Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Christian History

Thank You President Trump

by Darrell Lackey in Christian History

Even a perfunctory perusal of most media (social or otherwise) and serious commentary (and now even some conservative commentary) reveals an almost total negative take on the current presidency. And, I think an over-all negative view is justified and accurate. However, there is one very positive result of the current state of affairs relative to the current occupant of the White House: it has revealed the deep divide within evangelical Christianity.

Students of modern American religious history are aware that, beginning in the 1940s, several prominent Protestant Christians, such as Carl F. Henry, began to separate themselves in sensibility, emphasis, tone, and even theologically from fundamentalism. From that divergence, we get our modern-day evangelicals. Their rejection of the isolationism and anti-intellectualism of fundamentalism laid the groundwork for modern evangelical Christianity.

Before that divergence could happen, however, it had to be noticed and addressed. One of the ways that happened was through Carl F. Henry’s 1947 book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. With the help of Charles E. Fuller, Harold Ockenga, Billy Graham, and others, Christianity began to diverge and break with the fundamentalism of the past.

The break wasn’t so much in the areas of theology, as these new evangelicals held to many of the same views, especially inerrancy, as fundamentalists. The theological differences mostly concerned the de-emphasis of… [Read more…] about Thank You President Trump

On Conservative Christians’ Sudden Devotion to Imperial Cult

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

The amount of “good Christians” who have rattled their sabers in response to the NFL’s kneeling players during the National Anthem should not be surprising to anyone. Many of these same conservative (and of course largely white) Christians also voted for a man last November who epitomizes everything their Gospels speak against.

Indeed, in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Pat Robertson didn’t even try to veil his and his flock’s fetish for authoritarianism:
“Violence in the streets, ladies and gentlemen. Why is it happening? The fact that we have disrespect for authority; there is profound disrespect for our president, all across this nation they say terrible things about him. It’s in the news, it’s in other places. There is disrespect now for our national anthem, disrespect for our veterans, disrespect for the institutions of our government, disrespect for the court system. All the way up and down the line, disrespect.”
Robertson’s comments are ironic enough in light of how he spent much of the Obama administration. But seen through a longer lens of history, his and his ilk’s anger over citizens failing to display blind obeisance to a national leader, symbol, or ritual, and their demands for punishment, are ever more so.

Remember that these same white Christians have an immense persecution complex. They see any and every slight upon their faith as evidence of systematic oppression or proof positive that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping our way for… [Read more…] about On Conservative Christians’ Sudden Devotion to Imperial Cult

Bullying Bishops and Castrated Christians: The Nashville Statement’s Eunuch Omission

by Don M. Burrows in Christian History

Mountains of ink have already been spilled rightfully condemning the anti-gay, transphobic Nashville Statement last month, but I was particularly drawn to one of its infamous affirmations/denials that made use of a New Testament passage routinely abused by gender-conformity enforcers: Matthew 19.

This is the passage where Jesus is asked about divorce, answers that it is not really acceptable, and caps his discussion by talking about castration. Yes, really. Not the way you remember it? That’s probably by design.

The standard translation for Matthew 19:12 is (as usual) most accurately conveyed by the New Revised Standard Version:
For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.
Yet a perusal of other translations shows just how much many Christian translators want to avoid any notion of men “making themselves eunuchs.” Any number of alternative translations have been offered, like “those who choose to live like eunuchs” (NIV), or “some choose not to marry” (NLT), or those who “became eunuchs” (NET), or who “decided to be celibate” (God’s Word), or my favorite, “disabled themselves” (Weymouth).

None of these come as close as the NRSV does at capturing what the Greek actually says in the text, and yet the NRSV and its traditional wording (the same found in the King James Bible) are… [Read more…] about Bullying Bishops and Castrated Christians: The Nashville Statement’s Eunuch Omission

Universalism vs. Power

by Robyn Shepherd in Christian History

This guest post is by Robyn Shepherd.

