In a previous article that I wrote for the Café’s Magazine, Facets of Identity, my remarks on post-theism generated numerous comments as well as social media attention. Comments clustered around three questions: what is post-theism, what does post-theism say about belief in Jesus as the incarnated Son of God, and is post-theism synonymous with atheism. This article replies to the first two of those questions.
“And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person at that gate seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies Not everything is lost.”
These four terms – Christian, Anglican, Episcopalian, and post-theist – are how I describe my religious identity. I choose which term(s) to use on a particular occasion depending upon context and what I want to communicate about myself.
Christian formation and identity for me were shaped not just by difference, but by contradiction and conflict. From my own earliest experience of church community, my family was out of sync with people in our church that we loved.
Increasingly I realize that Baptism is what makes us part of a worldwide communion. I am ready to celebrate the faith we share, ready to be challenged by those Christian theologies that are different from my own (though, if I am honest, I don’t want to be challenged too much….). I want to believe that I can walk into any Christian Church in the world and call it my church (though I know not every church agrees with me).
Last week we asked what does being Episcopal mean? And we invited you to offer up your own answers. We had some wonderful responses and some push-back as well.
“We are a catholic church in love with freedom.” We are exploring the identity of faith and what it means to be Episcopalian; and in this essay Jim Friedrich dives into what that phrase means for him.
In light of the ongoing debates within the Anglican Communion, we’ve been wondering how Episcopalians understand their identity as Episcopalians. So, we thought we’d just