Episcopalian Church - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:07:11 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Episcopalian Church - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Can liberal Christianity be saved? https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/07/20/can-liberal-christianity-be-saved/ Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:31:45 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=29928

In 1998, John Shelby Spong, then the reliably controversial Episcopal bishop of Newark, published a book entitled "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Spong was a uniquely radical figure — during his career, he dismissed almost every element of traditional Christian faith as so much superstition — but most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church Read more

Can liberal Christianity be saved?... Read more]]> In 1998, John Shelby Spong, then the reliably controversial Episcopal bishop of Newark, published a book entitled "Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Spong was a uniquely radical figure — during his career, he dismissed almost every element of traditional Christian faith as so much superstition — but most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church have shared his premise. Thus their church has spent the last several decades changing and then changing some more, from a sedate pillar of the WASP establishment into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States.

As a result, today the Episcopal Church looks roughly how Roman Catholicism would look if Pope Benedict XVI suddenly adopted every reform ever urged on the Vatican by liberal pundits and theologians. It still has priests and bishops, altars and stained-glass windows. But it is flexible to the point of indifference on dogma, friendly to sexual liberation in almost every form, willing to blend Christianity with other faiths, and eager to downplay theology entirely in favor of secular political causes. Read more

Sources

Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.

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