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An Inclusive Christian Credo It makes no sense to talk about meaning if reality is ultimately
meaningless. It makes no sense to talk about purpose if reality is ultimately purposeless. It makes no sense to talk about value if reality is ultimately valueless. And it makes no sense to talk about life and
love if reality is ultimately dead and indifferent. Every meaningful, purposeful and valuable action we take - everything we do which affirms life as a good thing and love as a potent force in the world - implies a
trust in ultimate reality. ...whether we choose to affirm that trust through explicitly religious language or not. Welcome to
I believe that God has overcome sin, evil and death through God's incarnate presence and atoning work in Jesus Christ. Therefore I also believe that life is meaningful,
valuable and purposeful even in the face of intractable human moral failure, the dark mystery of natural evil and our certain, earthly conclusion in death. In Christ I believe that radical optimism is ultimately
justified. And since radical optimism is ultimately justified, I believe that Christians - if no others - need not flinch from the most hardheaded realism regarding human existence. It is these explicit Christian
beliefs - informed as they are by the Bible and the Christian tradition - that justifies, I suppose, categorizing the point of view promoted on these web pages as Christian. But the Incarnation of the Word of God in
Jesus Christ (to get a wee bit doctrinal :-) implies God's presence and militancy in the world in a manner that goes far beyond the witness of our fragmented and compromised Christian communities. Because the
Incarnation implies that God created the entire world in Jesus Christ. Therefore I believe that we should seek to discern Christ's compassion in other kindred religions no less than Christian ones, Christ's realism
in honest skepticism no less than faithful belief, and Christ's victory over death in human tragedy no less than joy. It is this openness to the discernment of Christ in those people, ideas and events which are
explicitly non-Christian or even anti-Christian - an openness that encourages dialogue while accepting honest disagreement - that merits, hopefully, my categorization of these web pages as inclusive. An Inclusive Christian Purpose The purpose of The Inclusive Christian is to celebrate, communicate and respond to the good
news of Jesus Christ. I invite you to join me in this task through:
Navigating the Site The site, for the most part, has three levels. The home page (which you are on), the
subject matter pages (the second level pages in the button bar on the left) which have internal links to the content pages as well as external links that I've found interesting or helpful, and the third level pages
which are the actual articles I have written. All of these third level pages are available in roughly chronological order via the Archive page. Articles are, for the most part, posted as they were originally
composed - often in the heat of Usenet exchanges. As the articles are listed chronologically, one would hope to find both an improved style and a more mature theology as one reaches the bottom of the list :-) In
updating the site I will maintain file name for the first level home page so, if you plan to link to my site, please link to the home page. Enjoy! "In all forms of human debate, both parties tend to be correct in what they affirm and wrong in what they deny." John Stuart Mill December 31, 2000 |
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