Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

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The Eastern Orthodox emphasis on salvation as deification, „theosis‟, is a doctrine rooted in the New Testament and one that is coming to be appreciated more and more in the West. 189 The statement by Athanasius, „The Son of God became man, that we might become god,‟ (the second „g‟ is always lowercase since man can never become God) indicates the concept beautifully. He amplifies the meaning when he says theosis is „becoming by grace what God is by nature.‟ 190 WHAT IS THE WORD OF GOD? If, then, a personal love for Jesus and dependence upon him for salvation is one of the bases for Christian Unity, a second is a determination to be ruled by the teaching of the Bible. Now this raises a whole host of questions about hermeneutics (interpretation) and authority. Yet in all three traditions there is a declared allegiance to the supremacy of the Bible in all matters of faith and conduct. But what is meant by „submitting‟ to the Word of God? How do we find an attitude to Scripture which will be a uniting factor among Christians? Clearly, fundamentalism is not a uniting factor, if by the term we mean a rigid adherence to a literalist view of the Scripture. Most scholars in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and many in the Protestant tradition, reject modern fundamentalism while still believing that God speaks uniquely through the Bible to his people today. The fundamentalism of today is a phenomenon not known by the Early Church or by the Protestant Reformers. The key to unity in Biblical interpretation is not a modern non-realist treatment of Scripture, but a willingness to accept that my fellow exegete is sitting under the authority of the Word of God, and accepting it seriously as God‟s voice to us in all ages. In other words, it is a „classic‟ interpretation of Scripture which binds Christians of all denominations together, rather than an interpretation which breaks away from a serious attempt to do justice to the very words of Scripture. Most Christians, in all three traditions, share this „classic‟ way of interpreting Scripture, and believe that God is speaking through the Biblical revelation today. Origen, John of Damascus, Anselm, Luther, Wesley all thought of „God‟ in different ways, and there are as many ways of understanding Christ as there are believers in him, but that is not to say these ways are necessarily alien to each other. The traditional ways of interpreting Scripture, which take seriously the existence of the supernatural, can be, and in fact are, a uniting factor for Christians. It is quite extraordinary what breadth there is for interpretation within the constraints of such a „classic hermeneutic‟. 189 Deification (theosis): This doctrine is taught in the New Testament in the following passages: John 14.23, 15.4, 17.21-23; 1 John 2.24, 4.12-26; Ephesians 2.19-22; Colossians 1.27; and 2 Peter 1.4. 190 Athanasius, De Incarnatione Verbi Dei („On the Incarnation‟). Page 151
Vincent de Lérins spoke of a „progress‟ in the faith, but not of change. There can be progress in hermeneutics without changing the classical way of interpreting the Scriptures. For example, the term „homoousios‟ is a development in interpreting those scriptures which relate to the relationship of Father and Son in the Godhead, but it is not an overturning of the truth of the intrinsic deity of the Son. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes writes: „...the Bible is for everyone. It is not the preserve of the specialist. To allow it to become the book of the expert, on whose pronouncements the average person is dependent, is an abuse and inversion that can only lead to disastrous results. The effect is to take the Bible out of the hands of those for whom it is intended, that is the totality of mankind.‟ 191 It is remarkable how the classical „realist‟ interpretation of Scripture seems to work. It produces faith, love, hope and unity. For a short time I taught men and women in Indian Colleges who were working among tribal groups. The backgrounds of the students and the people they ministered to and my own were very different from each other. Yet we were bound by a common love of the Scriptures and understood each other‟s comprehension of them. This is a particularly valuable contribution the „classic‟ approach can make to Christian Unity. Is „inerrancy„ needed for a high view of Scripture? „Inerrancy‟ usually means the view that if a „fact‟ is recorded in Scripture, then that „fact‟ cannot be erroneous. Some notable Evangelical scholars do not subscribe to inerrancy, yet still regard Scripture as God-inspired and authoritative and normative for faith and Christian behaviour. John Stott cautions against the use of this term as detracting from what should be a proper response to the Scriptures in submission and obedience. He writes: „…it is unwise and unfair to use “inerrancy” as a shibboleth by which to identify who is evangelical and who is not. The hallmark of authentic evangelicalism is not subscription but submission. That is, it is not whether we subscribe to an impeccable formula about the Bible, but whether we live in practical submission to what the Bible teaches, including an advance resolve to submit to whatever it may later be shown to teach.‟ 192 Christian unity lies not in an intellectual assent to total inerrancy, but in a living belief in God as revealed in the Scriptures as the one who gives spiritual life to a person. The Roman Catholic Church sees Scripture as fundamental to all its doctrines and dogmas. The Orthodox see tradition as building on and interpreting Scripture, but in no way replacing it. The present Roman Catholic attitude to Scripture is one very close to a conservative Protestant Evangelical view. 191 Hughes, Philip Edgcumbe, essay: The Truth of Scripture and the problem of historical relativity in Scripture and Truth, ed Carson, D A, and Woodbridge, John D, IVP 1986, p 176. 192 Stott, John, Evangelical Truth, a personal plea for unity, IVP 1999, pp 73-74. Page 152
Page 1 and 2:
Digging Out the Embedded Church Dis
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The Maranatha Community comprises t
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Introduction CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chr
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ead, nicely browned on top. He plac
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HOW DO WE DIG OUT THE EMBEDDED CHUR
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That the Church should express this
