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| Resource: | Books (B7156) Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church |
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| Author: | Kenneth H. Carter Jr. | |
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press, 2018 | |
| Length: | 135 Pages | |
| Subjects: | Community; Reconciling Ministries; Reformation; United Methodism/History, Membership; United Methodist Church | |
| # Copies: | 1 | |
| ISBN/ISSN: | 9781501871566 | |
| Description: | Embracing the Wideness contrasts a generous orthodoxy with culture wars that seek to drive a wedge between Christians with deep faith convictions. A generous orthodoxy is possible for The United Methodist Church because scripture supports both a confessing movement and a reconciling movement. In addition to our divergent understandings of holiness, we have two distinct conceptions of church in American Methodism. These two conceptions grew from two seeds planted in the earliest practice of British Methodism: 1. A separatist church, which views holiness as a calling that separates us from the world -- "come out from among them and be separated" (2 Cor 6:17). Here holiness is a quality that distinguishes Christians from the world. 2. An activist church, which understands holiness as a movement for change in an unjust world. Here, the boundaries between church and society are blurred, with the "wheat and tares" growing together until God's final judgement (Matt 13). At times, a denomination is able to hold these two conceptions of church in tension. And other times, as in recent experiences of American Christianity, there is fragmentation and division. The division may be the result of clearly articulated values that are not compatible. Or the division may be the result of how leaders do harm to each other. What great things could be accomplished if we rediscovered orthodoxy in service of the healing, instead of the dividing, of our bodies--our churches! Such a generous orthodoxy would keep us from becoming stuck in cycles of harmful collusion and escalating conflict. Such a generous orthodoxy would understand that the source of our capacity to be healed of our schisms is a miracle beyond our human power, goodness, or intelligence. |
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| Age Groups: | None specified. |
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