1. The
Age of Faith: first 3 centuries
of Christianity. "The faith of the earliest Christians was oriented around this hope for the new world of shalom that Jesus personified. Their emphasis was on community rather than creeds or clergy. The first three centuries of Christianity demonstrated theological variety, spiritual fellowship, and an anti-imperial stance."
2. The
Age of Belief: from the fourth to
the twentieth century. “…faith became
identified with creeds, orthodoxy and
‘correct doctrine.’ The
imperialization of the church under Constantine also resulted in the
glorification of bishops and widespread ecclesiastical corruption."
3. The
Age of the Spirit: began about 50 years
ago and is continuing now to shake the foundations of the previous era of
hierarchical, patriarchal, and institutionalized religion. We are presently in
the midst of the dismantling of fundamentalism (close-mindedness and clinging
to non-negotiable beliefs) within Christianity. This age is characterized by the
“growing interfaith movement, the de-westernization of Christianity, liberation
theology, and the tsunami of Pentecostalism.” In general, religious people are
becoming "less dogmatic and more practical . . . more interested in
ethical guidelines and spiritual disciplines than in doctrine."
Along the same line Phyllis Tickle describes the times we are in now to be like a great "rummage sale", something that the Church goes through roughly every 500 years, during which we struggle and argue (as would any family preparing for a garage sale) about all the stuff that has collected over the past 500 years related to God and Jesus. Some want to dispose of certain elements within Christianity and others want to keep them...and so the fight goes. Tickle says these transition times in history are very, very messy and that it takes several decades to sort through the mess until there is general consensus among God's people.
One
major issue that always arises with these paradigmatic changes every
500 years is the question of where the church's authority lies. In the
latest "re-formation" of the church (Luther being a key figure),
the authority shifted from the Roman Catholic pope to the scriptures ("sola scriptura"). In the present transition, the authority is changing
to something else which isn't clear yet; but there are reasons (another
topic for another day) why scripture on its own can no longer act as
our sole source of authority now but rather will be one of the key pieces
of what will turn out to be the grounds of authority for God's people.
If
this is so, then we as followers of Jesus must grapple seriously with
the issue of the role of scripture for us collectively. This is
happening now with many serious scholars debating and researching and
praying and studying in an attempt to discover improved ways of handling
the scripture so that it can play its role along with the Holy Spirit
in leading us in this critical age. Some recommended material in this
regard are books such as:
* Disarming Scripture
* The Bible Tells Me So
* The Bible Made Impossible
For those of us who have been raised and trained to view the Bible as more or less a 'flat' book and without any flaws, these books may be hard to read with serious consideration. But I suggest them because they are written by followers of Jesus who value the scriptures and desire to help God's people sort through many questionable issues that are in scripture so that, on the one hand we don't ignore these questionable parts and, on the other hand we don't toss the whole Bible out because of the questionable parts.
* Disarming Scripture
* The Bible Tells Me So
* The Bible Made Impossible
For those of us who have been raised and trained to view the Bible as more or less a 'flat' book and without any flaws, these books may be hard to read with serious consideration. But I suggest them because they are written by followers of Jesus who value the scriptures and desire to help God's people sort through many questionable issues that are in scripture so that, on the one hand we don't ignore these questionable parts and, on the other hand we don't toss the whole Bible out because of the questionable parts.
If Phyllis Tickle and others are correct that this transition will take many decades of struggle, I pray for grace for God's people to walk through this
mess and to do so in humility and love for one another expressed in genuine listening and learning without discounting someone because they think differently. This isn't easy and takes the work of the Spirit in and among us.
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