God-Talk Controversies
By Jamelle Bouie - Nov 17th, 2008 at 12:48 pmThis weekend, while I was away from the blogosphere–on a much needed break–Culture 11’s Joe Carter basically called Barack Obama a fake Christian (based largely on an interview Obama gave in 2004). A fairly intense debate ensued, with one of the participants–Freddie–writing a post at his place calling out Carter for being a little presumptuous. If I can add my own completely unsolicited thoughts, it seems like Carter is, either consciously or not, disregarding the historical contingency of all religious faith, Christianity included.
Or in other words, it is simply the case that there has never been a clear definition of what Christianity is. Even among early believers it wasn’t exactly straightforward, and indeed, Acts 15: 1-35 is a perfect example of the debate which took place among the first communities of Christians. This portion of Acts details the “Jeruselem Conference,” where believers argued over whether or not circumcision was necessary for gentiles, and, by proxy, whether or not Christianity was a form of Judaism, or something altogether distinct.
These definitional disputes would continue throughout Christian history, as different groups of Christians interpreted scriptures in dramatically different ways. Gnostic Christians, for example, practiced a distinctly Platonic form of Christianity, wherein humans are divine souls trapped in an evil material world created by a malevolent”demiurge” (typically identified with the Abrahamic God). Freedom from this world requires attainment of “gnosis,” an esoteric spiritual knowledge, acquired through direct experience with the true, purely spiritual and wholly unknowable God, whose mediator was Jesus Christ. To modern Christians, this bears little to no relationship with Christianity as they understand it, and yet, for a time Gnostic Christans were the single largest group of Christians in the Western world (in fact, one of the gospels–the Gospel of John–is thought to be gnostic in origin).
Even after the Council of Nicea and the adoption of the Nicean Creed in the 4th century (which “standardized” Christian belief), there were intense theological (and sometimes physical) battles over the meaning of Christianity (see Protestant Reformation), some of which rage on today. There is a reason, after all, for why the United States alone is home to thousands of denominations of Christianity.
If Carter understood that–in the context of Christian history–his particular brand of Christianity is nowhere near close to the norm, then he might be a little less willing to pass judgment on other Christians’ beliefs. Indeed, he might even show a little humility, recognize that only God can know who is really a Christian, and try to take his Christian fellow-travelers at their word.
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