Thursday, February 03, 2005

Is Christianity Hopeless?

I'm currrently engaged in a discussion in the 'Integral Naked' forum on the future of Christianity. More specifically, we're discussing whether institutional Christianity can ever develop the kind of theology of evolutionary panentheism that is embraced by the likes of Br. Steindl-Rast and that many of us find far more plausible than the seemingly primitive biblical monotheism to which institutional Christianity clings.

Today, someone wrote that he's been "dialoguing" with Christian fundamentalists about this, and that they've unanimously voiced their disdain for such "heresy" and for those who endorse it. This is what I posted in reply.

And I don't believe that it's only Christians with a blue center who think this way. I suspect that even most Christians at orange, green, or even higher levels would consider evolutionary panentheism and those who endorse it to be heretical, although they might be less harshly condemnatory about it than were the blue meme Christians with whom you 'dialogued.'

I know that I must sound very pessimistic about Christianity's potential to evolve, and, in fact, I am. I believe that Christianity, as an institution, is so inherently resistant to growth beyond literally bibliolatrous monotheism that the likes of Steindl-Rast will probably always sit at the radical fringe of the faith and that the cause of transforming Christianity from within is probably doomed to fail.

However, I hope I'm wrong.

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