In Christian thought, Charity is the highest form of love. It describes the love between God and man that manifests itself in our actions in the form of unselfish love of and for others. The Apostle Paul’s unambiguous description of this love, this charity, can be found in 1 Corinthians 13.
Many of us have heard this passage so often it has become just a good list of suggestions on how to be nice to someone else, for others, it has become rote or, worse yet, a list of things we only really have to do if it has a reciprocal benefit to us.
Saint Augustine defined Charity as “our affections perfectly ordered.” And Saint Thomas Aquinas went so far as to define it as “the root or foundation” of all other Christian virtues.
In 1626, German Theologian Rupertus Meldenius penned the words “if we might keep in necessary things Unity, in unnecessary things Freedom, and in both Charity, our affairs would certainly be in the best condition.“
I wholeheartedly agree.
But fun fact: He wasn’t the first to say something like this. Quite often, the quote is misattributed to Saint Augustine… but he is not the author either. The original author of this quote appears to be Marco Antonio de Dominis, who was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Spalato.
De Dominis has quite a spotty history with the Church, apostatizing from the Roman Catholic church, moving to England, only to return to Rome with fervent support for the Pope, only to apostatize from the Roman Catholic church again after the death of the Pope.
So, ironically, the person to have penned a rather inspiring anecdote in pursuit of unity in the broader body of believers was also someone who by any observable standard was radically unable to walk in unity with anyone, being declared a heretic on multiple occasions by both the Protestant and Catholic churches.
But let’s consider the words of Holy Scripture.
The Psalms tell us that when brothers dwell in unity it is like precious oil, or the dew that falls on the mountains of Zion1. In the New Testament, Jesus himself tells us that the world will know that we are His disciples by the way we love one another2. Later, St. Paul tells us to be like-minded and to do nothing out of selfish ambition, but rather in humility, to count others more significant than ourselves3. This is what true unity looks like.
Oftentimes we can get bogged down in distinguishing essential things from non-essential4, and regrettably, we do it more often than not in public spaces with the whole world watching, and yet, we wonder why, after watching the religious equivalent of a screaming match in a supermarket, becoming a Christian looks oh so unpalatable to the outside world. I’ll refer you back to the passage in John’s gospel and humbly submit to you that when we are arguing in the public sphere, we are doing the opposite of loving one another.
Ok. So where am I going with this?
I want to be clear about what The Bothland is, is not, and the tone with which I intend to speak and write as The Bothland grows over time.
First, I’m here to wrestle with and reflect on my own faith journey, taking whatever preconceived notions I have and holding them up in submission to the Scriptures, being willing to reform and reshape my life accordingly. If you can see or find yourself in my story, wrestling, and reflection — even in the smallest of ways — and be encouraged by it to continue to press on toward Christ, the exercise will have proved even more worthwhile than I could have imagined it would be.
Second, I’m not here to “heresy hunt”, or “expose” false teachers (see the screaming match in the supermarket) so if that’s what you thought you’d find here, I’m terribly sorry. The back button in your browser should be somewhere in the top left corner, but I would encourage you to stick around and give the pursuit of unity a try.
To be clear, I’m not afraid to speak up when I think something doesn’t line up with Scripture. We can (and should) test everything we hear and experience against the Word of God5. But I’m just not convinced that the exercise of “heresy hunting” is profitable for the ordinary believer6 to engage with — what is the point in speaking the truth without love?7
To use an example, bank tellers interact with authentic bills so much so that spotting a counterfeit is an easy enterprise, and so I think the proper question for believers is: “Do I know God and His word well enough that to distinguish between the wolves in sheep’s clothing and my Shepherd — or to distinguish between the things that draw me towards the desires of the flesh and away from the love of God and Christ Himself — would be as plain as a counterfeit bill is to a bank teller?”
Look, I’m an armchair theologian at best. The only person you should put the fullness of your trust in is Jesus8. The Bothland exists to point people to Him, encouraging them to look to Christ and His Word for the ultimate rule and standard of what the life of Faith looks like.9
Our aim should be to rightly divide the Word of Truth, not fracture the Body of Christ.
Lastly, I have been a part of a large number of different Christian traditions, and though I have some very strong points of difference with many of the traditions I am no longer a part of, my goal is to speak favourably of them in the areas where our perspectives intersect in agreement, as well as the areas where they may run parallel to each other with minor points of difference. Even more than that, though, I am going to endeavour to speak accurately, charitably, generously, gently, and graciously of them in the areas where I have a strong point of difference.
Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s circle back to Marco Antonio.
We can all agree that he isn’t the poster child for Christian unity, but let’s be honest… none of us are. Even throughout our Bible, great care is taken to tarnish the reputation of every single individual except Jesus. But just because none of us actually hits the mark one hundred percent of the time doesn’t mean that it’s a worthless pursuit to aim for unity in the essentials of our faith (more on those another time), or to make room for liberty in areas that are non-essential, or to be charitable and gracious to others in all things.
The umbrella of Orthodoxy is larger than we think and covers a broad range of Christian traditions and perspectives. We would do well to try and love one another and make room for as many of our differences as the Scriptures allow, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (For) there is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.“10
The Bothland 