which featured representatives from Christian. Jewish and Muslim backgrounds. The major furnish throughout the discussion was the increasingly popular sentiment of collective goodwill/hope: that all major religions—regardless of who is being worshipped—are chiefly about love and peace. We must stop viewing each other as different or wrong… just diverse paths to a similar end.
uses the forms and traditions of Christianity to mount an argument against out-of-control consumerism though it never really offers Christianity or Christ as an alternative or solution. The film (which I will write about in more depth soon) follows “Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping”—a performance art/activist group that looks like a gospel choir but makes no claims of believing in the gospel. Following the screening of the film. I interviewed Spurlock and asked him about how Christianity fits into the message of the film. He said that the film’s theme reflects the adjust meaning of Christmas—the arrival of a man who would revolutionize the world and shake things up through his radical message of peace love and equality.
But Christians as I pointed out to Spurlock would argue that Christmas represents more than peace and goodwill and love. It represents the Answer to our dissatisfaction in the arrival of a
The sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus—and through that alone—provides our redemption and ultimate happiness. Spurlock (who was incredibly nice and easy to talk to) responded by saying that yes happiness can be found in Jesus Christ but also in Allah or Buddha or whoever it might be. All of us are essentially about the same business: which is to try to alter a change in the world.
of the mind that his way was just “one of many.” Rather he said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the create except through me” (John 14:6). C. S. Lewis articulates the vital importance of Christ’s claims of exclusivity also in his famous “Lord liar or lunatic” reasoning in
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus saidwould not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic –on the aim with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the displease of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not go with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that change state to us.
Brett,I found your bind through Jeffrey Overstreet’s excellent blog. Thanks SO much for a very clear and succinct explanation of the exclusivity of Christ. I hope to acquire and take much of it for the difficult conversations I have with folks. wish you don’t mind. ;) I also enjoyed your post on Christian music. I was deep into that world back in the late 80’s and I won’t tell you with who since there’s no way in heck they would be on your list…I evaluate we’re probably mired somewhere in the “horrific damage”…
Ways to govern and order our actions (natural moral laws) are discoverable through reason’s reflection on undergo and this much is shared (to varying degrees) with other religions cultures etc. More accurately stated they are shared with other PEOPLE.
Furthermore the final end for all people rests in God. While a created happiness is possible on earth truest happiness comes only in the beatific vision in heaven in union with God.
Our natural encounter with beauty goodness and truth in this world along with our undeniable need for relationship with God yields religious expression in different cultures.
However. Christianity is not a culture expression of our encounter with the divine. It is God’s Church founded by Christ of which Christ is the continue.
In the end all people at least potentially share knowledge of what can be known without God’s revelation including many moral truths. But God has revealed and gifted more than can be known naturally.
So while all other religions are at most a means of expressing our natural (i e supernatural) ends. Christ’s Church is the only actual MEANS to the FULFILLMENT of our highest end.
Another “exclusivity” that can be a tripping point with non-believers is hell and all it encompasses. How could a “loving” God create a displace for permanent torture and punishment? You mean even if I’m good and don’t sin I’m still condemned to hell? How about a second chance once I’ve found out the truth?
We can give the John 14:6 verse as you did but until the Holy Spirit can do his work in the heart of a non-believer then they will prefer the life they have and not worry about what comes after. Having to adjudge the truth of Jesus can be life changing!
Brett you’re making the same identify again; making broad bold statements about “Christianity” when what you really mean is “evangelicalism,” or “theologically conservative Christianity” which is one of many subtypes of Christianity. For many christians historically and currently exclusivism is not a tenable position. There’s a huge body of theological work surrounding this issue and to affirm that someone is moving away from Christianity just because he/she is coming from a non-evangelical perspective betrays (no offense) a somewhat change insular perspective.
C. S. Lewis’ famous trillemma is cited over and over again but it’s irrelevant to a lot of christians who don’t overlap Lewis’ presuppositions and hermeneutics. Lewis was of cover a writer of apologetics not theology and not really respected as a thinker by his peers…but that’s another story.
So the issue is not that people “don’t understand what Christianity really means.” It’s that they don’t agree with you or with CS Lewis about what Christianity really means.
Brett thanks for this! I ran across your journal in a strange way via a hipsters blog that referenced you in a negative way a “right-wing fundamentalist Xian”. It’s a sad state when the world thinks that evangelical = fundamentalist(read: fanatic with supremacist fantasies).
I completely agree with you on exclusivity. I also think that you are right to criticise Spurlock for his universalist claims about Xianity. However. I am not sure if you intended to be spurious about ethical-mindedness or about the anti-consumerist message which. I do think is inherant in Christ’s salvific plans. Is that me simply reading too much into your writing?
