Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Mere Christianity in a Pluralist World (Part 3): Marcionism, Gnosticism and the “Manly” Heresy

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/12642/

[Stand Firm] 21 May 2008--What is a “Christ event”? Christ is not primarily an historical person, according to the Presiding Bishop, but a “venue, an event, a experience and an instance in which life is renewed”. The historical, public, enfleshed events of Jesus’ life are reinterpreted in mystical/metaphorical terms. Jesus, in this way, becomes a fetish for mystical self-exploration. The certainty of our own experiences of the Christ fetish is preferable and more trustworthy than an historical figure through whom God acted to save his people in the public realm of history. The radical dichotomy between flesh and spirit central to Gnosticism is replicated or remanifest in the pluralist church.

1 comment:

Perpetua said...

Matt+ is giving us something clear to confront, instead of death by a thousand cuts, a thousand little heresies.

We have a thousand little heresies because the uncertainty engendered by pluralism leads people to ground faith in personal experience, and then treat scripture as a mere resource from which to pick and choose based on that personal experience.

The underlying heresy is the belief that the most relevant source of revelatory authority is the experience of the individual and the contemporary community.