{"id":22454,"date":"2019-03-23T19:35:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T02:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22454"},"modified":"2019-03-23T19:35:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T02:35:27","slug":"did-heresy-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/did-heresy-change-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Heresy Change the World?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat, an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times took an interesting faith journey through various streams of Christianity including infant baptism in the Episcopal church, attending evangelical and Pentecostal churches as a child, and converting to Catholicism after turning seventeen and becoming quite traditional in his Christian faith, has developed a passionate argument regarding the condition of American Christianity.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In Douthat\u2019s Bad Religion <\/em>he puts forth that the cause for the dilution of Christianity\u2019s influence is not secularism, but heresies that have been left \u201cunchecked.\u201d He claims orthodox Christianity found in the mainline, evangelical and Catholic church prior to the 1960\u2019s and 70\u2019s, created \u201ca moral and theological center,\u201d an \u201cinvisible mortar for our culture and common vocabulary for our great debates.\u201d[2]<\/a> Yet when various societal revolutions hit during the post mid-century tumultuous times, that center did not hold and the mortar crumbled. Douthat\u2019s opinion is heretical theologies attempting to \u201creconcile faith with modern perspectives on a number of issues including science, sexuality, and politics\u201d were the culprits.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Edward Polson of the Christian Scholar\u2019s Review is not convinced:<\/p>\n

In his opening pages, Douthat takes glancing notice of several other \u201ccomprehensive\u201d explanations of these follies. But \u201cthe most potent theories,\u201d he promptly declares, \u201cinvolve religion.\u201d That emphasis naturally appeals to people like me and readers of this magazine. But is it justified? It is easy to see how Douthat\u2019s popular heresies became fodder for mass entertainment, glitterati culture, and grass-roots movements. It is less easy to see how they infected the souls and minds of powerful decision makers. If there is a thread connecting the deconstruction of Scripture, the prosperity gospel, or the religion of self-esteem to the triumphs of Alan Greenspan and Dick Cheney, Douthat needs to demonstrate how that thread passed through the University of Chicago school of economists, the neoconservative think tanks, or the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal <\/em>and the Weekly Standard<\/em>. Perhaps less of our disarray is due to heresy and more to plain old stupidity. Or even sin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Polson\u2019s critique has the sound of Hunter\u2019s, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. <\/em>Hunter argues that strategies for change are often ineffective, \u201clargely because they fail to take into account the nature of culture in its complexity and the factors that give it strength and resilience over time.\u201d[4]<\/a> Hunter gives eleven propositions filled with complexity including the involvement of elites that bring about change. Douthat, on the other hand, makes a straightforward case for a renewed faith that is \u201cpolitical without being partisan,\u201d \u201cecumenical but also confessional,\u201d \u201cmoralistic but also holistic,\u201d and \u201coriented toward sanctity and beauty\u201d as the solution.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

I do not argue with Douthat\u2019s description of the embarrassing heresies that have emerged in the last sixty years, and I resonate with his description of a renewed faith. But, I am not sure the heresies he has described are complex enough, maybe not even noticeable enough, to be the problem with America. I believe Hunter gives a much more complete view of these complex times. I appreciate Douthat\u2019s passion to convince the reader that Christian orthodoxy has more to offer our nation than \u201ceither its flawed defenders or its fashionable enemies would lead one to believe.\u201d His exhortation toward a \u201clived\u201d Christianity is essential, but it seems his \u201csingle step\u201d solution \u201cover the threshold of your local church, back through the confessional door, or simply into an empty room for a moment\u2019s silent prayer\u201d is incomplete and somewhat idealistic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Rooting out Bad Religion: Why Ross Douthat Wants to See America Return to Its Confessional Roots.(THE CT INTERVIEW)(Interview),” Christianity Today<\/em> 56, no. 5 (2012): 36.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics <\/em>(New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2012), 7.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Edward C. Polson, “Ross Douthat. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” Christian Scholar’s Review<\/em> 42, no. 2 (2013): 198.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possiblity of Christianity in the Late Modern World <\/em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), Kindle Loc. 445.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Douthat, 284-291.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat, an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times took an interesting faith journey through various streams of Christianity including infant baptism in the Episcopal church, attending evangelical and Pentecostal churches as a child, and converting to Catholicism after turning seventeen and becoming quite traditional in his Christian faith, has developed a passionate argument […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"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],"class_list":["post-22454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-douthat","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22454","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\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22455,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22454\/revisions\/22455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}