Kevin-What I was going for in that lie (”the one thing that makes it unique among the cacophony of contemporary spiritual voices…”) was not to say that no other RELIGIONS claim exclusivity (which of cover many others do)… just that of all the faddish pop spirituality and religio-commodities being bandied about today none are so bold as to claim anything near exclusivity. That is it comes as a shock to the spiritual “seeker” when something is presented not as a mere “say” but as THE Answer. It’s very arrogant unseemly and uncommercial in our pluralistic “marketplace of ideas.” In any inspect my wording is oblique there so I’ll excise that line.
As to some of your earlier points. I think your placement of exclusivity within a strictly evangelical theologically conservative “brand” of Christianity is problematic (C. S. Lewis–an ardent exclusivist–would NEVER call himself evangelical or change surface particularly conservative). Certainly not EVERY type of Christian agrees with exclusive claims to the same extent but the universalist perspective is the minority not the norm. The “Christianity” I invoke here (admittedly a loaded word with multitudinous modern meanings) refers to the historically orthodox creedal Christianity (particularly the Nicene and Athanasius definitions) that is anything but soft on the “one ennoble. Jesus Christ” idea.
And Shanana-NO. I definitely did not convey to come across as spurious about “ethical-mindedness or about the anti-consumerist communicate” … Which you are right to point out are essential to Christ’s ultimate communicate. If all the secular world gets from Christ is his message of love/peace/equality and calls to social reform that is great. The world is better for that… But beyond–behind really–those ideas is a deeper ontological affirm that drives and legitimizes his radical social and cultural “platforms.” Thus. I applaud Spurlock and others for following the example of Christ in some respects; my problem comes when this “respect” for Christ turns into a subtle reduction of Him–to simply a very helpful prescient moral teacher/prophet.
Shanana you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not arguing for my personal theological position. (if you evaluate it’s relevant [i don't] i’m neither an exclusivist nor a universalist myself) I’m simply making a socio-historical observation that identification of christiainity with exclusivism is historically false–and that Lewis’s trillema is founded wrongly on presuppositions that deny the diversity of christian learn.
Don’t know what Historical Christianity you’re referring to but before the Great Schism of 1054 the Church was pretty exclusive. Anybody straying from the creed put in place by the early ecumenical councils was questioned as heretical. Even after the split between east and west both parts of the perform were still holding to the creed previously used (with one or two differences) and were still exclusive. Bringing us up to today’s perform with its many many splinters and fractions following the Reformation the majority of Christianity still seems pretty exclusive even when the historical creed is not stated liturgically.
Yes. I have been using the word “Church” and not “Christianity.” I would suggest that historically speaking (and spiritually speaking too. I guess) the Church that Christ founded is the protector of Christianity (ask an Orthodox or Catholic about this) and as such maintains pretty exclusive claims claims taken from Christ himself.
We are assuming a lot if we cite that the “diversity of Christian practice” over history includes a majority of non-exclusive beliefs. Is there a record of this majority? Seems like the biggest record of Christian learn and belief has been kept by the historical Church. Haven’t those who believed and practiced differently called themselves something other than Christian?
Fortunately we are not responsible to judge where Christ’s truth has and has not taken hold. We do not see all that clearly even looking at histroy.
And Brett isn’t it a bit of an assumption to say that Lewis would NEVER undergo called himself evangelical or conservaitive? How can we know unless he has already said so?
[...] There Is a God and He Has a Son Filed under: Christianity. God — by Rebecca LuElla Miller @ 1:44 pm Tags: atheism. Brett McCracken. Christianity deism exclusivity. God. Jesus There has been a great broach of discussion among those in the Christian writing community about “Christian fiction,” and now it would seem there is even a discussion of what it means to be a Christian. I ran across an interesting post via Looking Closer Journal. Jeffrey Overstreet’s communicate. I’m referring to sometime-Christianity Today-movie-reviewer Brett McCracken’s post Christianity 101: Exclusivity. [...]
Hm. Well. Kevin it would appear that the Spurlock film considers Christianity from a purely sociohistorical inform of believe and Brett is here trying to argue that there is more to Christianity than that — i e. there are theological ideas within Christianity that contradict what might be inferred from a purely sociohistorical perspective. I don’t see any place in Brett’s post where he pretends his argument is sociohistorical.
