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What is a Christian?Posted by Victoria Bresee, 3/30/05 at 8:38:17 PM.
Christianity is in the news more than ever, it seems, in America the last year or so. We hear that “Christians see it this way,” or “if you were a real Christian you would have to vote for/against this legislation." The label is used sometimes to divide, but more often as if it were a monolithic entity. It is worth this reminder, from the introduction to Bart D. Ehrman’s book, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Faiths We Never Knew:
"It may be difficult to imagine a religious phenomenon more diverse than modern-day Christianity. There are Roman Catholic missionaries in developing countries who devote themselves to voluntary poverty for the sake of others, and evangelical televangelists who run twelve-step programs to ensure financial success. There are New England Presbyterians and Appalachian snake handlers. There are Greek Orthodox priests committed to the liturgical service of God, replete with set prayers, incantations, and incense, and fundamentalist preachers who view high-church liturgy as a demonic invention. There are liberal Methodist political activists intent on transforming society, and Pentecostals who think that society will soon come to a crashing halt with the return of Jesus. And there are the followers of David Koresh--still today--who think the world has already started to end, beginning with the events at Waco, a fulfillment of prophecies from Revelation.
Many of these Christian groups, of course, refuse to consider other such groups Christian." |
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