Fundamentalists, Liberals and All That Jazz

I'm sure you've heard people talk about fundamentalist Christians or liberal Christians.  Have you ever wondered how they compare to each other?  Or perhaps you've heard the terms "Neo-Orthodoxy" or "Systematic Theology" used in something you've read.  What in the world are they?  Well, below are a few key propositions that define each stance.  You may find that you agree with all of the propositions in one theological stance or another, or you may find that you agree with some and not with others in all of them.  Where do you fit in, and how did you learn to believe what you believe? 

THEOLOGICAL PROPOSITIONS OF FUNDAMENTALISM

1.  THE BIBLE.  The Bible is the inerrant Word of God, meaning that it contains no factual errors of any sort (including no scientific or historical errors)  It is free of errors because the Holy Spirit inspired the writers and communicated factual information to them that they could not have otherwise known.  Even though the authors expressed truths in their own words drawn from their particular cultures, the Holy Spirit oversaw the writing the therefore scripture contains nothing that is misleading.  Consequently, all of scripture is equally inspired and equally authoritative.  You must accept the plenary inspiration of scripture in order to trust that its message can save us.

2.  THE VIRGIN BIRTH.  The Virgin Birth narratives state the role of a human father in Jesus' conception was replaced by a miraculous act of God.  It is on this basis alone that Jesus' divine nature can be affirmed, because it was acquired through this miraculous conception.  The doctrine of the Incarnation requires a belief in the miraculous conception in which no human father took part.

3.  THE ATONEMENT.  God could secure the atonement of the sins of humanity only by having Jesus, an innocent representative of the human race, die on the cross  This act satisfied God's justice, for in it punishment was executed (substitutionary theory of the atonement).  Because Jesus was actually innocent and did not need to receive the punishment in order to justify himself, his satisfaction of God's justice could be extended to others who actually are guilty.  The theme of punishment, which requires suffering, is encapsulated in the central image of Jesus' blood, shed for us.

4. THE RESURRECTION.  The resurrection of Jesus was an historic event, occurring in ordinary time and space, in which Jesus' body was reanimated.  The body left the confines of the tomb, was present on earth for 40 days, and then physically ascended into heaven (However, Jesus' reanimated body was indeed transformed in some respects, becoming more spiritual without breaking all continuity with its physical.

5.  MIRACLES.  The Miracle stories in the Bible represent God's historical interruption of the ordinary laws of nature in order to bring about certain events that otherwise would not have happened.  These miracles occurred exactly as narrated in the Bible.

THEOLOGICAL PROPOSITIONS OF LIBERALISM

1. THE BIBLE.  The Bible is an expression of the religious experience of ancient Israel and the early church.  It represents the chronologically extended struggle of a highly spiritual people to understand the Divine reality more adequately.  It is NOT the word of God coming to us from some transcendent sphere.  A progression can be seen in the Bible from more primitive (and more inadequate) forms of religious experience to deeper, richer, and more profound forms of religious experience. The Bible is a human record of a progressive human spiritual journey, reflecting the prejudices, mistakes and failings of the people who wrote it.  Nevertheless, it is a profound (the most profound, perhaps) record of religious experience.  We contemporary Christians most locate ourselves in this story of human religious evolution and extend the trajectory. 

2.  THE VIRGIN BIRTH.  The Virgin Birth narratives are a poetic and symbolic way of expressing the truth that Jesus was a very profound teacher and spiritual guide.  Of course, he was conceived and born in the standard human manner.  There was nothing supernatural about his biology or ontological composition, except that he was supremely aware of God and God's will in the deepest levels of his experience.

3.  THE ATONEMENT.  A loving God does not need to punish anybody in order to be reconciled with sinners.  The death of Jesus on the cross, in which Jesus continues to do God's will and continues to call God "Father," shows that it is possible to remain in spiritual contact with God in spite of earthly suffering and tragedy.  Jesus' death also shows that we all should be faithful to God's mission and call, in spite of worldly threats and dangers.

4.  THE RESURRECTION.  The stories of the resurrection show that, in some sense, the spirit of Jesus, and the spirits of all faithful persons, lives on, either in the memory and experience of future generations, or in the mind of God, or both.  The language of bodily resurrection and the talk of some sort of novel post-mortem individual experience are symbols of this enduring spiritual quality and should not be take literally.