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For Alfeyev, „Faith is a gift, th
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„heresies„ of the Early Church
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Traditionally, the Church has made
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CHAPTER 1 CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EA
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A certain Docetic teacher, often id
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Novatianism When the persecutions o
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The fortunes of the Arian party in
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An attempt was made in 482 AD (29 y
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was development in the interpretati
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CYPRIAN AND AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO The
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position would see baptism as not t
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The Eastern Church‟s relationship
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insisted from the second Lateran Co
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There is so much that Orthodoxy sha
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we do not talk to each other. Our t
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The question of heresy does not com
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They were missionary-minded and the
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Lollard ideas lingered in English r
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CHAPTER 4 THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: W
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unity‟s sake in subsequent centur
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Erasmus wrote he asserts, through o
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attle-cry, is perhaps the most famo
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Regulations for the good ordering o
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Eucharist was not just a commemorat
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CHAPTER 5 QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME O
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How rare then it is to meet a man w
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are often much bigger divisions bet
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St Germanus of Constantinople - 8 t
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manner. He declared that men could
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S L Greenslade - 20 th Century: „
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CHAPTER 6 HOPES FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
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imminent return of Christ (Komensky
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a concern that merchant adventurers
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also anti-Socinian. Calixtus himsel
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The Eastern Churches were not rent
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everyone - from outward forms to in
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Women were not usually members of t
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work in America, shows him, though
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The aim of the conference was to br
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From 1768 Harris‟s home at Talgar
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twice more to congregations of Whit
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denominations was not their distinc
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It was from the overseas Protestant
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THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT Anot
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the Church of England‟s doctrinal
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„We pray that… all who desire t
Page 105 and 106: thereof, in prayer, in the remembra
Page 107 and 108: honours the Lord and his Word; the
Page 109 and 110: apostolic church enjoyed, and that
Page 111 and 112: episcopate were too radical for mos
Page 113 and 114: Denominations began to form their o
Page 115 and 116: In this Shanghai Conference‟s Rep
Page 117 and 118: With so much talk of unity and coop
Page 119 and 120: „The liturgical movement in weste
Page 121 and 122: • Sharing a corporate life of wit
Page 123 and 124: • Our acknowledgement of the Apos
Page 125 and 126: (h) The Evangelical Church in Germa
Page 127 and 128: It changed nothing in respect of do
Page 129 and 130: Some Evangelical Protestants want t
Page 131 and 132: • It is in continuity with the
Page 133 and 134: But things have changed. Richard Ma
Page 135 and 136: evangelism - (and) state what the r
Page 137 and 138: Repentance and faith are at the hea
Page 139 and 140: outcome of being justified. Agreeme
Page 141 and 142: Virgin‟s salutary influence on me
Page 143 and 144: h) Confession The sacrament of pena
Page 145 and 146: demanding way would be sin. The que
Page 147 and 148: If the opportunity for the Church t
Page 149 and 150: Ministers, priests and laypeople in
Page 151 and 152: West Kirby, near to my home, the Si
Page 153 and 154: n) Shared Study Courses There is a
Page 155: Even some Protestant churches today
Page 159 and 160: It is not likely, in the foreseeabl
Page 161 and 162: Christ and are trying their best to
Page 163 and 164: upon the name of our Lord Jesus Chr
Page 165 and 166: Perhaps this dying process is now b
Page 167 and 168: economic factors giving rise to suc
Page 169 and 170: deeper ecumenism, one that does not
Page 171 and 172: APPENDIX 1 THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPO
Page 173 and 174: APPENDIX 2 FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON T
Page 175 and 176: The „apostles and elders‟ of th
Page 177 and 178: „The purpose of the Reformation C
Page 179 and 180: What all three traditions have in c
Page 181 and 182: Cromwellian period, in a treatise o
Page 183 and 184: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS
Page 185 and 186: Cullman, Oscar, The Earliest Christ
Page 187 and 188: McCarthy, Tim, The Catholic Traditi
Page 189 and 190: Letter concerning the civil princip
Page 191 and 192: Coptic Orthodox Church, 10 Council
Page 193 and 194: Parousia, 24, 68, 93 Paul VI, 10, 1
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