2008/04/06

Formative Moments (3): "Near Christianity"

Quite a few years ago now, I read a little book called "Near Christianity". It's not a remarkable book, but nicely written, and setting out to challenge some myths, some stuff that's more-or-less received evangelical orthodoxy, but not well-supported by scripture. I forget exactly which topics were covered, though I know there was something on misquotes of "all things work together for good", and also something on "Quiet Times". It seems pretty universally enjoined in evangelical circles that one should (indeed, must) have a daily quiet time, even though there is scant biblical evidence to suggest that this is a necessary part of being a Christian.

I'd reached that conclusion for myself (on the quiet times topic, and others), but I guess the key thing about reading it in a book was that it gave me "permission" to think like that; permission to challenge received wisdom, as it were. That was an early part of taking the "red pill": realising for the first time that received Evangelical wisdom wasn't necessarily the last word, that it was ok to question these things, even the things considered so basic that they were in the first Sunday School lessons; ok to reach other conclusions. What's more, you reach, perhaps the realisation that we're not all just going to agree.

I'm pretty sure I still don't know how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

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