Wisdom for the Church in an Age of Division
RICHARD LINTS
Uncommon Unity: Wisdom for the Church in an Age of Division
Copyright 2022 Richard Lints
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Print ISBN 9781683596417
Digital ISBN 9781683596424
Library of Congress Control Number 2022937649
Lexham Editorial: Elliot Ritzema, Jeff Reimer, Allie Boman, Mandi Newell
Cover Design: Jim LePage, Brittany Schrock
To Brannin and Tanya, whose lives exemplify the gracious and generous wisdom of the gospel at the heart of this book
Foreword by Timothy Keller
Making Sense of Our Differences
The Inclusion Narrative of Democracy
The Sacred and Secular Dimensions of Diversity
The Pluralist Impulse and Plural Identities
Personal Identity and the Differences That Make a Difference
The Diverse Stories of the Church’s Diversity
The Diversity of a Unified Mission
Diverse Communities and the Contextualizing of Diversity
The Wisdom of Diversity and the Diversity of Wisdom
by Timothy Keller
The US church today stands in the midst of a maelstrom of conflict over e pluribus unum—unity and diversity. How can people who have been historically excluded and marginalized be genuinely included? How can the disempowered be empowered?
The great paradox is that the very motto, “out of many, one,” is judged now to have been a failure. And indeed, how could that slogan, which was the nation’s unofficial motto from the time it was put on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782, have ever been taken seriously when over 15 percent of its entire population was enslaved at the time?
Nevertheless, what Rick Lints here calls “the inclusion narrative of democracy” is still the only instrument our secular society has with which to address this problem. This narrative was quite radical in its day, because it held that governing authority did not flow from the governing to the governed, but the other way around—government by common consent.
But while statements in our founding documents—such as all persons being “created equal”—gestured toward belief in moral norms and absolutes that were to be honored by all, the reality on the ground was ...
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About Uncommon Unity: Wisdom for the Church in an Age of DivisionReal unity through diversity. Our world is facing increasing hostilities. Political and cultural differences rage, even among people who otherwise show goodwill. And the church is no stranger to extreme polarization, theological backbiting, and political squabbling. Jesus’s prayer in John 17—that the church be one as he and the Father are one—seems increasingly unattainable. But what if Scripture actually provides the key for thinking about unity in diversity? In Uncommon Unity: Wisdom for the Church in an Age of Division, Richard Lints explores the nature of diversity and how Christians can think more clearly about unity in an increasingly polarized age. Drawing on theological, historical, and sociological resources, Lints exposes problems with the inclusion narrative of democracy and shows a better way forward for fostering unity in the midst of extreme diversity. If we are to think rightly about diversity, wisdom is required for the church in our late modern world. Through wisdom, Christians can display real unity in diversity and bear witness of the God who made them for himself as diverse members of his one body. Readers of Uncommon Unity will be heartened that Scripture and Christian tradition provide an antidote to division. |
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