Fundamentalists (five major points of conflict with the Catholic Church)

Catholic Education ^ | Peter Kreeft

[ichabod1]

I grew up Catholic.

You could have stopped right there and saved yourself the effort. We all woould have understuned.

[Bainbridge]

So you noticed that he uses terms that are rude, insulting and dismissive. But you hope that "fundamentalists" will not feel insulted or dismissed.

The very term "fundamentalist" is used by the author to be derisive. Most of the people he is referring to would call themselves Evangelical ( the term "fundamentalist" having been co-opted to mean a stupid fool who is intransigent and unintelligent in the general parlance.( Please spare me the origin and explanation of the term, I am thoroughly acquainted with Machen). This is a Roman Catholic defense of positions that are not those held by other Christians. Great. It is articulate in its presentation of the RC point of view. Should someone want a more honest, less biased explanation of the "other side" so to speak, they might actually read one written by them. Otherwise, y'all are just ( I am not sure you'll get this protestant expression) "preachin' to the choir". Sorry to be have been so long-winded!

[HarleyD]

Let’s see…according to the author Catholics believe the Bible is divinely inspired excepted

1) it was written by humans with all their mistakes,
2) no one know what the “real” bible said,
3) it’s “infallible” except for all those translation errors,
4) the Church should be the one to interpret this mishmash of human frailty, unknown text and translation errors,
5) it’s authoritative but, hey, the Church has more,
6) this “God inspired” book can’t literally be true,
7) Catholic actually practice the humanistic, error-prone, bible based upon what a bunch of elderly gentlemen tell them. Fundamentalists simply are naive in believing in the Bible alone.

OK. I'm glad to see that Boston College still maintains it's high acedemic standards.

[trisham]

Actually, since the title lacks any direct reference to the Papacy or the Blessed Virgin Mary, the sola scriptura crowd might not even show up.

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Page down a bit. :)

[StJacques]

"So you noticed that he uses terms that are rude, insulting and dismissive. But you hope that "fundamentalists" will not feel insulted or dismissed. . . ."

Obviously, the reaction you have expressed realizes the exact fears I had, given the critique I advanced of the language Kreeft uses. I hope that you will at least see that given the fact that I pointed out that Kreeft's article was not the way to address Fundamentalists, or Protestants, or any other non-Catholic Christian denomination or religious group that it is my intention to be much more respectful in my own exchanges.

[trisham]

But while fundamentalists see that God commanded the Church’s beginning, they do not see that He still dwells in it intimately, as a soul lives in its body and as He lives in faithful souls. For a fundamentalist, the Church’s origin is divine but its nature is human.

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This seems to me to be a pretty important point in explaining the difference between Catholics and Fundamentalists/Evangelicals.

[zbigreddogz]

Prods and Caths have far more in common then they have separate.

It's important that we keep together in political matters.

[wagglebee]

But it took almost two hours, if the title had been different, they would have been here in seconds!

[Bainbridge]

Yes, I will credit you with your honest reaction to the piece. It is a credit to you that you saw that AND were willing to go out of your way to state this .

Thank you.

[trisham]

True. On the other hand, there are already two deleted posts. I'm not sure why.

[Campion]

I'm glad to see that Boston College still maintains it's high acedemic standards.

Well, perhaps they at least know how to correctly use "it's" and how to correctly spell "academic".

[trisham]

LOL!

[wagglebee]

I had checked a while ago and the first one that was deleted had not been deleted yet, I don't remember what it said, but I don't recall anything all that shocking as far as these threads go.

[trisham]

Prods and Caths have far more in common then they have separate.

************

Protestants and Catholics do have much in common. It's really unfortunate that there is often such bitterness coming between us.

[trisham]

Me either. I didn't see the second one, though. Perhaps it was by the same poster, and was clearly offensive.

[HarleyD]

Well, perhaps they at least know how to correctly use "it's" and how to correctly spell "academic".

LOL...touche'

[adiaireton8]

StJacques, I agree with you to some extent. There is some strong language here, and we should try to avoid causing unnecessary offense. But I also think that there is a kind implicit relativism or pluralism inherent in an approach that refuses to say that X is wrong, or X is false, or X is mistaken, etc. That kind of pluralism is precisely what has sucked the air out of Post VII Catholicism, and it is against that relativism/pluralism that Kreeft is objecting even in his straightforward (no-mincing-words) language. We can and should recognize all the common ground we have with Protestants. But if we just stop there, then they will not know that they should become Catholic. It is not enough to show that the Catholic position is coherent or reasonable. We need to address the errors in Protestantism and show that they are errors, to show that Protestants are in some sense and to some degree separated from the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church. I'm a recent convert to Catholicism who was raised Protestant, and I was around Catholics for years before one finally challenged me as to why I wasn't Catholic. Years!! Before that it was all "we're all Christians, and you're quite all right". I later discovered that documents such as "Unitatis Redintegratio" and "Ut Unum Sint" have been commonly misunderstand as an endorsement of religious pluralism, an endorsement of mutual understanding and respect as the ultimate goal of ecumenicism. I wish that more Catholics would, in charity, be honest with Protestants about the errors of Protestantism. That's the greatest favor that certain Catholics did for me in helping me become Catholic.

-A8

[NYer]

Protestants and Catholics do have much in common. It's really unfortunate that there is often such bitterness coming between us.

Glad someone got the point. I found the meat of Kreeft's article to offer a good clarification.

[Campion]

[loud applause from a cradle Catholic]