Truth matters in religion
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006I read this article written by Roger Olson from the Truett Seminary at Baylor. His suggestion to have pastor’s teach a series on whether what their church teaches is true is something I whole heartedly agree with. In fact, when I pastored, I taught a series called “Truth Teachings.”
I thought it was good and needed to be posted here, so I asked for and received his permission. See what you think…
Roger Olson: Truth matters in religion
Saturday, October 28, 2006
I saw a large banner on the facade of a church. It proclaimed “Truth Matters.” I wondered how many people understood that sentiment.
I agree with whoever put up the banner: Truth matters — even and perhaps especially in religion. And yet many people in our post-modern culture don’t think about religion that way. For them, what really matters is how religion functions to help them cope with the stresses of daily life.
As a child, I heard an old hymn titled “If I Am Dreaming, Let Me Dream On.” It was written by 19th-century evangelist Gypsy Smith in response to a skeptic who said Christianity was a fantasy. He told the evangelist he was dreaming if he thought Christianity was true. Smith expressed his response is song.Even as a child, I wondered if that might be a too cavalier attitude toward truth. Do we really not care if what we believe is true? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for many people.
I saw a book in the religion section of a bookstore by pop psychologist Ashleigh Brilliant. The title is I Have Abandoned My Search for Truth and Am Now Looking for a Good Fantasy. Unfortunately, that expresses many people’s approach to religion.
American Christianity is profoundly influenced, even shaped, by an 18th century movement called Pietism. Pietism, which eventually led to revivalism, attempted to inject feelings and emotions into the dead orthodoxy of European and later American Christianity. The pietists were “heart Christians” who believed that religious affections mattered more than right doctrine. Some of them said “Better a live heresy than a dead orthodoxy.”
That kind of Pietism (a distortion of the original movement) shaped the Christianity of my childhood, and I see its affects everywhere in American religion.
We tend to care more about warm, fuzzy feelings than truth. After all, how many American church members can express, let alone explain, their doctrinal beliefs? And yet most can tell a story or two about having profound spiritual experiences.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an especially astute observer of religion in 19th-century Britain. He said: “He who loves Christianity more than truth will go on to love his own church more than Christianity and end by loving himself more than anything.”
Are many American Christians in danger of loving Christianity more than truth itself? Do some love their denomination or church more than Christianity? I wonder about that when I hear some good folks talking about their own church or denomination more than about Jesus.
The only good reason for believing something is that it is true. A religious affiliation not based on conviction that it is true is a fantasy; it’s immature and irresponsible. People need to examine the truth status of their beliefs from time to time.If I am dreaming, I hope I wake up pretty soon. The reason I don’t think so is that I’ve given serious thought to the matter and am convinced that what my church teaches is true.
So what am I recommend-ing? Not that religious folks expunge feelings or emotions from their faith experience. Dead orthodoxy is not the prescription here! Rather, I suggest that religious people occasionally ask: “Is what my church professes really true?” and “Is what I’m confessing real?”They should ask their pastor or other religious leader to teach a series on that and give them the very best reasons possible for believing what the church teaches.
Roger Olson, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology (1999)
Dr. Olson holds degrees from Rice University, North American Baptist Seminary and Open Bible College. He has written numerous articles for such publications as Christian Century and Christianity Today. His recent books include The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform and Who Needs Theology? with Stanley J. Grenz. Olson recieved two awards for The Story of Christian Theology including a Gold Medallion from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for 1999. In 1993 he and co-author Mr. Grenz received Christianity Today’s award for best book in theology/biblical studies for 20th Century Theology: God and the World in a Transitional Age. Dr. Olson was the editor of Christian Scholar’s Review.
A past president of the American Theological Society (Midwest Division), Olson has been the co-chair of the Evangelical Theology Group of the American Academy of Religion for two years. An expert in historical theology, he is a frequent preacher, teacher and speaker for local churches and organizations.
