Sunday, October 9, 2011

Summer and Winter Christians

Read this: Summer and Winter Christians by Richard Beck

It's a great essay. Richard Beck says many people see Christian faith on a one-axis model: if you're Christian, you don't complain, and if you're not, you do. Beck prefers a two-axis model where faith and complaint are different dimensions. He calls high faith with low complaint "Summer Christians", high faith with high complaint "Winter Christians", low faith with high complaint "Spiritual Critics", and low faith with low complaint "Disengaged Believers".

I'm a Winter Christian. Maybe it's me getting older and more bitter. I can't understand Summer Christians at all, but I like being around them. I can understand Spiritual Critics well altho I think some of them use their complaints as an excuse not to go to church. As for Disengaged Believers, I was one once. When I didn't go to church regularly I didn't complain about it.

I can't say anything else he didn't say better, so read his essay.

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