The Doctrinal Challenge
The word “doctrine” is often used to define boundaries within religious traditions. By definition, it simply means a set of codified beliefs shared by members of a particular group or community.
But in much of Christianity, doctrine has become weaponized. We seem to forget that the word shares its etymological roots with the word “doctor.” In that sense, “doctrine” is quite simply “the word that heals.” What was meant to unite and make things whole has in practice become a thing that divides and separates us.
But what if we dug a little deeper into the notions from which our doctrines emerge? What if, instead of using them as a tool for hostility toward others who don’t share our beliefs, we saw them as a means for opening our hearts and healing the wounds between us?
This week at New Wineskins we’ll continue our Eastertide series “From Fear to Transformation” with the second part of our discussion video from The Work of the People featuring author, speaker, and activist Brian McLaren titled “Toward the Other.” We’ll talk about what McLaren refers to as the “Doctrinal Challenge” and how Christianity has too often used the doctrines of creation, original sin, and election as weapons of hostility rather than instruments of healing.
Please join us this Sunday, April 21, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for Part 2 of our 4-week journey From Fear to Transformation as we talk about the Doctrinal challenge and how we might respond.
6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin
We’re using a single discussion video from The Work of the People for the the full Eastertide series. Feel free to view the entire video at your leisure, or use the following approximate time stamps to locate each week’s session (you’ll need to manually navigate to each segment of the video using the video player’s time slider):
April 14 — Introduction/The Historical Challenge: 0:00-4:15
April 21 — The Doctrinal Challenge: 4:15-8:25
April 28 — The Liturgical Challenge: 8:25-10:00
May 5 — The Missional Challenge: 10:00-13:31
View our first session here (time stamp 4:15-8:25)
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