The main reason that “Western Christianity has become too propositional” (Christopher Jamison ‘God on the brain’) is the culture not of the Enlightenment but of the very early centuries.
Once Christianity ceased to be a reformation movement within Judaism and became a potentially universal faith (i.e. when the Apostle Paul led the charge) it was inevitable that the criteria for truth and the language of theology would be derived from the surrounding Graeco-Roman philosophical framework rather than primarily from the Hebrew scriptures.
It can be argued that the search for and the imposition of a single credal text led to the equation of heresy with sin, which is surely a dangerous and dubious step for theists to take. The persistent articulation of the faith in the language and thought of those centuries has hampered our ability to re-state the faith within our own evolving culture, not to mention the cultural frameworks of other continents and ethnicities.
In this tradition Pope Benedict XVI is on record as affirming “the thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith” in his speech at Regensburg in September 2006. This leads him to decry some Christian theologians of being engaged in a “programme of dehellenisation”. By this Pope Benedict XVI meant the reductionist approaches of the "Quest for the historical Jesus" – itself a time-expired endeavour.
But we live neither in the fourth nor the nineteenth century, nor indeed in the first. The discoveries and debates described by Christopher Jamison may move us on and should allow us to approach afresh with worship, prayer and open minds (left side and right side) the one who helps us "know" the Father (John 1:18) with all that follows from such a relationship in the here and now.
Revd Peter Brain, Exmouth
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