What kind of faith?

With gratitude to Kristin Du Mez

Last night Kristin Du Mez published a very significant post in which she posed the question posed to her by someone - “How have you not lost your faith?” A worthy question given the kinds of historical knitting and analysis she has done in her recent work as a historian and in her NY Times bestselling book Jesus and John Wayne. How can one maintain their own faith while documenting how others manipulate others using faith to seek power and wealth?

Here is her answer: “The version of the Reformed tradition I embraced was one oriented toward social justice. It was one that championed Kuyper’s “every square inch” but not (as far as I knew) in a dominionist sense. It was more of a grassroots, “salt-and-light” kind of thing, a call to seek justice and work toward Shalom—the flourishing of all of creation.”

Some of the finest followers of Christ I know are those who make the seeking of justice and work toward Shalom their life’s work - not seeking to dominate others or to accumulate power but to help all people and creation to flourish. They are not fearful of science, but see science as provoking increased wonder, worship and blessing humanity through research, vaccines, and medical advancements. They understand that the kingdom Jesus is talking about is not about power or influence on this earth, but a call to see shalom today, tomorrow, and in the fully realized renewed earth to come. It is about being a faithful presence to the poor, the sick, the homeless, the widow, and the oppressed as Jesus told us to be. As Kristin states: “This faith community has always understood the life of the mind as something that enhances one’s faith, rather than something in conflict with religious devotion.” Jesus told us to love with our whole heart, soul, mind (emphasis mine) and our neighbor as ourselves. (Luke 10:27, Matthew 22:37)

In his recent book The Fearless Christian University, sociologist John Hawthorne suggests that many Christian universities have compromised their mission and have opted for culture wars versus culture creation. He explains this further in an interview out today in Inside Higher Ed:

“My initial attempt at articulating “culture creation” instead was to argue that we could take those contemporary issues that are of concern—LGBTQ affirmation, race politics, climate change—and rather than positioning the college in antipathy toward those topics, it would be possible for the fearless university to decide that they were going to engage those topics in collaboration with other scholars. And they would try to write about how we try to deal with LGBTQ affirmation questions … Working to better understand the problems brings the Christian university into dialogue with other segments outside the university [and] has the potential of helping churches understand how to address those issues, helping their denominations to deal with contemporary change.”

This is the kind of fearless Christian university that I have been called to serve as chair of the board. I have written previously about the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto and last week shared our letter to the CRCNA. We seek your support to continue equip seekers and learners of all ages to connect faith and life. I will gratefully leave the last words to Kristin:

“If you find this kind of Reformed thinking refreshing and want to support this community, there is no better time to donate to the ICS. There is so much money fueling a different way to be Christian right now. Even small gifts can make a real difference to dissident communities charting a different course.”