Barbeque the Bear!

‘Are you a heretic?’ I was asked from across the room.

I laughed. Oxford is a town that has burnt a few. Only the other day I walked across the X in the middle of Broad Street where Cramner breathed his last.

The questioner seemed to assume a continuum from orthodoxy to heresy. I prefer to think that there are a number of valid Christian theological positions on a variety of issues, each trying to be true to their time, culture, and inherent understandings. So, for example, the basic evangelical atonement theory [actually ‘theories’] while being a nonsense to someone like me does have sound historical and theological roots. Christianity must try its best to evade an international standardization that insists on everyone thinking the same.

‘Are you a heretic?’ The context of the question was my belief that the status of the afterlife did not change post 33 CE. In other words, I believe Joe Average who died in 33 BCE, before God and Jesus did the death and resurrection thing, was embraced after he died by the God called Love. Similarly, Josephine Average, who died in 50 CE, and who knew and believed in Jesus, was also embraced after death by the God called Love. God didn’t change. The nature of God didn’t change through the life death and resurrection of Jesus, rather it was revealed.

What do you think? Should I burn?