Status Updates From Has American Christianity F...

Good quote that sounds a lot like our church gathering’s discussions in recent weeks:
“We find comfort not in the DO of the law but in the DONE of the Gospel, in the work of Christ on the cross, in the font, on the altar, in the Word. Our comfort is not in ourselves, but in Christ, and this sets us free to love and serve our neighbors – not for our comfort, but for theirs.”

Thought provoking chapters here midway through. I’ve decided that what frustrates me about this book is really the title. Tonight while reading the introduction to the NT Wright Ephesians book I hit upon a better title for Wolfmeuller’s book:
“Forgotten Themes of Western Christianity” or maybe “What Western Churches Marginalize”
This erases both Failure and American which isn’t supported in the book.

Good thought:
“people who are sick, or think they are sick, are always… measuring their own health. A sick theology does the same. Christians who are constantly measuring and testing their spiritual state are Christians with an unhealthy theology. The focus is in the wrong place (themselves, their works, their thoughts, their obedience…) a healthy theology is a theology that is laser focused on Jesus.”

So much contradiction and 🤦🏼‍♀️
“The crunch of the fruit was the sound of the universe breaking.”

Good discussion of delighting in scripture, but what made me LOL was this quote -
“This desire for something new, exciting, and entertaining stands behind the adjective contemporary, which is stuck like a leech to the word worship.”

Rob Reimer’s Soul Care was published the same year this book was. Reimer would fall under the sweeping generalization of American Christianity, yet he cautions against things like legalism and he champions the work done at the cross (outside our hearts) and the free gift of grace and the fact that our feelings don’t determine our salvation.

The author spends pages trying to refute American Christianity but never gives specific background and history for what he means. What denominations? What are the historical conditions that caused it? “American Christianity” is a very vague term. The author also denounces individualism but I haven’t seen anything yet on the contrary. It feels very simplistic.