You scored as Modern Liberal. You are a Modern Liberal. Science and historical study have shown so much of the Bible to be unreliable and that conservative faith has made Jesus out to be a much bigger deal than he actually was. Discipleship involves continuing to preach and practice Jesus' measure of love and acceptance, and dogma is not important in today's world. You are influenced by thinkers like Bultmann and Bishop Spong.
Modern Liberal | 82% | ||
Emergent/Postmodern | 79% | ||
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan | 71% | ||
Classical Liberal | 68% | ||
Roman Catholic | 46% | ||
Neo orthodox | 46% | ||
Charismatic/Pentecostal | 36% | ||
Reformed Evangelical | 11% | ||
Fundamentalist | 0% |
What's your theological worldview?
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10 comments:
I'm not surprised that I scored as a Roman Catholic, but I am surprised that they don't have a way to distinguish between different types of Roman Catholic -- especially since, as you might imagine Chris, obedience to the pope did not get a "strongly agree" rating from me.
I would have it expressed as "You are a wafer-chewing, Ave-mumbling, incense-sniffing, Holy Water-dipping papist."
So, Liam, you don't feel strongly about that or anything, do you?
Here's mine:
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
I can pretty much go along with all of this. This quiz pegged me pretty well.
I think that there are a couple of problems with the quiz. First off, there are not enough categories - though that's a problem with every quiz. That's not as big a problem for Protestants, but there is no distinction made between, say, Liam's form of Catholicism and, say, Mel Gibson's form of Catholicism, an obvious deficiency.
Secondly - and this is why I think that the quiz misidentified me - there is no distinction made between beliefs held and the priorty of those beliefs. As such, while my beliefs often coincide with the beliefs of modern liberals, those beliefs which coincide with the tennants of modern liberalism are not as important for me as the points of emphasis in the Postmodern/Emergent paradigm.
As such, someone like Marcus Borg, the poster-child of the Emergent paradigm, might carry the same label as someone like John Shelby Spong. This is because their beliefs, though not (more importantly) their vision of the church or the nature of the spiritual life, are very similar.
The quiz fails to account for the fact that theology is more than just a list of beliefs.
That said, it is the best such quiz I've seen. On that I agree with both Tom and Tyler.
I think it's better than a lot of these kind of quizzes, but like I said, it doesn't really define me more than the obvious brand name.
It also makes me wonder what a "theological worldview" is for the person. Are ecclesiological (the role of the pope), devotional (Mary) and liturgical (tradition) questions necessarily "theological"?
Mine were...
Emergent/Postmodern 79%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71%
Classical Liberal 68%
Modern Liberal 61%
Roman Catholic 54%
Neo orthodox 50%
Reformed Evangelical 46%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 25%
Fundamentalist 4%
If you'll notice, "Reformed Evangelical" was SEVENTH. Should I be rethinking my denominational ties?
Liam,
I think that those questions (ecclesiological, devotional and liturgical) are theological questions, because I think that theology goes beyond the nature of God (which is impossible to know or describe) to the divine-human relationship. How we structure our church, our devotional life, and our liturgy speak to how we approach our relationship with God, and should be a part of our theological reflections. That, in fact, is one thing I really liked about this quiz. It was, of course, too propositional in nature, but that's just the nature of quizes. Within that propositional content, however, there was a great range of topics, going far beyond metaphysics, into more practical (as in, pertaining to practice rather than pragmatic) theology.
Amy,
Your theological worldview (and remember, this quiz can only determine that in a very limited way) should not determine your denominational affiliation, though it should inform your relationship with your denomination. In my experience, denominations are at least as political as they are theological, anyway. They are an alliance with some common ground and common goals, but they are never uniform in their views, interests, or approach. If they were, I doubt I would be able to find a denomination that would tolerate me even in my lay connection.
In other words, "No, you should not be rethinking your denominational ties." But I doubt you needed me to tell you that.
Chris,
Thanks. As you guessed, I wasn't quite serious about changing denominations over a test.
Tyler,
I'm already doing field ed at "First Church of Christ, Panentheist," masquerading as Presbyterian. You should see what goes on in our worship committee meetings! Last month, we spoke for nearly half an hour about the Buddhist practice of Tung Glen and "being like a willow tree." Gosh, it's a kick in the pants...
BTW, as an attempt to redeem myself, I took the "What Theologian Are You?" test written by the same guy. I've got my results posted below. There's a serious lack of those who are not Men from the Global North in the options. Apparently, I'm tied between Schleiermacher and Calvin. I knew there was a reason I still cling to the Presbyerians!
Friedrich Schleiermacher 87%
John Calvin 87%
Jurgen Moltmann 80%
Anselm 60%
Karl Barth 47%
Paul Tillich 40%
Charles Finney 33%
Martin Luther 27%
Augustine 27%
Jonathan Edwards 20%
Not only don't they distinguish between different types of Roman Catholic, but they don't distinguish between Roman Catholics and Evangelical Wesleyan/Holiness on the one hand, and Orthodox on the other.
Not to mention the total absence of liberation theology, feminist theology, Zionism and many more.
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