Recently I was accused on intellectualism by someone I have always looked up to.
In the background/tradition I was raised, one of the worst things to be called was intellectual. It meant that you were now, rather than “relying on the Holy Spirit to be revealed truth”, simply falling prey to the decptions of reason.
What is amazing about the name that I had now been given (again, a title resvered for those obviously not aligned with the Holy Spirit) was because of 1 phrase, from a single paragraph on a Facebook post I had made about baptim, that included a statement that allowed for infant baptism.
Sadly, without any further discussion, investigations or questions to myself, I was now labelled in a way that in the world I grew up in would strip me of any legitimacy because it would be known I no longer touted the party line.
Here is really where we run into the error of contemporary fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism histocially as a philosophy in Christianity came about in response to the raoid liberalizatiom that took place in many parts of the Church in the late 18th & 19th centuries. Famous responders like Machen called faithful Christians to the fundamentals of the faith.
But what has come about, especially in the last 100 years is a difficult thing to reckon with. A good friend of mine often says, “fundamentalism has a pathological need for certainty”. What has transpired in the last century is the tranaformatiom of movement that was responding to the errors of its day (such as the social gospel), has become a self protective silo often dosconnected from the rest of the Church in thought and tradition.
Now, this person who messaged and accused me of intellectualism I consider a brother in Christ. He loves the Lord, and the Church, and I only have the greatest love for him because he has been an example of Christ.
Yet, the theological and philisophical framework he inhabits (what I grew up in) has no tolerance or understanding for anything outside of its frame of reference. I would primarily tie it to the fundamemtalist underpinnings of the Latter Rain movement of the late 1940’s which if derived from.
In my own personal journey I am in a very different place than I was. While I am unchanged in the core Gospel message found in the Apostle’s creed, my positions on a good many things have changed and shifted. Not because I’ve decidely become intellectual. Frankly, it’s because of those who are much smarter and closer to Christ than I am (both spiritually and historically).
As the theologian Thomas Oden, more often than not look to the Early Church Fathers. Because they represent the earliest time to the life of Jesus, a number of them being disciples of the original apostles, what they have to say is very compelling.
Because of this focus, I now hold to theological positions that are looked down upon at best, if not written off as ignorant and not faithful (real presence in the Eucharist & infant baptism to name two). And yet, the consistant witness of the Church catholic through history beckons me, and is farore compelling than a British Bible teacher who has been dead for over a decade (if you know, you know).
To my brother in Christ who messaged me. Reach back out. Take the time to chat with me. There is no ill will, just a desire to talk and come to a common place of understanding. My goal isn’t to be intellectual, never has been. Im just a fool for Christ.
Intellectualism or Fool?
