I was going to pull some memorable or funny quotes to share, but I don't really remember them. But one thing I value, a truth that leads to Catholic truth, is this: One cannot be the arbiter of divine truth and a humble receiver at the same time. In the end, this truth signals the death of creedal Protestantism, and Protestantism in general, at least as a coherent system.
All the arguments boil down to it. If you ask me why it makes more sense to be a child of the Catholic Church, this is the reason. If God didn't say it, it doesn't really matter, at least not in theology. I appreciate the fundamentalist that much more, because he sees clearly that a man cannot assert things about God without God; he is distasteful to the others because what he concludes in any one case may be unpalatable; he is pitiable because he is a Church of one.
More to be pitied is the churchman, who in his supposed refinement would never do anything so wild as assert that he alone had the truth, yet also refuses to locate it in the community which sent him; that is, a gift of infallibility befitting the task of knowing and declaring the Word of God. In his magnanimity, he claims to know nothing at all. One only hopes he is pleasant to listen to; other than as a diversion, he would seem to serve no purpose at all.
All the arguments boil down to it. If you ask me why it makes more sense to be a child of the Catholic Church, this is the reason. If God didn't say it, it doesn't really matter, at least not in theology. I appreciate the fundamentalist that much more, because he sees clearly that a man cannot assert things about God without God; he is distasteful to the others because what he concludes in any one case may be unpalatable; he is pitiable because he is a Church of one.
More to be pitied is the churchman, who in his supposed refinement would never do anything so wild as assert that he alone had the truth, yet also refuses to locate it in the community which sent him; that is, a gift of infallibility befitting the task of knowing and declaring the Word of God. In his magnanimity, he claims to know nothing at all. One only hopes he is pleasant to listen to; other than as a diversion, he would seem to serve no purpose at all.
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