{"id":127,"date":"2009-01-08T09:38:07","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T09:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html"},"modified":"2009-01-08T09:38:07","modified_gmt":"2009-01-08T09:38:07","slug":"who-decides-orthodoxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html","title":{"rendered":"Who Decides Orthodoxy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I posted about the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/is-the-trinity-optional.html\">optionality of the Trinity<\/a>.&nbsp; A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.&nbsp; And that brings me to my thought for the day: <b>I think those of us committed to the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Social_web\">social web<\/a> will become the new <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magisterium\">magisterium<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Church historians will tell you that we had <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Apostolic Period (29 &#8211; c.100) <\/li>\n<li>The Patristic Period (c.100 &#8211; 325)<\/li>\n<li>The Conciliar Period (325 &#8211; 787)<\/li>\n<li>The Holy Roman Empire\/Scholasticism (754 &#8211; 1309)<\/li>\n<li>Babel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prior to Babel, there was relative consensus &#8212; though <i>not unanimity<\/i> &#8212; <\/p>\n<p>Babel happened for a couple different reasons, most notably the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Papal_schism\">papal schisms of 1378-1417<\/a>, followed by the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Protestant_Reformation\">Reformation<\/a> a century later.&nbsp; Since then it&#8217;s been schism after schism, with each schismatic group deeming all other groups unorthodox.&nbsp; Protestants consider Catholics heretical for praying to Mary or believing that the sacraments exclusively impart real grace.&nbsp; Catholics consider Protestants heretical for breaking from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apostolic_succession\">apostolic succession<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And internecine schisms are the order of the day.&nbsp; The Vatican recently silenced a Jesuit theologian who has written a book attempting &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline3.org\/drupal\/?q=node\/3046\">to express traditional doctrines about Christ and salvation in a language appropriate to postmodern culture<\/a>.&#8221;&nbsp; Meanwhile, a Southern Baptist who does not adhere to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inerrancy\">biblical inerrancy<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/12\/broken-communion.html\">feels unwelcome at the communion table with his co-religionists<\/a>.&nbsp; The last century has been one of each brand of Christianity sinking deeper into their own echo chambers.&nbsp; Attempts at ecumenism have been futile.<\/p>\n<p>But the social web promises to change all of that.&nbsp; Christians are climbing out of their denominational silos and listening to Christians of other flavors.&nbsp; Some are even (gasp!) listening to the wisdom of other religions.<\/p>\n<p><b>I really do think that we&#8217;ll enter a new age of theological discussion and even consensus, and it will be made possible by new media.<br \/>&nbsp; <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I posted about the optionality of the Trinity.&nbsp; A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.&nbsp; And that brings me to my thought for the day: I think those of us committed to the social web will become the new magisterium. Church historians will tell you that we had The Apostolic Period&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-church","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Decides Orthodoxy? - The New Christians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who Decides Orthodoxy? - The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday I posted about the optionality of the Trinity.&nbsp; A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.&nbsp; And that brings me to my thought for the day: I think those of us committed to the social web will become the new magisterium. Church historians will tell you that we had The Apostolic Period&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The New Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-08T09:38:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Who Decides Orthodoxy? - The New Christians","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Who Decides Orthodoxy? - The New Christians","og_description":"Yesterday I posted about the optionality of the Trinity.&nbsp; A good debate ensued, which is exactly what I hoped.&nbsp; And that brings me to my thought for the day: I think those of us committed to the social web will become the new magisterium. Church historians will tell you that we had The Apostolic Period&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html","og_site_name":"The New Christians","article_published_time":"2009-01-08T09:38:07+00:00","author":"Tony Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html","name":"Who Decides Orthodoxy? - The New Christians","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-08T09:38:07+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-08T09:38:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/a5d6dffe0f41c25b4bd8136be22c4074"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/2009\/01\/who-decides-orthodoxy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Who Decides Orthodoxy?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/","name":"The New Christians","description":"Tony Jones on Christianity and the Emerging Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/a5d6dffe0f41c25b4bd8136be22c4074","name":"Tony Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d50\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d50\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30x96.jpg","caption":"Tony Jones"},"description":"Tony Jones is the author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and several other books on Christianity and prayer.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/author\/tjones"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}