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The term nominal Christian is used to describe someone who is a Christian in name only.[1] It usually refers to those who indicate on census forms that their religion is Christianity but do not actively practise their religion. The phrase is also used in a pejorative sense by evangelical Christians of those who attend church but have not had a born again experience.
The phenomenon is known as nominal Christianity,[2] nominality[3] or nominalism.[4]
Nominalism
editThe Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization define a "nominal Christian" as one who "is a person who has not responded in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and Lord." The LCWE notes that such a one "may be a practising or non-practising church member. He may give intellectual assent to basic Christian doctrines and claim to be a Christian. He may be faithful in attending liturgical rites and worship services, and be an active member involved in church affairs."[1] The LCWE also suggests that nominal Christianity "is to be found wherever the church is more than one generation old."[3]
Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk suggest that "nominalism" is a major issue. They assert that "many traditionally Christian populations know nothing of a personal faith, true repentance and a trust in the finished work of Christ for their salvation," and estimate that 1.2 billion people are "nominal and non-practising 'Christians'."[4]
The concept of nominal Christianity was important in the thought of John Wesley, who contrasted it with "Real Christianity". Douglas Strong writes that Wesley often talked about "real Christianity" as a way of designating "vital regenerative faith in contrast to nominal or formalistic religion." Strong goes on to argue that Wesley taught that real Christians "had a conscious assurance of divine acceptance."[5] Randy Maddox argues, however, that in the 1740s, Wesley dropped the motif of real Christianity and the distinction between a real and a nominal Christian.[6]
Some theologians disagree with the category of "nominal Christian". Douglas Wilson argues that all who are baptized enter into a covenant with God, and are obliged to serve him. There is, therefore, "no such thing as a merely nominal Christian any more than we can find a man who is a nominal husband."[7] There are, however, "wicked and faithless Christians."[8]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Christian Witness to Nominal Christians Among Roman Catholics, Lausanne Occasional Paper 10.
- ^ John Stott, Basic Christianity (London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1959), 110.
- ^ a b Witness to Nominal Christians Among Protestants, Lausanne Occasional Paper 23.
- ^ a b Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, Operation World: 21st Century Edition (Paternoster, 2001), 13-14.
- ^ Douglas Strong, "A Real Christian is an Abolitionist: Conversion and Antislavery Activism in Early American Methodism," in Kenneth J. Collins and John H. Tyson (eds.), Conversion in the Wesleyan Tradition (Abingdon Press, 2001), 71.
- ^ Kenneth J. Collins, Current Theological Trends in United Methodism: A Critical Evangelical Assessment.
- ^ Douglas Wilson, Reformed is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2000), 96.
- ^ Douglas Wilson, Reformed is Not Enough, 97.
Further reading
edit- Eddie Gibbs, In Name Only: Tackling the Problem of Nominal Christianity. Fuller Seminary Press, 2000.
- Rommen, Edward. "A framework for the analysis of nominal Christianity : a West German case study," in Reflection and projection: Missiology at the threshold of 2001 : festschrift in honor of George W. Peters for his eightieth birthday (Bad Liebenzell : Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, 1988) p 322-337.