hello and in this episode i want to ask a simple question : what is christianity ?
now you would think you could just ask a christian : mr christian , what is christianity ? and he would
tell you what his faith was and hey presto that is christianity but it's not as simple as that and
the reason i say that is because this book rethinking christianity by keith ward shows
that the christian faith has been through many revolutions over the centuries and i want to
discuss some examples of that now keith ward his official job description is regis professor
of divinity at the university of oxford in other words he's a professor of christian theology at
oxford university . he's a very distinguished theologian and philosopher and has written many
excellent books on the relationship between faith and science particularly refuting the scientism
of scientists like richard dawkins who are leading atheists who co-opt science to their cause and
keith ward has very skillfully and brilliantly refuted them i do recommend his books for that
in this book rethinking christianity as i say he argues that christianity has uh been through
many uh reinventions over the centuries and he selects six major slices of history to show
how this is so and i'll read i'll just tell you what they are now i don't necessarily agree with
everything he says here i think it's too neat and simplistic but nevertheless he just
highlights some important points and i want to give some examples from his uh work
in a moment um now the first major time slice is uh the revolution in the first generation
from uh in the first century from a jewish messianic sect to a gentile universal church
and he discusses this in chapters one to three the second major revolution is in the fourth to
the eighth century with the development of doctrines of incarnation and trinity
by the adoption of greek philosophical terminology this largely occurred in what is now turkey
and the approach is still characteristic of the eastern orthodox churches the next major category
he highlights is the 12th to the 14th century with the development of doctrines of atonement
purgatory and papal supremacy by the roman catholic church
and these can still be found in very traditional forms of roman catholicism
the 16th century protestant reformation is the next selection where there is a rejection of
high of the hierarchical teaching authority of the church and reinterpreting faith as
personal trusting god rather than acceptance of authoritative dogma and this is characteristic
of many mainstream protestant churches the penultimate example is the 18th and 19th century
liberal theological response to the european enlightenment
this stressed the importance of critical inquiry and the acceptance of scientific and historical
study of the bible liberal views exist within most christian churches
to varying degrees but of course fundamentalists have resisted these developments tooth and nail
and lastly he talks about in the 20th century uh rethinking christianity in a global context
as one faith among many with a specific vocation in history now interestingly um uh pope francis
uh released a video just two days ago i saw it on twitter um which showed a jew and a muslim
lady praying and a christian uh each praying separately but these are held up as examples of a
prayerful life of a spiritually authentic life uh all seeking god and this was clearly approved of
by pope francis so here i think francis embodies incarnates this uh rethinking of christianity in
a global context as one faith among many uh in the past of course the catholic church would have seen
jews and muslims as heretics or evildoers to be crusaded against him so his uh chapters he
thinks show christianity to be an essentially diverse and developing faith uh there is no
unchanging correct teaching handed down from jesus himself he says preserved by some group different
christian groups find themselves comfortable with different stages of this development
but all of them he says are different from what we can recover of the original faith in jesus
so there we go so to give some examples um that he mentions
i want to focus on the first period the first revolution in christian thinking
according to keith ward so professor ward says
that originally the kingdom consists in the restoration of the torah in all its formers
for those who were truly righteous or at least truly penitent and we see this in the sermon
on the mount in matthew's gospel and in matthew chapter 23 uh verses 1 to 3 and verse 23 where
and renewed intense obedience of the torah itself is enjoined on the disciples in the kingdom of god
um so this uh in fact quite soon mostly owing to the arguments of paul torah was abandoned
by christians and emphasis came to be placed on faith in jesus rather than a rigorous moral
commitment to justice and love of god and neighbor so that's the first major uh change and we see a
holy gentile church come into existence uh based on the the the faith uh based in the redeeming
death or death of jesus on the cross and not primarily on moral renewal and professor ward
says it can be a shock to modern christians to discover that the theme of moral renewal
is more prominent in the synoptic gospels than the theme of redemption through the death of jesus
