{"id":17173,"date":"2018-03-21T10:30:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T17:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17173"},"modified":"2018-03-21T10:30:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T17:30:18","slug":"avoiding-heresy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/avoiding-heresy\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Heresy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat\u2019s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics <\/em>hits the church right in it\u2019s theological gut.\u00a0 He says our problem with American Christianity is not atheism nor secularism, but just good old-fashioned Biblical heresy. \u00a0The kind of heresy he speaks about comes from pride, arrogance, greed, and overconfidence in debased versions of the Christian faith that he calls a \u201chubris\u201d nature.[1]<\/a> I see my dissertation problem with Spiritual Warfare in the North American church as the underlying factor supporting Douthat\u2019s thesis that heresy has overtaken Christianity, one of the many schemes of Satan.\u00a0 This post will search for linkages between his call against heresy and his call for revival and add those to the doctrines of how to resist Satan by putting on the whole armor of God.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnchecked heresy among ordinary religious citizens\u201d is the what Polson identifies as Douthat\u2019s most significant challenge facing the Christian church today.[2]<\/a> \u00a0Polson summarizes heresy in Bad Religion<\/em> as the problem with pluralism, modernization, accommodation, simplification, and deemphasizing important tensions that exist in \u201cScripture, doctrine, and tradition.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 I personally connect with Douthat\u2019s observation that we have a problem with becoming a one-sided faith. \u00a0It almost feels like our nation has been high-jacked by the forces of evil who use political, social, and economic tactics to hold Christians hostage in their own homes and churches; awaiting some sort of a divine tactical rescue. \u00a0Take accommodationist Christianity as an example.\u00a0 This is an overt gnostic position that Christians need to \u201cmodernize and secularize to survive.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Douthat gives the example of a modern day gnostic, Elaine Pagels, who suggests we should reject the Old Testament and create more \u201ctheological space\u201d for new a new type of Christianity.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Paul says we should resist Satan\u2019s schemes, tricks, deceptions, and near-truth arguments.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

What are the spiritual warfare schemes that Douthat exposes in Bad Religion<\/em>? First, I see the biggest modern scheme or threat to Christianity in the prosperity theology that believes \u201cGod grants believers wealth.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 He calls out and names of a list of \u00a0popular TV evangelists from Osteen to Meyer who all give a similar message; obey God, do what He says, and you will be financially and spiritually blessed.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Second, I see accommodation, or adapting the church to fit the changing social and cultural circumstances, as a predominate heresy and scheme of the devil.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Third, I see moral, judicial, and theological relativism as another transforming heresy scheme used in spiritual warfare.\u00a0 Overall, Douthat does a good job of exposing many evil works-based schemes of the devil, but he fails to call out the real threat. \u00a0Satan and his demons are the responsible agents for the increase in heresies described in his Bad Religion<\/em> book.\u00a0 Sadly, this is the trend of many contemporary authors who try to remain soft on Satan, so they do not appear too radical and maintain a wider readership.\u00a0 I hoped that Douthat, being a conservative columnist for the New York Times<\/em> and an avid editorial critic, who goes after all the human agents of heresy, would at least acknowledge the author and creator of the schemes of heresy.\u00a0 He uses the word \u201cforces\u201d 40 times in the book, but only once does it fringe on the forces of evil when he is taking down Osteen\u2019s prosperity gospel.\u00a0 Douthat describes \u201csome other forces at work in their struggles\u201d as he cited Osteen\u2019s followers leaving him because their lives did not have a perpetual \u201csunny vision\u201d with financial rewards from God promised by his preaching.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Additional reviewers like Steinfels recommends that Douthat should have called the book \u201cGood Religion, Bad History.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Douthat\u2019s heresy thesis, according to Steinfels, is the effort to banish tensions in orthodoxy, and \u201crender the faith simpler.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 He criticizes Douthat for making exaggerations, using undocumented rumors, promoting urban legends, and offering plain misstatements in his book.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 In particular, Steinfels offers Douthat\u2019s use of the New York Review <\/em>as a poor source to describe the \u201ccomplete dismantling of Roman Catholic theology.\u201d[14]<\/a>\u00a0 Brook accuses Douthat of using \u201cpredicable rants\u201d and says the book is full of \u201cemotional incontinence\u201d that is sometimes surpassed by \u201cintellectual detachment.\u201d[15]<\/a>\u00a0 I tended to look past the negative critiques and focused on Douthat\u2019s ideas that link to my dissertation problem with spiritual warfare in the North American church.\u00a0 I was very satisfied with linking heresy, of all forms, with spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n

Finally, Douthat makes a concluding plea for revival style Christianity but seems to use a similar form of intellectual adaptation and accommodation to fit his idea of what will fix-it.\u00a0 He says we need to be political but not partisan, confessional, not just ecumenical, and holistic, not just moralistic.[16]<\/a>\u00a0 His solution sounds good, and he presents a three-point application message.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I am suspicious because I do not see where his plan replaces the scriptural tension, paradox. or edginess that following Christ demands.\u00a0 I will use his book as a good source and plan to review his other works as I research the problem of heresy in spiritual warfare. \u00a0I like Hunter\u2019s \u201cfaithful presence\u201d solution better than Douthat\u2019s model.<\/p>\n

Stand firm,<\/p>\n

M. Webb<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ross G. Douthat. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em>. (New York: Free Press, 2013) 29.<\/h6>\n
[2]<\/a> Edward Polson. (2013). Ross Douthat. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. Christian Scholar’s Review<\/em>, 42(2), 198.<\/h6>\n
[3]<\/a> Ibid., 199.<\/h6>\n
[4]<\/a> Ibid., 168. ,<\/h6>\n
[5]<\/a> Elaine Pagels. The origin of Satan: How Christians demonized Jews, pagans, and heretics<\/em>. Vintage, 2011.<\/h6>\n
[6]<\/a> Eph. 6:10-18. The Armor of God Doctrine, putting on the full armor of God so that one can stand firm against the schemes of Satan.<\/h6>\n
[7]<\/a> Douthat, Bad Religion, <\/em>193.<\/h6>\n
[8]<\/a> Ibid., 188.<\/h6>\n
[9]<\/a> Ibid., 83.<\/h6>\n
[10]<\/a> Ibid., 210.<\/h6>\n
[11]<\/a> Peter Steinfels. (2012). Accommodation or Engagement? (‘Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics’) (Book review). Commonweal<\/em>, 139(9), 23.<\/h6>\n
[12]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[13]<\/a> Ibid., 25<\/h6>\n
[14]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[15]<\/a> Brooke Allen. (2012). Truth or heresy? (Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics) (Book review). The Hudson Review<\/em>, 65(2), 304.<\/h6>\n
[16]<\/a> Douthat, Bad Religion, <\/em>287.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat\u2019s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics hits the church right in it\u2019s theological gut.\u00a0 He says our problem with American Christianity is not atheism nor secularism, but just good old-fashioned Biblical heresy. \u00a0The kind of heresy he speaks about comes from pride, arrogance, greed, and overconfidence in debased versions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"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":[7,1208,1039],"class_list":["post-17173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-douthat","tag-heresy","tag-spiritual-warfare","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17173","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\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17174,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17173\/revisions\/17174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}