The decisive problem of fundamentalism is not so different after all from the problem of liberalism. Both appear to balk at the fact that God himself is the one ultimate Judge of the truth or falsity, the adequacy or inadequacy, of all human conceptions and statements about him.Thomas F. Torrance, Preface to Reality and Evangelical Theology, page 18, 1999, IVP edition
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Commonality of liberals and fundamentalists?
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I don't get it it. Am I dense, explain please.
ReplyDeleteHahah - so we need to be simply biblical? I've tried that one before. I insist I'm not a Calvinist, I'm just a Christian. I don't follow this or that theology, but am convinced the Bible teaches this or that theology. But people don't seem to like it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a helpful comment though. Having gone through the Sydney Anglican system, one needs to discern which bits are SA specific, and which bits are truly biblical.
Or have I missed the point too?
Yeah, I think you have missed the point. God will ultimately judge your theologies. Refer to post "True orthodoxy under test".
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reference.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure though? In that chunk, it said justification demonstrates that there is objectivity. And that true orthodoxy is determined in Christ. So our beliefs, however carefully formulated, are simultaneously gleaned from, about, and ultimately judged by Christ. And that is the ultimate test of our beliefs.
So what is the problem with both liberalism and fundamentalism (and any other -ism) if not that their systems of belief are at risk of being historically or culturally determined rather than biblically. The framework dictates the theology's progression.
To call oneself a fundamentalist (full-stop) is to adhere to an approach to the Bible which is reductionistic, potentially neglecting that the source of true orthodoxy and the judge of it is God.
If I've extrapolated there I take your point. In which case I suppose what I don't understand is in what way both fundamentalists and liberals have balked. I don't see how a fundamentalist would disagree with the statement "God judges theology". But their approach may disagree, which is simply the point I'm making.