Generous (evangelical) orthodoxy: catholic

Last updated on: August 13, 2005 at 6:31 am by Scot McKnight

Generous (evangelical) orthodoxy: catholic 2005-08-13T06:31:00-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When I was in seminary, one of my teachers was asked “What kind of evangelical are you?” and he said, “I am a C.S. Lewis kind of evangelical?” To which he was asked yet another, “What kind is that?” and he said, “A catholic evangelical.” Not as in Roman Catholic, for that body is much like many others — affirming that is right and everyone else is a little or a lot off base.

Since the day my professor said that, I have worked with that vision. I, too, believe that we all ought to be catholic Christians in that we accept everyone who is a Christian. I like the idea of a C.S. Lewis sense of the holy catholic Church.

Orthodoxy

The first fact is that we don’t know who is Christian and the second fact is that God won’t ask us to make the decision. Christians are those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, and anyone who embraces that gospel is a Christian.

Christians don’t deny central truths of the gospel and they affirm the orthodox beliefs about that gospel. But genuine faith is a matter of one’s embrace, of one’s vulnerability, and of one’s trust in God — whom we confess is Father, Son, and Spirit.

We know that Christians differ across the globe, across the centuries, and across the doctrines. But we also know that Christians should agree on the basics, and our orthodoxy encourages us to focus on the basics. The gospel basics, which is the central theme of a book of mine coming out in September, Embracing Grace, is that God is at work to restore us (cracked Eikons) in Christ so we can be in union with God and communion with others for the good of others and the world.

Generosity

At no place is our commitment to generosity more important than here: while we embrace the gospel itself as our core, we are generous on the matters that are not at the core. The saying goes back to Augustine, I believe:

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

We know the difference between the Second Coming and its time; we know the difference between the forgiveness of sins and one’s theory of the atonement; we know the difference between the Body of Christ and local denominational differences.

But, in this knowledge we have to work to be more than tolerant: we need to appreciate the differences. Anyone can look around and find the central features of major church bodies and find something good and valuable and many times find things that we cannot appropriate in our local church so we will need to appreciate it from afar: I love the Eastern Orthodox theology of icons, the Roman Catholic system of monastery life, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the Methodist heritage in John Wesley, the Anabaptist commitment to simple life, the Evangelical commitment to personal Bible study, and I could go on … but you get my point. You can’t usually have all these things, so we say, “Appreciate them from afar, and confess that we need these other expressions, too.” “Why,” we ask, “should one church have all the good things?” It can’t, so we need one another.

If this is the case with you, and you share my thoughts here, we have some repenting to do of our sectarianism. Sectarianism believes and teaches that one church, my church, got it all right and therefore every body else got something wrong. It therefore condemns and condescends. From this we need to repent. We may be justifiably proud of our local church, but it is part and parcel of one catholic Body across the world and centuries and doctrines, and we are but a part.

God, I’m sure both laughs and weeps at our silly belief that finally, in our day, we’ve finally got it right. Forget it, God is the one who is Right, and we simply need to embrace the redemptive work of God, and when we see it as God’s work and not ours, we can become as we were meant to be: a holy, loving, catholic Church that is designed to bring glory to God and redemption to others.

Emerging Movement

Theology

Previous Post

August 12, 2005

Holiness, Schmoliness... Great blog

Next Post

August 13, 2005 The Lion King

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What king was known for writing many proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Hezekiah Solomon Saul