1 Corinthians 15.58 - Firm yet Flexible in the Faith

1 Corinthians 15.58 - Firm yet Flexible in the Faith

“The crystallization of doctrinal formulations and that of the canon of the New Testament are…two sides of the same coin…firming up a Christian community that was increasingly confident about its identity, vision, and place…As Christian communities came under increasing pressure, internal and external, to define themselves and to defend themselves against their alternatives, so there was a growing interest in clarifying what were acceptable and unacceptable expressions of the faith…Doctrines were like protective, enfolding intellectual cocoons spun around the larva of faith. When constructed properly, they had the potential to give added resilience and stability to Christian life and thought. Yet a defective cocoon had the potential to disfigure, distort, and damage the life of faith. Heresy can be considered….a faulty cocoon that damages rather than protects its larva.”

(‘Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth’ by Alister McGrath, 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-82214-9, p. 80)