Is ‘inclusion’ a Christian virtue?
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
Most people reading the title above will wonder what the debate is about—but in different directions. Some will say ‘of course is it’ and others ‘of course it isn’t’. The latest title in the Grove Ethics series explores this vexed question and is a powerful and important study by Dr Edward Dowler, formerly Vice Principal of St Stephen’s House, Oxford and currently Vicar of Clay Hill, north London. His introduction highlights this polarisation of views.
One of the most powerful ways in which the New Testament expresses the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ is the image of adoption articulated by St Paul at the beginning of the Letter to the Ephesians. To be adopted is surely to be included: enfolded into Christ and thus unfolded into his mission. We thus start our investigation of inclusivity by noting that inclusion in this sense is a positive, indeed a glorious, thing, something God does, not because we deserve it, but ‘according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.’
Yet, when we move from the specific theological theme of our inclusion into God’s family as his adopted sons and daughters and, indeed, as Paul elsewhere teaches, our inclusion into Christ himself (eg 1 Cor 12.1) towards a more generic idea of inclusivity, things become contentious. For some, such a move seems obvious: inclusivity is a concept that points the way towards a more generous church, one that is ‘welcoming and open to all.’ Any denial of it seems to undermine fundamental Christian values, distort the mission of the church and ultimately misunderstand the graciousness of God because ‘inclusion is the gospel.’
For others, such emphasis on inclusivity as a fundamental value seems like a distortion of the gospel: a warmed-over, sentimental version of secular ideas, which masquerades as Christian theology whilst, at the same time, undermining and corroding it.
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