Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Matt Kennedy: Putting Confidence in the Flesh: Pelagius and the Presiding Bishop

Many in the past few years have drawn apt comparisons between the widespread theological confusion that characterizes the contemporary Episcopal Church, of which our current sexuality debates are symptomatic, and ancient forms of Gnosticism.

“Christian” Gnostics imported the radical Gnostic dichotomy between matter (evil) and spirit (good) into the Christian faith and, in keeping with it, reinterpreted or revised the apostolic teachings and writings.

Doctrinally, this led to various Gnostic rejections and/or revisions of doctrines such as the bodily resurrection (the goal, after all, was to escape the flesh, not to return to it) and the virgin birth (God take on real flesh?) which, embarrassingly for the Gnostics, indicated that God had indeed taken on human flesh in the Person of Christ. Many of these rejections/revisions are still prevalent among “Christian” Gnostics to this day.

the rest at Stand Firm

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