It used to be said that Christianity was about believing five impossible things before breakfast. Now I see that the honour has passed to the postmoderns. It is possible to believe conflicting claims without rejecting any of them.

I see this very differently. I do not see two claims of universal narrative as conflicting. I see two human constructs which are inherently incomplete because humans are incomplete laying claim to something impossible to claim. Even if “Christianity” is the “one and only one way”, who is to say that your Christianity is the right Christianity? Or mine? Or anyone else’s? There is hardly what we could call consensus within this universal narrative of ours.

Maybe a way out of this impasse would be to consider the possibility of evaluating narratives against each other. Which narrative seems to offer the best account and most convincing world view - a way of understanding how the world came to be, its design, and people’s place in it?

How does this reconcile with the notion of “faith”? This sounds more like trying to apply the scientific method to concepts, ideas and realities which are inherently impossible to render replicated and falsifiable experiments against. A battle royale to see which religion is “the most right”. Who would be qualified to judge such a contest? There can be no objective arbiter in such a comparison.

I still find the traditional Christian view to be the most convincing - powerfully effective - and relevant to people who are willing seriously to consider it.

Powerful? Yes. Effective? Yes (when it isn’t being corrupted by human ambitions). Most convincing? Really? Why? This seems to get deep into a nature vs. nurture area of socialization. Christianity “seems most right” to me largely as an accident of birth. I was born into it. So, as I grow, and learn more and think more, I find that the Christianity I was taught is intellectually lousy, inherently hypocritical, and borderline morally bankrupt. Do I abandon Christianity? NO! I dive deeper and search for a better way, a better narrative. Will I ever find the “best” narrative? No. I will always be human (while on this earth, anyway).

Most relevant? Sure, to a Christian society. But why is it inherently most relevant to those for whom the idiom and allegory are foreign and unfamiliar?

~jhimm
—
nothing lasts.
nothing is finished.
nothing is perfect.