Adjectival Christianity

Over the last four and a half years I have had numerous conversations with people who have questioned whether they want to call themselves Christians in light of the so-called Christian support of Donald Trump. They have expressed concern that the term Christian has come to have such a negative connotation amongst people who do not adhere to the Christian faith that they want to find another way to refer to themselves so they can still speak to others about God's love for the world in Jesus Christ.

I share some of that angst. I wish the church had done a better job of communicating that Christian nationalism is a heresy and has no legitimate place within the church and should be renounced by all who claim to follow Jesus. Unfortunately this did not happen. There are also many leaders in the church who subscribe to Christian nationalism and refuse to renounce it. So those of us who want to be able to continue to share the good news of the gospel with the world are left struggling with how to refer to ourselves. 

My personal preference is to stick with the term Christian. That means being willing to explain what Christians actually believe and, at the same time, distancing myself from the Christian nationalism that is so prevalent among white evangelicals.

I want to use the term Christian without any modifiers, no adjectives. I believe adjectival Christianity is the source of so many of the problems facing the church. 

“What kind of Christian are you?” She asked. The answer could come in many forms, conservative, liberal, progressive, Catholic, reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, Pentecostal, evangelical, on and on, ad infinitum. When used as adjectives to Christianity each of these, and many more, help not only explain what sort of Christian we are, but they also allow us to say we’re not “that sort of Christian.” The adjectives allow us to hunker down in our corner of the faith where we don’t have to engage with those not like us and it makes it much easier to judge those who clearly got it wrong. Adding an adjective to Christian is a dangerous thing to do.

It is dangerous because it forces our theological reflection into a corner. It may be a comfortable corner, but it is a limiting corner from which our view is skewed. The church has a responsibility to be in constant dialogue with God's word in the Scriptures, ever refining our knowledge and understanding of our faith, with the realization that for now we still see only a partial image of all God is. 

Alister Mcgrath explains in his book, Understanding Doctrine, that Christians rightly find the source of their doctrine in the Scriptures. The Scriptures then generate doctrine. We then use that doctrine to better understand the Scriptures as we use doctrine to interpret Scripture. This cycle begins again and the doctrine is further refined as is the Scriptural interpretation. So good doctrine matters because it provides the lens for our interpretation.

The problem with adjectives is that liberal or progressive Christians will shut down and shut out the voices of conservative or evangelical Christians because “we’re not like them” and vice versa. This closes the door on the reality that one group might have truth to speak into the cycle of Scripture generating doctrine interpreting Scripture generating doctrine …. This then leads to skewed perspective as it fails to take into account the full history of doctrine and the full counsel of God’s word.

So, I want to simply claim the title Christian and seek the best sources I can for finding the best interpretation of Scripture in order to live my life as close to God’s intent for humanity without the limitations of adjectives.