The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

In the last post I suggested that United Methodists, and indeed Christians generally are locked in conflict because they have at least two fundamentally different understandings of the structure of reality. Current dialogue is at an impasse because these understandings are totalizing: the claim of each to account for reality as a whole excludes the validity of other such understandings. In the light of such a claim dialogue isn't merely pointless, it is a dangerous retreat from upholding the truth - saving truth - before a misguided world.  The problem of dialogue between different understandings of reality isn't new, and came to be fully recognized in 20th century efforts at inter-religious dialogue. As such dialogue became more common the depth of the problem became clearer. In 1992 Schubert Ogden published his Is There One True Religion or Are There Many to address this problem. In 1995 Mark Heim published Salvations  addressing the same problem with a different approach. A...

In a recent article in UMInsight (https://um-insight.net/perspectives/love-and-the-christian-way-of-being-in-the-world/) Don Manning-Miller comments on the juxtaposition (by David Scott) of an article I wrote entitled "Moral Convictions - The Wrong Start in Human Relations" with one by Tom Lambrecht. (https://um-insight.net/perspectives/love-and-the-christian-way-of-being-in-the-world/.)  Manning-Miller posits the priority of an "ethic of love" over ethics, and then the need to exercise judgment with regard to those with whom we can have fellowship. Two short quotes are essential to his approach. " A line in a progressive prayer said, “Grant me the grace to learn to love the enemies I’ve had the integrity to make.”   And " The reality of those being hurt or oppressed must be the context of discernment and takes priority over tolerance and acceptance for their own sake."  Along with an ethic of love these two lines seem to encapsulate for Manning-Mille...