Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart

by Christena Cleveland

Philosopher Charles Taylor tracked the ways that Christian faith perspectives changed over time and found that before the Renaissance, Christian truth (that is, the idea of religious truth as laid out by Thomas Aquinas, obviously) was primarily applied to the entire cosmos (physical, spiritual and social), with much less focus on individual subjective experience. The idea of Christian truth began to change, however, during the Renaissance with an emphasis on reason and the view of the individual as the interpreter and judge of knowledge. This cultural shift, combined with the fact that scientific authorities were now making dramatic claims about the world, led theologians to focus on the individual subjective experience of faith, rather than broader, cosmic themes. Essentially, an individualistic emphasis in faith became the new standard of Christian faith.