Middle ground

Christian Century, July 27, 2004

MIDDLE GROUND: The late Hans W. Frei once said that what the church needs is a "generous orthodoxy," theology that is part liberal like the CHRISTIAN CENTURY and part evangelical like Christianity Today." He averred that he didn't "know if there is a voice between those two," but "if there is, I would like to pursue it." Kathryn Green-McCreight points out that Frei never defined the term "generous orthodoxy," so she offered her own description.

Orthodoxy is a trinitarian rule of faith that explains how the story told in scripture in component parts is to be arranged. A generous orthodoxy "is the willingness to give another voice airtime, the willingness and openness to test without immediate charge of wrongdoing, wrong doctrine, or incipient schism. Here, 'generous' means that we are to live together in Christlike submission to the other, which in itself at times like these can be a form of crucifixion" ("Feminist theology and a generous orthodoxy," Scottish Journal of Theology, 57/1,2004).