The Western Creed

A new friend gave me a nice gift upon the successful defense of my dissertation, Horton’s new systematic theology.

Horton makes some artful statements in the intro. See if you can catch the ironic theme:

For over three centuries now, atheists and skeptics have catechized the West in the belief that as culture progresses, belief in God or at least in extraordinary divine intervention in nature and history will wane…. Once upon a time in the West, one could become an atheist or deist only with considerable difficulty; the widespread narrative within which everyone operated rendered unbelief implausible. Today, it is exactly the opposite. To believe in the triune God of Scripture who speaks and acts in history requires an act of apostasy from the assumed creed of our age. (15)

Atheists catechize, they do. And their catechism is made up of a series of beliefs, not “facts.” Our resolutely anti-religious age does in fact have a creed.

Masterful.