An Open Christianity
Excerpts
The problem
Christianity is in trouble. The trouble didn’t materialize overnight. Several geopolitical, technological, and societal events came together to form a perfect storm. A faith with which over 90 percent of American adults once identified, had by 2021 declined to 63%. While the exodus has slowed, damage has already occurred and there is no evidence that the decline will not accelerate again. Further the politicization of the Christian right by one of the major political parties beginning in the 1970s has fueled a resurgence of the old and ugly movement of Christian nationalism. The great faith of love and charity is now morphing into a vehicle for spreading division and hate. This is hardly the intent of the Christian founders. Unfortunately, Christianity itself has contributed to the decline. Beginning with the fundamentalist movement early in the last century, Christianity has evolved into a religion of belief in unviable outdated doctrines, dogmas, creeds, and theories. There have been warnings that have literally been ignored. As early as a century ago Pierre Teilhard de Chardin warned of the need to modernize and update Christology. Literalism, a hallmark of fundamentalism, has created a dualism between believers and nonbelievers, setting up an artificial division among Americans, creating an opportunity to be exploited by savvy self-promoting politicians. As Harvey Cox has observed it is time for the age of belief to be ushered out and the age of faith ushered in. AOC p.1
Beyond Deconstruction
Today, for many, doctrines have lost their power to inspire and shape lives as Knitter suggests they should. And this has not happened overnight. We saw in the last chapter how calls for reform have been coming for decades. The disaffiliation we are experiencing is a warning sign that the status quo is no longer working. Many Christians not disaffiliating infrequently attend services and in private discard or deconstruct traditional Christian beliefs. These are all signs that reform is inevitable and in many cases is already underway. But what will reform look like? Could or should there be an organized approach to reform? Or must reform take many paths before it comes together, if that is even possible? In this chapter we will consider an Open Christianity as an approach to reform. AOP p. 23
Confusion about the nature of God
Perhaps today’s confusion surrounding God stems from an insistence by some Christians on an infallible and literal interpretation of Scripture. In such a mindset all descriptions of God in Scripture have equal weight, no matter how incompatible they may be. An Open Christianity understands Scripture as a journey in which the concept of God evolved and matured culminating in Jesus’ loving parental figure. It is at the end of this progression, with Jesus, that we begin an Open Christian understanding of God. AOC p. 46
The Wilderness and Servant Leadership
How would Jesus, with his vision of what it means to be fully human and desire to bring abundant life to his followers, proceed? What would it mean? Would it mean modeling the messianic hopes of his people. Would it require throwing off the yoke of Rome’s hegemony? Would it mean calling on God for supernatural miracles to address and satisfy the needs of his people? Would he use his charisma to raise a mighty army to bring together all the people of the world under a Jewish regime? All important considerations and legitimate options. In solitude today we turn to wilderness experiences when we must consider our alternatives and set a direction. Scripture reports that Jesus at once went into the wilderness to ponder his options and determine his style of ministry. A
No Person an Island
While we have evolved into the highest form of complex sentient beings with the ability to not only meet many of our individual needs, we also mustn’t objectify the contribution that nonhuman sentient beings have made to our development and today contribute to our survival. Neil Shubin in his book Your Inner Fish traces the evolution of the human body from early aquatic fossils to its present complexity noting that over hundreds of million years primitive body parts adapted and were repurposed to become what they are today. Shubin writes “We are not separate from the rest of the living world; we are part of it down to our bones and … even our genes.” Shubin added that the DNA combination for developing arms, wrists, and digits is virtually identical in every creature that has limbs. While humans may be in a class by themselves with respect to their highly developed capacity for thought and consciousness, the architecture and development of their bodies is shared throughout the cosmos. But even pieced together with newly designed and repurposed parts, humans are far from self-sufficient. AOC p. 77