Christian Tribalism And Loyalties In A Super-Heated Culture War
By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog:
Published September 11, 2024
"As dangerous as this way of thinking is in secular-civil society, it is vastly more dangerous in the visible church, as suggested above from 1 Corinthians. The risk of tribalism in civil life is civil war and the loss of life and goods. The cost of tribalism in the church is spiritual. ...The noun tribe has no fewer than six senses in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).1 The first is the literal sense of a biological lineage—that is, a “group of people forming a community and claiming descent from a common ancestor; spec. each of the twelve divisions of the people of Israel, claiming descent from the twelve sons of Jacob.” That usage dates to the early fourteenth century. It covers other such groups (e.g., native American tribes). The roots of our English word are Latin. Tribus referred to one of the “traditional three political divisions or patrician orders of ancient Rome in early times” and later to “one of the 30 political divisions of the Roman people instituted by Servius Tullius.”2 The fourth use given by the OED is figurative: a “class of persons; a fraternity, set, lot. Now often contemptuous.”3
This last is the sense in view in this essay. Anyone who has read Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthian congregation is familiar with this sense of tribe:
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Cor 1:10–17)
The Corinthians, seduced by the self-described “Super Apostles” (2 Cor 11:5; which I discussed at length in the recent Heidelcast series “Feathers and All“), had voluntarily divided the congregation into ideological tribes and personality cults.4 We used to describe this sort of thing as factionalism. It is the original sense of schism and even heresy. The New Testament term schizo (σχίζω) means “to divide by use of force, split, divide, separate, tear apart, tear off.”5 The Greek root of our word heresy, haeresis (αἵρεσις) can signal a sect (an ideological group), but it an also signal “faction,” that is, a divisive group.6
Comments
Post a Comment
Welcome! Please feel free to comment, but anti-Christian comments or profanity will not be tolerated. Thank you, ed.