I recently finished up a tour of the history of Christian Theology through an audio lecture series. Dr. Phil Cary walked me through the formation of Christian Theology as it began to find articulation immediately after Pentecost, then debated with the founding patriarchs, into the medieval period, through the protestant reformation, in the midst of modernity, and right up into the current discussion with postmodern theologians.
It was a whirlwind…
At one point in the lecture series, after defining the fundamental essences in practice; of Catholicism, Calvinism, and Lutheran theology he paused to compare and contrast these three ways of faith.
He did so in the most interesting way for me, by a comparison of the types of anxiety each faith tradition creates in the mind and life of the practitioner.
Catholicism was defined by the anxiety produced by the possibility of committing a mortal sin, or being in a state of sin that is essentially out of grace. One never really knows what their status is here and must live with the anxiety and uncertainty of this possibility. Fortunately they have a regular opportunity for confession.
Calvinists, including most modern protestants, are not so much concerned with any particular sin or a state of sin… but rather the reality of them being one of the “elect” according to the foreknowledge of God, and as such rescued from sin.
How do you know if you are one of the “elect”, well in a strange twist of irony… by feeling. If you had a traumatic conversion experience involving a “leap of faith”, then forever more you have that moment to look back on and know you are one of the “elect”. And going forward your good works will be evidence of your authentic faith experience.
But, if you should fall away into a backsliden sinful life… that could be evidence that your conversion experience was not authentic in the first place and you were never actually one of the “elect”, you were never truly “saved” to begin with. So in some sense, a true Calvinist, never knows for sure if their conversion experience was authentic or not, only time will tell… that is their perpetual state of anxiety.
Professor Cary did not make this next connection exactly, but I would also place experiential evidences of the Holy Spirit or miraculous moments into this category. If you have a supernatural confirmation of your faith, then you can forever look back on that with confidence… or with suspicion, “was it in my imagination?”, “was it group hysteria?”, “did I give into some sort of emotional trick?”, “is the evidence really real?”.
This one is more for all those intellectual quasi atheists / agnostics, waiting for the road on Damascus experience to bowl them over. That is more my bag…
And then the Lutherans, perhaps the most pitiful of them all. All sins are mortal sins, and you should always be in a state of seeking forgiveness on your knees before a bloody cross of redemption. Don’t worry about the eventual possibility of backsliding, you are most certainly in a state of backsliding even now and if you had any clue of your actual wretchedness you would be begging for forgiveness even now. The anxiety of the non-existent state of grace, yet there always is grace to be had if you ask for it.
In some ways, I identify with all three of these traditions. At any given moment, I may be living out the anxiety of one, both, or all three… and it is very anxious indeed. And perhaps it is to this “livability” of Christianity that the current crop of postmodern theologians / philosophers wish to help us out with. Often times, this seems to dip into a more modern mythologizing and psychologizing of faith than an experiential freedom, and just comes up lacking for me…
I am encouraged however, to find an existentially satisfying response to all three of these sources of anxiety in the Great Grandfathers of the Christian faith. Most recently that has come to me in the form of George MacDonald and his pithy paragraphs of wisdom, instruction, and observation. These three excerpts seem to address the issues of anxiety presented by all three of the aforementioned faith traditions with solvency and practicality. More often than not, I just trust his advice…
Do you ask, “What is faith in Him?” I answer, The leaving of your way, your objects, your self, and the taking of His and Him; the leaving of your trust in men, in money, in opinion, in character, in atonement itself, and doing as He tells you. I can find no words strong enough to serve for the weight of this obedience.
~George MacDonald, Faith
Instead of so knowing Christ that they have Him in them saving them, they lie wasting themselves in soul-sickening self-examination as to whether they are believers, whether they are truly sorry for their sins–the way to madness of the brain, and despair of the heart.
~George MacDonald, The Misguided
Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because He said, Do it, or once abstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you.
~George MacDonald, The Way
George MacDonald
Author: C. S. Lewis
For MacDonald, the obvious duties of our lives are inseparable from our relationship with the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit… there is nothing to figure out, just obey.
Categories: Christianity, Anxiety, George MacDonald, Theology
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