Re: change of mind

Jonathan Arm (jarm@rics.bwh.harvard.edu)
Tue, 23 Dec 1997 09:34:56 -0500

At 05:48 PM 12/22/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>Joel Cannon wrote:
>>>
>>> I was going to dispanse some wisdom concerning the debate but thought
>>> it might be a better time for self-reflection or even confession.
>>>
>>> One thing that struck me during the debate was the lack of
>>> acknowledgement of personal uncertainty (with the possible minor
>>> exception of Michael Ruse).
>
Paul Arveson replied:

>To me, one of the rarest and most fascinating of phenomena is when someone
>says 'I changed my mind'.
>
>According to some philosophies, this is impossible.
>
>How appropriate, then, that this is precisely what Christ demands of us --
>repentance. And not only once.
>
Thanks to Paul for this insight. I confess that had not put the concept of
repentance (metanoia, change of mind) in this context before. Quite a
revelation.

My question, then, is to why the evangelical church, to which I belong, is
so dogmatic. I understand that there are certain fundamentals that we do
not wish to give up - the atoning death of Christ, his bodily resurection,
etc. But we (though not many on this list) somtimes behave as though we
have absolute knowledge about everything - and that we should be ashamed if
we don't know God's mind about some matter that impacts our faith. I find
this hard. So my grateful thanks to Joel, George, Paul and others for
their helpful comments

Jonathan Arm