There's work to do

From Book 2, Chapter 1, "Faith in Jesus Christ, Foundation of the Christian Life," Christ, the Life of the Soul, by Bl. Columba Marmion:

Christianity is nothing else than acceptance -- with all its remotest doctrinal and practical consequences -- of the divinity of Christ in the Incarnation.

If you don't believe Bl. Columba, re-read the Gospel According to Saint John -- if you have somewhere to be, then just re-read John 6:29.

Taking this as a sufficient definition of Christianity, it seems to me the following aspects of the definition are challenged today -- either explicitly or implicitly, in dizzyingly complex combinations -- by people who call themselves Christians:

• "nothing else"
• "acceptance"
• "remotest"
• "doctrinal"
• "practical"
• "consequences"
• "divinity"
• "Christ"
• "Incarnation"

There may well even be self-described Christians so clever they reject the very idea of defining Christianity.

Large numbers of Christians are going through life without knowing what Christianity is. Christians who do know what Christianity is have an obligation to help them, beginning with how they witness to the meaning of Christianity in their own lives.

Labels: Christ the Life of the Soul

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