Catacomb Resident Blog

Ephemeral Community

22 July 2024

Discussions in the community indicate the need to restate something.

Radix Fidem is not an organization; it is a path. It's pretty rare to find any kind of community that defies all the rules typical of human ambitions, but we are trying. This did not begin with an interest in building up an individual or organization. We sincerely hope it never turns into that, but it's really difficult to prevent, especially once the first generation has passed things into the hands of others. Radix Fidem is the name we chose to avoid naming it after any one individual. It's just a generic Latin phrase referring to being rooted in faith.

Throughout human history, when a movement becomes an institution, it dies. Once it dies, everything becomes a tool to maintain human authority. It's no longer the search for truth, but a means to guard some earthly entity. Making it a conceptual organization instead of certain key individuals doesn't change much; it's still going to be a broad effort to protect human authority.

For now, the Radix Fidem name means avoiding that very thing. Thus, what we have here that passes for leadership is all about building a personal bond in Christ. The truth is more important than any person or role, and that truth already has a name: Jesus Christ. Indeed, community members are encouraged to maintain their own ideas as to the specifics of doctrine and biblical interpretation. No two of us will ever understand our Lord in exactly the same way because He's a living Person. What our path points to is the broad result of fellowship and coordination of effort in serving Him.

You don't embrace the doctrine we teach; you tolerate it because you feel drawn to the people. We compare notes, but we don't tell anyone what they must think. We only explain how we think and let you make up your own mind. But if you want to hang around, you need to understand what to expect.

There is no membership; there is only the living relationships within the community. If you feel the need for leadership, we'll do our best to provide that. However, that is not the primary concern. We would continue on this path with or without members, so you can come and go as you feel led. Nothing we say or do will be aimed at preserving the existence of a group identity. There's no tweaking the message to keep the bodies, no buildings and no budget.

Nothing in our written materials is aimed at preserving the product. Rather, we simply aim at production itself. Don't preserve our words; absorb them. It's all consumable and has a shelf-life because that's the nature of human communication. The next generation should say things their own way.

See for yourself: The majority of contrarian comments on our community blogs come from people trying to defend some human institution or individual. I'm sure they imagine it is all about the truth, but somehow it always works out to defend a human establishment.

You probably have no idea how often we have been approached by, for example, the Christian Orthodox community. They don't come to share and offer blessings. Every effort rests entirely on trying to bring us under their authority and conform us to their image. That doesn't mean we can't use their resources, but they have never offered them in that spirit.

This is the primary difference. Radix Fidem is not recruiting and there is darned little to which you might conform. Rather, the leadership you might receive is individual and contextual, having no effect on the path. Any contributions offered go to individuals; there is no institution. Should we all part company some day, the name fades into history. It's just the label for our time together in this context. Radix Fidem is what we call our family.


Comments

jaybreak

We are definitely a family. :)

John the Fool

This was so refreshing to read, CR. It's almost as if your ego has been crucified, you do not have a personal agenda, nor are you trying to make money or clones of yourself. It is so frustrating that even Christians seem irresistibly and unknowingly driven to build their own 'sanctified' towers of Babel. The flesh is so weak, and the spirit has never been weaker, I believe, than it is in our age. There has never before been a time place where walking by faith in the Spirit is so radically removed from and in opposition to nature and nurture.


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