Flesh Wounds in Doctrinal Controversies

Darryl Dash has a good post up on doctrinal conflict at Darryl's Blog: Controversy and three levels of doctrine. He identifies three levels of doctrine and how distinguishing the three can lesson doctrinal conflict.

* Essential Matters - These are areas like the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the atonement, and the gospel. Lose these and we lose the faith.
* Convictional Matters - These are still important, and include ares of theology like baptism and church polity. We can still cooperate with each other, even though some of the convictions may limit the amount of cooperation at a practical level. These are not worth discussing, but we don't fight over these like we do essential matters.
* Preferential Matters - These are minor and not worth fighting over at all.

He concludes:

This is so simple, yet I've found it really helpful. Theology seems to be discussed between people who think everything is worth fighting over, and others who think that nothing is worth fighting for. Some things are worth fighting for, but the trick seems to be distinguishing between these three levels.

Maybe if we all followed this advice we could avoid some "flesh wounds."