Multiple Views

[Jim Monck]

"What I think emergents are up to, in part, is fashioning a church that is reflective of these trends. In all honesty, most Christian publishing houses are, too. Just last week, someone wrote me a letter, which I posted, in which he surveyed the books by Christian publishers on multiple views of doctrines, and he came up with 119 views on 29 topics. That's some serious diversity." (statement by Tony Jones, author of The New Christians)

This quote raised a question about "multiple views of doctrines" in the average (or your) Nazarene Church.

Any one care to comment, give examples?

[Dale Cozby]

A generous orthodoxy.....that is about it.

If we hold fast to that which is just a part of the whole we can miss the whole.

I have found that it is possible to mesh several of the apparently opposite great orthodox doctrines into an integrated whole.

Calvinism and Arminianism....yeah crazy huh?
Open Theism and Impassibility...nope they work well together.
yes...even contextual Biblical criticism and fundamentalism can find commonground and mesh into a working theology.

I think a great part of learning this working within "multiple-views" has been to accept that God presents such great paradoxes that we MUST accept some things on faith and just trust Him while others we can actually find how both can be true AND understood.

I think another word that comes to mind is a "balanced" approach to the faith.

[Crystal Lutton]

This quote raised a question about "multiple views of doctrines" in the average (or your) Nazarene Church.


well our congregation is rabbinical in style so if you ask 10 rabbis a question you'll get 22 opinions :) We love dialoguing--even arguing for views we don't necessarily hold to so that we can flesh things out and becoming even more solid in our views.

[Steven Martinez]

well our congregation is rabbinical in style so if you ask 10 rabbis a question you'll get 22 opinions :) We love dialoguing--even arguing for views we don't necessarily hold to so that we can flesh things out and becoming even more solid in our views.

:laughing:laughing:laughing

[Gina Stevenson]

so, if from ten rabbis on any single subject one can get 22 opinions? Sounds like several are double-minded, and a couple are moreso than that, eh? :laughing :basic05 :p

[Crystal Lutton]

goodness, sometimes I'm of three minds about an issue until I study it out ;) Then I narrow it down to two haha

[Scott Daniels]

"...he came up with 119 views on 29 topics. That's some serious diversity."
Any one care to comment, give examples?

I think Tony's quote needs some qualification. If you were to take a survey of how many diets are available for people I'm assuming it would be a very high number. But every one of them would agree that a human life is happier and healthier when their weight is under control. So in one sense there is a diversity of diets, but in another sense there is a singularity or unity of purpose.

I think the Generals (with some help) tried to say a few years ago that the CoN finds its unity in being Christian, Holiness, and Missional.

We may have some disagreement over who we include in the Christian tent and over what it means to be Christian, but there is some real underlying unity there also. For example, I would tend to have a wide tent that includes some folk as brothers and sisters in Christ that others might disagree with. I would also tend to emphasize orthopathy (the right heart) over (but not in exclusion of) orthodoxy (right thinking) and orthopraxy (right living). But I think we can all agree that a Christian is a follower of Jesus.

We certainly have some disagreements over the process and product of holiness - but I think we can generally agree on Christlikeness as the general descriptor of the holy life.

And we have some disagreements on how to be missional. For example, I think we are still in the process of un-learning colonialism (the quest to make converts to heaven and citizens of our culture with little interest in establishing justice or peace) in some of our mission strategies, but I think we do agree that we are called to be ambassadors of Christ's good news.

All that to say, there is a great deal of disagreement in the Christian world, but I'm not sure its as dramatic as the quote from Jones indicates. If anything, I would argue (a la Jones) that a new kind of Christianity seems to be emerging because of the high level of agreement we are discovering across denominational lines.

[Billy Cox]

I think a great part of learning this working within "multiple-views" has been to accept that God presents such great paradoxes that we MUST accept some things on faith and just trust Him while others we can actually find how both can be true AND understood.


Who are you, and what have you done with Dale?? :basic05

[Billy Cox]

"What I think emergents are up to, in part, is fashioning a church that is reflective of these trends. In all honesty, most Christian publishing houses are, too. Just last week, someone wrote me a letter, which I posted, in which he surveyed the books by Christian publishers on multiple views of doctrines, and he came up with 119 views on 29 topics. That's some serious diversity." (statement by Tony Jones, author of The New Christians)

This quote raised a question about "multiple views of doctrines" in the average (or your) Nazarene Church.

Any one care to comment, give examples?

Given the fact that experience weighs heavily into our beliefs, it's not so hard to imagine that there will be a wide diversity of belief even in a denominational context.

I identify myself as an emerging Nazarene. I think that doctrine informs belief, but doctrine in itself is not belief nor can it be. The Church more or less reflects Christ but is not Christ himself, nor can it be.

[Jamie Wayne]

Sometimes, as when it comes to theories of atonement or views on the meaning of baptism, I find myself holding multiple views, but I tend to see each view as a single piece of a puzzle, and when I consider multiple views, I put the individual pieces together to see the larger picture. The problem, as I see it, is when one holds only to one view on these issues, and misses the bigger picture.

Of course, there are some issues that are pretty cut and dry, but lots of issues aren't.

[Glenda Harvey]

On some things I have a particular view but I can understand why someone else's view may differ from mine. (ie: end times, tribulation, security of the believer, baptism (infant or believers) Eurcharist, sanctification, etc,) There are some beliefs that I feel are essential to Christian beliefs (ie: Diety of Christ, Trinity,Virgin Birth, Salvation through Christ, etc.) There are many Theological points that Christians can disagree on and still be brothers and sisters in Christ.

[Bruce Carriker]

Or, as I sometimes tell folks:

Lock 12 Nazarenes in a room and tell them they can't come out till they've defined sanctification. When they finished you'd have 13 definitions. Each of them would still have their own, privately held, definition...and they'd have the 13th definition they agreed to publicly to get out of the locked room.

[Gina Stevenson]

Or, as I sometimes tell folks:

Lock 12 Nazarenes in a room and tell them they can't come out till they've defined sanctification. When they finished you'd have 13 definitions. Each of them would still have their own, privately held, definition...and they'd have the 13th definition they agreed to publicly to get out of the locked room.

Suddenly juries came to mind as I read this ... thinking that perhaps they too, sadly, come to a like verdict, sublimating their own, to get out of the sequestered jury room?