Is God Christian?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The new book "Is God a Christian?" is a beautifully-written essay promoting religious pluralism from a Christian perspective. Much of it is an argument against fundamentalism in all religions, and an argument for openness, toleration, and compassion among the world\u2019s faiths.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2011\/08\/is-god-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is God Christian?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new book "Is God a Christian?" is a beautifully-written essay promoting religious pluralism from a Christian perspective. 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{"id":2148,"date":"2011-08-16T11:27:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T17:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/mainlineportal\/?p=2148"},"modified":"2011-08-16T11:27:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T17:27:19","slug":"is-god-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2011\/08\/is-god-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Is God Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

[Editor\u2019s Note: This post is part of a Roundtable conversation on the new book <\/em>Is God a Christian? at the Patheos <\/em>Book Club here.]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In 1996, R. Kirby Godsey was president of Mercer University in Georgia, which was affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 He had just published a book called \u201cWhen We Talk About God, Let\u2019s Be Honest,\u201d which declared that the Bible was not inerrant.\u00a0 For this he was hauled before 3,000 members of the Georgia Baptist Convention of the SBC and condemned and censured.\u00a0 Shortly after that, Mercer University and the SBC severed their ties.<\/p>\n

Godsey remains a thorn in the side of fundamentalists, as is evidenced by the reaction by Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, against Godsey\u2019s new book, \u201cIs God a Christian?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThis book is an unmitigated theological disaster,\u201d says Mohler on his website.\u00a0 Albert Mohler was part of the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC: he is now effectively the Pope of the Southern Baptists.\u00a0 The old Baptist principle of individual interpretation of scripture, dating back to Roger Williams, was thrown out and replaced with a fixed dogma, which all SBC institutions were forced to endorse.<\/p>\n

Godsey offers a strikingly different definition of Christianity than Mohler\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cWe do not become Christians by adopting certain beliefs or following certain moral prescriptions.\u00a0 Christianity is not a formula for getting to heaven\u2026 The Christian faith transforms our understanding and relationship with God, enabling us to experience that our being bears the imprint of God\u2026\u201d (p 109)<\/p>\n

The book is a beautifully-written essay promoting religious pluralism from a Christian perspective.\u00a0 Much of it is an argument against fundamentalism in all religions, and an argument for openness, toleration, and compassion among the world\u2019s faiths.\u00a0 The book offers brief introductions to the world\u2019s religions, praising their positive contributions, pointing out the limitations of some of their expressions.<\/p>\n

Kirby Godsey speaks for and to Christians, particularly Southerners, who are in recovery from doctrines that do not reflect the compassion of the Christ.\u00a0 He is committed to Jesus Christ and to the Christian church.\u00a0 He explains that he\u2019s not a \u201crelativist\u201d:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026rejecting exclusivity does not require abandoning our commitments.\u201d\u00a0 (p 25)\u00a0 His faith itself has led him to embrace religious pluralism.\u00a0 \u201cAs we recover from our proclivity to be exclusive and arrogant, we can begin a new journey of learning and growing in our spiritual lives.\u201d (p 29)\u00a0 He puts his own awakening to the fact that \u201call religion is human religion\u201d (p 27) in the context of his upbringing, listening to fire-and-brimstone sermons in the South.\u00a0 His account of his childhood summers with his beloved grandmother in rural northern Alabama, absorbing her natural faithfulness, grounds the book in experience that touches the heart.<\/p>\n

Progressive Christianity is a term he doesn\u2019t use, but his book reflects both its theological and social senses. His great contribution is to make progressive theology accessible and intelligible to an audience that shares his cultural upbringing and geography.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Jim Burklo is Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"