And They'll Know We Are Christians

Our seminar discussion today somehow ended up veering toward the question of whether or not a person can be a Christian without belonging / going to a church. I think we got onto the discussion through the idea that Kant and Mill were really successful at their project of getting people to think about themselves primarily as individuals, weaning them off the idea of turning first to group identity.

(This whole point is somewhat problematic since what we call ‘individuality’ is essentially an aggregate of claimed group identities, some of which are chosen and others not, and none of which are actually constructed by the person in question, being rather social-discursive entities. But I digress)

Anyway, so this is a question I’ve actually thought a lot about over the years, especially recently – given my loss of church-identity, as it were. I confess that it’s been pretty traumatic no longer having an identity to cling to, or point at, as the need arises. Now how do I explain all the random doctrinal biases I encounter in my own thoughts? Are they my thoughts? More to the point: how do I define myself as a Christian when I don’t belong to a church?

By virtue of the sacrament of baptism, all those baptized into the Christian faith find themselves incorporated into the Church universal – the body of Christ. This Church is, for all intents and purposes, invisible. It is how we are all united. De facto, everyone who is baptized belongs to the Church whether they like it or not.

However, the division between the ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ Church is somewhat glib, and close to Manichaeism in that it posits a duality (or dualism) that doesn’t exist. There is no ghost-like, disembodied invisible church floating around in the world, somehow there and not there, independent of visible reality. Rather, the invisible Church inheres in the visible churches. Of course, this renders churchless-Christianity problematic.

How to be Christian without participating in a church: is it possible? I guess it depends on how you define Christian identity. If Christianity is a static and permanent state of being induced, as it were, by being plunged into or sprinkled with water in some sort of initiation ritual invoking the Triune God, then actual church membership and participation is unnecessary for the living of Christian identity.

But I like to think of Christianity as a verb: it is something we do, something we live; it is our movement in the world and, yes, our interaction with the Church and her members. Insofar as the visible world still exists, and is our only access point to the invisible reality inhering in it, actual churches are important. So important, in fact, that without them we cannot be who we are, though we can of course pretend quite successfully.

So bring on the church(es)!!! Please excuse me while I go have a panic attack about my non-belongingness.