The presiding bishop’s condemnation of the culture of individualism was not misplaced, Dr.[Mark] Thompson [Dean of Moore College in Sydney] said, but the theological approach she was taking to address the problem was erroneous. “No one was suggesting that Paul ignored the corporate implications of shared salvation,” he observed, but an “unrelenting dichotomy between the individual and the corporate” was a modern phenomenon.
Augustine, Luther, the Protestant Reformers and the Anglican divines all taught that “God’s purposes are deeply relational and hence the very opposite of fragmented, isolationist individualism. Yet they also extend further than simply corporate identity to call on human persons as persons to repent and believe the gospel,” Dr. Thompson said.
For evangelical’s “more serious still” was the presiding bishop’s “caricature” of a confession of faith that she said made salvation dependent “on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus,” Dr. Thompson said.
The confession that “Jesus Christ is Lord” was “certainly a form of words,” but “they are never simply words,” he explained. “They represent a fundamental orientation of life which includes a willingness to have our thinking and behaviour shaped by the One we acknowledge has such a supreme claim upon us,” he noted.
Unitarian Universalism is the next door the PB will open…this is so sad that the other agreed with her.
Very balanced article. The accompanying quite striking photo (which isn’t clear was taken during these words) certainly suggests a very angry and unhappy PB, an image not inconsistent with the tone of the remarks.
Ka-BOOM! It’s a body slam down on the MAT! Nice.
Good article indeed.
The Gospel transforms individuals and transformed individuals change communities. The Church is part of a transformed community known as the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God, according to Scripture, includes those who believed that the Son of God was coming into the world without seeing The Incarnation (Abraham, Moses and Elijah) and those believe that Jesus is that promised Son of God (and Lamb of God) through the testimony of the Apostles.
“The Presiding Bishop’s “ignorance of the Bible and Christian theology is nothing short of breathtaking†the Dean of Moore College in Sydney, Dr. Mark Thompson told CEN.” Note please that he is not calling the PB “ignorant”. With that consideration, I do believe this is an accurate statement. I don’t expect all learned people in TEC to be theologians, but it would be nice that they would have a layman’s knowledge of the scriptures.
Dee, I would at least expect clergy in TEC to know and agree with the Catachism in the BCP 845-862.
If the PB is right, faithful Episcopalians need to get out of TEC ASAP.
I wonder just how much more Obfuscatory Episcobabble they’ll have to endure before they finally get fed up and vote with their feet?
I for one am glad that TEc saw fit to invite guests to see just what a travesty of creedal Christianity the North American “franchise” has become. Dr. Thompson’s observations on the PB’s glaring (or perhaps willful) ignorance of the Bible and fundamental Christian theology are spot on.
Time to shake the dust off of one’s sandals…
It’s fortunate there are a few thoughtful clergy available to comment on the theo-baloney she’s spouting at GC ’09. W/r/t individual salvation as a heretical notion I thought it would be interesting to ask her how she supposes St. Paul regarded his experience on the road to Damascus, and am glad to see that David Virtue has pointed this out as a major inconsistency in her thesis: he wrote, “St. Paul’s Damascus Road experience was no “Ubuntu” moment.” Virtue also has posted a really marvelous critique by Gary L’Hommedieu about her address.
Well, if you want to start off with a bank, then this is the way to do.
Controversy swirls right from the beginning.
(Cue forehead slap heard across the Web.)
The bishop’s theology has only one leg and is destined to spin in circles without going anywhere. Of course the Gospel has social implications; of course salvation is for individuals.
Oy, vey.