What's your theological worldview?

Well, I am depressed.  Take the quiz.

You scored as a Roman Catholic

You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.

Roman Catholic 75% Emergent/Postmodern 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Neo orthodox 64% Modern Liberal 46% Classical Liberal 32% Charismatic/Pentecostal 25% Reformed Evangelical 21% Fundamentalist 4%

I can kind of see it, especially if you "moosh" postmodern into it.  But jeez, I thought I'd be more liberal.  Plus, where does that 4% fundie come in?  I thought the neo-orthodox bit might be higher too, but then I slammed Karl Barth on one of the questions so that probably knocked my neo-orthodox score down.  (I share Bonhoeffer's critique of Barth, which is that, after you've taken such a strong position on the sovereignty of God, what else do you really have to say?

As to the description, I wouldn't say that I think tradition and ecclesial authority is hugely important--a simple "important" will do here, with the caveat that a person ought to be ready to flout ecclesiastical authority should the situation call for it.  I don't recall ever saying that Mary was the Mother of God on this quiz, although I do, actually, believe that.  When Mary became de rigeur among my fellow protestants, I moved on to take a greater interest in Mary Magdalene, Jesus' girlfriend.

Comments

[Dan Hays]

Thanks, John, for the link. I tested out highest at Emergent/Postmodern-82% with Roman Catholic a close second at 79%. You've got a bit more Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan in you than I do, but we're pretty close on the liberal categories. For some reason, I peg 39% on the Charismatic/Pentecostal meter. Maybe it's because I'm in contact with Pentecostals on a regular basis here. Or I'm just beginning to get in touch with my inner Holy Roller.

[Chris]

I took the quiz and posted it over at my blog . . . who knew I was a Holiness guy?

[John Petty]

My two highs were RC and postmodern, which, I got to thinking later, kind of made sense. If you "mooshed" an RC and a postmodern, you might very well get a Lutheran.

Chris, I had that weird "holiness" thing going on too--a bit less than you, but still pretty high.

Interesting that none of us liberals were all that liberal theologically. A Catholic bishop friend of mine once described himself as "a theological conservative and a social justice liberal." I can identify with that.

[Andy]

I had the same order as you except I had classical liberal above modern liberal, and I was slightly higher (79%) on both Catholic and postmodern. I agree that Lutheran makes sense as a cross between postmodern and Catholic.

I was curious about your answer to this question:

"Bishop Spong is an important theologian who should be taken seriously"

I had to disagree with that, not because I think he's an arch-heretic, but because I just don't think he's an important theologian. In fact, I'm not even sure I'd call him a theologian. He strikes me more as...I want to say something like social activist, but that's not right...I think maybe the best way to describe him is as an evangelist, much as that would irk his detractors.

Anyway, if I recall correctly, you're a fan, right? So I was curious to hear what you thought.

[John Petty]

I think I said, "Agree slightly." I don't think he's a major theologian, but I could go with something like "teacher." Frankly, Spong mostly says what I learned in seminary. He just doesn't fudge about it like the rest of us do.