The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

One of the abiding confusions in contemporary Christian theology is over the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead. The vast majority of Christians affirm this, at least when they say the creeds, but there have been notable exceptions by theologians who decide that this claim isn't credible given a modern scientific worldview.  It seems to me that too often both affirmation and denial are based on naive acceptance or rejection of an Enlightenment worldview that is already fading from a Western understanding of the nature of reality and the knowledge of reality. The gospels tell us that Jesus died, was placed in a tomb, and that on the third day the tomb was found by his followers to be empty. The gospels also tell us that the people involved had two immediate explanations; either it was grave robbers, or perhaps the disciples themselves stole the body.  Then Jesus himself appears to his disciples in such a way that they know he is risen from the dead. And his interactions ...

 The cure for anxiety is love, not leaving. Those of us who have lived for even the last 60 years, have seen a vast amount of social change in our lives. And the pace of social change has been picking up in the last 30 years, so really it affects everyone.  Moreover it cuts across so many aspects of our daily lives and ways of understanding who we are that it is difficult to figure out why its happening. Billy Joel had it right, "we didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning. . . we we are gone it will still burn on and on . . ." A result of this constant change is what psychologists call free-floating anxiety, which is most unpleasant and even debilitating. So how do you get over  it, this free-floating anxiety?  What commonly happens in an organization or family is that people look around and try to pin their anxiety to one particular cause that can be fixed or eliminated. If two or more people agree on the same cause, then you have...

 In response to my last post, someone suggested that in the United Methodist Church there has been "theological drift;" specifically drift in a progressive or liberal direction.  The reality is that in the midst of rapid cultural change United Methodist theology has stayed  true  to the mission of preaching Jesus Christ. United Methodist seminaries have stayed  true  to preparing men and women to engage the world with the gospel. The key remaining true to the mission in the midst of cultural change. Because remaining true to the mission will require using new language and new conceptualizations of what has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Aside from mystical experience all that we know and understand is what we can say to ourselves. And that depends on language, which in turn is determined by our culture.  Consider the word "I" and the concept of self. What does it mean for me to say "I" as in "I believe. . .?"  Beginning in the late 19th century t...

There is a substantial difference between the  real  United Methodist Church and the  image  of the UMC asserted by traditionalists anxious to justify their decision to leave it. The real UMC is tens of thousands of congregations and pastors faithfully witnessing to Jesus Christ in the difficult context of contemporary society. In reply to my recent blog post ( https://xroadschristianityandculture.blogspot.com/2022/12/why-remain-in-umc.html ) Kevin B responded on Facebook, " The article is good in mentioning the positive contributions the Methodist connection has made even before the UMC was formed,  but it fails to address the significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice that has caused this split. " The charge that the UMC has "significant and ongoing rejection of Methodist doctrine and practice" is now a commonplace among the group identifying as "traditionalist" and their associated organizations like the Good News Movement, the...