Nobody can truly tell a story that isn’t their own, and a person’s story is critical if others would understand them well. On this site, you will find different sorts of reflections. Some will be directly related to unity. Others will be not-so-obvious because their relationship to unity is indirect. I will try, and often fail, to explain how unity is the motivator for what I say in a given post, but we could do worse than to begin, before any posts are explored, by thinking about what unity is.
Unity isn’t merely or mainly a feeling, nor approach, nor disposition. Unity may impact such things, but it must be based upon something held in common–something believed or possessed. And it is here we may discern the necessary role of truth in the achievement of genuine unity. Unity is most powerfully found around the possession of a common body of truth. This is why religion is such a powerful force–it brings about cohesion from commonality. And so the reader will notice that many of my posts are likely to be explorations of one truth claim or another. This reflects the attempt to purify the center of that unity around which all Christians must seek to share.
Why can’t Christ be that common possession? Isn’t it enough to claim the identity of Christian? Isn’t it enough that Christ is our common savior? As nice as it sounds, Christ isn’t just a common possession and savior. He is also a way, a truth, and a life. If disagreements exist about that way or truth or life, unity suffers. We don’t have to look far to see this disunity at work in our churches.
I grew up a Protestant Christian. I have attended conservative and liberal Presbyterian churches, southern and regular Baptist churches, Methodist churches, independent/evangelical-free churches, Church of Christ churches, Reformed Baptist churches, and various Pentecostal churches–some for years and years. With each I generally gained an appreciation of something about Christian expressions in the world.
For a long time I held the view that they were each concrete and equally valid expressions of Christ’s life in the world. I still mostly hold this view. But while I still believe that many are expressions of Christ’s life in the world, I no longer believe they are equally valid. I now believe that they express that life to greater or lesser extents. I also believe that one of the most egregious differences among them pertains to how they value and approach one of Christ’s central teachings: the unity of His Church.
Not only did I grow up a Protestant, but I was baptized and confirmed a Protestant. I entered seminary as a Protestant. I learned Greek, Hebrew, and Latin as a Protestant. I took my Th.M. as a Protestant. I encountered the early centuries of the Church as a Protestant, and I completed my Ph.D. as a Protestant. I did mission work as a Protestant. I facilitated small groups as a Protestant. I led Bible studies as a Protestant. I defended Protestantism. I was a quintessential Protestant. Though I know many Protestants superior to me, nonetheless, I think it fair to say, I was a Protestant of Protestants. In fact, I was to Protestantism a bit like the Apostle Paul was to Judaism. Here was his Judaic resume:
“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” (Phil. 3:4b-7, ESV)
Mine might read: “To those who have reason for confidence in their Protestantism, let them compare: as to milestones, I was circumcised, baptized, confirmed, and saved as a Protestant; as to well-roundedness, a practitioner of Reformed, Baptist, independent, and Pentecostal traditions; as to knowledge of its beliefs, I held many poles at one time or another–Calvinist, Arminian, paedobaptist, credobaptist, immersionist, aspersionist, memorialist, consubstantialist, free gracer, lordship salvationist, cessationist, continuationist, and others; as to its heroes, an ardent admirer (to this day) of Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Barth, N.T. Wright, John Piper, Dan Wallace, Scott Horrell, John Hannah, Pastor Bob, and Pastor Brian, et al.; as to zeal, a journeyman of ad fontes and a defender of Protestantism against secularism, materialism, and Roman Catholicism; as to education, five years of Master’s work and seven years of doctoral work in theology; as to experience, forty-five years.”
And I was a Protestant until I realized the truth of what Chesterton articulated in various ways. Here’s one: “From time to time in human history . . . a certain class of things appears. In the old world they were called heresies. In the modern world they are called fads. Sometimes they are for a time useful; sometimes they are wholly mischievous. But they always consist of undue concentration upon some one truth or half-truth.” And another: “Every heresy has been an effort to narrow the church.”
You see, although I was a Protestant, I was first and foremost a Christ-follower, and I never stopped asking Him to help me understand what is true and why. And I had an awareness that that truth might not fit with some of the presuppositions that make Protestantism seem more true than Catholicism or Orthodoxy. And one of the key insights that brought me around to beholding Catholicism in the right light was its clear superiority of reflection about, practice of, and priority placed upon unity. And I found it odd that such a communion could be so overtly focused upon unity and yet have the largest and most developed body of theological knowledge that must be adhered to (which initially seems counterproductive), until I realized more clearly the foundational nature of the aforementioned relationship between truth and unity.
Alongside evaluating different expressions of Christendom from the perspective of unity and identifying Catholicism as the clear winner, I also discovered the superior rationality of its theological starting points: the analogia entis, the balance of human goodness (owing to the imago dei) alongside its depravity, its emphasis on penitence as the starting point and stay of the Christian approach to God, a deeper and more thoughtful encounter with history, its greater continuity with the practices of early Christians, its greater continuity with the commitments of early Christians, its greater continuity with the people who were those early Christians, its greater respect and regard for its past decisions, its more biblical and serious ecclesiology, its practices which complement the psychological needs of Christians, its epistemology (i.e., not sola fide), etc. All this contributed to the very real and present and disturbing realization that Catholicism was simply better balanced in theology and practice and more attuned to how flesh-and-blood people can incorporate their faith. As a consequence of these realizations and others, and the hundreds of exegetical epiphanies that justify and corroborate them, my destination became inevitable. At first I felt incredulous and resistant. Then a bit frightened of the consequences. All of my closest friends and ministry partners were Protestant. But my commitment to the same truth that Paul expressed eventually won out: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
My family and I were received into the Catholic communion in 2022.
So it is that I write from a deep appreciation of Protestantism and its theology, but I also write as one who cares more deeply about the Church’s unity and truth. My hope is that everything I write will be heard as different melodies of that song of unity. May it pique your interest, capture your attention, gladden your heart, anoint your perspective, clear your vision, and enchant your mind, as it has done mine.
You can reach me at adam@unitybridgers.org