Sunday 7 March 2010

United

The Church is not a people united by common ideas, ideas which collectively go under the name 'Christianity'. When the Bible speaks of a people united by faith it does not simply mean that we have the same beliefs about reality. Though the New Testament does use 'faith' to refer to a set of teaching (e.g. 1 Cor 16:13; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 4:7), 'faith' stretches out to include one's entire 'stance' in life, a stance that encompasses beliefs about the world but also unarticulated or inarticulable attitudes, hopes, and habits of thought, action or feeling. To be of 'one mind' (Phil 1:27) means to share projects, aspirations, and ventures, not merely to hold to the same collection of doctrines. Besides, the Church is united not only by one faith but also by one baptism (Eph 4:4-6), manifests her unity in common participation in one loaf (1 Cor 10:17), and lives together in mutual deference, submission , and love.  (Against Christianity, Peter Leithart, p14)

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