It's OK to say that you are a Christian. It's OK to say that your faith is not rooted in what can be said to be empirically validated through scientific mechanisms. It's even OK to assert that Jesus rose from the dead. I think that Benedict XVI's words here are accurate and clear in assessing a continuing problem in the Christian claims to faith that are under attack from the various riffs on the new atheist thematic.
Benedict said the power of the preaching of the Christian faith "has lost none of its internal dynamism. Yet we must ask ourselves whether its full force has not been attenuated by a relativistic approach to Christian doctrine similar to that found in secular ideologies. …"
Secular worldviews, "in alleging that science alone is "objective," relegate religion entirely to the subjective sphere of individual feeling. Scientific discoveries, and their application through human ingenuity, undoubtedly offer new possibilities for the betterment of humankind. This does not mean, however, that the "knowable" is limited to the empirically verifiable, nor religion restricted to the shifting realm of 'personal experience.'
"For Christians to accept this faulty line of reasoning would lead to the notion that there is little need to emphasize objective truth in the presentation of the Christian faith, for one need but follow his or her own conscience and choose a community that best suits his or her individual tastes. The result is seen in the continual proliferation of communities which often eschew institutional structures and minimize the importance of doctrinal content for Christian living."
Recent surveys have found that non-denominational community churches are among the fastest growing churches in the USA, and that many Americans either don't know or disregard basic Christian doctines.
"Like the early Christians, we have a responsibility to give transparent witness to the 'reasons for our hope,' so that the eyes of all men and women of goodwill may be opened the pope said.
I have a new respect for the current pope through reading about his visits and hearing the language he is using to feed the various flocks of the Christian faith. His demeanor is extremely conciliatory in what he knows is a unique pluralistic religious landscape in the US. Yet he maintains that if Christianity is to be what it is, it must not be ashamed of it unique claims to truth that are rooted in doctrine as much as in the experiences of those before us and those among us now.
You can almost hear Paul's language coming through Benedict XVI's,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
I think he is striking the same chord that Jim West plucks as well regarding the debates over intelligent design. There the assertions of ID are not the problem as much as what they do to the claims rooted in faith on which Christianity is founded. "If you believe God created the heavens and the earth just say so. Don’t hide behind the slick cover of attempting to appear ’scientific’ in a dialogue that doesn’t make sense." I think that Paul and his unwavering claims to the reality and potency of faith for redemption and reconciliation to God would share the same displeasure.
I am right now reading Borg's book on Jesus (slowly, it's low on the priority list and was bumped by William James). I will very much like to follow that up with Benedict XVI's own work. That should make an interesting comparison indeed.
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Right. And well spoken.
Right. And well spoken.
[...] UPDATE: Drew has understood my point better than any other here. [...]