Moderate Christianity

Moderate Christianity is a theological movement in Christianity that seeks to make decisions based on spiritual wisdom.

Origin

Moderation in Christianity is related to the spiritual wisdom that is addressed in Epistle of James in chapter 3 verse 17.[1] In the First Epistle to Timothy,[2] moderation is also referred to as temperance and is a required characteristic to be bishop in the Church.[3]

Characteristics

Moderate Christianity is characterized by its concern to bring hope, to include cultural diversity and creative collaboration, by not being fundamentalist or liberal, predominantly conservative and avoids extremism in its decisions.[4][5][6][7]

Catholicism

Moderate Catholicism mainly became visible in the 18th century, with Catholic groups taking more moderate positions, such as supporting ecumenism and liturgical reforms.[8] These moderates are also overwhelmingly in favor of state autonomy and the independence of Church doctrine from the state.[9] After Vatican Council II, moderate Catholics distanced themselves from traditionalist Catholicism.[10]

Evangelical Christianity

Moderate evangelical Christianity emerged in the 1940s in the United States in response to the Fundamentalist movement of the 1910s.[11] In the late 1940s, evangelical theologians from Fuller Theological Seminary founded in Pasadena, California, in 1947, championed the Christian importance of social activism.[12][13] The study of the Bible has been accompanied by certain disciplines such as Biblical hermeneutics, Biblical exegesis and apologetics.[14][15] Moderate theologians have become more present in Bible colleges and more moderate theological positions have been adopted in evangelical churches.[16][17] In this movement called neo-evangelicalism, new organizations, social agencies, media and Bible colleges were established in the 1950s.[18][19]

See also

References
  1. Scot McKnight, The Many Faces of Faith: A Guide to World Religions and Christian Traditions, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2011, p. 313
  2. Chapter 3, verse 2.
  3. William MacDonald, Believer's Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Inc, USA, 2008, p. 2087
  4. Sébastien Fath, Du ghetto au réseau: Le protestantisme évangélique en France, 1800-2005, Édition Labor et Fides, Genève, 2005, p. 160
  5. Stephen R. Rock, Faith and Foreign Policy: The Views and Influence of U.S. Christians and Christian Organizations, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, USA, 2011, p. 12
  6. Klauspeter Blaser, Les théologies nord-américaines, Labor et Fides, Genève, 1995, p. 46
  7. Jacques Prévotat, Jean Vavasseur-Desperriers, Les chrétiens modérés en France et en Europe (1870-1960), Presses Univ. Septentrion, France, 2013, p. 15
  8. J. Derek Holmes, Bernard Bickers, A Short History of the Catholic Church, A&C Black, UK, 2002, p. 179
  9. Jacques Prévotat, Jean Vavasseur-Desperriers, Les chrétiens modérés en France et en Europe (1870-1960), Presses Univ. Septentrion, France, 2013, p. 16
  10. Timothy Miller, America's Alternative Religions, SUNY Press, USA, 1995, p. 104
  11. Robert H. Krapohl, Charles H. Lippy, The Evangelicals: A Historical, Thematic, and Biographical Guide, Greenwood Publishing Group, USA, 1999, p. 197
  12. David R. Swartz, Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism, University of Pennsylvania Press, USA, 2012, p. 18
  13. George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2016, p. 929
  14. George Demetrion, In Quest of a Vital Protestant Center: An Ecumenical Evangelical Perspective, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2014, p. 128
  15. Roger E. Olson, The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology, Westminster John Knox Press, USA, 2004, p. 49
  16. James Leo Garrett, Baptist Theology: A Four-century Study, Mercer University Press, USA, 2009, p. 45
  17. Robert Warner, Reinventing English Evangelicalism, 1966-2001: A Theological and Sociological Study, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2007, p. 229
  18. J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann, Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2010, p. 1081-1082
  19. Axel R. Schäfer, Countercultural Conservatives: American Evangelicalism from the Postwar Revival to the New Christian Right, University of Wisconsin Press, USA, 2011, p. 50-51
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