Salvation from dualism

This post is part of a series of posts on the topic of Salvation. Here is the introduction to the series.

Yesterday I was listening to an interview with Richard Rohr and he made an interesting comment. He talked about the idea of Salvation from dualism. Dualism is the idea of a state of opposites. For example good and evil, right and wrong, in and out, saved and non-saved.

Rohr, as a good Franciscan, was suggesting that a spirituality that engaged with the everyday freed us from the binary opposites of good and evil. It allowed us to see the world as a grey space. Spirituality is therefore about living in the grey and conversing with God as to a proper response, a proper lifestyle and an effective spirituality.

In Salvation Army parlance we too have striven to overcome the problem of a dualistic view of salvation. We had the term 'full salvation'. The concept being that it wasn't enough to suggest there were those who were in and those who were out. Of course being good Victorian evangelicals we had to have 'the line' of salvation, but there was a recognition that it wasn't enough. Those who were 'saved' needed to work towards a full salvation.

Rohr suggested that being saved from dualism meant that our Christian faith is no longer about a set of rules to follow. It is not about what is right and what is wrong. Spirituality, morality and ethics must be much more living and engaging than a static set of rules. For Rohr, following the ancient spiritual practices engages us in a spirituality of action and reflection based on engagement with the scripture. Through this process we are transformed because we are meeting God where God is at work in the world, not through following all the rules.

How do you overcome a dualistic faith?

What I read today:

Defined by things

Rescuing Darwinism

Fools rush in