Forum: Christian Faith

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The Christian faith rests entirely upon the understanding of God of Jesus of Nazareth. He firmly believed God to be of personal interest in human beings, creating them after his own image, to be his sons and daughters. Jesus believed God to be completely benign, constantly forgiving and loving his human creation, completely committed to its well-being. This is a huge leap of faith, but the Christian religion is totally founded upon it. It is optimistic and it is a faith that is, it is beyond proof, one way or the other.

The Christian faith is optimistic and, in the opinion of this writer, that accounts for the hopeful vitality of Western civilization. The Christian faith has given Western humans the joy and confidence they have manifestly exhibited.

Jesus of Nazareth did not write anything down, nor did he provide for a church to continue his ministry, so far as we can now deduce. His ministry was continued by a small group of disciples that he personally trained. Duriing the third generation after Jesus’ own lifetime, followers committed certain of the events of his life and death and teachings to writing and they were gathered together by the organization that gradually developed of his early followers into what is now the New Testament of the Bible.

The organization further developed, following the example of social organization developed by the Roman Empire. During the fist six centuries of its existence the early organization developed its understanding concerning the person of Jesus in a number of general councils of bishops and other local leaders convened by the Roman Emperor himself. This conclusion and other key teachings of the early community of disciples of Jesus is contained in the Nicene Creed of the fourth century, as amended by later councils, and still the basic teaching of the Christian religion.

At the root of everything Christian is faith, trust, in the goodness of God, based on the testimony of Jesus of Nazareth. Christians believe Jesus was raised from the dead, and that he continues to live. They understand this to be God’s approval of all that he taught. This, again, is a matter of belief. There is no direct evidence to support or deny it. The belief is based upon trust in the witness of early Christians, passed down by succeeding generations to the present time.

Since the councils of the first six centuries of the Christian religion The believers in its message, the followers of Jesus, have divided amongst themselves and formed different churches. Today the form the Orthodox groups of believers, the Roman Catholic group, and numerous Protestant groups. Each makes the claim that it is closest to the mind and ministry of Jesus. Taken together they form the largest segment of human believers in the divine, but they are confined to the Western world, for the most part. Only a few years ago, the world was largely divided into different segments. Today it is more unified than ever. The present situation provides both opportunities and dangers for the Christian religion.

This is a very significant moment in the history of the human race. The long period of domination by the male species of the human race is drawing to a close. In our time, the movement for the equality of women with men is a reality whose importance is impossible to foretell with any degree of accuracy of competence. That it will have incredible results is beyond question. What they will be is anyone’s guess.

The part religion will play in this development is open to question. Either religion will support it and help guide it or will oppose it. At the present moment, it does not seem to bee aware of its happening. The same might be said of other movements of similar consequence for the future. An alarming statistic has recently been published by the Barna Group of the Evangelical movement. In it they claim that 40 percent of America’s youth, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-nine, do not believe in Christianity, seeing it as judgmental, hypocritical, and old-fashioned. Their survey found a sizeable segment of American youth as dismissing Christianity as irrelevant to one’s life. In light of recent publicity on the private lives of leading religious personalities it is difficult to dismiss this report as something to be expected from young and immature persons.

Another issue that has bedeviled humankind for centuries now is the proper relationship between science and religion. That issue has been resolved at this time, thanks to an incomparable genius, Albert Einstein. As a result of his discoveries there should be an end to the long war between religion and science. Both, each from its own perspective, are seen to be dealing with the same reality – mystery. Thus, is ended for the present moment the long struggle between the two, and that is a momentous development.

Of course, to deal with these realities is not the only business of religion. It must also deal with the less global issues that plague individual lives. People rightly expect this of religion and they must receive satisfactory attention. That has always been the case and will continue to be so, whatever the situation is, in the future, of the Christian churches.

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