The presiding bishop\u2019s 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. \u201cNo one was suggesting that Paul ignored the corporate implications of shared salvation,\u201d\u009d he observed, but an \u201cunrelenting dichotomy between the individual and the corporate\u201d\u009d was a modern phenomenon.<\/p>\n
Augustine, Luther, the Protestant Reformers and the Anglican divines all taught that \u201cGod\u2019s 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,\u201d\u009d Dr. Thompson said.<\/p>\n
For evangelical\u2019s \u201cmore serious still\u201d\u009d was the presiding bishop\u2019s \u201ccaricature\u201d\u009d of a confession of faith that she said made salvation dependent \u201con reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus,\u201d\u009d Dr. Thompson said.<\/p>\n
The confession that \u201cJesus Christ is Lord\u201d\u009d was \u201ccertainly a form of words,\u201d\u009d but \u201cthey are never simply words,\u201d\u009d he explained. \u201cThey 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,\u201d\u009d he noted.<\/p>\n