Introductory Rant

After a day of reading about different aspects of Christianity (such as its relation to Judaism, the influence of neoplatonism, and the history of ecclesiastical councils...) I found myself suddenly overwhelmed by the seemingly unending strings of theological thought and possibility. Reeling, I went to take a shower to collect my thoughts... I groaned in frustration. "How can anyone claim to adhere to anything? So much of what we follow is the result of arbitrary human decision! It all seems so subjective!"
And indeed it does. And as such, shouldn't it be studied in detail before it is affirmed by a believer? But then, how can anyone but the most studious theologian ever make an informed decision? How can someone say the Nicene creed without having studied the council's decisions and the "heresies" it tried to correct? Why do western branches of Christianity accept the christology offered by the council of Chalcedon, but not the oriental churches? Does it even matter? (To give you an idea of why is seems so petty sometimes: the council of Chalcedon established that the nature of Christ is both fully human and fully divine in separate natures. The Oriental Churches (not to be confused with the Eastern Church), who accepted the previous councils, rejected this conclusion however, stating that that Christ's divine and human nature are not separate, but that he is of one nature that is both equally divine and human. To me, it almost seems like a question of semantics, arbitrary and subjective). From there it all splinters. Every church, every council, every denomination... splinters of interpretation, every branch claiming to have that special insight... And most members not even knowing what it is that they stand for, what they believe.

It is in times like these that I hold orthodox Jews in highest regard. It is no wonder that they spend such great amounts of their youth in study, scrutinizing their scriptures and commentaries. In the end, their awareness of their beliefs at least justifies their faith. So many Christians have no clue why they hold something to be true, they merely do. And among those who have studied their faith, most have merely studied "their way", with no real way to say if theirs is the "best" dogma because they haven't studied other theological alternatives. Sadly, even our seminarians tend to be stuck in "defensive theology", learning about other views from militaristic perspectives created to shoot down other ideas without any real desires for objectivism.

But even so, not everyone has the time nor the mental ability to dissect theology. This is where protestantism finds itself looking absurdly hypocritical. It staunchly defends individual rights of scriptural interpretation and looks down on Catholicism's emphasis on tradition. And yet, the average protestant believer, nay the average protestant church even, relies on traditional interpretation just as much as the church of Rome does. At least the catholics acknowledge their debt and reliance on past decisions. I suppose protestants at least have the luxury of dissent if they so please and the awareness of human error. But it is this same awareness that is driving me mad. Unable to simply rest in the decisions of our forefathers, I find myself compelled to go back farther and father, demolishing thousands of years of religion in an attempt to find a clean base on which to start building. Now, probably I will end up using those same bricks to rebuild my beliefs, but it is a maddening process because it is so large. I often pull out one brick, only to have 7 more fall on my head, leaving me dazed and overwhelmed.
In the end, I try to stick to the scriptures (and try not to think about the cannon, because that is another maddening issue) and use them to find the basics. Fortunately, when I really get swamped, I can always fall back on "God is Love" and his greatest commandment. Those beliefs tend to stay strong, and following them tends to keep me out of trouble.

This has turned into quite the rant. Obviously my mind is going back and forth this evening. I'll try to have a more coherent post next time.