In his post on this blog yesterday, “Indeed Very Many: Universalism in the Early Church,” Matthew Distafano cites an impressive list of Early Church Fathers who were pro-universal salvation, and connects the switch in Christian theology to exclusivism with the writings of Augustine (in the late fourth and early fifth centuries), the Emperor Justinian, and the Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in the sixth century.

As a student of Patristics, I find this timing significant. Almost anyone who has studied the history of the Christian faith knows the name of Constantine as the emperor who made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Many now mournfully mark this event as a defining moment in the established Church’s abandonment of the teachings of Jesus. For those who led the churches at the time, it seemed a godsend.

However one understands the theological significance of the event, the joining of the Christian faith (and its organized expression) to the ruling powers of the Roman Empire established the Christian Church as a significant cultural institution for the first time. This institution was, in turn, used by the powers that be to control the lives and beliefs of the peoples of the empire. This is where the drive to identify the “orthodox” version of Christian faith over against the “heretical” versions gathered its momentum.

In the fourth century, the debates centered around the divinity of Jesus and… [Read more…] about Universalism vs. Power

Indeed Very Many: Universalism in the Early Church

by Matthew Distefano in Christian History

That position [Universalism] has consistently been held as heretical by the Church for two-thousand years … You can go back to Athanasius, you can go back to Augustine, you can go back to Huss, and Tyndale, and others.
— Mark Driscoll

While the doctrine of universal reconciliation has indeed been a minority position throughout most of Christian history–albeit not quite two-thousand years!–all one has to do is turn to Augustine, a clear non-Universalist, to see how it was once upon a time a rather popular doctrine. He, in the fifth century, rather dismissively writes:

It is quite in vain, then, that some–indeed very many–yield to merely human feelings and deplore the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their interminable and perpetual misery. They do not believe that such things will be. Not that they would go counter to divine Scripture—but, yielding to their own human feelings, they soften what seems harsh and give a milder emphasis to statements they believe are meant more to terrify than to express literal truth.
— Augustine, Enchiridion, sec. 112.

When Augustine described the Universalists as “indeed very many” (immo quam plurimi), what he meant is that they were a “vast majority” (Ramelli, Christian Doctrine, 11). That is what the Latin word plurimi, from the adjective plurimus, implies. And though Augustine himself didn’t affirm this doctrine (although he did in the beginning [Ibid.].), he… [Read more…] about Indeed Very Many: Universalism in the Early Church

An Inappropriate Christmas

by Zach Christensen in Christian History

This past Sunday, many people began celebrating Advent, the season in which the majority of Western Christian churches commemorate the birth of Jesus. As we progress toward Christmas, there will be a many sermons preached about shepherds, wise men, innkeepers who are total jerks, and unplanned visits from angels. However, there is one passage from the birth narrative of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew that I think truly captures the meaning of Christmas.

In Matthew 1:1-17, there is a genealogy of the family tree that led up to Jesus. If you have ever read the Bible, you usually skip this part (at least at face value, it is about as interesting as reading a phonebook). Why would the author lead with something like this? But there is something included in these verses that is not often noticed.

Over the course of the genealogy, the writer deliberately includes the names of four women. In a patriarchal world that considered women to be second-class citizens or property, this was an extraordinarily radical thing to do (if you read all of the other genealogies in the Bible or from any literature from the time, none of them include women). More importantly, the women included are not what anyone would ever expect.

In verse 3, the writer lists Tamar. In the book of Genesis, Tamar was widowed, disguised herself as a harlot, was taken by her father-in-law (Judah, who did not realize it), and bore a child named Perez. By the standards of their day, this was considered incest, and is… [Read more…] about An Inappropriate Christmas

No, We Are NOT Marcionites

by Matthew Distefano in Christian History, Christian Issues

The charge of Marcionism is often leveled toward anyone who says that “God is just like Jesus,” who rejects the violence depicted in the Old Testament, and who insists that Christianity is centered on the ideas of peace and reconciliation. This accusation is a form of the straw man logical fallacy, in which someone’s position is misrepresented in order to make it easier to attack and refute.

