Robin Meyers: "UNDONE: Faith as Resistance to Orthodoxy" - Beecher Lecture II

The second of three Beecher Lectures by Robin R. Meyers: "UNDONE: Faith as Resistance to Orthodoxy." Is Christianity a way of life, or a belief system held in place by creeds and doctrines demanding intellectual assent to theological propositions? Does following Jesus represent a more authentic model for discipleship than worshiping Christ, or can the two be separated at all? Is the polarity of orthodoxy and heresy, so common since the fourth century and so deadly, an imposed dichotomy that represents a misunderstanding of the early church and a perversion of the earthly ministry of Jesus? Outside of the Academy, most Christians answer the question, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" by listing certain non-negotiable "beliefs"--truth claims about the metaphysical nature of Jesus and his fulfillment of a divine plan of salvation. Yet many of the most troublesome and divisive doctrines are entirely the post-biblical creation of the institutional church that reverse the anti-institutional ministry of Jesus. There can be no renewal of the church based on the attempt to revive the dying corpse of a "body of believers." From this illusion we must be "undone." In this and every age, preaching, teaching, and modeling orthopraxy, not orthodoxy, offers the only hope of resurrection.
The three 2013 Lyman Beecher Lectures, given by Meyers, are entitled "UNDONE: Faith as Resistance to Ego, Orthodoxy, and Empire." Instead of conceiving of the church as an institution that promotes faith as a belief system, defending doctrinal claims as essential to salvation and good works, UCC pastor and author Robin Meyers will make the case that the Jesus Movement was in the beginning, and must be again, a Beloved Community of Resistance. Confronting our illusions with help from Kierkegaard, and drawing the poetry of Anna Kamienska, each lectures will focus on three areas that demand resistance: ministry as performance (ego), ministry as right belief and worship (orthodoxy), and ministry as sentimental surrender to the status quo (Empire).
For more information on Meyers, visit robinmeyers.com.