Here is a fun quiz I’ve seen on other Bloggernacle sites I wanted to try out on my pals at Mormon Matters.
It’s fairly quick and tells you by order of significance which theological world-view you share.
Here’s my result:
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
How about you? Fun, or boring?
Comments 30
I had a difficult time answering many of the quiz questions because I didn’t understand them, and because I wasn’t sure the quiz-makers had the same definitions in mind that I did for several important terms. For example, it’s difficult to know whether to agree or disagree with this statement: “Revelation is more important than experience”. I think people who believe in revelation, at least personal revelation, would say that revelation IS an experience.
That said, here’s how the quiz rated me:
You scored as a Classical Liberal
You are a classical liberal. You are sceptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behaviour, but inward religious feeling is most important.
The last sentence really stands out to me because it’s actually the opposite of what I believe. I believe good moral behavior is more important than one’s inner feelings, thoughts, beliefs, etc.
I was judged to be a Modern Liberal. However, I prefer the secular humanist score I got at Belief-O-Matic
The questions are dubious, and I question the validity of the test, BUT I did get the same as you John. 🙂 – Emergent/Postmodern
I don’t understand the questions. There are terms on there I don’t know and I can’t take the quiz, therefore it is a flawed design. No, this is NOT a reflection of my poor education on Theology. I am a theological neophyte when it comes to the Catholic or Protestant tradition, but the problem is the test writers are making assumptions about word-usage that simply are not universal if you want to measure more than one audience. It’s fine if the test is meant ONLY to reflect theological leanings of Catholic/Lutheran theological students, but for those of the laity with interest in theology or those of other faiths, it is a poor test of tradition. I give it a D-.
I’m a Classical Liberal with only 7% Fundamentalist streak in me (and I thought it was 0%). 🙂
Author
This quiz has problems, that’s for sure, but I learned some new categories. I had never heard of “emergent theology” before. If Just for Quix is out there, what do you think of this, as it presumably reflects more traditional Christian concepts and categories?
AdamF,
You are my brother.
Kari,
Thanks for the Belief-O-Matic tip. At least my Mormonism showed up at number 4 on my results there, although, in ascending order, my answers conformed to Bahai, Liberal Quaker, and Mainline to Liberal Protestant. Hmmm.
Like Andrew & Dan, I’m a Classical Liberal.
I also did the Belief-O-Matic one linked in comment #2, which I have done before, and I’m apparently Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestant (100%) and only 85% LDS. Weird. I agree the Belief-O-Matic one is possibly a little better in that it allows for the concept of non-RC or P thinking. But in being inclusive (Hinduism and Atheism are represented too), the wording can be a little imprecise. Sorry, Kari, but I was only 16% secular humanist. For me, separation of church and state occurs in my own head.
I scored an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition; heavily influenced by John Wesley and the methodists.
“You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us.”
I never knew I was totally depraved, but I guess that explains a lot of things….
Like some others here, I found that quiz, in parts, to be totally indecipherable. In any event, here’s the result:
You scored as a Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
This makes no sense — I strongly disagreed with all questions regarding the “depravity” of humans.
Per the Belief-O-Matic, however, I’m a Mormon. Guess I’m not nearly as “liberal” as I thought 😉
Here’s Mine:
You scored as a Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
86%
Modern Liberal
75%
Classical Liberal
71%
Emergent/Postmodern
61%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
61%
Neo orthodox
54%
Roman Catholic
43%
Fundamentalist
32%
Reformed Evangelical
Interesting…not sure what it all means…I don’t think any part of this quiz had Latter-day Saints in mind.
Can anyone here interpret my results for me…just above…?
I scored as a Classical Liberal
Classical Liberal 71%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68%
Emergent/Postmodern 68%
Neo orthodox 57%
Modern Liberal 54%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 43%
Roman Catholic 39%
Reformed Evangelical 32%
Fundamentalist 32%
I think the Theology Quiz is okay from the point of traditional Christianity for those who are very familiar with traditional Christian theology. Nonetheless, given the nuanced nature of some of these topics, the questions do seem a bit leading or imprecise. (Hence I suspect the accuracy of results it gave me.) Many of the questions revolve around issues over which denominational divisions have historically occurred and still tend to occur — and hence the results don’t reveal much subtleness that a Christian’s denominational affiliation wouldn’t already predict. I would be much more interesting were it to reveal more subtle cross-denominational or intramural Christian theological thoughts and allegiances, and perhaps encourage the quiz taker, to the extent they are not already familiar, to more specific writings, authors and perspectives they may not have considered more deeply. Given how religiously transitive Americans are, more subtlety would be appreciated. Oh well, that’s probably asking too much for a quiz.
