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RE: Defense of Liberal Christianity? [Note: Text Reformatted 11/26/1999 WFB] Posted to xtianity on March 10, 1998 ---------- > From: Jeffery Jay Lowder
Would one of the liberal or "enlightened" Christians on this list be willing to give a brief summary of what they believe, and why they believe it? BILL BEKKENHUIS I do not presume to be any more "enlightened" than anyone else, whether skeptic, fundamentalist or liberal. And I'll accept the label
"liberal" as a perhaps inevitable one, as in "that which is not fundamentalist must be liberal". While I am liberal regarding a positive regard for the intellectual and moral achievements of the
Enlightenment, I differ from classical liberalism through my taking seriously the doctrine of the Fall and the possibility of damnation or Hell (demythologized to the max, of course :-) If I were to categorize myself,
it would be as within a "worldly Christianity" perspective that would encompass such divergent folk as Bonhoeffer, Stringfellow, Cox, Hamilton, Althizer, and Van Buren (many of whom would differ greatly from
each other) - with strong influence from such neo-orthodox theologians as the Niebuhr brothers, Tillich, Barth, and Brunner. I am happy at the recent challenge to liberal Christianity on this discussion list. For
almost three years on talk.religion.misc and talk.atheism I have often felt liberal Christianity as an ignored oddity. Many times I have seen skeptical attack or response to fundamentalists while liberal Christian posts
have been ignored or, worst, denounced as non-Christian because they are not fundamentalist! So the XTIANITY mailing list is a trendsetter, IMHO, by considering liberal Christianity identifiable and worthy of attack
:-) I've talked about what I believe and why I believe it in talk.atheism and possibly here. But here goes an update: I believe that we experience death - understood metaphorically as the experienced ultimate threat
to human meaning, value and purpose - as unexpectedly overcome by life - again, understood metaphorically as positive human meaning, value and purpose. Because it is an existential reality, and not merely a good idea,
it is instantiated in ordinary, day to day life. And I believe this experience is available to all without any doctrinal, ethical or performance precondition. I also believe this not simply as an individual, but as a
member of a specific community - the Christian community - which has, in many various and even contradictory ways encountered, shared and responded to this existential reality. The various communities, from
fundamentalist to liberal, have all expressed this experience via reference to the first century experience (expressed in the context of a first century worldview which has integrity no less than our own, IMHO) of Jesus
as the Christ. So when I say that I believe that death is overcome by God in Christ, I believe I am saying something recognized and witnessed to in the first two centuries CE by the New Testament and meaningful to at
least some of us today.
My chief frustration with liberals, including Bishop Spong, is that they have a tendency to explain in great detail what they do not believe, but they rarely (if ever) explain what they do believe. BILL BEKKENHUIS I have deliberately put the above in positive terms. I am also a
great admirer of the saying by either S. T. Coleridge or F. D. Maurice [Note: The quotation is actually from John Stuart Mill. 11/26/1999 WFB] to the effect that people are more prone to be correct in what they affirm
and more prone to error in what they deny. I think it was Augustine who said that wherever a Christian finds truth, it is his Lord's. I will accept truth wherever it may be found, and I have been tutored on any number
of theological topics by both atheists and fundamentalists.
Presumably, liberal Christians believe the following: 1. The existence of God. Whether they believe in the same god as an evangelical Christian is an open question to me. I'm
inclined to say that Liberal Christians believe in a different god than the Evangelicals believe in. BILL BEKKENHUIS That depends on the degree to which one identifies the REALITY of God with the MODEL (or words or metaphors) of God that one uses.
I think it's a conundrum. One could equally say that Newton believed in a different universe than Einstein. That is true in some respects and not true in others, IMHO.
2. The afterlife. Presumably,LCs believe in some sort of disembodied existence in the afterlife, though I am not sure what this entails. And I take it for granted that all LCs reject a fire-and-brimstone conception of Hell. Some LCs may even be univeralists. BILL BEKKENHUIS Can't speak for anyone else, but I am agnostic
regarding any afterlife. I do believe that the biblical symbols of heaven and resurrection witness to the triumph of God's gift of life over death. But that is something, IMHO, that witnesses to a quality of life IN
THIS WORLD. Heaven and hell may be realities that transcend physical life and death, but I do not see how we can know that. But they are certainly, IMHO, earthly experiences. Focusing on an anticipated afterlife is
ethically dangerous, IMHO, because it discredits or casts doubt on - to a certain degree - the biblical insight that God has authority over the power of death IN THIS LIFE. I would not consider myself a Universalist
insofar as I would not presume to judge events or people from God's POV. And while I have no ethical problem with some idea of ultimate loss or damnation, I have major ethical problems with those people who believe
themselves capable of making that judgment.
3. The historicity of Jesus. An LC believes there was a historical individual named Jesus upon whom the NT stories are based. BILL BEKKENHUIS I do, though again, I can't speak for all.
4. The Resurrection. AN LC believes that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, but that this resurrection was not an event in spacetime. When Jesus was resurrected, his body was transformed into an immaterial body that did not exist within spacetime. If there had been a videocamera on Jesus' body after his death, and if that camera ran continuously for a week, it would not have recorded his material body coming back to life. The Resurrection was not so much an historical event in spacetime, as an *experience* or an *encounter* felt by the disciples. BILL BEKKENHUIS The resurrection, IMHO, was an experience of the disciples that - appropriately enough - they communicated using a concept that was common currency in Hellenistic Judaism.
Whether or not their *model* of the resurrection was accurate from a scientific or historical point of view, I believe it was accurate regarding God's possibility for the redemption of human existence from the power of
death. I believe that the early Christians vividly experienced Jesus' life as vindicated by God and victorious over death, understood as a cosmic power. I am not big on the ontology of the whole thing, and I'm
certainly not Greek enough to get into disembodied spirits. But in an experience that some (though possibly not all) Christians had after his death, they came to see the ultimate, positive meaning, purpose and value
of ordinary human life. And the cultural mediator or context of that experience was their first century worldview. If someone asks me if I believe that Jesus' physical corpse was re-animated and walked out of the tomb
(and eventually skyrocketed into heaven), the answer is "no". But if someone asks me if I believe that Jesus was REALLY raised by God out of his death, my answer is an unqualified "yes". And I
don't feel particularly embarrassed at Christianity's central truth being expressed in the mythical language of the first century, as the future will no doubt look with equal amusement on the mythologies of the 20th
century. But I feel free to express this truth in completely secular terms as well.
This is what I have understood LCs to believe. Would any of the LCs on the list be willing to correct or add to my list? BILL BEKKENHUIS I hope you find my liberal Christian ideas both reasonable and
Christian... ....otherwise I may feel the necessity to develop them at length :-) > Jeffery Jay Lowder Return to
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