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Though I now live, and sometimes even feel, a long way away from York, the issues of Christian unity and diversity with which I struggled there are still very real to me. I am confronted daily with the results of intolerance, hatred and disunity.
I was reminded recently by a Quaker colleague of the Austrian theologian Von Hügel, whose views have helped to shape my thoughts on the issue of Christian diversity and unity. Hügel saw that religions tended to contain three interacting and essential elements, which he characterised as corresponding to the growth and development of faith. He drew an analogy with physical and emotional growth and development, comparing each type of faith with a stage of human growth. This is not to imply that any one of his ‘stages’ is ‘better’ or ‘closer to God’ than the others — simply that these are phases through which many people pass as they and their faith change.
The first element, which he called ‘institutional’, responds to the needs of ‘infancy’ — “the need for stories, for structures, for trust, for stability, for protection, for discipline”. We can see this manifested most clearly in churches with a strong evangelical or fundamentalist component. These are often teaching centred, pastor led and with a theology that is very structured and strongly Bible based. Hügel was not surprised than these churches are lively, popular and attract many young people. It is important to recognise that many people who join these churches, in time, move on from them, either falling away from the formal church, or moving on to others.
Hügel’s second stage, the ‘intellectual’ element, is likened to adolescence. It is a time when we must question everything, take nothing for granted and discover for ourselves what we think or believe. We can see this very clearly in science, and in many ‘radical’ or ‘liberal’ churches and theologies that tend to be inclusive, universalist and pluralist in their outlook.
The third stage is the ‘emotional’ element. Hügel describes this as mystical, and ministering to the needs of the mature adult: “A time for reaching through the layers of inner consciousness, through more profound methods of prayer, reaching after a sense of the incommunicable whereof we cannot speak”. I see signs of this stage in some churches, particularly perhaps in the Quaker movement.
These stages are not discrete, nor is there necessarily a progression from one to another in any particular order. It is not ‘better’ to be in one or another, just as it would be strange to say it is ‘better’ to be old than young. It is simply to recognise that at different times in our lives, both spiritual and physical, our needs are different.
Recognising this does not make the problem of how to live and worship together go away. The problem will remain, and must be worked at. Just as there are problems and conflicts between children, adults and elderly people, so there will be friction between the different parts of the church, different theologies and different styles of worship. What we will gain, however, is an understanding that, though we have differences in our needs and expression, we share the aim of living and worshipping together and seeking a deeper understanding of God. We can start to recognise each others strengths and weaknesses, and acknowledge that we need each other if we are to be the community that we are meant to be.
I am grateful to Ralph Hetherington for his thoughtful discussion of some of these issues and to Dave Tomlinson, author of The Post-Evangelical.
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Last modified: 25th November 2005