Category: What is a Christian?
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White Christian Nationalism Differs from (and Undermines) Religious Commitment
White Christian nationalism moves people away from a commitment to social justice and activism according to the book The Flag and the Cross. According to Gorski and Perry, this is because it is about ethno-traditionalism and “protecting the freedoms of a very narrowly defined ‘us.’” They point out that actual religious commitment expands what Peter…
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Defending Sometimes Means Distance
Hi friends, I am not sure what to make of the fact that sometimes defending the faith means distance from the faith community. But this is, I supposed, what the prophets learned as well. There is a fine line between a heretic and a prophet, and I’m wanting to make it clear that I am…
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Alan Hirsch on Jesus is Lord and Disciple Making
Imitatio Christi–becoming more like Jesus–is a matter of making Jesus LORD of all aspects of your life. There used to be a corresponding God for each domain of life, but we should renounce all idolatry and any other claim of sovereignty over our lives. All of your life should be unified under God. The heart…
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The Narrative Arc of Scripture
According to one author on evangelism, Bryan Stone, “Learning to be Christian […] is not just learning about a story; it is learning to live into a story” (Evangelism after Christendom 109). How do we make sure that the story is a story told by Jesus (also known as parables) and not the story of…
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Personhood, ownership, and property
The link between personhood, ownership, and property is a modern one that initially had its link to theological understandings of the self. Bryan Stone in his 6th chapter of Evangelism after Christendom, writes that, “It is only as bearers of these inalienable property ‘rights’ that persons…come to recognize one another in public, thereby giving rise…
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Tropes and Christian Minus Christianity
I asked a sociologist about what I am talking about with my Christian Minus Christianity website, if there is a word, and he said the word is trope–by saying Christian minus Christianity I am not saying Christian without Christ but rather without imperialism. That Christianity would imply imperialism is because of how tropes function. I…
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Christianity isn’t the book…
Christianity is very different from being Christian. My mom, who doesn’t go to church but who identifies as Christian said to me recently, “Christianity isn’t the book. It’s the people, it’s the friendships, it’s the relationships. It’s the air, it’s flowers, it’s animals. And if you think about in the old Bible stories the children…
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The World Religions Paradigm
The World Religions Paradigm emerged in the 17th-20th centuries. People were classifying plants, people, and governments, and they also classified religions. They took Christianity as the template and made its structure apply to other faiths when, really, it didn’t fit. Given that this was an artificial structure that every other belief system was made to…
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The Disciples Were First Called Christians in Antioch
This blog is called “Christian without Christianity” and so might as well start with a presentation by one of the first urban missiologists Ray Bakke. He starts his talk with these verses: “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. So it was that…
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Welcome to Christian Minus Christianity
Welcome to my first blog post on Christian Minus Christianity! I have been Christian all my life in terms of felt sense of God and reliance on God–minus a year or two in graduate school when I got off track. But it seems that this is the time to not watch the news or engage…
Christian Minus Christianity 