As fundamental a question as, "What did God say?" is, "To whom has the word of God been entrusted?" The Catholic/Protestant divide is about the second, and somewhat about the first.
Sola Scriptura pretty much murders all hope of actually answering the first question. We're not making a cheap apologetic point; I'd like an answer. Which ecclesiological consensus is, "what the Bible says"? And if the tools of exegesis can help a man form an opinion apart from a community, why does the community exist at all? Because the prevailing ecclesiology permits many opinions on matters of dogma to coexist, it by necessity relativizes them. Ecumenism is the process of dialogue for the purpose of achieving doctrinal agreement and unity; merely desiring unity or even encouraging it is not ecumenism. Real ecumenism is about identifying the principled means to know both the orthodox faith, and the Church through which it comes to the world.
I have been told that Catholic apologists are unfair, that we do not engage the Reformation. With all due respect, whose reformation? If you will pardon me, it's hard to dialogue with a moving target. It seems the Protestant may always have the charge that he has been misrepresented at the ready, since he may jettison or add whatever he likes as needed. In the end, the individual is master of all; even the contours of the "Church" bend to his whims.
I am privileged to be aware of many theologies, and many edifying aspects within them. May all that is good be magnified and declared aloud! But it will not do to be Christians without a Church, like sheep without a shepherd.
Sola Scriptura pretty much murders all hope of actually answering the first question. We're not making a cheap apologetic point; I'd like an answer. Which ecclesiological consensus is, "what the Bible says"? And if the tools of exegesis can help a man form an opinion apart from a community, why does the community exist at all? Because the prevailing ecclesiology permits many opinions on matters of dogma to coexist, it by necessity relativizes them. Ecumenism is the process of dialogue for the purpose of achieving doctrinal agreement and unity; merely desiring unity or even encouraging it is not ecumenism. Real ecumenism is about identifying the principled means to know both the orthodox faith, and the Church through which it comes to the world.
I have been told that Catholic apologists are unfair, that we do not engage the Reformation. With all due respect, whose reformation? If you will pardon me, it's hard to dialogue with a moving target. It seems the Protestant may always have the charge that he has been misrepresented at the ready, since he may jettison or add whatever he likes as needed. In the end, the individual is master of all; even the contours of the "Church" bend to his whims.
I am privileged to be aware of many theologies, and many edifying aspects within them. May all that is good be magnified and declared aloud! But it will not do to be Christians without a Church, like sheep without a shepherd.
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