{"id":16068,"date":"2018-01-25T05:22:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T13:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16068"},"modified":"2018-01-25T05:22:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T13:22:26","slug":"heterodoxy-love-it-or-leave-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/heterodoxy-love-it-or-leave-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Heterodoxy, Love it or Leave it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBuddha would have made a great Christian,\u201dsays Steve Cioccolanti, \u201cbecause his life and teaching were not against any particular religion, rather searching for the ultimate truth and purpose of life.\u201d[1]<\/a> A Christian can see the hand of God move in the lives of those others have deemed secular. God can been seen throughout history moving among the unlikeliest individuals.<\/p>\n

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Dominic Erdozain’s, The Soul of Doubt: The Religious Roots of Unbelief from Luther to Marx<\/em>, speaks to this idea of those traditionally labeled as secularist changing the world of Christianity even if their perspectives did not fall in line with the orthodoxy of their da\"\"<\/a>y.[2]<\/a> \u00a0The line between secular and sacred is often blurred if we see Christ as the center of all things. We enjoy finding those that think like us and excluding the rest in the name of correct theology. \u201cLargely after the advent of Christianity, orthodoxy [was] established as denoting \u201ccorrect\u201d opinion in matters of religious doctrine. Heterodoxy, conversely, signified a deviance from correct opinion[.] […]People with heterodox views, although deviant, can be met with dialogue and exchange of arguments.\u201d[3]<\/a> The author makes a good point that we are comfortable accepting those with only slight variance from our own beliefs and excluding or casting out those whose beliefs are not like us.\u00a0\u00a0 Authors like Marx, Voltaire and Spinoza are long thought by many to be anti-christian in their writings and in how they challenged the status quo (especially within the church).<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is not uncommon to hear the general claim that traces of religion can still be found in the work of even the most self-professedly secular authors. […]Erdozain [says these authors were] not trying to do away with religion but were essentially concerned with purifying religion from violence, compulsion, and superstition and restoring its primordial purity in the tradition of earlier Christian reformers.\u201d[4]<\/a> If Erdozain’s supposition is to be believed, these philosophers are really just unordodox; maybe even heterodoxical in their thinking.<\/p>\n

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Christians for centuries have struggled with those who disagree with them; be it theologically, socially, or ethically. Groups broke off from mainstream christianity yet still claim the foundational tenets of faith. As a result, it has lead many to draw lines in the sand stating what is or is not \"\"<\/a>a Christian. The Councils that produced the Apostles and Nicene creeds recognized the need to define our belief. They set up the foundational beliefs that we adhere to today. It seems if we continued to use those creeds to define our faith, then it might be difficult to exclude or call heretical those beliefs that differ slightly. Yet, we continue to seek out groups and communities, as Benedict Anderson[5]<\/a> would say, that think, speak and act like we do in order to find unity and camaraderie. \u00a0\u201cI can affirm what I believe is true, wherever I see it. Do I have a relationship with those who confess Christ that is different from those who do not? Of course. But I don\u2019t really see the point in defining out a sub-orthodoxy that makes one officially Christian,\u201d[6]<\/a> In the pursuit of orthodoxy and weeding out those that are in opposition to what we believe falls within that definition, the church has done many unspeakable acts of violence and injustice.<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Michael Hecht disagrees with Erdozain’s ideas of the origins of secular ethics. She claims that the real roots are found in Greek and Roman philosophy. She even states that, \u201csome element of personal ethics seems to be hard-wired in humans.\u201d[7]<\/a> She goes on to say that Erdozain is looking to insert Christianity into the story and because of that he can find it anywhere. Hecht feels that Christianity had moral influence but it is simplistic to think that its influence was substantial. She states, \u201cAs we move into the future, it is important to remember the myriad of nonsupernatural models for dedicating oneself to being good.\u201d [8]<\/a> As Christian leaders we see Christ and His handiwork in all pursuits of truth. Erdozain sees God’s hand even in those that don’t recognize it. When societies were complacent and in need of reformation, God raised up individuals willing to challenge the leaders of the day.<\/p>\n

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Knowing people whose views that might be considered a little deviant should challenge us to have conversations outside of our own circles. If someone says, \u201cBuddha would make a good Christian\u201d or \u201cJesus would make a good Buddhist,\u201d this should open up a dialogue about belief and life. Which can then ultimately guide us into a closer walk with Christ. \u201cPeople are like a lotuses: some are above the water, some ar\"\"<\/a>e at the same level as the water, some are just below the surface and some are at the bottom, in the mud and clay.\u201d[9]<\/a> The lotus flower only blooms above water in the full light. This parable speaks to the openness of humanity and its willingness to learn and grow. If iron truly sharpens iron, then doubt, conflict or maybe a little heterodoxical thinking will spur us to be the best Christ has for us. Because of people like Luther, Spinoza, Voltaire, or Darwin, we are able to see the handiwork of God in new and challenging ways.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Cioccolanti, Steve. From Buddha to Jesus<\/em>. Monarch Books: Grand Rapids, MI. 2007. 49-50<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Erdozain, Dominic. The Soul of Doubt: The Religious Roots of Unbelief from Luther to Marx. <\/em>New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/heterodoxology.com\/2010\/03\/05\/whats-heterodoxy-anyway\/<\/a> accessed January 25, 2018<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Johnson, Christopher D. L. Johnson. (2017) The soul of doubt: the religious roots of unbelief from Luther to Marx, by Dominic Erdozain, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016,<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Anderson, Benedict R. O’G. Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed. London: Verso, 2006.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/orthodoxyandheterodoxy\/2012\/06\/19\/whos-not-a-christian\/<\/a> accessed January 25, 2018<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Hecht, Jennifer Michael. “How Secular Are Secular Ethics?” The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> 62, no. 24 (2016): B17<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Cioccolanti, Steve. From Buddha to Jesus<\/em>. Monarch Books: Grand Rapids, MI. 2007. 47-48<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBuddha would have made a great Christian,\u201dsays Steve Cioccolanti, \u201cbecause his life and teaching were not against any particular religion, rather searching for the ultimate truth and purpose of life.\u201d[1] A Christian can see the hand of God move in the lives of those others have deemed secular. God can been seen throughout history moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1111],"class_list":["post-16068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-erdozain","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16073,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068\/revisions\/16073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}