Monday, July 22, 2013

Syncretism in American Christianity

An interesting trend in the modern church is a syncretism of positions. Several types of distinctions are breaking down:

Protestant/Catholic Conservative/Liberal Member/Non-member Individual identity to a theology type

Really the list could go on for quite a while. You find blends of all sorts of things even positions such as Arminian/Reformed.

What should we think of this? Well it is confusing at least.

A certain amount of the breakdown seems helpful. Some of the theological wars and splits of the past few hundred years that many denominations/churches/countries have faced are over issues so small that you can see a need for a broader perspective.

On the other hand there are issues which are concerning. Many of the traditional destinations are held for reasons. Arminian/Reformed, for example, positions are in opposition at many points so the successful blending is highly doubtful.

In reality a lot of the blends are simply because people are ignorant of the contents of the bible and though. They are randomly blending together positions as they feel because they aren't aware of what the bible says.

They are not capable of trying to discern what positions are more biblical than others since the do not know the contents of the bible and are they are functionally biblically illiterate.

A knowledge of the contents of the bible are a prerequisite for beginning to think in a rational manner on any of these distinctions. The greatest concern of the syncretism is that many church attenders do not have enough biblical knowledge to think rationally on traditional distinctions.

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