends, or the fact that poor shepherds and wealthy sages knelt before Him even when He was a baby, or the day that He was condemned and tortured and taunted and murdered because He dared to tell the truth that can give life to anyone ... or the day He proved it true by abandoning a garden tomb.
It's just a capsule of the Story, and people still are fascinated by a great story.
I guess a creed is fine, and it's a kind of capsule too - but it can never really have the power of the Story. People will disagree over the interpretations of the tiniest punctuation of a creed, but the Story has an undeniable power to persuade and change and convict and bless and save.
I can read it straight from the Bible or tell it in my own words or share it in motion picture - and as long as I stick to the facts and don't embellish or edit, the Story's power is intact.
I just wish I was better about telling the Story.
The point could also be made that we are specifically disobeying God, as He repeatedly commanded His people to remember and tell about what He has done in their lives and the lives of their ancestors.
I don't feel very insightful, but I am very intrested.