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13 years ago
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Koan #18: Can Protestantism Even Be True
It is incumbent on the Protestant, who claims to hold to Christian truth, to wonder if there truly is truth in Protestantism. For if there can only be one truth of Christian, doctrine, dogma and theology, and with approximately 140 different Protestant denominations in existence, the question of course becomes: which one holds the truth? Are more than one true? Are some partially true? Are any true? And how does the Protestant, ultimately basing his choice on his own interpretation of scripture, in the end know that his choice is true? Even more importantly, how does he ultimately know that his very interpretation is true, especially in light of so many others of the Protestant vein that sincerely believe the opposite? And if Protestants can be so confused about what Christian truth actually is, then how do they square this with the Christian’s knowledge that God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33)? And if the Church is the bulwark and pillar of truth (1 Tim 3:15), then how can such truth be contained in the contradictions and doctrinal differences of all the various Protestant denominations? Catholics, by contrast, are one in doctrine and teaching, and such problems of division do not exist there. And certainly the Catholic Church, being of one doctrine, is not the author of confusion. And certainly the Catholic Church, being one body, is not divided. And certainly the Catholic Church, being the teacher of one faith, can hold the Christian truth. And thus perhaps the Catholic Church, being as it is of one body, one doctrine, one faith and one truth, is indeed the very Church that Christ founded on earth. It is truly something the every Protestant should contemplate deeply.
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Maybe what Robin Williams said about his religion, I think it was Anglican(?) can be applied to the way most Protestants think of their religion: "Catholic Lite" - all of the substance but none of the guilt, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteGood Day Gunter,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. I definitely think you are on to something with your point. I also think that it has a great deal to do with the individualism that is undeniably linked to today's culture. For if all you are presented with is the Bible and your interpretation of it as your ultimate source for truth, such a method greatly supports the individualist attitude of "pick it if you like it and do not pick it if you don't." The Catholic position is just too threatening for such individuals.
RDM
There IS truth in Protestantism, as there is in all faiths, or they would not appeal to or be accepted by anyone. The question is to what degree they are true. If they have the fullness of truth, then they would, ipso facto, be a part of the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteThe basic problem that I have seen (although this is definitely not original with me; I steal from the best only) is that Catholics and Orthodox regard Christianity as a divinely-founded faith, while Protestants regard it as a human-founded movement.
With the former you can have many expressions of an absolute truth (hence all the different human positive laws based on the natural moral law, as well as the different Rites in the Church). With the latter, however, you lose all sense of the absolute; everything becomes a matter of opinion; all is relative.
This is actually a rehash of the argument that shook the world in the 12th century, as to whether God's Intellect (Nature) or God's Will is the basis for the natural moral law.
If the Intellect, then "good is to be done" because it is the right thing to do, consistent with the divine Nature that we see reflected in humanity that has been created in God's image and likeness (i.e., the analogously complete capacity to acquire and develop virtue, that is, the "habit of doing good").
If the Will ... that is a very large can of worms. "Good" itself becomes subject to personal interpretation of something that the interpretor believes to be God's expressed Will, whether the Bible, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, papal encyclicals, ... whatever. Personal faith in the accepted revelation becomes everything, i.e., Dr. Luther's "fides solo" position as the justification for belief.
Eventually, as Hugo Grotius admitted, basing the natural moral law on the Will means that God is no longer necessary, as He is under a system based on His Nature. If God does not exist, then there is no Nature to conform to and "good" becomes impossible, hence, God is absolutely necessary. If, however, He left us His Bible, Quran, whatever (Will), He becomes unnecessary. All things become lawful and the natural moral law a nullity if your faith is sufficiently strong.
Protestantism/truth/ being part of the Catholic Church - I usually steal from Chesterton to explain my own position, which is that Protestantism is an exaggeration of aspects already found in the Catholic Church - to which orthodoxy has applied the brakes: if disgruntled enough the heretic breaks away and you have a new Protestant demonination.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the Catholic Church as threatening - but it explains some reactions I've gotten being a member.
That Faith/Will thing - merits some thought.
Best source for the Faith/Will schtick is Heinrich Rommen's book, The Natural Law. I think Liberty Fund, Inc. in Indianapolis has an edition ... although why a libertarian group would publish that or Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State is something of a puzzle; they would agree with some statements, but not the basic one that man is by nature a "political animal," i.e., both social and individual; they tend to think of the human person as solely individual. Bottom line, however, is that who cares who publishes it, as long as it's available.
ReplyDelete