From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Mon Aug 15 2005 - 14:16:58 BST
Hi CL,
Excuse me for butting in. I responded to the particular request from DMB
separately. But you asked:
DMB,
Can you define "mainstream" vs "fundamentalist" vs "whatever other kind you
think there is" Xtianity 4 me?
FWIW my quick pen-portrait is:
"mainstream Christianity" are those churches which accept infant baptism
according to a Trinitarian formula ('in the name of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit'). They're mainstream because they accept the creeds, and
see the faith as a communal project. That is the core construction of
Christian faith, pretty much universally from, say, 35AD through to 1500AD,
in East and West (and still the majority world wide).
After the Reformation, some Protestant churches bought into the prevailing
philosophical currents emphasising individual judgement on 'clear and
distinct ideas' (think Descartes). Those strands rejected infant baptism and
saw the point of Christian faith being intellectual assent to certain clear
propositions, ie to be a Christian meant reading the Bible and accepting
what it said.
That latter strand of Christianity became dominant in the US, and bore
particular fruit in a conference at the end of the 19thC at Niagara Falls,
which declared that there were five 'fundamental' propositional truths that
had to be accepted in order to be a Christian. (1. verbal inerrancy of
Scripture. 2. Virgin Birth 3. Divinity of Christ 4. Substitutionary
Atonement 5. Return of Christ and eternal judgement). That's where
'fundamentalism' comes from.
On various grounds the latter groups, especially how they have evolved over
time, are considered heretical by the former group. And most
long-established Protestant groups (eg Episcopalian, Methodist,
Presbyterian) fall into the former category. The Baptists are the biggest
denomination who might fall into the second, but they have just split, and
from a superficial analysis I would say that the world-wide Baptists are in
the former group, overall, whereas the Southern Baptist Conference is in the
second.
The former group accepts and reveres teachers and teachings that are
classified as mystical, eg Gregory of Nyssa. The latter rejects them (it's
impossible to accept the teachings of the mystics and also the verbal
inerrancy of Scripture).
Hope that helps.
Sam
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