Branch Theory and Intellectualism
On a message board I occasionally post on, a
member of some offshoot of the World Wide Church of God was proposing that his
group is one of the four main "branches" of Christianity - which are
Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Sabbatarians (his word, not mine -
refers to 7th Day Adventists and the
like.)
This was on a Roman Catholic
message board, where many attempt to argue him toward Catholicism. I suppose,
in a way, I was attempting to argue him to Orthodoxy. Really, though, I was
trying to express - and somewhat poorly - what is wrong with the branch theory.
So, here goes:
All of this will be my
relatively poor attempt at expressing the Orthodox take on this matter. Keeping
in mind that I am not a Bishop (who has primary responsibility for rightly
teaching the word of truth), nor a Priest, nor even a Reader (although I am
somewhat in training for that).
From an
Orthodox perspective, membership in the Church is being a patient at the
hospital for our soul. Membership in this hospital necessarily requires assent
to its doctrines, although it doesn't require that I necessarily understand all
of them. Even those that I may intellectually understand, I may not understand
with my nous - that aspect of human nature that allows us to comprehend, to some
degree, God. Membership requires that we interact with others, because we are
not saved in isolation. God is a Trinity, and thus the notion of individual
salvation, even the notion of an individual, is foreign to the understanding of
the Church.
Membership requires
following the prescriptions of the hospital. We are to pray (more than I do),
fast (or try more than I do), and love God and our neighbor (that which I do
least well). We are to participate in the mysteries, because we receive God's
grace through them.
Merely holding to a
list of doctrines does not make you a member of the Church. The Church has
specific mechanisms for grafting you to the body - and that has always been the
case. Merely holding to a list of doctrines cannot save you. We are transformed
by the renewing, not of our mind, as Romans is often mistranslated (mostly due
to the lack of an appropriate English word), but by the transformation of our
nous. That transformation is not an intellectual process. Thank God it is not,
for I would not be smart enough to be
saved.
The problem with the notion of
the invisible Church is that it reduces, in the case of most other "entities,"
the definition to holding just the right doctrines, thereby either excluding
those with less intellectual prowess, or basically saying that almost everyone
but the staunches atheist, is a member. In the case of Anglicans, they'll add
Apostolic succession to the list, as if it is the magical glue that makes it all
hold together.
Instead, being a member
of the Church is like being a member of anything else. I can tell if I'm a
member of the Kiwanis, or Rotary, or Mensa, or whatever. There is an
identifiable organization that has the right to declare who is and is not a
member. I can claim to be a member of Mensa all I want, but that does not make
it so. The key here, as noted above, is the we are not saved as individuals, nor
are our parish communities saved in isolation. The key is, communion. There must
be a real bond between us.
Part of the
reason I attempt to spend less time on message boards, and in particular
debating, is that proving that you are wrong on a specific point is likely not
to accomplish much, and may, in fact, be detrimental. If I prove, say, that the
souls of the righteous departed are in heaven awaiting the second coming, has
that made you more saved? No, I don't think it does. Perhaps to the degree that
you are nudged closer to joining the Church, its good. But the risk is that I,
at the same time, put you off. That my haughtiness offends you and drives you
away. Then I have done more damage than good. If I can, in some small way,
reveal Christ to you via my behavior, then I've done something useful. That,
IMO, is hard to accomplish via this media.
Posted: Wednesday - February 27, 2008 at 08:34 PM
