So far we have looked at the issue of a culturally “relevant” Christianity that has nothing to do with the Church, that is, the fullness of Christ, Who is all in all.

Cultural Christianity, which is not the same thing as denominationalism, shares something in common with Islam. Both struggle against forces of division that have been internalised to such an extent that they are no longer distinguishable from the genuine article (thus we have liberal or conservative churches), and so, the symbols of Nicea become a better starting point.

The Muslim tradition emerged in the 7th Century as an attempt to merge the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Gospel into a more culturally acceptable form. This proved to be something of a double edged sword, for though the Islamic world experienced renaissance in the short term, it also served to isolate Muslims from a deeper understanding of themselves in the context of the unfolding of history, that is, in the long term.

In the Muslim tradition though Jesus is seen only as a messenger, He is looked upon with far more reverence than in many nominally Christian countries. Islamic countries have not, for instance, embraced abortion as a wholesale solution to the family planning “problem”. Both are fairly modern inventions. Large families only became an issue in the developed West when net wealth and consumption for it’s own sake become values to be pursued in themselves, but abortion is only one manifestation of man’s estrangement from God.

In Islam, as in Judaism, good works are the chief means by which the sinner is expected to draw himself closer to God, and the foremost of these is prayer (Jadeed, 1982):

“Establish worship at the two ends of the day, and some time in the night. Lo! Good deeds annul evil deeds.” (Sura 11:114)

Muslims do not believe Jesus to have been crucified and consequently, there is no requirement for Him to have been resurrected, although His ascension is an article of faith. The Church’s position on prayer (which defines who we are) is radically different to Islam’s because it’s position on who Christ is radically different.

Like Islam, the Church understands perfectly that God is not limited by natural law. But to the Church, man remains “unborn” in the (real) spiritual sense if he lives outside the Body of Christ the Church, since he is only given a conceptual idea of what qualities God might possess, at his natural birth.

Consequently prayer and the authentic spiritual life is something that can only be fully attained in the context of a Christ who has gone ahead and abides in the presence of God. This is why the resurrection is at the centre of the Church, and why God manifests Himself in all fullness in it.

Notes. This post has been edited since being first published on the 8th November 2008. Authenticity in the spiritual life does need to be defined, this will be the subject of a later post.