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The document explores the concept of a 'reflective Christian,' posing a series of introspective questions that challenge the reader's faith and beliefs. It highlights the tension between faith and doubt, the struggle for intellectual honesty, and the complexities of navigating one's faith in a contemporary context. The author aims to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by thoughtful Christians in the modern world.

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DallasRoober
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8 views

myth-excerpt-pdfs-copy

The document explores the concept of a 'reflective Christian,' posing a series of introspective questions that challenge the reader's faith and beliefs. It highlights the tension between faith and doubt, the struggle for intellectual honesty, and the complexities of navigating one's faith in a contemporary context. The author aims to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by thoughtful Christians in the modern world.

Uploaded by

DallasRoober
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WHAT IS A REFLECTM CHRISTIAN, and why does it

matter? Two very reasonablequestions which I will attempt


to answer soon. But first, let me ask you a few questions.
Consider this a survey, a form of inquiry that has great appeal
in our narcissisticand quasi-scientificage.(Peopleare flattered
to be asked what they think, and impressed with anything
that can be turned into numbers.)
l. Are you, evenafter yearsof being a Christian, ever struck
by the unlikelihood of the whole thing? Does one minute it
seemperfectly natural and unquestionablethat God existsand
caresfor the world, and the next moment uncommonly naive?
2. Do you ever think, "Those closeto me would be shocked
if they knew some of the doubts I have about my faith?"
Do you ever scare even yourself with your doubts?
3. Have you sometimes felt like walking out of a church
service becauseit seemedcontrived and empty?
4. Have you ever felt intellectually embarrassedto admit
that you were a Christian?
5. Do you ever feel somewhat schizophrenicabout the rela-
tionship of your faith to the rest of your life? Do you find
yourself compartmentalizing different aspectsso that tensions
between them are minimized?
6. If given a choice between sharing an island with Jerry
Falwell and Phyllis Schlafly on the one hand, or Phil Donahue
and Bella Abzug on the other, does one upset your stomach
less than the other?
7. How often do you find yourself at odds with your sur-
roundings-intellectually, socially, spiritually? Is there part of
you which feels out of place no matter where you are?
8. On a controversial issue are you most likely to agree
totally with one side, find all sides partially persuasiveand
attractive, or find yourself saying, "A plague on all your
houses"?

l4
15
The Natureof Refiection
brains
9. Someone at work says' "Christians check their
of them
at the door of the church every Sunday, and most
Do you
don't even bother to pick them up on the way out'"
find yourself objecting or agreeing?
10. Someoneat church says,"The humanistsare destroying
politicians and
our country. We have got to elect Christian
you
get this country back to God like it used to be'" Are
grunt and
irore likely to iay "Amen" or "Baloney"-or to
change the subject?
some-
I l. How important is it for you to be certain about
money if
thing before you act on it? Would you only invest
Would you say "I love
therf were no possibility for failure?
you" to *o-"on" before they had said it to you?
you willing
12. Do you consider yourself reasonable?Are
to take risks? Do you think of the two as contradictory?
paradox in
13. Do you personally find a high degree of
reasonable and
matters of faith, or does it seem primarily
logical?
-14.
How confident are you that you know God's desires
which
regarding the specificpolitical, social, and moral issues
face our societY?
15. Would it bother you more to be thought a hypocrite
or a cynic? WhY?
16. Is it more immoral to act incorrectly in a significant
situation or not to act at all?
most
There are, of course' no right or wrong answers to
however'
of these questions. The pattern of your responses'
you are a reflectiveChristian'
may indicate the degreeto which
knot of
ih. t"r- reflectiTeChristian brings to my mind a
positive'
related but quite different images' The first is very
it means
evoking the simple wonder that among the things
is the ability to carry on a mental
to be cieated in God's image
dialogue with reality-that is, to think'
people
It evokes also, irr this regard, that long tradition of
life of the
of faith who have valued and participated in the
mindandwhohavebroughttheirGod-givenintelligenceand
lived'
imagination to bear on the society in which they have
16 Tne MyrH or CeRrelNry

These believershave been invorved thoughtfufly in


their cul-
tures, sometimesas shapers,sometimesas critics, but
always
as people who thought the human endeavor worthwhile.
But there is also a more troublesomeaspectto being
reflec_
tive. Thinking, as many have discovered, can be daligerous.
It can get us in trouble-with others, but also with ouiselves.
And the suspicion lingers in rerigious circres that it can
also,
if we are not very careful, get us in trouble with God.
It is on these different notions of the term reflective christian
that I wish to focus. what are the perils and opportunities
of being a thinking Christian in the late twentieih century?
How does one survive as a thinker in the church and
as a
believer in the larger worrd? And can one do any more
than
"survive"; can one be the arms and eyes and voice
of God
to our society in the sameway that earrier reflectivechristians
were to theirs?

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