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The scandal of Christianity

By Peter Sellick - posted Wednesday, 22 June 2005


The real reason for the offence of Jesus has its basis in the human psyche. The above arguments are just the outer appearance of a deeper fear. They act as intellectual protection for something much more serious - self preservation. For if we acknowledge that Jesus is the one with whom we have to deal, that he stands in our path demanding a response, then we are in real trouble. The fear is that we might have to give ourselves up - this must be the biggest fear of the modern age. When we think of how much we have invested in the concept of the individual, this is no surprise. The self-esteem movement is but the tip of the iceberg.

Although a lengthy comments list is flattering, in a way, I have no illusions that it is at all important. While reason and doctrine are important we do not come to faith because of them. It is, in the end, not an intellectual decision. I have never won a theological argument with the result that my opponent has come to faith. Rather, it is a matter of coming to understand a story that sweeps all of our self-made stories aside. This displacement happens simply because the Christian story is the best, deepest and truest story around. It produces graceful human beings and truly free selves. In other words, it saves them from stunted and superficial lives informed by a stunted and superficial story.

Those who argue about whether religion has caused suffering or whether God exists rarely come to understand the Christian story in its own right. Likewise, when I argue with my detractors in the comments section of these pages I am always placed in a false position and as the old preacher in “Gilead” has taught me, we can make no progress when on the defensive. The argument may be amusing but it goes nowhere.

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The reality is that anyone who wants to truly investigate the Christian faith must seek before they will find. It takes a trusting attitude for them to start the journey. While a critical attitude is also invaluable, we are not invited to gullibility, the primary motive must be of faith seeking understanding. There must be a willingness to take a risk, to hear the story on its own terms. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit assures us that this is out of our hands, for the Spirit moves where it will. I often feel, in these pages, that all I can do is to clear the field of some misunderstandings, to make a small space that someone may enter in the hope that they will have an encounter.

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Article edited by Angus Ibbott.
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About the Author

Peter Sellick an Anglican deacon working in Perth with a background in the biological sciences.

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