In Authority class the other day, we had a conversation about what kind of authority the authors of Radical Orthodoxy have. Having spent a great deal of time on reading and researching them (I presented on Monday on several chapters), I found that I did give them authority. I learned that they most participated in their religious communities. They are having these discussions in the midst of seeing how their communities might respond.
We got talking about Christian theologians who are not practicing Christians. I ran into this issue in England. Faculty of Divinity could not begin theology classes with prayer because of the number of non-Christians taking the classes. Yes, I understand that some of it had to do with complementary classes for other majors, but several were going into Christian theology. I don’t understand why you would want to be a Christian theologian and not be a Christian. Can I really offer a non-practicing Christian theologian as much authority as I would grant to a person worshipping and reflecting in community?
Posted by Heather Voss at May 1, 2004 09:33 PMI love this post. Welcome to the world...Christianity is just a field of study. It is an idea. It is not a life, or a person for that matter.
Wah...
Posted by: AngloBaptist at May 2, 2004 10:36 PMHmmm. Then we should discount New Testament scholars who aren't Christian? There are a number of non-Christian scholars who are well-respected in their field (like Amy-Jo Levine, for instance). Frankly, I give Dr. Levine's words a lot more credence than I do a lot of so-called "Christian" scholars; I feel she has much less an axe to grind or agenda to push than many of them do.
Posted by: mumcat at May 4, 2004 02:22 PM