I thought the theist crowd might enjoy this! This was inspired by mindonfire’s “What kind of atheist are you?” quiz, which I took and promptly flunked. Here is the link. I ended up being what I was hoping for – in line with Martin Luther! (this does not include his anti-semitism.) I have never read Finney, but I have always loved Luther and more recently, Anselm.
You scored as Martin Luther, The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative.
|
Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
I had no idea what to expect, but after taking the quiz, it turns out I have a lot in common with Martin Luther, too. I’m not very well read in Protestant history, so I’ll have to do a little studying to find out exactly what that means! Here are my results.
I was disappointed to see that Joseph Smith wasn’t one of the religious people you could score to be like….
Hey – Martin Luther! All right! I’m pretty sure that’s a good place to be. I saw a movie on him and read about him elsewhere – the guy tried so hard to be religious through the established system of works in the Roman Catholic Church at the time. But it appears that God reached out to him, and showed him another way – that it was not what you do that makes you close to God, but actually having a relationship with Him. Of course, what you do (your works) follows, but it does not lead when it comes to the Christian spiritual life. Instead, “works” are a natural way of behaving when you are in love with someone.
Not sure why Joseph Smith was not on the list — I’ve honestly never read much about him. I do wonder what he thought about all these difficult issues in Theology.
Interesting how you landed where you thought you would. Good self awareness!
You scored as a Charles Finney
You’re passionate about God and love to preach the Gospel. Your theology borders on pelagianism and it is said that if God were taken out of your theology, it would look exactly the same.
Charles Finney 80%
Karl Barth 73%
Martin Luther 73%
John Calvin 67%
Anselm 67%
Friedrich Schleiermacher 60%
Jürgen Moltmann 60%
Augustine 47%
Paul Tillich 40%
Jonathan Edwards 40%
I found the results very surprising.
Bored,
Both you and Elise were surprised by the results! Looks like I’m the only one that got what I expected 🙂 Your summary paragraph mentions and interesting concept – pelagianism. I’m currently looking it up to see if I believe it or not. We both scored pretty high with Finney-ism theology. 🙂 Out of curiosity, what surprised you?
Mark,
Yeah – I’m kind of glad about that – the very issues in this quiz have haunted me for years. Looks like I’ve been able to dig most of them up from my subconscious and think about them rationally enough to figure out how to take a stand on what to believe. This website has been a great way to hash out the pros and cons of a particular doctrine. Most notable is my consternation with the concepts of Calvinism, which I strongly dislike no matter how much I study it.
I had to look up pelagianism too. Although I am OK with the thought that original sin did not taint human nature, I start to feel uncomfortable with its view that mortal will is capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as “setting a good example” for the rest of humanity, which I can agree with–but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that humanity has full control, and thus full responsibility, for its own salvation in addition to full responsibility for every sin. On the whole, I don’t think I can agree with Pelagianism.
I can’t imagine that if God were taken out of my theology it would be exactly the same. I wonder what questions I answered that gave me that result!
Things I can identify with from Finney are: revivalism, innovations in preaching and conducting religious meetings, and allowing women more of a part in services.