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Christianity Today, February, 2007 |

The Problem with Mere Christianity

We jettison 'nonessential' theology at our own peril.

J. Todd Billings | posted 2/06/2007 08:31AM

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Yet for many, fear of divisiveness has cut them off from the riches of the church's cloud of witnesses. Rather than providing a path to church unity, avoiding theological distinctives often just leads to superficiality. Voices drawing upon the wisdom of the past help the church bring the gospel into our complex world. If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we need to remember that we read the Bible through the illumination of the Spirit who has actively worked in the church for 2,000 years.

J. Todd Billings is assistant professor of Reformed theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.

Related Elsewhere:

J. Todd Billings has a page at Western Theological Seminary

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February 2007, Vol. 51, No. 2

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mike rucker

Posted: February 27, 2007 12:00 AM

jim wallis has a nice story in his book "God's Politics". he talks about getting arrested at a demonstration, along with tony campolo and i want to say j.i. packer, but it may have been someone else. anyway, they're all in a holding cell, and jim sees tony and j.i. off to the side discussing their different takes on theology. jim says, and i'm paraphrasing, "what a perfect place to discuss theology: in a prison." i believe he meant this in two ways: one, the debates about theology were secondary to the actions he and the two of them were doing in the world outside. two, theological debates sometimes trap us in our own prisons - sometimes with others of like mind, often by ourselves. it's helpful to remember that theology has always been "a product of its times", and certainly a work-in-progress since we messed up and bound certain texts into an "authorized" canon - (note the word "authorized", and note who authorized it...). mike rucker

John	Posted: February 14, 2007 10:14 PM


'Augustine's proverb: "In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity."' This is a common misconception, that Augustine authored this statement. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine/quote.html

Johann

Posted: February 14, 2007 7:48 AM


Any religion based on Sola Scriptura and private interpretation is inevitably going to lead either to spiritual anarchy or least-common-denominator Christianity. This is the very hallmark of Protestantism. You might as well write diatribes against the rising of the sun.

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