Curious Christian

What is essential to Christianity and what is not? A good question along these lines, or rather, two, came up on the Pagan and Christian Moot during the week and I thought, hey, why not share with a wider audience? So, with the author’s permission, I now republish her question here along with my suggestions to her.

Now, bear in mind this was fairly off the cuff. Maybe I might have worded it differently with more reflection. But I thought it would be good to publish it in its raw form just for those who have never engaged in interfaith conversations before, just to give you a taste. For those of you that have, well, you’re welcome to comment too and suggest where you might have explored the question from different directions. Anyway…

Querant

Ok so 2 questions sort of linked

Hope you can understand what i mean i’m not sure how to phrase them.

1. The more I look at the more i realise how much variety there is in christian beliefs, then there are beliefs related to christianity that have some similar elements (mormons for example). So at what point do beliefs cross the line from being ‘christian’ to being ‘not christian’ anymore? (and i notice many christians seem to enjoy calling each other heretics )

2. christianty and culture –
um it seems a lot of the time this ‘christian culture’ that they have to fit into is just ‘western fundamentalist subculture’ that has its own good points and blind spots same as anything else. And presumably there have been other ‘christian cultures’ in other times/places. Do christians have to fit into that culture?
If not, at what point does it stop being ‘how is this relevant here’ (adapting christianity to your own personality and situation) and become ‘not christian anymore’? (for example, could christians celebrate the wheel of the year (seasons) (if they were thanking God for the seasons not other gods), or watching non-christian films etc)?

Me

Good questions, hopefully I can shed some light

1. The best guide for what is considered core Christianity is the creeds, particularly the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed. The three major branches of Christianity – Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox – all agree on them. They may disagree on many things but they all agree on this and agree the convictions expressed in it are core. They also agree that groups that reject the creeds – such as Mormons – are better thought of as new religious movements (or cults or heresies depending on which language you prefer), not Christianity. The creeds themselves are a distillation of New Testament teaching about God, the Son, the Spirit, etc. The general rule of thumb with disputes over Christian teaching is, the closer the argument is to issues over who Christ is and what he has done the more important it is. The further away it is from that, the less important. Romans 10:9 couldn’t put it simpler: “if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Of course that isn’t the end of it. Transformed conviction, if genuine, cannot help but lead to transformed action, will, imagination, etc. We spend the rest of our lives working through the ramifications, and our different paths lead to diversity. But Christ is the core of Christianity for all of us.

2. Western Fundamentalist subculture is only one subset of Western Christian subculture, Western Christian subculture is only one subset of World Christian culture. Christianity is a multicultural religion. Explore it some more and it will become more apparent. Look at some of the Christian artwork from different cultures on my blog at http://mattstone.blogs.com and you may get a taste for just how diverse it can get. You will even see some images representing a Christian reinterpretation of the wheel of the year. I kid you not. I see no barrier to celebrating the cycle of seasons provided glory is given to God, not other gods. The same God who sustains the seasons raised Jesus from the dead; it is appropriate to thank God for this blessing! I would suggest reading the New Testament again, and wherever the apostles speak of “Hebrew” or “Jewish” Christians and “Greek” or “Gentile” Christians, the hurdles they faced in terms of unity, think instead in terms of “modern” Christians and “postmodern” Christians or “western” Christians and “eastern” Christians or even “fundie-background” Christians and “occult-background” Christians and see how that shifts everything. When the Hebrew Christians tried to make the Greek Christians conform to Jewish cultural expectations in terms of food laws, circumcision, etc, the apostle Paul hammered them and called it a compromise to the gospel. If a western Christian tried to get an eastern Christian to conform to western ways I would similarly hammer them. You do not have to convert to Christianity and fundie culture, only Christianity. One conversion only, not two. Anything else undermines the good news of God’s grace.

Now, thoughts?