5.  MIRACLES.  The miracle stories in the Bible are archaic rhetorical means of expressing certain eternal spiritual truths.  For example, to say that Jesus walked on water means that the pure of heart can remain tranquil in the midst of earthly tribulation.

THEOLOGICAL PROPOSITIONS OF NEO-ORTHODOXY 
(Per George Richards) 

1.  THE BIBLE.  The Bible functions as the Word of God when it is used by the church to witness to God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ, who is the true Word.  In order for this to happen, the Holy Spirit must open the hearts and minds of the hearers of Scripture.  Apart from this use, the Bible in itself is a human book, written in humanly chosen and therefore imperfect words.  It contains the biases, limitations and prejudices of the people who wrote it.  Nevertheless, God's providence was sufficiently active in its composition and redaction to insure that it can function as a reliable witness to God's redemptive act in Jesus Christ.  Without this witness, we have no access to Jesus.  Therefore, the Bible, as used by the church through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, is our sole authority and infallible guide in essential matters of faith.

2.  THE VIRGIN BIRTH.  What exactly happened behind the Virgin Birth narratives is a mystery.  It is essential for Christians to believe that the birth of Jesus did occur though this unique, creative act of God, and that through the birth of Jesus Christ the eternal Logos did enter the world.  This is the essential point of the birth narratives.  The historical mechanisms through which this transpired cannot be known and need not be known.

3.  THE ATONEMENT.  The crucifixion of Jesus is indeed the atoning act of God, through which God and Man (sic) are reconciled.  However, Jesus' death was not a "payment" made to appease the wrath of an angry God.  Rather, the death of Jesus enacts God's solidarity with sinners in the midst of the deadliness and God-forsakenness of human guilt and alienation.  God shares with our guild and alienation.

4.  THE RESURRECTION.  The stories of Jesus' resurrection point to an historical event, the exact nature of which cannot be known with any certainty.  But we can known the essential point of these stories: that in Jesus, God has conquered death itself, and that this conquest involves the preservation of our earthly, embodied identities.

5.  MIRACLES.  The miracle stories in the New Testament express symbolically God's (including the incarnate God's) lordship over all nature processes and God's healing presence in, through, and over those processes.  The truth of this theological conviction about God's lordship and healing intent does not depend on the exact historically factual nature of any of these stories.

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY (by Charles Hodge, 1872)

1.  The Bible is to the theologian what nature is to the man of science.  It is his store-house of facts; and his method of ascertaining what the Bible teaches is the same as that which the natural philosopher adopts to ascertain what nature teaches.

2.   The duty of the Christian theologian is to ascertain, collect, and combine all the facts which God has revealed concerning himself and our relation to him.  These facts are all in the Bible.  This is true because everything revealed in nature and in the make-up of man concerning God and our relation to him is contained and authenticated in Scripture. Therefore, "the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants."  Theologians must be guided by the same rules in the collection of facts as scientists.  

3.  This collection of facts must be made with diligence and care.  It is not easy work; there is great possibility of error.  Almost all false theories in science and false doctrines in theology are due to mistakes in this area.  

4.  The collection of facts must not only be carefully conducted, but also comprehensive and, if possible, exhaustive.  Imperfect "facts" led men to believe that the earth was flat and the sun moved around it.  Likewise in theology, this type of faulty collection of information has led to serious errors.

Therefore, if natural science is concerned with the facts and laws of nature, theology is concerned with the facts and principles of the Bible.  The object of the natural scientist is to arrange and systematize the facts of the external world and ascertain the natural laws which govern them.  The object of the theologian is to systematize the facts of the Bible and to determine the principles or general truths which govern the facts therein.  

Systematic theology says nothing about inspiration or transformation.  Scripture contains data and informs our understanding of man and God.  It is very different from a liberalist view, which is defined by high criticism.

(Note: the information above was taken from a lecture by Lee Barrett, one of the very best educators and theologians you could be lucky enough to meet.  He teaches at Lancaster Theological Seminary, in Lancaster, PA)