rad·i·cal
–adjective
1.of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference.
2.thoroughgoing or extreme, esp. as regards change from accepted or traditional forms: a radical change in the policy of a company.
3.favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms: radical ideas; radical and anarchistic ideologues.
4.forming a basis or foundation.
5.existing inherently in a thing or person: radical defects of character.
–noun
6.a person who holds or follows strong convictions or extreme principles; extremist.
7.a person who advocates fundamental political, economic, and social reforms by direct and often uncompromising methods.
Radical – it is an interesting word with many definitions, I took this off dictionary.com and cut off a number of them in order to more easily make the point I wanted in this post. When people think of radical, they often think of definitions 3, 6 and 7. But I find 1 and 4 very interesting. I do not often think as radical as basic, fundamental, getting to the root. But there it is.
Now if I apply this to the phrase one often hears, radical Christianity, I can think of getting back to basics (think the New Testament church in the Book of Acts) rather than being extreme.
And the irony of it is that if one were to seek to get back to this kind of Christianity, this kind of basics, one would be viewed in our culture as being extreme. Imagine living out your faith as the NT church did, praying, sharing, doing life in this fashion. Radical.
Go ahead.
Be radical.
It’s pretty basic.