and one example i quite like of that is found in luke's gospel the parable of the good samaritan
luke chapter 10 verse 25 onwards it says then just then a lawyer stood up to test jesus
teacher he said what must i do to inherit eternal life he said to him what is written in the law
what do you read there he answered you shall love the lord your god with all your heart
with all your soul with all your strength mother or your mind and your neighbor as yourself
and he said to him you have given the right answer do this and you will live but wanting to
justify himself he asks jesus and who is my neighbor and jesus replied by giving this story
about a a man who went uh down from jericho from jerusalem and fell into the hands of robbers who
robbed him and how respectable religious people basically passed by on the other side
and then a despised samaritan looked after him and paid for his expenses and
took care of him and jesus uh then said which of these three
because there were people respectable religious people rabbis and someone who ignored him and
the samaritan do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers he said
the one who showed him mercy jesus said to him go and do likewise there's a lovely lovely story i do
recommend it passages like this i think really are from god um but notice what it doesn't say
it meant doesn't mention jesus death and resurrection doesn't mention faith in jesus
none of the the themes so characteristic of paul's theology and of subsequent christian teaching are
found in this uh the man asked jesus what must i do to inherit eternal jesus first answer is what
is written in the torah you know it doesn't say nothing about you must realize you're a
terrible sinner and you put your trust in jesus his redemption uh and all the rest doesn't exist
and the man then gives the right answer love god and love your neighbor this is a quote from
the torah and jesus says you have given the right answer do this and you will live and and
the man then says well what do you mean by my neighbor so he gives an example but but this is
a very simple uh gospel of loving god and loving your neighbor uh with none of the theological
and so terriological complexities of paul's theology let alone of catholic theology later on
so this i think is the injil of jesus rather than christian theology of later centuries
another just to give one more example i guess there are so many one can give of the revolution
in in the teachings of the church and of the so-called followers of jesus that we can see
historically uh professor keith ward mentions on page 35 the first council of the church
now you might be thinking ah the council of nicaea in 325 but no
the first council is of course the council of jerusalem which luke mentions in acts 15. and
paul was largely responsible for an even bigger change than this the changes recorded in acts 15
and what is sometimes called the first council of the church in jerusalem the problem is whether
gentile converts to faith in christ should keep torah including being circumcised or not
many passages in the new testament show that this was an ongoing dispute between paul
and the jerusalem apostles the jerusalem apostles people who knew jesus in galatians 2
4 paul writes a false brethren sent to spy on the freedom from torah that paul's converts enjoyed
james who's the actual brother of jesus and the head of the church in jerusalem sent delegations
to try and make converts keep the torah peter was even reluctant to eat with gentiles until he had
a three-fold vision from god encouraging him to do so which you can read in acts as well
in short professor keith ward says all those who had actually known jesus were in favor of keeping
torah obeying all the 613 commandments of the law this fits in with matthew's insistence
on keeping the torah which we read about in chapter five of his gospel but it was paul who
won the argument the council of jerusalem came to a compromised decision giving up circumcision but
insisting that kosher food laws should still be kept as we know those laws too were soon given
up quite uh this was soon given up uh after that interesting so even the council's decisions were
ignored within but very very quick time i don't know any any uh christians today who follow the
the kosher laws well they're very few so the early church moved rapidly from being a jewish
torah observing sect within judaism to being a gentile movement without any written law
it seems likely that the jerusalem apostles and their followers continued to observe torah until
they became extinct as a movement vanishing from history with the destruction of jerusalem
in a.d 132. now there are many examples uh one could give that's giving you a flavor i do
um recommend this book rethinking christianity um as a real eye-opener to the realities of
the way christianity has reinvented itself and fundamentally changed um since the the teaching
and time of jesus uh the simple teaching we see in that passage in luke chapter 10
where eternal life is attained by obeying the torah loving god and loving your neighbor to
believing in uh this complex uh cult uh universal saver cult of uh uh jesus who is this um demigod
or even god incarnate which came later so um i hope that is of interest uh until next time