Redemptive Talk

What does the Christian faith exist to do?  If the church is the representative of the Christian faith, then what does the church exist to do?  This is a big question and it becomes even bigger when you add the question about what the church exist to do.  So, let me limit the question by leaving the church out of it.  You can’t really do that if the church is the representative of the Christian faith, but to add the church in all its many forms and expressions complicates the original question:  “What does the Christian faith exist to do?”  This question has  been asked over and over again for two millennium.  A multitude of answers have been given  by men and women through the ages.  Some have answered by saying that the Christian faith exist to give humankind (one by one) a new birth—“You must be born again!”  Others have answered by saying that the faith exists to provide a place for one (“born again”) “in the sweet by and by.” Still others have answered by saying that the Christian faith exists to turn the present world into God’s kingdom (the beloved community)—“to overthrow the existing order.”

I’ve been asking the question all of my adult life, “What does the Christian faith exist to do?” Please see the question clearly.  I am not asking what the Christian faith is; I’m asking what it exist to do. I suppose I’ve espoused all the various answers that have been given to the question in one form or another.  The reality is, of course, that the answers given by others will never satisfy the question if it is an inner one.  We must find our own answer(s) for inner questions.

I’ve become convinced that there is no one answer to this question.  A big question requires more than just one small answer.  Whatever the case, one of my answers is that the Christian faith exist to enable those committed to that faith to speak redemptively to various life situations.  The word, redemptive, for me, means to speak in such a way as to relieve, aid, or deliver others from evil, difficulties, despair, troubles (you name it and the Christian faith exist to speak to it).  I do not mean to speak with religious platitudes (“It is God’s will” or “the Bible says so”  kind of stuff).  I mean that the Christian faith exists to provide us an intelligent, pertinent, and meaningful aid, relief, help, and deliverance in our living.  Paul Tillich saw this as an “answering theology” to every situation. If the Christian faith exists to do this—to speak redemptively to our life dilemmas, why aren’t professed Christians speaking redemptively?  

The glaciers are melting. Does the Christian faith exists to
do something about this?  I think so....