Inclusive Yet Bounded

The doctrine of justification by faith (BCP, p. 870, Article XI) is one of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. It proclaims that we are not set right with God by our own righteousness, but by Jesus Christ who died for our sins. This delivers us forever from having to prove that we are right and sets us free as children of the Lord.

Article XII then states that the justified sinner will produce good works, acts of love, contrition, prayer, study, worship, and so forth. These works which proceed from faith do not save, only Jesus Christ saves. They will, as Article XII puts it, "endure the severity of God's judgment," because all our actions are mixtures of good and evil.

Among the works that one can do is theology, the systematic investigation of Christian truth. This truth normally takes a propositional form. As works, these statements and their authors will "endure the severity of God's judgment" since they also are mixtures of good and evil. Therefore theological statements are not infallible, their claims can only be held in faith.

The belief that all claims are fallible, however, can easily give way to the idea that there is no Truth. Rather, each person has their own individual truth, and each person with their truth should be included in the church since God loves and accepts all. In this view, the church is an inclusive community.

Two statements are in order. First, by justification, all are welcome in the church. Jesus ate with sinners. In that sense, the church is inclusive, for if entrance to the church were dependent upon our own righteousness, none could enter. As Paul said, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Therefore everyone, regardless, who comes to the Lord Jesus in faith belongs in the church.

Secondly, since faith in Jesus Christ will lead to good works (Article XII), all persons in the church are then called to right believing and holiness of life. The church has always recognized this and has taken responsibility for setting boundaries as to true and false, right and wrong. Without these boundaries, there is no true faith, no holiness of life.

Theology has played a critical role in setting these boundaries. For example, the Nicene Creed set a boundary. The Creed defined what was in and what was out. For Anglicans, the Creed is of the highest authority (BCP, p. 877). In general, however, theological boundaries are subject to error since the church is subject to error (Article XIX). This means that although church boundaries are necessary, they are fallible. Only God knows final Truth. We know Truth only in faith.

Boundaries, however, are only useful if enforced. But how? There is a tradition in Anglicanism that persons can only be excluded from the church if, to quote the old Prayer Book, they lead "an evil and notorious life." Two points here. First, the term "evil" means that boundaries have been violated. Secondly, these violations are public, they are notorious. Everyone violates Christian norms, but some do so publicly, claiming themselves in the right. These persons are to be excluded until they repent.

In my view, our church is losing its boundaries. This is a fallible theological judgment, but I think bishop Spong has been making public statements that deny the faith for years, and he does so with impunity. Other bishops do as they wish on sensitive issues. Some in the church would deny all boundaries whatsoever, simply claiming inclusivity and nothing more. This can lead to no good end. Edwin Friedmann, the author of Generation to Generation, once remarked that an institution without boundaries is like an organism without an immune system. That is where we are headed today. (Plenteous Harvest, November, 1998.)

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Inclusive Yet Bounded

Anglicanism