Christian Liberals & Progressive People of Faith

according to my Methodist church's former pastor, who had a doctorate in church history. Those denominations that descended directly from Catholicism have the idea that we are born utterly depraved and only by constant vigilance and repentance can one stave off that depraved nature. But those descended through the Eastern Orthodox inherited the belief that every human being is born with the divine spark. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, spent a lot of time studying with the Moravians who had that spiritual heritage from the Eastern Orthodox Christians. My former pastor attributed the difference in Methodists' approach to sin to the influence from the Moravians.

That split in how they see the nature of human beings from birth. It's not that Methodists don't believe that we all have a sinful nature, it's that they believe we also have a divine spark at the same time.

That line is from one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs. Strikes me as profoundly true. If we didn't have those cracks, we wouldn't need or receive grace. What a loss that would be in my life!