The latest edition of ‘Christianity’ runs an article on the state of charismatic churches in the UK (“Hands down”, March 2008). The overall verdict of the article is that charismatic churches have mellowed in the way they express themselves. For VNP, which always tries to stay ahead of the game, this is hardly news: (See here):
Evangelical Christianity, like scientific triumphalism, has had to adjust to a more sober assessment of its expectations. ….with the discomfiture of evangelicalism, there is a mellowing and an embracing amongst evangelicals of a more open concept of the Gospel.
This may not be new news at VNP, but it is good news. Let me say from the outset I have always avoided making demands and assumptions about how God should or might be working in the lives of other Christians or how they should express their faith. In contrast, however, many charismatic Christians have been only able to identity the work of the Spirit in a very circumscribed set of ‘showings forth’. These ‘manifestations of the Spirit’ have often been so badly contaminated by failure, pride, and human contrivance that they have been all but indistinguishable from background noise sourced in religious self-deceit. Christians who have not hurried to embrace the artifacts of charismatic expression have been cast as spiritual dunces lacking in faith.
A spurious category of ‘becoming Charismatic’ has been foisted on the church, a category that uses a proprietary estimation of what constitutes the gifting of the spirit. A consequence is the practice of “in-church conversion” whereby non-charismatics and also charismatics whose blessings have become dated and stale, have become targets for conversion to latest spiritual fad. The result is a ‘blessing culture’ that needs constant feeding on the next arbitrarily designated supernatural manifestation.
The word ‘gnosto-christianity’ sums it up for me – an elitist form of Christianity that only rates its own expression of faith. Much about gnosto-christianity has been so difficult to distinguish from human fabrication that the very veracity of Christianity has been challenged. The giftings and character of many Christains have been left unrecognized and marginalized in the face of a concept of the supernatural that is artifice. Perhaps now, those Christains have a chance of shinning through. Thursday, February 28, 2008
Spiritual Artifice
The latest edition of ‘Christianity’ runs an article on the state of charismatic churches in the UK (“Hands down”, March 2008). The overall verdict of the article is that charismatic churches have mellowed in the way they express themselves. For VNP, which always tries to stay ahead of the game, this is hardly news: (See here):
Evangelical Christianity, like scientific triumphalism, has had to adjust to a more sober assessment of its expectations. ….with the discomfiture of evangelicalism, there is a mellowing and an embracing amongst evangelicals of a more open concept of the Gospel.
This may not be new news at VNP, but it is good news. Let me say from the outset I have always avoided making demands and assumptions about how God should or might be working in the lives of other Christians or how they should express their faith. In contrast, however, many charismatic Christians have been only able to identity the work of the Spirit in a very circumscribed set of ‘showings forth’. These ‘manifestations of the Spirit’ have often been so badly contaminated by failure, pride, and human contrivance that they have been all but indistinguishable from background noise sourced in religious self-deceit. Christians who have not hurried to embrace the artifacts of charismatic expression have been cast as spiritual dunces lacking in faith.
A spurious category of ‘becoming Charismatic’ has been foisted on the church, a category that uses a proprietary estimation of what constitutes the gifting of the spirit. A consequence is the practice of “in-church conversion” whereby non-charismatics and also charismatics whose blessings have become dated and stale, have become targets for conversion to latest spiritual fad. The result is a ‘blessing culture’ that needs constant feeding on the next arbitrarily designated supernatural manifestation.
The word ‘gnosto-christianity’ sums it up for me – an elitist form of Christianity that only rates its own expression of faith. Much about gnosto-christianity has been so difficult to distinguish from human fabrication that the very veracity of Christianity has been challenged. The giftings and character of many Christains have been left unrecognized and marginalized in the face of a concept of the supernatural that is artifice. Perhaps now, those Christains have a chance of shinning through. 
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