tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post3104068748244645653..comments2020-02-17T12:26:49.601-05:00Comments on The Ecumethodist: Bridging the Divide?Paul Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771814142319521408noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-14152422731992157052010-11-10T20:28:47.719-05:002010-11-10T20:28:47.719-05:00Matt Archer - I know! I found your blog on Chad...Matt Archer - I know! I found your blog on Chad's site. Hope that we can be in conversation in the future. After all, I grew up a Baptist... :)<br /><br />Daniel - agreed. In fact, that may be the subject of my next post. In a way, it seems like more and more historic Protestants are really evangelicals when it comes to authority.<br /><br />Matt - thanks for the reading suggestion, really interesting stuff! Hart lumps mainline and evangelical Protestants together as pietists and pulls out "confessional" Protestants as outsiders in American religion. In some ways, his "confessional" category resembles aspects of what I labeled as "historic" Protestantism.<br /><br />In the end, though, I think that Hart's categories fall short. To be sure, there are plenty of hard-core "pietists" (including evangelicals and more & more mainline Protestants) who reject the importance and authority of creeds and community. And there are a few "confessional" types who draw a complete line between the religious and the secular.<br /><br />But at its best, I think historic/mainline Protestantism embraces a combination of the two - a communal, liturgical, creedal faith that expresses itself through a personal, practical piety. It is a faith that is not MERELY pietistic - it is a confessional pietism.Paul Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16771814142319521408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-54950811162537583362010-11-05T11:05:31.680-04:002010-11-05T11:05:31.680-04:00D.G. Hart might be an interesting sparring partner...D.G. Hart might be an interesting sparring partner for you. He suggests in the book below and others--if I recall correctly--that we should think of early 20th century Protestantism as a kind of triangle, with confessional Protestantism, liberal Protestantism, and fundamentalist Protestantism. He says that both "liberal"/mainline Protestantism and more conservative evangelical or fundamentalist Protestantism, despite denominational alliances, are both rooted in Pietism:<br /><br />http://books.google.com/books?id=hqWXwTyuorAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lost+Soul+of+American+Protestantism&source=bl&ots=0RJ-hVt3wo&sig=BLynLWpTfyNbbONLYRWHn4AXrng&hl=en&ei=pRvUTP32C4OglAfIncH2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false<br /><br />The introduction covers a lot of ground.<br /><br />What do you think?<br /><br />Hope to see you soon, Pastor Paul!Gaetanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14722914942511761947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-18848317341343732192010-11-05T09:32:05.096-04:002010-11-05T09:32:05.096-04:00One of the struggles we in the Historic Protestant...One of the struggles we in the Historic Protestant churches have is in submitting ourselves to the larger, historic, Christian community. As Western Individualists we tend to say "I want community" - but so often it seem I want it only "on my terms."<br /> <br />I believe that the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox have a much stronger sense of respect for and obligation to those who came before - to living in community with all the saints, with the great cloud of witnesses who have come before. That is, they have a clearer vision of being part of, and responsible to, this great community that stretches through the ages.<br /><br />It is not enough simply to get enough votes at General Conference to change the position of the Church on any given theological or moral issue: we are a part of the Church catholic, and in so far as we are part of community we simply can't "go it on our own." Yet when the popular values of our culture and our age differ from those of the Church catholic through all ages and cultures, we historic Protestant churches seem to feel OK with assuming that our culture and our age must be truer and better. This is similar, I guess, to what Lewis called "chronological snobbery."Rev. Daniel McLain Hixonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09314281652215835311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-81181352861976605322010-11-02T14:46:30.092-04:002010-11-02T14:46:30.092-04:00Whoa. Sibling blog. We both went to Duke too.Whoa. Sibling blog. We both went to Duke too.Matt Archerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07946643183914991207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-5389701930558333102010-10-25T13:34:23.218-04:002010-10-25T13:34:23.218-04:00Thanks for the comment, Isaiah. And yes, for me, ...Thanks for the comment, Isaiah. And yes, for me, the ordination of LGBT persons comes down to questions of authority. For Protestants, the Bible has primary authority - but for mainliners in particular, that authority should also involve how the Bible has been read within the community of faith for two millenia.<br /><br />How interesting that it is the mainline Protestants, not the evangelicals, who have decided to abandon their confessions in favor of a newly defined understanding of human sexuality!Paul Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16771814142319521408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854140391172903738.post-35115706582955415642010-10-22T13:13:34.051-04:002010-10-22T13:13:34.051-04:00Great post.
Your comments:
"This realignmen...Great post.<br /><br />Your comments:<br /><br />"This realignment threatens to dismember the former unity over what it means to be "Anglican" or "Lutheran" in favor of a more individualistic interpretation of what "I think" the Bible teaches about human sexuality."<br /> <br />along with<br /><br />"Everyone who accepts Jesus as Savior is filled with the Holy Spirit and is empowered to interpret the Bible within the boundaries of historic Christianity as expressed in the great creeds and catechisms of the Church (though the specific catechisms may vary by denomination)" <br /><br />made me think of the connections between issues of Church unity and authority within the Church. When it comes to the ordination of LGBT persons I know of some who say that the issue is primarily an issue of biblical authority, others a hermeneutical issues but I have never heard of the issue of Church authority in the issue.. very interesting.<br /><br />Also - It is unfortunate but it seems a good majority of the mainline denominations are finding unity not around a shared confession of Christ but of a shared understanding of human sexuality.IsaiahfromKWnoreply@blogger.com