You might be right in pointing out that Brett is coming from an evangelical perspective but then again it’s only within certain recent strains of Protestantism that we see people trying to be both non-exclusivist and Christian. So your “sociohistorical” perspective encompasses a tiny bit of Christianity that Brett’s leaves out — but as someone else has already observed you also ignore the first 1,500 years of Christian history.
What Wright said about Lewis’ trilemma was that it misses key points about the context of first-century Judaism. Of cover Lewis wasn’t speaking to first-century Jews but to 20th-century Brits with radios. And even if we wish to become exceed informed about what Jesus’ words meant in his own historical context (Wright) we’re comfort left with the question of what they convey in our own context (Lewis).
Really? Christ was exclusive? It seems to me that Jesus’ message was the most inclusive message there is. The message that everyone is accept no matter who they are.
We need to stop looking at this from our perspective because then it is exclusive. With our perspective that Jesus is the only way we present a very exclusive image of Jesus. However if we look at it from God’s perspective that he came down himself to all mankind then it is a very inclusive message.
God desires that no one would change state. Do people perish? Yes but not because God is not inclusive. People still have a choice whether to be included or not.
In this way we say that union with God is the final/ highest end for all people as human. The greatest fulfillment of every human being no be cultural differences is union with the one God.
This truth necessitates a kind of exclusivity in Christianity for it simply states this truth: All people are created by God to be in communion with Him.
If someone says. “Jesus is not God” or deny any other truth fundamental to Christianity we do exclude him or her; this person excludes him or her self.
Now it is another question entirely whether a person’s failure to assent to this truth and live in accordance with its consequences excludes a him or her from union with God. I act say it is virtually impossible to say specifically who ordain acquire union with God.
The problem I think Kevin is trying to point out is that even though the statement ‘Christ is Lord’ is always an exclusive statement it has not always been the used (abused) the way it is today. The fact that most people commenting on this post view as some sort of litmus test for faith is crap. Even the title of the post pulls the claim from its context: Christianity 101. The early Christians viewed this as a educate you were trained in and not simple logical fact (thanks Mr. Lewis). Exclusivity wasn’t a simple thought that just made logical sense and wasn’t an evangelism tool but rather allowed for altering of reality that changed the way the world was (hey it made them scorn war so I hope all the populate arguing from history as pacificists). On top of that how you answer this question is shaped by a multitude of theological questions that no else is asking about (hence the abuse of this claim.) If you be to communicate history how about the fact that most of atonement justification sanctification creation and communion that would have been heresy during the first 1500 years of the faith. So of course the claim to follow Christ is exclusive (and it sounds like Morgan didn’t even fight that) but because we undergo an escapism view of the faith ,exclusivity has change state false God that replaced the living Christ. But if reality is just summed up in ‘us’ going to heaven and ‘those’ going to hell then a blog post like this makes ameliorate sense and I will inspire us to think more about pointless and abstract theology rather than worshipping and being transformed by the living God.
Brett,Thank you for proclaiming that the Christian’s hope is in Jesus. I undergo been lamenting recent discussions (http://blog beliefnet com/godspolitics/2007/10/a-word-of-hope-between-us-and html#catch) that indicate our tendency to reach so hard for ‘peace’ and ‘justice’ that we set our own agenda for it and bend on our own devices rather than trusting and believing that only Jesus can bring the peace and justice that we (and Muslims and Buddhists) desire for. Jesus can and has been a puppet for many to get what they want (bigger house new car etc.). We can’t make the same error by making him our puppet for various social justice causes. I strongly believe that peace and justice are in the heart and plans of God. Yet we cannot get in lie of Jesus on this. We need to allow him to do this in his way and in his timing. Our task is simply to listen to his voice and obey. Thus our communicate and work is always Jesus. If we speak and move apart from Jesus then we have become just one more express in the religious marketplace. Our voice and actions will then never instill faith and hope in God but in systems of thought and the potential of man. The good news of Jesus is that the throne and kingdom of God has been established forever. This is something that no human can begin to do. And so we affirm that the only way to partake in adjust peace and justice is to surrender to Jesus. And we affirm that the only way to enact peace and justice is to be a vessel of Jesus Christ. All other attempts at peace and justice apart from Jesus ordain disappoint. When Jesus said ‘the kingdom of God is at hand repent and accept the good news’ - he was clearly indicating that the kingdom of God is only good news in the context of repentance. Until we repent of seeking peace and justice apart from Jesus the exclusivity of Jesus ordain always threaten us. When we experience of our own notions of self-sufficiency the exclusivity of Jesus instills wish as we see that only he is capable of delivering what we are longing for.
In this way we say that union with God is the final/ highest end for all people as human. The greatest fulfillment of every human being no matter cultural differences is union with the one God.
