I don't think I'll ever agree 100 percent with someone else's list of what Christians need to believe / do / say / focus on / whatever. But James Stambaugh's 10 Things Christianity Must Do gets closer than most.
I'm not quite as absolutist as he is about either #3 or #8 on his list. But I think I'm pretty much with him on the rest of it. Take a look--good stuff.
The prison writings of Alexei Navalny
19 hours ago
Agreed; good stuff. Your comments as well. #10 is well-expressed.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. 1 is absolutely vital. 4 and 5 seem incompatible. The ministry of reconciliation requires us to urge others to be reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Christ. Should we not seek the reconciliation of Moslems to God so that we can work together on the good things we agree on?
ReplyDeleteI take his point about working with Muslims to be a pretty pragmatic one, and I agree with it. There's much to be accomplished on the interfaith dialogue front, and one of the first rules of successful, respectful interfaith dialogue is that explicit attempts at conversion are off the table. This, of course, does not preclude preaching the gospel WITHOUT words, which has the additional advantage of being more effective. (I don't think St. Francis preferred it because it was more POLITE.)
ReplyDeleteBut no, I don't think that working together with Muslims requires that they first be Christians instead of Muslims.