This quiz is very unfriendly or unfamiliar to LDS perspectives, and, of course, non-Christian faiths, too. But also not that friendly for most traditional Christian congregants, either. Most I know would not recognize the two mentioned theologians’ names or would tend to answer in alignment with their denominational tendencies rather than articulate that they have considered the subtlety of these points all that much. I think most traditional Christians have considered their theology and beliefs on the major Christian denominationalist theological divides, but beyond that most Christians are practicing for more emotional, cultural and less-theologically-driven reasons.
The aforementioned Belief-O-Matic is a little better in this regard in addressing the human faith spectrum, although perhaps a little too brief to be as enlightening as it could be.
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My Theology Quiz score:
Evangelical Wesleyan 75%
Emergent / Postmodern 64%
Neo Orthodox 61%
Classical Liberal 57%
My Belief-O-Matic
Liberal Quaker 100%
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestant 95%
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Unfortunate, perhaps, for the testing results pigeonholes, I consider my alignment of belief more personally important than my (non)denominational allegiance. That is more chosen for culture, community and conduciveness to my heart-faith and worshipful self than my intellectual and theological self. Though my Christian-humanist-transformationalist-leaning theological self is very important to me, raw theology isn’t the primary reason I go to church every week.
You scored as a Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
89%
Classical Liberal
71%
Neo orthodox
54%
Emergent/Postmodern
46%
Modern Liberal
46%
Roman Catholic
43%
Fundamentalist
39%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
39%
Reformed Evangelical
25%
PaulW — Since Mormonism was influenced heavily by Wesleyan thought and culture, this doesn’t surprise me. I would also guess, since you also align Liberal that you are more free-will driven than predestinationist / fatalist (Reform / Calvinist). As a traditional Liberal with a good chunk of charismatic, you probably enjoy liturgy /ceremony to the extent it speaks more about the human spirit and vibrant, communal religious experience than it does about salvation. You enjoy theology that has meat but enjoy an environment where questioning it is okay. Ultimately you are drawn to emotion and a personal relationship with God, and how that transforms the quality of our world and the here and now (“emergent”). I would guess you are alienated by the more stuffy, legalist and strict culture of Mormonism, but enjoy feeling you are in control of your destiny. You especially enjoy the LDS experience where it makes you feel religiously connected to others and the transcendent experience of God.
How was that for a “spiritual reading”?
You scored as a Roman Catholic
You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.
Roman Catholic 96%
Neo orthodox 57%
Emergent/Postmodern 57%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 54%
Classical Liberal 43%
Modern Liberal 32%
Reformed Evangelical 29%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 25%
Fundamentalist 21%
Guess I am not as liberal as I thought……..
Author
Just for Quix,
Wow! You did a great job of translating these results into LDS-speak. Could you translate the other categories people were responding with, like classical liberal, modern liberal, and emergent/postmodern?
I came out emergent/postmodern. Not a lot of room for our non-Christian Deist friends in that quiz.
You scored as a Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. (Huh!? Guess some of you will agree though.) The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Doesn’t sound like me. 😛
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82%
Emergent/Postmodern 82%
Classical Liberal 68%
Neo orthodox 57%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 54%
Roman Catholic 43%
Fundamentalist 39%
Modern Liberal 39%
Reformed Evangelical 21%
I did like the fact that I turned out to be 43% of a Roman Catholic. That’s kinda cool. I wonder how long I’ll have to be in purgatory over the other 57%? 😉
Shawn – to many, it doesn’t get more “liberal” than LDS, except perhaps atheist.
John (17). I still need a bit of practice — like interjecting for PaulW’s “reading” that I’d guess that he values tradition and community worship and ritual highly (liberal and charismatic) positions, and though he likely questions authority (and enjoys questioning authority), he’s pretty obedient in his behaviors and outwardly conformant (because he’s so high Wesleyan with a good smattering of orthodoxy).