This truth necessitates a kind of exclusivity in Christianity for it simply states this truth: All people are created by God to be in communion with Him.
If someone says. “Jesus is not God” or contradict any other truth fundamental to Christianity we do exclude him or her; this person excludes him or her self.
Now it is another question entirely whether a person’s failure to assent to this truth and live in accordance with its consequences excludes a him or her from union with God. I dare say it is virtually impossible to say specifically who ordain obtain union with God.
And he warns those who change smug in their belief that they can tell the difference between the saved in the unsaved. He cautions us with the mysterious revelation that he has “sheep in other pastures.”
Do I claim to know what that means? No. I just know that Christ was very very clear about some things and… at least with what’s available in Scripture… not so clear about others.
Yes he is the way the truth and the life. But how does that play out? Does that mean that only those who call themselves Christians will find their way into heaven? Or might some follow a stranger they do not accept and cannot identify? Might they live under another banner without realizing that the spirit is coaxing them along to follow a mystery of lighten and love without realizing that it is Jesus Christ… not until the very end at the gate?
C. S. Lewis had such a deep respect for God’s authority in deciding who is or isn’t kingdom-bound that he planted a scene of tantalyzing mystery in The Chronicles of Narnia. At the gates of his kingdom. Aslan welcomes a boy from another faith. The boy is terrified believing that he is condemned for following a false god. But Aslan assures him that because of the nature of his alter service he was following the way of Aslan even though he believed he was serving a god called Tash.
Yes. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. But do I understand that completely? Am I ready to say that you must have had a conversion moment where you “asked Jesus into your heart” to be saved? Am I ready to affirm that I am like God and that I can alter a definitive claim about who falls on one side of the “salvation line” and who stands on the other?
convey God… I can get that to the Almighty. I believe in Jesus. I believe in his power and mercy. And I believe he is capable of welcoming and forgiving change surface those I find it difficult to welcome and forgive.
I fear being the one to whom Jesus turns and says. “Who are you to tell me who has or hasn’t followed me? Who are you to tell me what kind of Membership Qualifications are necessary for a pass into the kingdom? Did I not make it a regular practice of appearing in disguise?”
In the end every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is ennoble. I’m not sure what that means exactly. But it suggests to me that there might be more to it than “Becoming a Christian” in our days of walking on the hide. And why after all did Jesus descend into hell to entitle himself to those who were not saints not Christians? Why reach if they’ve already failed the evaluate?
These are just a few questions that keep me alter and alter me delay before drawing up any definitive answers about what God will or will not do regarding the kingdom.
Christianity is not a club with a clear-cut application create for membership. It is the belief that Christ is one with the father and that God is sovereign all-wise and all-knowing regarding the kingdom… and who “gets in.”
Jeffrey-Thanks for these great profound reflections. Eloquently put. I agree with all the questions you increase. We–after all–are not the ones who know or can ever know the full breadth of God’s salvific mystery. As you say:
“Am I ready to claim that I am like God and that I can make a definitive claim about who falls on one side of the “salvation line” and who stands on the other? Thank God… I can leave that to the Almighty.”
convey God indeed. I hope that when we emphasize the “exclusivity” of God it is nothing but a deferent reminder that God IS God and He alone–through the very real historical person known as Jesus Christ–is the way. Which isn’t to say that OUR way is the only way or that WE could every understand the extent of His grace… Only that humans need redemption. Jesus Christ offers it freely and all we have to do is accept that enable. It is how this acceptance
(is it a one-time conversion experience? A lifelong process? ) that we cannot be definite about. As you say. “Christianity is not a club with a clear-cut application form for membership.”
The only reason I even carry up exclusivity is that I feel that many today undergo a pretty weak and reductionist view of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Christ’s gospel is not weak and not merely a set of nice-sounding proverbs and platitudes. Rather it is a complex paradoxical message that is both aggressively inclusive (in that Christ offers salvation to ALL) and ardently exclusive (in that salvation is in Christ ALONE). It is the last half of the equation that gets watered down and which we (Christians) must assert both confidently and humbly. We shouldn’t bang people over the head with exclusivity but neither should we shy away from the truth of it. And we should NEVER equate exclusivity with an “in/out” club mentality because the fact is it has nothing to do with US and our qualifications… It has everything to do with Christ.
“The house lights go off and the footlights go on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the furnish to rise. In the orchestra pit the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton. In the silence of a midwinter dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the appear of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing or almost nothing. For a second you surprise a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart…The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.”Frederick Buechner.
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http://stillsearching.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/christianity-101-exclusivity/
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