What’s Your Theological Worldview?
Posted by sinaiticus on January 8, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I discovered this theological quiz over at Quizfarm (HT: Bryon’s Weblog) and took it. Like all quizzes and inventories, it is pretty subjective and somewhat flawed.* But it is fun and interesting nonetheless. It works best if you are clearly a Christian and have some basic understanding of theological language. Try it out for yourself!
My top scores were in the neo-orthodox, evangelical holiness/Wesleyan, and evangelical Reformed categories. Here are the results, per the quiz:
You Scored as Neo-orthodox
You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God’s most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.
| Neo orthodox |
|
86% |
| Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan |
|
75% |
| Reformed Evangelical |
|
71% |
| Emergent/Postmodern |
|
54% |
| Fundamentalist |
|
43% |
| Roman Catholic |
|
43% |
| Charismatic/Pentecostal |
|
39% |
| Classical Liberal |
|
39% |
| Modern Liberal |
|
18% |
As with all self-report tests, there is bound to be variance, and there is rarely a perfect reflection of the true inner person. But there is some face value to these results.
Overall, I am surprised to have been pegged as Barthian. Even though my seminary training (not to mention my theological tradition) was steeped in Barth’s thinking, I thought I was more immune to his influence. Guess I was wrong. The holiness/Wesleyan score spiked for me because I value piety and personal righteousness as a Christian. My Reformed/evangelical score would have easily been #1 if I had answered differently on a couple of questions (maybe another day?). As for the Bible, I value the special revelation of the Scriptures, but not as a Fundamentalist; the written Word is best thought of as a living and active witness to Jesus Christ, the Word-made-flesh (Ah! Barth is in my head!), rather than a doctrine text book, or raw data waiting to be systematized, or, worst yet, a god itself.
Overall, I am pleased to say that I am a Christian who values aspects of various traditions within Christianity. I guess there is worse company that one can have other than Barth and Forsyth.
* For instance, the quiz uses a limited number of categories to represent distinct traditions within Christianity. We have to draw the line somewhere, but is there room for Confessional Protestants (e.g., conservative Lutherans and Anglicans) and Baptists? Or are Baptists subsumed into “Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan”?
ggw_bach said
these measurements are always a little inaccurate. One should be careful how much to extrapolate from such results
one knows the truth in one’s own heart.
sinaiticus said
Ggw_Bach,
You’re 100% right. I am a fan of personality tests (like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) not because they are precise and consistent (really no inventory of the self can be, since we are complex creatures), but because they give us language to discuss what is in “one’s own heart.” Same thing with this little theology quiz: it is an opportunity to explore one’s convictions–or lack thereof.
sinaiticus said
BTW, my wife took this quiz and came up with nearly identical results. Creepy. We do, in fact, share a brain.
Heath said
Thought I would share what a very religiously uneducated person came up with for results, answering questions based on his general world view. Just for giggles, not meant to stir a debate or to make fun. (one might note that if you don’t know what the answers mean, you probably shouldn’t be taking the test – so feel free to delete this comment if you like)
Note that for questions I had no idea what they were referring to I chose the neutral middle button.
Also, I imagine this result is a reflection on the level of . . . technicality(?). . . in the different theologies?
You Scored as Emergent/Postmodern
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
Emergent/Postmodern
86%
Modern Liberal
68%
Classical Liberal
57%
Neo orthodox
46%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
43%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
32%
Roman Catholic
29%
Reformed Evangelical
21%
Fundamentalist
21%
FormerModerator said
You Scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 89%
Classical Liberal 71%
Neo orthodox 68%
Emergent/Postmodern 61%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 54%
Modern Liberal 50%
Roman Catholic 46%
Reformed Evangelical 32%
Fundamentalist 11%
Well, those years growing up in the Milford (United) Methodist Church seem to have stuck with me. Thank you, every one of my Sunday School teachers and the pastors there. As I have said before, I tell my Presbyterian friends I have seen The Light….I tell my Methodist friends I am on a mission trip to save the Presbyterians.
FormerModerator said
Apparently, you and your wife share MORE than a brain…
The Belief-O-Matic « Sinaiticus said
[...] I posted a quiz to determine what kind of Christian you might be. Now I have discovered a broader quiz that might apply to [...]