Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Are you a Moderate too?

I've just seen the Christianity Today hermeneutics quiz and I came out as "Moderate". Apparently that means that I'm not too conservative but then again I'm not too progressive either. Does that mean I'm stuck in the middle, neither one thing nor the other? Not really. I don't think it's that simple. Moderate isn't just somewhere between two extremes. 

Moderate seems to me to be quite demanding. It demands that I neither reject the truth of the Bible as it is, and yet neither am I satisfied with a "the Bible says it, that settles it" kind of theology. To be moderate means to be thoughtful, to want to search out both the historical and cultural meaning and context and then to discover the significance of that meaning in our modern-day setting.

If that means that I have the appearance of inconsistency, I'm pro-marriage but against capital punishment for example, I think that is because life is inconsistent and working out our faith and practice is an inexact science.

Maybe I'll reflect more on this when I have a little more time.

If you want to take the test, you can do that here

My score, by the way, was 59, so I guess that actually makes me moderately progressive. How interesting though that the divide is no longer between conservative and liberal, or are all progressives perceived as liberal?

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