Translating results like this into “LDS-speak” I think rather than defining each tradition separately it works better seeing the weights among several traditions. Each represents certain tendencies between orthodoxy and orthopraxy that, perhaps besides the most modern traditions, have pretty solid tradition behind the divides. Mormonism is still so young that it hasn’t had as much time to literally fracture along some of these similar (and sometimes sensible) differences of opinion.
But here’s a stab and “LDS-izing” some of these :
Emergent / Postmodern — And LDS person so identified tends to value a personal relationship and spirituality with God and Jesus more than their relationship and identity with church structure, authority, and its processes. While they value salvation doctrines they consider it more important how doctrine and behavior impacts the here and now. Socially or politically-driven spirituality or efforts are motivating. They may be willing to take chances on getting “small things” wrong as long as they feel the “big picture” is right.
Neo-Orthodox — This LDS person tends to be influenced and shaped by rational explanations of theology: how our beliefs are influenced by our experience, and vice versa. This believer identifies with the LDS meta doctrines of God, salvation, happiness but is open to change, reevaluation and questioning when it comes down to more matter-of-fact, experiential and day-to-day beliefs and practice. This person sees scripture as important as what it teaches about ourselves and God more than what it prescribes and proscribes.
Evangelical Holiness / Wesleyan — This LDS person responds to the hope of Christ and His forgiveness and salvation. They see their own role in exercising free will to accept this gift, this relationship, as paramount. They may have faith in man’s ability to change, but deep down acknowledge that it’s mighty hard to do so merely through our will because man is so separated from and dependent upon God. They embrace the rules of faith because it gives us tradition, identity, community, and a path to radiating the good fruits of a relationship with God. They place faith in the reality of salvation in the next life, which shapes their faith practice. They think this hopeful message is important to share with others.
Roman Catholic — This LDS person is very shaped by tradition, by confidence in the Bible but that there is also confidence in the Truth, authority and leadership of the church itself. They value the ritual of Mormon faith as a sign of belonging to something bigger, solid and dependable, and also as a sign that God’s salvation for man is progressing and visible. Mormons who understand the concept of “communion of the saints” would likely see a similarity in the LDS doctrines and practices for saving the dead, from which they take a great deal of personal identity and hope. While they may misunderstand the Catholic reverence for Mary, they have a similar reverence, even if not worship, for past LDS prophets, leaders, martyrs and pioneers.
Charismatic / Pentecostal — This LDS person is very motivated by the process of personal improvement, by recognizing their sin and seeking change through a very emotionally-driven, intense relationship with Christ. They seek spiritual experiences, understand miracles are still happening, and especially as they manifest in obtainable spiritual gifts. They see prayer, fasting and worship as necessary for a spiritual life. While they are drawn more to the spirit than the letter of the law they still embrace order, and see a right way and wrong way to go about living the spirit of the law. Not as flexible as liberals.
Fundamentalist — The LDS weighting would be less commonly identified by this test, as such would place a great deal of certainty and literalness in the Bible. While Mormons leaning this direction may slightly mistrust confidence in the Bible, which may reduce some Fundamentalist weighting in the quiz, they will still place great confidence in the primacy of scripture. This includes the Standard Works as a way to understand how we should behave, what is the literal history of the world, the certainty of end-of-times revelations, and the proper way to judge sinfulness, righteousness and proper societal policies. There are many historical connections between Wesleyan-Methodism and many traditional LDS ways of interpreting holiness standards (proper behaviors) and the authority of scripture and revelation. They don’t unilaterally mistrust science, reason, or societal norms, but do so where such may question the certainty they place in scripture and their religious identity, both personal and community.
Reformed evangelical — While this LDS person may not hold strictly to predestination, they place a lot of stock and personal identity in LDS doctrines of election and after-life salvation. They have trust in God’s power to save His elect, who are totally dependent on Him. They realize this means that some will unfortunately be damned, but usually take as evidence their membership that they are one of God’s chosen, or at least think one can know for certain one is saved. They are likely to see missionary work and preaching as necessary to keeping purity of thought, living their faith, and convincing disbelievers the necessity of changing and repenting, even though the message can also be hopeful and Christ-centered. They place great confidence in scripture and traditional and conservative understandings. They take very seriously the process of personal refinement and obedience to commandments as a way to demonstrate their faith and commitment.
