Since the latter was the title that its advocates preferred in the 1920s, I'll call it "Modernism." Modernism appealed to an increasing number of Episcopal clergymen who viewed classical Christianity as outmoded. The infiltration of Modernist theology came to a head in the 1920s.

A movement amongst Episcopal clergy tried to delete the 39 Articles from the new 1928 Prayer Book. But a coalition of laypeople forced General Convention to back down. The onset of the Depression and World War II also deflated Modernism's optimistic view of human nature and it went underground in the Episcopal Church for a generation.

In the 1960s Modernism came storming back. The English Bishop John A.T. Robinson sounded the charge with his ironically-titled best seller Honest to God in 1963.

The American Bishop James Pike denied the Trinity in 1966 and the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops let him keep his purple shirt. Except for Trinity in Pittsburgh, and (since its wonderful renaissance in the last few years) Nashotah House in Wisconsin, the other nine Episcopal seminaries have been teaching Modernist theology for more than a generation. The current leadership of the national Church have been deeply influenced by the Modernist tradition since their first day at seminary.

Pittsburgh diocese on the other hand stands for classic Biblical and Anglican theology, which is a very different faith from the one that Modernism promotes. "What do these different faiths believe about God?"

Dr. Fairfield: Classic Biblical and Anglican theology believes in a God who exists as a community of three Persons, who are nevertheless one God. We believe that these Persons exist beyond the universe, "other" than time and space. And we believe that God created the universe out of nothing.

Likewise we trust that God loves the universe and intervenes constantly to preserve it, and to heal it from the toxins that evil has mysteriously spread throughout it. We believe that Jesus was and is the Second Person of the Trinity. He existed and exists outside of all time and space. Nevertheless in His love he entered history in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, to be with us, and to rescue us. We believe that Jesus died on the Cross to pay for our sins, thus to satisfy the norms of justice that He, the Father and the Spirit forever uphold.

And we believe that Jesus rose from the dead as a matter of historical fact - not as the resuscitation of a corpse, however, but as the first instance of a wholly new life that He wants to share with us for all eternity. Finally we believe that Jesus personally affirmed the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures, and personally commissioned and sanctioned the teaching that the Church later acknowledged to be the New Testament.

These Scriptures represent God's official message to the human race. And while its interpretation requires the utmost of care, scholarship and grace, its central message is non-negotiable. Modernism, taken to its logical conclusions, rejects all of these classic Biblical and Anglican affirmations. For Modernism, the word "god" refers to an impersonal force that is wholly within the universe.

There is no dimension of this "force" that is not fully invested in the cosmos. This "force" neither speaks nor acts. But we know it exists because we encounter it in the depths of our psyches, in moments of transformed experience that the 19th century German thinkers like Friedrich Schleiermacher called "god-consciousness."

Modernists attribute these moments of transformed consciousness to an undefined "Spirit." Modernism therefore rejects Jesus as the pre-existent Second Person of the Trinity.

For Modernism, Jesus was simply a Palestinian sage, who was the first human being in evolutionary history to experience "god-consciousness" fully and perfectly. Otherwise he was purely human. He did not rise from the dead. Rather, His followers experienced a "Christ event" in which their dead teacher seemed to be still present and alive to them. Therefore the prospect of an actual life after death is both iffy and unimportant for Modernism.

Finally Modernism views the Bible as it does all the holy books amongst the world religions, namely as a human artifact. The Bible represents one ancient people's attempt to talk about "god-consciousness" and to pass on that experience to new converts.

But Modernists believe that the Bible was completely conditioned by its ancient environment, and has considerable historical interest but no authority for Christians today. As one Episcopal bishop recently put it, "The Church wrote the Bible, so the Church can re-write the Bible." To sum it up, Modernism uses all the old familiar Christian words, but changes all the meanings. And it neglects to tell the laity. "Why does any of this matter anyway?"

Dr. Fairfield: As you can see, these two belief systems are mutually exclusive. Either you believe in a God who is both beyond time and space and within it, or you believe in a "god" who is merely an impersonal force completely inside the cosmos. There is no half-way point, no via media between these two opposing religions (the classic Anglican via media meant something entirely different).

There are dozens of consequences that follow from our choice between Biblical Anglican Christianity and Modernism. Let me just mention two. If you opt for Modernism, you give up hope. The "god" of Modernism is simply the "force" that's spinning a sick system. Even a nine-second appraisal of human behavior immediately reminds us that we're in big trouble. And even in American suburbia (gasp) there are intractable problems that don't go away when you throw money at them or go serve at the soup kitchen. Drugs, teen suicide...you fill in the blanks.

The Modernist "god" offers absolutely no hope, no intervention from outside, no autonomous burst of healing energy. Because the Modernist "god" is finally simply our experience - in other words, Us. If you opt for Modernism, likewise, you give up reason. Let me say that again...if you opt for Modernism, you give up any hope of rationality or accurate knowledge. If "mind" is not a gift from God - a possibility that Modernism categorically excludes - then "mind" is simply a random product of genetic inheritance plus accidental environmental stimuli.

Therefore a thought in my head is as likely to have been caused by some ancestral experience on the African savannah as it has of portraying the tree I'm looking at right now. All of which is to say that Biblical Anglican theology is Christianity, and Modernism isn't. Why do we stand? That's why.

---The Rev. Dr. Leslie Fairfield is professor emeritus of church history at Trinity seminary.