The search for home

I have read the Preface and Chapter 1 of Richard Nenneman’s book The New Birth of Christianity. 

The writing is somewhat complex, and it lacks a rhythm to help the reader find flow in the text. Nevertheless, the topic is an important one - What is the place of Christianity in today’s world, and more particularly, what is the place of Christian Science in today's world?

Some of Nenneman’s basic points are put attractively, e.g. that, like Nicodemus (John 3: 1-13), we all need to seek the answer to how to be born again and thus find a true sense of home. That home the author describes as “that inner place of spiritual peace where we can gather the strength, intelligence, and grace to meet life’s challenges” (p. 12).  A nice description!  He posits that modern scientific discovery will never satisfy that need; that medicine and psychology might seem to have usurped spirituality as the answer to all our troubles, but that there remains that need for spiritual answers to life’s deepest questions.

The core element of Christianity, Mr. Nenneman says, is in looking at and living life from a spiritual standpoint. But he is concerned that these days much of Christianity no longer concerns itself with practice so much as with a system of beliefs. This has weighted it down.

Another trend he identifies is that Christianity has become merely an ethical system, devoid of spiritual force. Many of the Christian churches’ primary involvement is in social justice, while the core elements of Jesus’ Christianity are neglected: how to exercise mental discipline, how to manage relationships with others, and how to manage health.

These are valid questions. So let’s see how they are developed in subsequent chapters.

Marie Fox