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I would echo many of the things in your list Michael. Thanks for your transparency.

“I do not limit orthodoxy to simply my own group, but treat, as much as possible, all Christians within a meaningful affirmation of the Apostle’s Creed as belonging to Christ.”

Michael, I really appreciate your taking time to answer my questions regarding the Apostle’s Creed earlier this week…thanks for the clarity!

Have a great weekend!

As stated here, your criterion for “generous orthodoxy” might be too generous. For some might argue that one could affirm, for example, arianism while also meaningfully affirming the Apostles’ Creed.

That is, they could do so unless by “meaningfully affirm” with respect to the Apostles’ Creed you mean to implicitly import the Trinitarian and Christological affirmations of Nicaea/Constantinople and Chalcedon. That would be fine by me (because I think that’s what the Apostles taught from the beginning), but it might make your original statement seem less generous to some since you’d then be excluding those who reject Nicaea, etc.

This also has bearing on #2 above since if one reads the Gospels and doesn’t see the Christ of Chalcedon, etc. then one hasn’t read the Gospels correctly – i.e., according to the rule/canon of faith given by the Apostles (cf. Irenaeus). This also explains why it might be unclear to some what is meant by #2 since a follower of Arius (for instance) can read the same Gospels and get it wrong. [and FWIW I don't think historical/grammatical approaches can get us to that faith expressed by the so-called canon of faith].

As an aside: If I wasn’t a long time reader of this blog, I’d probably read that list and think that you were becoming something like a Quaker (with a couple of exceptions, perhaps).

Amen.

I love (or used to?) discussing doctrine and theological ideas with other Christians. Not just folks who agree with me but anyone willing to do so.

I learned early on that my Pentecostal/Charismatic back ground got me attacked almost immediately. Statements ranged from I was deceived to I was going to hell. I learned that there is a distinctly “Us four and no More” attitude in American Christianity. Each group believes it’s the only on that has the “whole gospel”. Some folks just talk down to you. Others get red faced while yelling at you about your errors. Errors that any one of which proves you are not one of the elect…like they are.

It’s sucked all the joy out of talking to Christians outside of my circle.

DD

It has shown me that many Christians can excuse anything if they believe there is a doctrinal battle to be won in the process.

It’s made me aware of how easily ego can get out of the box.