Five Characteristics of New Testament Christianity by J.D.G. Dunn

J.  D. G. Dunn sees the New Testament Christianity as having five characteristics and goes on to draw out these implications based on those characteristics:

A Christianity that has lost all sense of newness, of what had only been hoped for being now realised, is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

A Christianity that cherishes no sense of intimate relation with God through Christ, that regards the Spirit as effectively shut up in the bible or confined to the church, and that treats experience of the Spirit as essentially threatening, is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

A Christianity that regards the maintenance of and faithfulness to tradition as its highest responsibility is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

A Christianity that can think of Church only as building and not as people and that is not seeking new ways to be the people of God, to be church, is no longer Christianity as defined by the New Testament.

A Christianity that defines itself less in terms of Christ and more in terms of ecclesiastical hierarchy and liturgically correct forms is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

Read more at https://abrahamsfootsteps.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/renewal-movements-reactionary-movements-being-church/

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