Defined By Our Theology, Not Critical Theory

by Heidelblog on July 25, 2022

Yet perhaps one of the reasons why so many people—including Christians—have been drawn to forms of critical theory and their activism is that at times they see a lack of love and mercy in the church and abuses by those in positions of power who have used their station for evil rather than for good. In the place of fervent love and action, some see spiritual apathy and indifference. In the place of compassion, they see complacency. It may be the case that we love our own, but that, too, can be just one comfortable step away from only loving ourselves, while the needs of the “stranger in our midst” often go unnoticed and unattended. As Dr. Sproul noted, “If we reject either the ministry of personal redemption or of mercy to the afflicted, we express ‘unbelief.’ ”30 The world performs sins of commission—they do the things that Scripture says they ought not to do—and we rightly call them out. But the church can at times also be guilty of the sin of omission—failing to do the acts of righteousness, justice, and mercy that Scripture calls us to do as well.

There is a certain and profound sense in which the church does not need critical theory and its many sophisticated, anti-Christian offshoots. Many are being confused by it and led astray. The Bible already tells us to love all those who bear the image of God—black and white, male and female, born and unborn—all are members of the human race and are worthy of our protection, honor, and respect. These imperatives derive from a Christian worldview and are an outworking of a biblical theology of creation, the fall, redemption, and the church. Our theology and who we are in Christ (not critical theory) define how we should view and treat other people in the world. Read more»

Eric Watkins | “Christianity or Critical Theory?” | October 14, 2021

Endnotes

30. R.C. Sproul, “Do We Believe the Whole Gospel?” Ligonier.org, December 1, 2010.

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