Classical Liberalism — Such an LDS believer may still have conservative social opinions, but tends to favor a religious environment where the doctrine is meaty and the atmosphere for considering it open. They shy away from authoritarian and traditional interpretations just because it is such, though they still place great trust in tradition, in scripture, in commentaries, in reason, in ceremony. They believe that what we believe shapes our actions, and therefore it is profoundly important to separate literalist and stodgy thinking into truth imperatives necessary for having a strong, vital faith in Christ. They don’t consider it a prime necessity to do proselytizing missionary work, rather believing that by finding and living a compelling, substantial, authentic faith that those so inclined will be irresistibly drawn to a similar faith in God.
Modern Liberalism — Such LDS have very many similarities to the classical liberal position, but will be less disposed to ceremonialism, rites and tradition, while still advocating an authentic, spiritual life that is very intellectually content-rich and freethinking. They have similarity to the Neo-orthodox in embracing change and new ways of looking at faith, while still, ironically, pursuing certainty, even if they can be dogmatically anti-traditional. Different from the Neo-orthodox these LDS will embrace free choice and existential quandaries a bit more openly. While they can have conservative opinions, as a general rule they also tend to embrace more liberalized and inclusive political, social and religious policies.
What’s your theological worldview?
You scored as a Emergent/Postmodern
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
Emergent/Postmodern
79%
Classical Liberal
75%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
64%
Modern Liberal
61%
Neo orthodox
57%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
46%
Roman Catholic
39%
Reformed Evangelical
21%
Fundamentalist
0%
Interesting, although I agree that terminology is difficult to decipher in this quiz. Now to speculation: where do most mainstream LDS fit in this categorization? Where would most bloggers and readers in this region of the Bloggernacle fit? I’m a Classical Liberal, and based on the comments I read above, see that cropping up a lot among the regulars here on MM. Check it out, though: I’m 0% fundamentalist!
You scored as a Classical Liberal
You are a classical liberal. You are skeptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behavior, but inward religious feeling is most important.
Classical Liberal
79%
Emergent/Postmodern
71%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
68%
Roman Catholic
50%
Neo orthodox
43%
Modern Liberal
32%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
21%
Reformed Evangelical
14%
Fundamentalist
0%
From the Belief-o-Matic:
1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Bahá’í Faith (84%)
3. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (80%)
I knew about the liberal christian protestant thing, but I know almost nothing about the Baha’i Faith. Will have to look into it further. I have a feeling that questions about womens’ roles, abortion, homosexuality, etc. in the quiz pushed my Mormon-ness down on the list, though. The quiz perhaps presupposes a response for certain faiths based on conservative interpretation of doctrine? Who knows. I love quizzes, though. Thanks for sharing.
What’s your theological worldview?
You scored as a Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
86%
Neo orthodox
79%
Charismatic/Pentecostal
71%
Emergent/Postmodern
64%
Classical Liberal
61%
Fundamentalist
54%
Reformed Evangelical
43%
Roman Catholic
32%
Modern Liberal
29%
At first I was put off by the whole depraved thing- then I started thinking about the grace of Christ allowing us to put off the natural man and become a saint… and I started to realize that maybe we have more in common with Wesleyan theology then I thought.
Belief O Matic I’ve taken several times. Usually I get 100% Mormon, occasionally as low as 96%. This time around I got 96% Mormon, but I also got 100% Mainline to Conservative Christian which looking back on some of my answers I find very hard to believe.
Ditto #3 – word for word. Mormon on the other one.
JFQ, you just convinced me of a long time suspicion I’ve held: the LDS actually accept everyone’s beliefs. 😉
Bruce – Give us 1600 years and we’ll be as fractured as the Catholic church.
JFQ,
Very good! Yeah, in some ways I tend to be a bit less rigid and “legalistic” than many. . .I believe that the whole point of the gospel, our life here and in eternity is interpersonal relationships…love. I could go on but it’s late and I’m tired. Very good though. Thanks.
It’s no fun because it assumes you’re Christian. Also the Belief-O-Matic quiz is irritating because every question combines the disbelief answer with “Or not sure. Or not important.” WTF? I think it should be thus:
1. What is the number and nature of the deity (God, gods, higher power)?
A. No Gods or other supernatural beings exist.
B. God(s) exist. Or not sure. Or not important.
This is obviously geared toward intellectual Catholics. I didn’t even know who Bishop so-and-so was (though I assume any believing catholic would.) It also didn’t fit with my general agnosticism.