{"id":51026,"date":"2019-10-03T05:10:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T09:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=51026"},"modified":"2019-10-02T08:43:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T12:43:32","slug":"not-that-kind-of-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2019\/10\/not-that-kind-of-christian.html","title":{"rendered":"Not That Kind of Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It was great having Tripp Fuller visit Indianapolis<\/a> recently. It was almost ten years ago when I appeared as a guest on his podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Early Christian Monotheism with James McGrath: Homebrewed Christianity 68<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\nBack then he was still numbering them. I\u2019m not sure when he stopped but after the first thousand I suppose it probably makes sense to stop numbering them and just name them instead. I feel like back then, we weren\u2019t even calling them \u201cpodcasts\u201d yet, although it is long enough ago that I\u2019m not entirely sure. (For those who may be interested, my own <a href=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/religionprof\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">ReligionProf Podcast<\/a> will resume with new episodes soon, although I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll be trying to maintain having them appear weekly, as opposed to occasionally when it makes sense to record one. We\u2019ll see.)<\/p>\nTripp\u2019s topic for the event I managed to attend was one he didn\u2019t choose himself: \u201cNot That Kind of Christian.\u201d I really appreciated the way he addressed the tendency of progressive\/liberal Christians to define ourselves by what we aren\u2019t, rather than focusing on what and who we are. Hanging out afterwards, I asked him if he has a good name to articulate that positive Christian stance. One that he mentioned is one I\u2019ve also toyed with using: \u201cJust Christian.\u201d It sounds like \u201csimply Christian\u201d and yet also could be taken to emphasize\u00a0justice<\/em>. I mentioned to him my only half serious suggestion about how great it would be to call my stance which embraces critical thinking and methods like historical critical inquiry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/04\/critical-christianity.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cCritical Christianity,\u201d<\/a> because then when we gather for worship we could call it \u201cCritical Mass.\u201d\u00a0Yes, in case you didn\u2019t already know this, I\u2019d happily embrace a name for my religious stance based on its pun potential.<\/p>\nMore seriously, here\u2019s one definition of progressive\/liberal Christianity, from <a href=\"http:\/\/freedominorthodoxy.blogspot.com\/2018\/08\/what-is-liberal-theology.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gary Dorrien<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>[L]iberal theology is defined by its openness to the verdicts of modern intellectual inquiry, especially the natural and\u00a0social sciences; its commitment to the authority of individual reason and\u00a0experience; its conception of\u00a0Christianity as an ethical way of life; its favoring of moral concepts of\u00a0atonement; and its commitment to make Christianity credible and socially relevant to modern people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTripp said lots of great things, and shared <a href=\"https:\/\/trippfuller.com\/2013\/05\/24\/tripps-tunes\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">songs he wrote (several of which you can listen to online)<\/a>. One thing that particularly struck me was a story and some thoughts he shared about \u201ccooties,\u201d in which he explored the elaborate efforts children go to deal with a problem that is only imagined, a way of differentiating gender and creating in-group and out-group that can become increasingly complex. Likewise our theologies can revolve around a problem that is in fact itself a result of our inability to rethink our imagined and symbolic worldviews and systems. When he suggested that Jesus was a \u201cprofessional cootie-catcher,\u201d it seemed very fitting, as Jesus showed himself willing to dare to transgress purity rules and challenge or reject outright ostracizing divisions. But this brief summary doesn\u2019t do justice to the point.<\/p>\nIf you ever have the chance, go hear Tripp talk. And sing. But in the meantime, <a href=\"https:\/\/trippfuller.com\/podcasts\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">listen to his podcasts<\/a>. There\u2019s enough there to keep you listening and engaged for a long time.<\/p>\nAlso relevant:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"BBBNtla0NK\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogerwolsey\/2019\/09\/funny-fundamentalism-laugh-at-bad-bad-theology\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Funny Fundamentalism. Laugh at bad Bad Theology.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cFunny Fundamentalism. Laugh at bad Bad Theology.\u201d \u2014 The Holy Kiss\" src=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogerwolsey\/2019\/09\/funny-fundamentalism-laugh-at-bad-bad-theology\/embed\/#?secret=REbs4RvBA2#?secret=BBBNtla0NK\" data-secret=\"BBBNtla0NK\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\nAlso from Tripp Fuller, one of my favorite authors:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"l7tmpzoq0s\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewedchristianty.com\/2019\/08\/22\/keith-ward-religion-in-the-modern-world\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Keith Ward: Religion in the Modern World<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cKeith Ward: Religion in the Modern World\u201d \u2014 Tripp Fuller\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homebrewedchristianty.com\/2019\/08\/22\/keith-ward-religion-in-the-modern-world\/embed\/#?secret=R7PSIqE0Pz#?secret=l7tmpzoq0s\" data-secret=\"l7tmpzoq0s\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45310\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2018\/04\/Humility-should-not-lead-to-despair.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was great having Tripp Fuller visit Indianapolis recently. It was almost ten years ago when I appeared as a guest on his podcast. Early Christian Monotheism with James McGrath: Homebrewed Christianity 68 Back then he was still numbering them. I\u2019m not sure when he stopped but after the first thousand I suppose it probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":70548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15465,163],"tags":[6530,15491,9597,16302],"class_list":["post-51026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-liberal-christianity","tag-liberal-theology","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-tripp-fuller"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Not That Kind of Christian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It was great having Tripp Fuller visit Indianapolis recently. 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