Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Unquitting love and orderly separation

Ephraim Radner has posted a major essay on 'where things are at', called Truthful Love and Orderly Separation - hat-tip to Bryden Black.

I include just this excerpt:

"it is not clear how traditional Christian ecclesiology has a future that can be logically linked to inclusivist ecclesial existence within a pluralistic democracy. Inclusivists, from their side, have shown little interest in trying to explain to traditionalists how this might be possible. Within the Anglican Communion, this failure has proven, perhaps more than anything, to be the basis for the practical and profound mistrust that traditionalists hold for inclusivists."

Radner's article, in sum, notes the difficulty, if not contradiction between the logics of 'inclusivism' and 'tradition/Scripture', and raises the question whether the recent call by Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt for work to begin on 'orderly separation' is, in fact, the correct one. But please read the sensitive, comprehensive whole article and do not rely on my bare summary.

I recognise that the unquitting love to which I believe Romans 13-14 and 1 Corinthians 13 call us (see posts below) may need working out in 'orderly separation', as some marriages require. Yet I note that Radner's essay calls for love to permeate our Anglican conversation, and a significant part of his essay is a challenge to notions such as the 'listening process' and 'reception' as to whether they foster a spirit of love or, however unintentionally, enhance combativeness in debate.

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