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There's an important
distinction between claiming that there is no single Christian religion, on
the one hand, and that Christianity "is a category without meaning"
on the other. The distinction clearly arises, I think, by asking two
questions. First, to whom is the category meaningless? It's
significantly meaningful to me. My entire childhood as a Jew growing up in
Brooklyn and my identity now was and is defined in part with reference to some
inchoate conception of Christianity. Second, for what purpose is it deemed
meaningless? It is certainly true that in some contexts, we should be
wary of relying too heavily of what is probably an overly thin conception of
Christianity, but that's a far cry from concluding that the category is
meaningless.
Perhaps Marci simply meant
that a perfunctory reliance on some assumed thick conception of Christianity
often does more harm than it's worth. But that can probably be said of any
concept at all. And the problem here is with the kind of reliance not
with Christianity.
Bobby
Robert Justin
Lipkin
Professor of Law Widener University School of Law Delaware |
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