... Embracing unity or embracing diversity?
... Collectivism or individualism?
Unity in essentials, diversity in everything else. We are all unique persons with different temperaments, talents, and gifts; but we all pass through the same narrow gate for salvation, and God's desire is that all be transformed in some sense into the image of Christ Jesus. Every church is a collection of individuals collected together by their unifying faith in Jesus. I suggest you read 1st Corinthians chapters 12-13... we are individuals/diverse in how God has gifted us (many people, many talents, personalities, and gifts), but we are collective/unified in purpose (to glorify God and edify each other in love). Which one to emphasize depends on which direction we are leaning to far towards.
I see these things as a balance where each is valued. Ultimately, I think being unified and collective is more important, but diversity and individualism is valued and necessary.
... Verifiable, absolute truth that can never change or falsifiable, tentative truth that may change as experience grows?
The absolute truth that never changes is the foundation we build our lives on and the basis of our eternal salvation, and I believe it is infinitely more important to know and understand than the changing circumstances and experiences of my life. Still, we live in flux so changing truths are usually more immediate. The key, I believe, is to have our foundation sure so we can relate to our ever changing circumstances and experience with eternal and unchanging principals.
Mostly, I think this is also a balance. To ignore absolute truth leads to being lost in a sea of changing flux with no direction and no destination... ending in death. To ignore our changing experience and circumstances leads to running into and over all kinds of obstacles and barriers and doing more damage than good to ourselves and our environment, ending in death. Both a certainty of destination and diligent observation of our environment to reach it are necessary. The reason absolute truth is more important overall is that the destination is of eternal importance... the odds of reaching the right destination by wandering aimlessly are slim to none, and there is only one good destination in eternity. Strangely, the Bible teaches that simply by knowing the destination and determining in your heart to let God take you there ensures that you will be taken to the destination no matter how far you get on the voyage before death... the key is to let God determine the course and stick to it. The reason you see so much damage being done by Christians is because we keep trying to set our own course instead of trusting God's direction (or in many cases not even knowing we were supposed to turn because we aren't listening to Him for course corrections
).
Hope this helps;
Mike
