Dave Andrews

Paul Hiebert, Professor of Anthropology at Fuller Theological Seminary, raised the alarm about the dangerous implications of what he called, ‘Bounded Set’ Religion. ‘What happens,’ Hiebert asks, ‘if we define our “religion” in terms of a “Bounded Set”?’

Firstly, we tend to distort the meaning of what it means to be a ‘Christian’ or a ‘Muslim’. Being a ‘Christian’ or a ‘Muslim’ is essentially a matter of the heart. But ‘because we cannot see into the hearts of people’, we make a working definition, based on what ‘we can see or hear – namely tests of orthodoxy (right beliefs), or orthopraxy (right behaviour)’. So we make our working definition, essentially a heartless one!

Secondly, we tend to distort our understanding of the relationship between ‘Christians’, and ‘Muslims’. The two categories of people are ‘sharply differentiated’. Because ‘to have an unclear boundary is to undermine the very concept of “Christian” (or “Muslim”) itself.’ So, we have one set of people who are ‘Christians’ who, by definition, are ‘Not Muslims’; and another set of people who are ‘Muslims’, who, by definition, are ‘Not-Christians’. There is no place for anyone in between. Not even God.

Dave Andrews p73 The Jihad Of Jesus http://bit.ly/1CedNDX