Thoughts on Christendom & Mission

I've been reading (or rather, feeding on) a book that has been opening my eyes to the way that outside forces, other than Scripture, have shaped the modern day evangelical church and adjusted the very fabric of our purpose from being missional to being institutional. Last night in particular, some things really began clicking in my own heart and mind as Darrell Guder gave a very concise description of this shift:

"I have stressed that the concrete presence and action of Christians in the world was their witness, their way of carrying out God's mission by demonstrating what the gospel was. Now, Christian activity was gradually being recast as the disciplines of Christian behavior that would prepare one for heaven. Rather than reading the canonic Scriptures as equipping for mission, the church began to understand them as sacred texts that provided guidance for spiritual improvement and perfection." (p. 111)

Guder explains in chapter five how the christianizing of the Roman empire by Constantine led to the current model of Christianity called "Christendom." When the Protestant Reformation came along, the leaders of the movement (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc.) addressed the errors in the Catholic church regarding salvation, ecclesiology, etc., but never challenged the “Christendom” paradigm as a whole. In fact, they kept the “Christendom” model intact and, in Guder’s words, “maintained the Christendom focus upon the management of each soul’s salvation on earth in preparation for heaven.” Guder goes on to say that German theologian Jürgen Moltmann was right when he “does not think that the Reformation succeeded in changing these patterns inherited from the Constantinian turn.” (quoting Arne Rasmussen, p. 114.)

There are so many implications and directions to go in discussion of these things. For now, I’ll just affirm how much sense this makes to me personally. In the last several years, I’ve had this nagging sense that the way we manage and organize (and debate) the evangelical body of doctrinal truth is not altogether a precise treatment of God’s truth as a whole. Take, for example, the categories of systematic theology, such as soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), hamartiology (the doctrine of sin), eschatology (the doctrine of the end times – a modern day classical favourite), etc. After being introduced to all of these “-ologies” in Bible college, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had stepped into a science laboratory. That’s why it hit home when I read this statement from Guder: “The theological disciplines were profoundly re-shaped by the intellectual environment that adopted and adapted the scientific method as authoritative.” (p. 116)

The special emphases on “the end times” and securing our place in heaven (while somehow devaluing the mission we are to be about as God’s people on the earth NOW) coupled with the emphasis on Jesus birth, death and resurrection (while devaluing the significance of his life and ministry BEFORE arriving at the cross) has never really been adequate in my own heart and mind.

I could go on to think through issues of the Body of Christ with the modern day attractional models intended to bring people from outside the Church into it’s meetings and functions. And I could talk about the interesting ways that I’ve heard pastors communicate spiritual maturity in terms of faithful attendance at the meetings of the church and the great time and energy poured into buildings and facilities. Then there’s the funny tensions that exist in evangelical circles regarding our relationship with “the world” and even our definitions of “the world.” (I still get funny looks from some Christians when I say I’m not a big fan of “Christian music, whatever the heck that is” and that I’ve been spiritually inspired by a lot of non-Christian artists in music, film, and literature.) Perhaps these tensions are all likely the result of the “Christendom” model of faith handed down to us through centuries, finding it’s source in Constantine’s christianized Roman empire.

There's a lot I'm still wrestling with and pondering over. That should do it for now. Comments and questions and contributions to the discussion are welcome!