Orthodoxy/Orthopraxy

I have just finished reading an article by Brian McLaren on “truth” and the Christian faith. It brought out some interesting thoughts that I have been mulling over this morning. He used the illustration of Jane Goodall and the way she researched chimpanzees, comparing her work to the work of a standard research scientist, McLaren noted that Goodall attributed personal names and character traits to the chimps rather than giving them maybe serial numbers etc… (only humans have personality traits scientifically speaking). After a while Goodall developed some sort of an interpersonal relationship to her subject matter and her research was more than simple detached observation. Had Goodall had the correct scientific training she would have known that this sort of relationship with her subject matter would have been seen as against the rules of serious scientific study.

What has this got to do with the Christian faith? Simply this: Modernity has taught us that serious study of the scripture has to be done from a scientific stand point (exegesis, exposition, etc) we have our theologies aund understandings of the virgin birth, the trinity, the deity of Jesus, and unless we believe these things we cannot be a Christian. Whilst I agree that these scientific and formulaic aspects of the faith are needed. The problem is that if we believe that that is what Christianity is about then me don’t really have a relationship with the living God, we only really believe the right things – and lets face it, even Satan believes in God. We cannot boil Christianity down to a list of beliefs or truths; that leads to dryness or “Crusty Christianity”. Bible college dried me out, made it impossible for me to have a relationship with God. This is an experience faced by many, it is not that bible college is wrong or evil or anything, it is just that when you are faced with so many facts, truths, formulas and approaches, the relationship side of things starts to suffer (unless of course you consciously seek this relationship). We seem to put the value on our faith that says the more educated or enlightened we are the better our Christian walk will be. If our Orthodoxy (right belief) is correct then our Orthopraxy (right practice) will follow. But it seems to me that pursuing that Orthodoxy dries out our love for the Lord – makes it just facts, just beliefs, and kills off the relationship. There has to be a better way… maybe if discipleship focuses more on Orthopraxy, walking along side an established Christian, seeing what the Christian journey is about, then the Orthodoxy will be learnt along the way, in small, manageable, natural doses. Maybe if we train new Christians to hear from the Lord, to understand his heartbeat, to understand what the Kingdom is about, what the Gospel is about (here’s a hint guys, its not a bunch of beliefs – it’s good news to the poor). Maybe the rest will be picked up along the way.

The truth is that when we get to judgement day, we are not going to be given an exam, we aren’t going to be judged on our view of the Trinity or Eschatology, we are going to be judged on what we did, and didn’t do (Matthew 25:31-46). This is not about salvation through works, it is about salvation through a heart in tune with the heart of our saviour. Its about seeing what breaks the heart of God, and doing something about it, picking up your cross, dieing to self, surrendering all.

We do need to have orthodoxy behind all of this, but I believe that our orthodoxy will look quite different if we balance it with orthopraxy.

If you feel that you are stuck in Crusty Christianity, here is a challenge for you; in your quiet times, study only the Gospels. for several months, read through them, get to know who Jesus was at grass roots, don’t try to analyse him through your belief systems or the rest of scripture, but just take him at his word (and his action). Once you have a real grip on who he is then go back to the rest of the scripture and see how differently your understanding of the writing of Paul and others will be.

How can we call ourselves Christians (followers of Christ) if we don’t have an intimate understanding of our founder and what he stood for?

I hope this all makes sense, I sometimes hesitate to put down in writing thoughts like this, they can be too embryonic, and sometimes not make sense, or come across the wrong way…

Peter