Post-Christianity
Dan Harper has begun a series on "Post-Christian worship" which can be found here. His definition of "post-Christian" is within that post and also on another page. I’m enjoying the discussion and looking forward to more. I used to call myself "post-Christian" and then dropped it altogether in favor of "religious humanist." I’ve had a similar discussion about the term "ex-gay", which is a different phenomenon, but yet overlaps in terms of this question–when does the "ex-gay" say they are "heterosexual" and drop the reference to their past?
Dan’s discussion makes the historical point about our emerging out of the Reformation–but yet, just as Greeley might not have realized (with Jesus) that he was founding a new religion, the question becomes whether those labels are helpful in orienting us. Christians at some point began to loosen their ties to Judaism and see themselves very separately. (Of course, there’s a whole realm of historical criticism devoted to this topic–my point is simply that the shift occurred, somehow and sometime!)
I think the other question would be whether there is a difference between post-Christian as an individual moniker and a description of an entire movement. Obviously, some UUs aren’t "post-Christian", even though they might be part of a post-Christian movement. What is the difference in how the term is understood in those two contexts? I’m hypothesizing that for individuals, it’s more about moving beyond what came before, whereas for organizations, it may emphasize the tie to the past in a constructive manner, as Dan says:
a post-Christian position can be seen as continuing in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation, by taking what is perceived as the best of the Christian tradition while rejecting certain aspects of the tradition which are seen as non-essential. Thus, the post-Christian position retains a connection with Christian tradition, but moves outside some common definitions of what it means to be Christian.
Image: Created by John Keasler based on the Paint Branch UU chalice