Preface


     

Charles Hedrick (the author of these essays) is, in no particular order

• An elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA)
• Moderator of the Usenet news group soc.religion.christian
• University Director of Campus Computing Services and Chief Technical Officer at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey [provided for identification only; Rutgers University has no responsibility for the views presented here]

(I am not Charles W. Hedrick. He is a scholar who has become involved with the "secret Mark" problem. I've had a few people assume that I'm the same person.)

In reading this set of essays it is probably useful to know that I place myself as part of the Reformed tradition. My views are closely based on by John Calvin's, to the extent that the position I describe as "Protestant" is typically my interpretation (or in some cases, reinterpretation) of Calvin.

In doing this reinterpretation, I have been influenced by the personalist approach of 20th Century writers such as Emil Brunner. In a number of matters of detail, I have made use of works by Alister McGrath (although he certainly isn't responsible for these essays).

I hold all of the classic Protestant doctrines, but don't necessarily express them precisely as Calvin would have.

I am not precisely a fundamentalist. I believe that the Bible is reliable, but not necessarily inerrant. That is, I believe it is the result of honest and competent human beings recording events and insights that were given by God as revelation. I do not accept the radical scepticism that seems to have overtaken much of Biblical scholarship in the 20th Century.

This set of essays was originally intended to be as unbiased a presentation of Christianity as I could arrange. It was to be modeled after C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity". I started it when I realized that there didn't seem to be any good introduction to Christianity available on the Internet. There are plenty of "apologetics" sites, but they all seem to be attacking some rival brand of Christianity, rather than trying to explain Christianity for non-Christians.

However in the course of writing, my purposes have changed slightly. I found that it was impossible to produce a balanced presentation of several different options, and also write something that hopes to be convincing. As a matter of practicality, I ended up presenting my own position, although in as broad a way as I can. Where there were alternatives that I considered significant, I then describe them with as little heat as possible.

I also found that I wanted to present a bit more "technical" theology than Lewis did in "Mere Christianity". This is partly because I am more interested in doctrine than I believe he was. But it is also become these documents are intended as an orientation to the most important subjects that are discussed in soc.religion.christian. Those subjects are often somewhat more technical than "mere Christianity".

For someone who is willing to locate and read a book or two, I have three suggestions:

• The classic presentation of Christianity for non-Christians is still C. S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity". It gives a good feel for what Christianity is about. However it does not emphasize theological detail.
• For an introduction to theology, I recommend Alister McGrath's "Christian Theology: An Introduction". This book is intended as a college text for a one-semester course in theology aimed at students who do not necessarily have any background in Christianity.
• For those who are interested in the arguments for and against Christianity, I recommend Kreeft and Tacelli, "Handbook of Christian Apologetics". This summarizes the arguments for and against Christianity in many of the most important areas.

Of course anyone who wants to know what Christianity is about should also read at least one of the Gospels. Since Christianity is about following Jesus, there's really no substitute for reading his life and teachings. If you want to read just one Gospel, I'm inclined to suggest Luke. If you're willing to read a second book ("books" of the Bible aren't very long -- they're more like chapters), I would suggest the Acts.

The treatment here is probably the most complete for the Reformed viewpoint. I believe the coverage of Catholic views is also fairly good, except for a set of issues that I'll mention below. I have tried to describe other Protestants views, to the extent that I know them. While I know the "generic evangelical" positions fairly well, there are going to be some areas (particularly involving the Lutheran tradition) where this coverage is going to fall short. There is virtually no attempt to present the Orthodox viewpoint, because I don't know it. The Orthodox Church in America homepage appears to contain a good presentation of the Orthodox faith.

While these pages present many of the differences between the Protestant and Catholic views, I do not currently cover the role of the saints and Mary. This is one of the areas in which Catholic / Protestant disagreement is most serious. I am considering a section dealing with it.

The section on Christian worship probably needs to include more details on various issues involving the sacraments.

Next: What are major Christian beliefs?