Conclusions
What do we mean when we say that Papayya, an illiterate peasant, has become a Christian? In answering this, it is clear that we must first clarify what we mean by the word—whether we are thinking in terms of bounded or centered sets. If we do not make this clear, we will only talk past each other, and our disagreements will often arise out of subconscious presuppositions rather than out of theological differences.
A centered set approach to defining “Christian” corresponds more closely to what we see happening in mission and church growth. It also seems to correspond more closely with the Hebraic view of reality.
But a centered set approach does raise some problems, at least for westerners who think primarily in terms of bounded sets. These problems often relate to the question, how do you organize an institution such as the church as a centered set? Is it not essential to maintain the boundaries by setting high standards for membership? On the other hand, the bounded set fits best with our western view of the world and our democratic ways of organizing associations such as the church.[1]
Ultimately the question of whether we should see the term “Christian” as a bounded or as a centered set must be decided on theological, not pragmatic principles. But this demands that we think through all of the basic theological terms and decide which of these should be viewed as bounded sets, and which as centered sets.
Bibliography
Black, Max, 1963. “Reasoning with Loose Concepts,” Dialogue, 2, 1-12.
Cohen, P.J., & Hersh, R., 1967. “Non-Cantorian Set Theory,” Scientific American, 217:15,104-106.
Cohen, P.J., 1966. Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis.
Hashisaki, J., & Stoli, R.R., 1975. “Set Theory,” The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th Edition. Macropedia 16:569-575.
Hatcher, W.S., 1968. Foundations of Mathematics. Zadeh, L.A., 1965. “Fuzzy Sets,” Information and Control, 8, 338-353.
[1] It is interesting to note that the independent church movements in India, such as Bhakt Singh, organize themselves in terms of centered sets. They have only loosely defined, or no church membership, and give leadership to a few elders at the center.
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- You could download at the link below the whole article in PDF form.
Hiebert, Paul G – Conversion, Culture and Cognitive Categories
- You may also find HERE an interesting article applying the bounded and centred sets concepts to ecclesiology.
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