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6 The Church as a Teaching Community
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Published:March 2000
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Abstract
Whereas Judaism and Islam seek, generally speaking, to bring the world under the law of God, and Buddhism and Hinduism seek, on the whole, to renounce the world, it is typical of Christian faith to set up a tension between the religious community and the world which is both critical and putatively transformative. There have, it is true, been many attempts to set up a Christian state, but a key part of the tradition is that ‘the world’ is fallen, that ‘you cannot serve both God and Mammon’, and that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world.2 There have been Christian attempts to renounce the world, but the central doctrine of incarnation gives a value to earthly life that is hard to gainsay, and the hope for a renewal of the world by the Spirit of God is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching.
So, on the one hand, the world is corrupt, and the faithful are called out of the world to live in Christ, whom the world crucified.’ On the other hand, the world is created, indwelt, and redeemed by God, and the faithful are called to a ministry of reconciling the world to God.’1 This ambiguity enters into the heart of the Christian community itself. The faithful remain as part of the world, so that their community is one of sinners who stand before God to plead forgive ness. Yet the community of faith is called to be a community of saints, of those who are sanctified by the Spirit, and commanded to be a light to those in darkness.
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