UNIVERSITATEA „AUREL VLAICU” DIN ARAD

FACULTATEA DE ȘTIINȚE UMANISTE ȘI SOCIALE

PROGRAMUL DE MASTER „FAITH AND LIFE”

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

Christian identity in a post modern world

SERGIU DEMEAN - DUMULESC

year 1, semester 1

Paper presented to
Conf. univ. dr. Mihai Handaric

on the date
07 February 2020

in fulfillment of the requirements for the course

Christian identity and civic society in a secular world
 Introduction

It is so easy and dangerous at the same time to take one’s christian identity for
granted, especially in this modern world we live in. In this rapid evolving modern society,
Christianity and it’s values are contested more than ever. The absolutes are becoming more
and more relative and politically and religious correctness invades our personal and public
space as well. Schaeffer used to say that if there is no absolute by which to judge society,
society is absolute. How are we supposed to be able to keep our christian identity intact and
live a day to day life upholding God’s moral standards? What is the next step in expressing
our faith and how are we preparing to deal with the ever changing religious and secular
landscape?

To answer these questions, a good starting point is to ask: why do we have religion
in the first place? One notorious answer comes from Voltaire, the 18th Century French
writter, who wrote: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”Because
Voltaire was a vigorous critic of organised religion, his words are often quoted cynically.
But in fact, he was being perfectly sincere. He was arguing that belief in God is necessary
for society to function, even if he didn’t approve of the monopoly the church held over that
belief. But being a christian means more that believing in a higher power. If we do not show
love to one another, the world has a right to question wether Christianity is true and still
relevant today. True spirituality consists in living moment to moment by the grace of jesus
Christ.

The problem

The modern church and world brought new difficulties to the quest for defining an
essence of Christianity. Both as a result of Renaissance humanism, which gloried in human
achievement and encouraged human autonomy, and of Reformation ideas that believers
were responsible in conscience and reason for their faith, an autonomy in expressing faith
developed. Some spoke of Protestantism as being devoted to the right of private judgment.
Roman Catholics warned that believers who did not submit to church authority would issue
as many concepts of essence as there were believers to make the claims. Schaeffer used to
say that the problem with christianity in modern times is not how we are to change Christian
teaching in order to make it more relevant, because to do that would mean to alter the truth,
rather, it is the problem of how to communicate the gospel so that it is understood.

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 These comments on the search for the essence of Christianity, the task of defining
the core of the faith, demonstrate that the question of Christian identity is at stake at all times.

The solution

The solution starts revealing itself by knowing who we really are and what is our true
christian identity and purpose in life. Platon said that the most important task for man is to
know himself. This is also true today. If someone says to you 'Identify yourself!' you will
probably answer first by giving your name - then perhaps describing the work you do, the
place you come from, the relations in which you stand. So in these terms how do we as
Christians answer the challenge to identify ourselves? We carry the name of Christ. We are
the people who are known for their loyalty to, their affiliation with, the historical person who
was given the title of 'anointed monarch' by his followers - Jesus, the Jew of Nazareth. Every
time we say 'Christian', we take for granted a story and a place in history, the story and place
of those people with whom God made an alliance in the distant past, the people whom he
called so that in their life together he might show his glory. Christian identity is to belong in
a place that Jesus defines for us. By living in that place, we come in some degree to share
his identity, to bear his name and to be in the same relationships he has with God and with
the world.

But we must add that we also have to know God. Knowing yourself means to be
aware of who you are, what are your abilities and strengths but knowing God makes one
take action and start influencing and transforming his surroundings. We must stress that the
basis for our faith is neither experience nor emotion but the truth as God has given it in
verbalized, prepositional form in the Scripture and which we first of all apprehend with our
minds. One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be
conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary. In order to stay relevant,
we must continue the revolution that Jesus Himself started 2.000 years ago and welcome the
eternal Kingdom of God into our postmodern life. And to do so we have to fight with spiritual
weapons, because if christians win a battle by using worldy means, they have actually lost.

When the world shouts 'Identify yourself!', we do so by giving prayerful thanks for
our place and by living faithfully where God in Jesus has brought us to be, so that the world
may see what is the depth and cost of God's own fidelity to the world he has made.

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 Bibliography

1. Cobb, J.B., The Structure of Christian Existence by John B. Cobb, Jr.

Published by University Press of America, Maryland 1990

2. Schaeffer, Francis, Trilogia, Oradea: Casa Cărţii, 1992.

3. Wright, NT, Simply Christian, Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge (SPCK), 2006

4. Encyclopaedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/Modern-views, last view: 07 feb
2020