Daffodil Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I don't know if this is the right place for this, but another post got me thinking about it. Can someone help me with the logic of liberal Christianity? They purport to believe in a god they only know about from a book of which the contents they largely dismiss. Have I got that right? How does that make any sense? (Ok, my English is usually way better than that. Sorry! I think I may have fallen into Yoda-speak there for a minute!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EyesOpened Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 cognitive dissonance http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/dissonance.htm That term was the best way i have seen this described so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
directionless Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 I don't know if this is the right place for this, but another post got me thinking about it. Can someone help me with the logic of liberal Christianity? They purport to believe in a god they only know about from a book of which the contents they largely dismiss. Have I got that right? How does that make any sense? (Ok, my English is usually way better than that. Sorry! I think I may have fallen into Yoda-speak there for a minute!) Apparently Liberal Christianity was part of the 1700s Enlightenment. Science and reason replaced the Bible as the standard of Protestant Christianity. It makes sense, except that there isn't too much left of Christianity after science and reason are applied. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Daffodil, I'll repost my understanding about liberal Christians from my Post 21 in another thread here http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/68137-trouble-with-liberal-christians/page-2#entry1048431. On that thread I responded to someone else's post, hence the underlined part. The church legitimates the Bible, not the other way around, which means that they don't have a book to follow or they don't see the Bible as the Holy Rule Book the newer post-Reformation denominations like evangelicals do. This includes the Mennonites and a host of other post-Reformation denominations. My Lutheran prof said the Bible is only one part of it, experience is another. It's almost as though they see the NT as a family history, rather than the infallible Word dictated by God and unchanged through the millennia. The idea that the Bible is the foundation of belief is apparently a relatively new tradition--the two-thousand-year-old church does not see it that way. That the Bible is the foundation of faith is an idea that came along about the time of the Reformation, I think. The Bible was made available in the common vernacular and the printing press made for relatively cheap books that common people could afford. This happened around 1500 and following decades and centuries. Before the printing press, books were copied by hand and chained to desks in churches, seminaries, libraries, etc. so as not to be stolen. They were so valuable. Now the average person suddenly had access to the Bible and new religions sprung up all over Europe based on the Bible. We are the descendents of this movement. But the old churches still exist with their ancient beliefs that do not depend on the Bible. I know it's really difficult for us who were taught to revere a book so highly to comprehend this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds22 Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 Fascinating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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