When did coherence emerge as a value of Christianity? This question has been on my mind for some time.
Christ's teachings were not systematic or coherent in the way that contemporary theology and teachings attempt to be.
Paul (probably the most popular savior in Christianity, although Jesus is a close second) is similarly not very coherent or systematic in the way that people want him to be. This doesn't mean that either of their teachings were incoherent (as a code word for nonsense or babble.)
If Christ meant for his teachings to be systematic, coherent, we would certainly have the Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Second, Christ not writing his own teachings meant that he was quite willing for his teachings to be misappropriated, misrepresented, misremembered, represented incompletely and ignorantly. If Jesus were concerned with the truth of his teachings, in the way that contemporary teachers, preachers, theologians are concerned with the truth and coherence of their own, we would have the Gospel According to Jesus Christ.
If we say that Christ came to be abused, why don't we extend this to the abuse and forgetting of his teaching by his followers, by those who came after him? This doesn't begin with misintepretations of the gospels but the very act of writing the gospels.
I'm not trying to call the gospels into question, or projecting sinister intentions on the writers of the gospels, because I dont see any such sinister intentions. But Christ gave up some very important claims when he left his legacy with his followers!
I'm also interested in the way that valuing coherence leads to splintering and disunity, just as valuing truth as an absolute necessarily leads to division. The idea that we can know truth combined with the value for coherence (the total domination and reconciling of knowledge) is totally antithetical to the ecumenical drive. The steady splintering of the church over the millenia derives from this drive to coherence, from the will to truth, as Nietzsche puts it (or does he?).
So where did all this begin? Augustine? Canonization? Aquinas? Probably none of them, since they themselves aren't enough to explain why coherence has emerged as a value.
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2 comments:
you should write a sytematic history of 'coherence theology', just to be ironic
God is the author of the Bible and the words contained therein were written as the Spirit of God moved on the men chosen for that purpose. Jesus did not need to pen the words He was told to share by God His father since as with the old testament God had no problem protecting the integrity of His word.
This method in fact served dual purpose, that of showing His power while balancing the allowance for faith in true free will of man. That is why no one can understand the word of God without the Spirit of God revealing the Truth to those who humble themselves in faith to accept that Jesus is the son of God sent to pay the sin debt so that man through belief in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and life and that no one can come to the Father except through Him. We each must decide whether we will accept as truth or not. The price of making wrong choice can not be any higher but all have free will to chose. Interesting thing sight is not given until after right faith choice is made. Have you ever tried to describe the colors and beauty of the sunset to someone born blind?
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