THE FUTURE OF FAITH

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THE FUTURE OF FAITH

• SESSION THREE
• FAITH TURNS INTO BELIEF

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• USING THE THREE PART MODEL OF
• FAITH BELIEF SPIRIT THAT COX
• PRESENTS, WE DEAL WITH HOW THE
• EARLY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
• MOVED FROM LIVING THE WAY
• OF JESUS TO A SYSTEM OF BELIEFS
• ABOUT JESUS

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• Our Project
• An accurate picture of Christian origins
• Clearer understanding of how we are
• living in similar times to the early church

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• Three Characteristics of the Early Church
• Multifaceted
• Apostolic authority a fiction
• An alternative to empire

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• Three Modern Developments
• Discovery of the Gnostic Gospels (1945)
• - heresy and orthodoxy questioned
• Apostolic Authority a late invention
• Emergence of a peoples history

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• Original Christianity was anti-imperial
• and counter-imperial - Jesus example
• As Christianity grew it became consumed
• with issues of state

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• Modern liberationist and feminist theologies
• have given us a whole new perspective of
• formative Christianity.
• Polymorphic (not united)
• Disparate patterns of authority
• - Defiant, not subservient to empire

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• Erection of hierarchies and
• the fabrication of belief systems
• were imposed on the people
• Clergy shepherds or rulers?
• Creeds
• Road markers of faith? (or)
• Imposed for salvation?

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• What the church needs now are
• deeds not creeds
• - Rick Warren

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• Early Church
• A clash of loyalties Caesar or Christ?
• Later Church
• A clash of creeds being right triumphs

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• Creedal statements were a response to
• External and internal threats to Christianity
• Do good fences make good neighbors?
• What are we walling in or walling out?
• (Robert Frost The Mending Wall)

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• The Result?
• Belief in Jesus became beliefs about him
• People of the Way became part of the
• Ecclesial imperium

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• The Rise of the Clerical Caste
• Paul was not interested in uniformity
• of belief or behavior contextual advisor
• Ignatius and Irenaeus sought episcopal
• Control uniformity of belief and practice

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• Case Study
• The Canonical Gospels versus
• The Gnostic Gospels
• John versus Thomas Elaine Pagels

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• Characteristics of the Jesus Wars
• (Philip Jenkins)
• Winners got to determine truth
• Power was identified with orthodoxy
• Survivor churches claimed authority

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• Standard teaching
• Apostolic succession
• Apostolic authority
• Christian community becomes
• Catholic Church
• Bishops become rulers who represent the people

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• The result?
• Amalgamation of Church and Empire
• Religion became political
• State became religious

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• Small Group Discussion
• Why did it take so long for the truth
• About early Christianity to come out?
• Now that we know, so what?

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SESSION FIVE How We Might Move to the Future

• COX CHAPTER NINE
• INTERFAITH DIALOGUE

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• If you want to make peace,
• You dont talk to your friends,
• You talk to your enemies.
• - Moshe Dayan Israeli general and
• politician turned peacemaker

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Secularization Affects All Faiths

• Christianity and Other Faiths
• Face a Common Moment of Crisis
• We are in this together

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OPTIONS

• Martyrdom and Murder
• Die for the Faith
• Kill for the Faith
• Dialogue
• With Those Like Us
• With Those Not Like Us

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ENGAGING FUNDAMENTALISMS

• Within Our Faith Family
• Beyond Our Faith Family

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Fire From Heaven

• The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and
• The Reshaping of Christianity in the
• Twenty-First Century, by Harvey Cox
• 1995.

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Cox Examples

• Jerry Falwell - Liberty University
• Pat Robertson Regent University
• You just cant talk to those people.
• We not only can we must and we did.

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INTRAFAITH DIALOGUE

• Taking Within Our Faith Tradition
• Commonalities
• Rediscovery of the Biblical Jesus
• Emergence of a Post Western Christianity

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INTERFAITH DIALOGUE

• Talking Beyond Our Faith Tradition
• Commonalities
• Mystery
• Justice

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Best of Times Worst of Times

• Christian Conservatism is Changing
• Can Christian Liberalism Change as Well?
• Respect is Essential

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SUMMARY

• New Directions for the Future
• Toward New Faiths
• Toward Other Wings of Christianity
• Working Together for Justice Peace
• in a complex political world

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Talk and Action
• Do you think we are too much talk
• and not enough action - focused?
• 2. What possibilities exist for young people and
  not-so-young people today?

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PENTECOSTALISM

• A Major Sign of Hope for the Future of Faith

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Pentecostalism

• The fastest growing Christian Movement
• of the past century, with every indication
• of continuing that trend through the next

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Fire From Heaven

• The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and
• The Reshaping of Christianity in the
• Twenty-First Century
• Harvey Cox (1995)

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Pentecostalism, not Fundamentalism

• At the heart of Christian growth in
• Brazil
• Korea
• Mainland China
• USA (Latino population)

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Fundamentalists, Pentecostals and Evangelicals

• Fundamentalists
• Text-oriented literalists
• Pentecostals
• Biblical authority Direct H.S. experience

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• Fundamentalists
• Sober and rational
• Pentecostals
• Demonstrative worship ecstatic praise

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• Fundamentalists
• Non-negotiable doctrines
• Pentecostals
• Resistant to doctrines, creeds, rituals
• Evangelicals tend to support Pentecostals and
  distance themselves from Fundamentalists

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• Distinguish
• American Pentecostals Holiness Tradition
• from
• Pentecostals in the Global South and East
• Progressive Holiness

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Liberation Theology and Pentecostalism?

• A possible future convergence in
• Latin America between
• Base communities Pentecostal
  (CEBs) Communities
• (Catholic) (Protestant)

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From Non-Conformityto In, Not Of, the World

• List-making (organized)
• Conscious Choice (individualism)
• Decision (required)
• Pentecostalism can provide creative soil for
• - democracy
• - focus on politics and economics

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Two Cautions

• Escapist (Eschatological) thinking
• Health and Wealth gospel

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Questions for Groups

• Discuss the pros and cons of
• Pentecostalism (local and global)
• Discuss possible collaboration between Mainline
  and Pentecostal Protestants

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