To understand why the charge of Marcionism is fallacious, let’s begin by taking a brief look at Marcion and his beliefs. Then, we will compare that system with what I, as a Girardian, believe, to see if the two belief systems are synonymous, or if the Marcionism accusation is grossly misguided.

Marcion of Sinope (c. 85 – c. 160 CE)

Though there are a number of reasons why Marcion was an important figure during the second century, he is now primarily remembered as the arch-heretic of the early Church because he rejected the God of the Hebrew Scriptures. Why would he do such a thing? Because Marcion could not reconcile the violence of the deity in the Jewish Bible with the nonviolence of Jesus Christ. Marcion asked the correct questions regarding divine violence, but he didn’t come to the correct conclusions. Instead, he arrived at dualism, where the Hebrew God was more like a demiurge, subservient to the New Testament Father of Christ.

As an unabashed Girardian, I completely reject this view. I don’t reject the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, only some… [Read more…] about No, We Are NOT Marcionites

The Real Story Behind Genesis

by Zach Christensen in Christian History

The first chapters of Genesis were not written to communicate history or science. Creation stories had an entirely different purpose in the Ancient Near East. They were written to give people a vision of their place in the world, and to help them make sense of existence. In other words, they gave people a narrative in which they could live their lives. This is not an outdated idea, as people today still live within functional narratives that cause them to see the world in a certain way. Perhaps the most forceful element of all creation stories is that they explain the essence of what it means to be human.

One creation story that was written before Genesis is the Babylonian creation tale, known as the Enuma Elish. This story has its own way of explaining humanity. The god Marduk kills the goddess of primordial chaos, Tiamat, and forms the heavens and earth from her body. He then kills one of Tiamat’s sons, a rebellious god named Kingu, combines Kingu’s blood with clay, and fashions humans from this mixture. Marduk creates humans to be slaves, in order to do the dirty work so that the gods could be free to enjoy leisure. The picture of what it means to be a person in this story is that human beings are innately worthless and consigned to endure the evil curse of labor without any meaning. This is a story in which many people still live today.

The format used in the opening chapters of Genesis clearly resembles the Enuma Elish, but it tells a completely different story.… [Read more…] about The Real Story Behind Genesis

History Will Judge Today's Christians According to These 4 Questions

by Stephen Mattson in Christian History

You can look back in history and criticize Christians for failing to follow Jesus during some of the world’s darkest moments, but today’s Christians will also be judged according to their actions, and here are four moral questions facing today’s Christians:

1. In the midst of a historically horrible refugee crisis, why didn’t you actively pursue helping the poor, the destitute, and those in desperate need?

Matthew 25:34-40: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 

Jeremiah 22:3-5: Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the… [Read more…] about History Will Judge Today's Christians According to These 4 Questions

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Five

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

A sketch of the Historical Jesus is called a “reconstruction,” but ironically, from a Christian perspective, it appears that much more has been stripped away than added.

That reaction isn’t wrong. We’ve lost an entire gospel (John), many sayings and miracles, the Christmas stories, and thousands of years of theology and exegesis, all in pursuit of the Historical Jesus, the real man who lived 2,000 years ago and founded one of the world’s great religions.

Some Christians might wonder: what is the point of all this? If so much of the traditional Christian story is ahistorical, what’s the point of even being a Christian? If it’s impossible to definitively know exactly what Jesus said and did, why should anyone follow him?

These questions are very personal to me. My Christian faith was destroyed when I first learned about the Historical Jesus. The stories I had so earnestly believed were like beams holding up the walls of Christianity: without them, the edifice collapsed.

So what’s left to found a religion on? When you take away all that, is it still worth being a Christian?

Of course! First of all, just because something isn’t historical doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Maybe Jesus wasn’t actually born in Bethlehem, but that doesn’t make the meaning of Christmas any less profound. Maybe Jesus was wrong to… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Five