My Dead Religion
It seems that, often times, we find out things about ourselves not from introspection, but from listening to others views on their own lives. It so happened that by her own introspection, last night, my wife made me realize something about my religion.
Mostly… that it’s dead.
I don’t mean dead in the sense that it no longer exists, but more in the sense that it fails to show through in my life. I realize that this sounds like I’m hearkening back to evangelical ways of thought, but I’m going somewhere different with this, so stick with me. My religion has become so intellectualized that I have failed to let what I believe actually influence the way I live. Upon further introspection, I’m no longer quite sure that my religion has ever truly lived in any sort of sustainable way, though at times it certainly shows signs of life, we’ll just say that the verdict is out on this issue and begin to address the larger issue.
Any religion in which beliefs fail to inform the actions of it’s holders is a dead one.
Christianity, for not just myself but for many, is increasingly a set of dogmatic beliefs, about which we feel convictions, yet rarely act upon them. It’s certianly well and good for me to affirm that justice is a central theme throughout the Bible, yet if I fail to carry out justice in my life I then cling to a dead religion. In that same vein, if I hold a trinitarian outlook on God, yet fail to translate that same belief into my daily life, there is no point in even holding that belief.
Let me resummarize that last statement in a way that will likely cause some jaws to drop, and some critique to be thrown my way: Any belief that does not speak to the here and now, fails to be of any importance in any life.
Thus the chase of “orthodoxy” is a futile effort, carried on by those (not unlike myself) far less concerned with the here and now, and far more concerned with the supremacy of being correct. Instead, our theology should transform our lives, speak toward our actions, and show the regenerative work begun with the resurrection. If by continuing my life as it is, I fail let the transformation of my beliefs be shown in my life, then I’ve lost the plot and the point of it all.
Becky is calling me to get her some lunch, so I’ll cut this short here, I may expound some more tomorrow. For now, as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
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