The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity and Diversity

by Roger E. Olson

are there certain minimal standards of belief (and perhaps behavior as well) that must mark authentic Christian existence and validate claims to Christianity?

religion tends to be polarized by shrill and inflexible fundamentalisms that allow little or no diversity of belief—and

The great seventeenth-century French Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal commented, “a plurality that cannot be integrated into unity is chaos; unity unrelated to plurality is tyranny.” Another way of expressing the first half of the axiom is to point out what should be obvious: something that is compatible with anything and everything is nothing in particular. If “Christianity” is compatible with any and every truth claim, it is meaningless. It would then be indistinguishable from, say, Buddhism or atheism. Truly it would be chaotic, shapeless and devoid of identity.

Quote Blaise Pascal

Gnosticism.

Gnosticism appears under the guise of “esoteric Christianity.” Some individuals and groups that embrace and promote Gnostic ideas still claim to be Christian.

Some churches that claim to be authentically Christian promote belief in reincarnation and in practices such as trance channeling and other psychic experiences and teach a view of God that is essentially pantheistic

Great Tradition,

the core of apostolic and post-apostolic teachings that form the common consensus of the teaching of Christianity defines what it means to be authentically Christian in terms of beliefs.

Unless we are willing to empty the category Christian of all recognizable meaning, we will have to embrace the importance of beliefs no matter how intolerant or exclusive that may seem.

dogmatic Christians

overdefine Christianity such that being authentically Christian includes (for them) firm adherence to a detailed set of extrabiblical beliefs,

Christianity beliefs matter but not all beliefs matter equally.

Knowing the Great Tradition

helps

distinguish counterfeit forms of Christianity such as the cults from groups and movements that differ from each other in secondary ways but equally affirm the core of apostolic Christian ideas.

Vincent of Lérins

proposed a rule of thumb for identifying the Great Tradition

“Vincentian Canon”: What has been believed by everyone (Christians) ev...

Here the Christian consensus or Great Tradition will be treated as a minimal set of core beliefs generally agreed upon by all or most of the church fathers plus the sixteenth-century Reformers.

Trinity—the

Trinity and deity of Christ, salvation as a gift of grace and not of works, and God’s final and ultimate sovereign triumph over the flesh, the world and the devil.

the Great Tradition or Christian consensus is not found in one place but must be distilled from the various sources of Christian teaching—especially

A Christian is a person who affirms basic Christian beliefs—otherwise

A Christian is a Christ-follower. A Christian is a member of a Christian church. A Christian is a person transformed by the Spirit of God into a living witness to Jesus

Christ and his gospel. A Christian is someone baptized in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (or perhaps in Jesus’ name) who continues to claim and affirm that baptism.

Orthodoxy

“right belief”

“doctrinal corre...

But in the whole and in the main, being a Christian includes seeking to understand and affirm those beliefs that identify Christianity’s view of God, the world, sin and redemption.

Heresy is the counterpart to orthodoxy.

Heresy does not necessarily imply loss of salvation or an inquisition or excommunication.

three categories of true Christian beliefs

dogmas.

doctrines

opinions.

I will look to the Great Tradition to help distinguish between those beliefs that should be dogma, those that should be doctrine, and those that may be left to opinion.