Today, someone said this:
"Clericalism is also the insistence that one can only approach God through a priest, or receive forgiveness of sins through a priest, and that truth is only available through a priest."
I could hardly keep myself from chuckling, because the person who said this is a Lutheran. Dude, pick a side. You sound like an evangelical. The reason to have a big liturgical to-do in the first place is because you have priests. You have priests only if you have a sacrifice. And if you believe that the Christian liturgy reaches its climax and purpose in the sacrifice of the New Covenant, you might be a lot of things, but you're not an evangelical.
It is incoherence, in fact, that pushes us forward in the Christian life, either in the walk of faith, or in the work of theology. And in either case, that incoherence will force us toward the abandonment of false principles, or to the loving contemplation of supernatural mysteries. People cannot abide incoherence, nor should they.
"Clericalism is also the insistence that one can only approach God through a priest, or receive forgiveness of sins through a priest, and that truth is only available through a priest."
I could hardly keep myself from chuckling, because the person who said this is a Lutheran. Dude, pick a side. You sound like an evangelical. The reason to have a big liturgical to-do in the first place is because you have priests. You have priests only if you have a sacrifice. And if you believe that the Christian liturgy reaches its climax and purpose in the sacrifice of the New Covenant, you might be a lot of things, but you're not an evangelical.
It is incoherence, in fact, that pushes us forward in the Christian life, either in the walk of faith, or in the work of theology. And in either case, that incoherence will force us toward the abandonment of false principles, or to the loving contemplation of supernatural mysteries. People cannot abide incoherence, nor should they.
Comments
I mean to say that liturgical choices should be no more arbitrary than theological ones. Pomp without purpose is vanity. Say what you will about a sparse, ugly Swiss Reformed church: it accurately reflects the theological convictions of those who constructed it. A church building of evangelical conviction probably ought to be ugly, to be coherent.