What Part of Gentleness and Respect don’t You We Understand?
In the last blog in this series, I talked about how to engage in theological conversation or controversy, especially on the internet. In this blog post I want to take this one step further in talking about our attitude. In my opinion, one cannot underestimate the importance of having the right attitude. Chuck Swindoll says that life is about one-percent what happens to you and ninety-nine percent how we respond.
I often talk about the importance of having an irenic approach to doing theology. It would seem that this term, “irenic” is suffering because of its overuse and misidentification with those who would choose to abuse it. To be irenic means that we are peaceful in our approach to issues. This does not involve compromise, but a willingness to engage issues fairly.
Here are some of the characteristics to being irenic in theological conversation and controversy:
- You accurately represent all theological positions, even when you strongly oppose them.
- Your tone of engagement comes from a humble respectful attitude.
- Your primary goal is not to win an argument, but to contribute to understanding.
- Your defense of your position recognizes that strengths of the opposing side.
- You are gentle.
Here are two important Scripture references concerning how we are to engage in theological discussion irenically: Continue Reading »
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