Doctrinal Pride

I was just reading Jerry Bridges' recent book: Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, for possible application to our church's Core Seminars. His discussion of doctrinal pride caught my eye:

Closely akin to moral pride is doctrinal pride, the asumption that whatever my doctrinal beliefs are, they are correct, and anyone who holds another belief is theologically inferior. Those of us who care about doctrine at all are susceptible to this form of pride. It doesn't matter if we are Arminians or Calvinists, whether we subscribe to Dispensational or Covenant theology, or perhaps have embraced some form of eclectic theology, we tend to think our doctrinal beliefs are the correct ones and look with some disdain on those whose beliefs are different from ours.

And then to complete the spectrum of this type of pride, there are those who don't consider doctrine important and so look with disdain on those of us who do. In other words, this form of pride is a pride in our particular belief system, whatever that may be, and an attitude that in our beliefs we are spiritually superior to those who hold other beliefs. (p. 92)

I think it's important to hold theological beliefs that you believe are correct, and Bridges discusses that in successive paragraphs. But he's right to point out the pride in assuming that you could not be in error, and that something must be true since you believe it. He's also right to focus on the disdain for those who disagree.

This is a pretty good book—very practical and useful for directing our attention to sins we don't think about quite as much. And there's a study guide available as well for classroom use.