Yet another on the infallibility in the Church
(written originally as yet another comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda Selyms)
First of all: thank you, these are very good questions, which actually made me
think (doesn’t happen that often on blog comments).
Certainly, some rules are necessary even unavoidable, “Ubi societas, ibi
ius” (“where there is society, there is a law”). However, these are rules
mostly about organizing the community, dispute resolution, etc., not what
people should believe (e.g., Immaculate Conception) or what they should do
outside of the group (e.g., no sex before marriage, unless sexual
intercourse is part of the community activity ;), yikes!).
There are probably some rules about what makes the group the
Christian one. They should not limit membership (I am a strong
believer in “belonging before believing”, so even unbelievers
should be members of the community, although with some limited
rights), but they should define the spirit and direction of the
community. I am a member of the international Protestant
congregation in Prague, Czechia, so members of our church come
from a very wide denominational background. We have members from
American Episcopalians and Norwegian Lutherans on one side to
Pentecostals from Africa with people from Philippines, all around
Europe and many other types of Christians in between. So for me
the definition of who is a proper Christian is rather loose. I
guess I would keep the basic Creeds of the Church (Apostles’
Creed, Nicene Creed, etc.), but not sure who further I would like
to limit. I would certainly welcome Roman Catholics and Orthodox,
even to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and other
sacraments, but I am afraid they prefer their own communities.
I really don’t see, why I would have to have 100% trust in the human
leadership of the community. I do believe in leadership of the Holy Spirit
over whole Church (“gates of hell won’t prevail over it”), but I do not
identify this whole Church with any particular humanly-visible institution.
For any such institution (be it a denomination or particular congregation)
I don‘t expect more certain leadership than for my family. And it is more
important for me as a husband that I am willing to accept my mistake (or
sin), ask God for help, and retarget. That is more important (and more
useful) than having 100% certainty that I am always right (I am not, and
I believe pope/bishops/priests/etc. are not either). It is probably worthy
of emphasizing I believe in the Universal Priesthood of all believers, so
I don‘t see any substantial difference between so called priests and so
called lay people. Of course, pastor is somebody who has calling from God to
work as an authority in the Church and I expect him to have proper training
etc. However, he is no different than a brain surgeon in his job. Of course,
I wouldn’t question his expertise (without really strong reasons and
evidence, perhaps even second opinion) and if I was his subordinate, then
I should submit to his authority. Besides “[…] all things must be done
properly and in an orderly manner.” (1Co 14:40), so every rebellion in the
Church is prima facie suspicious.
Sorry, that was a bit tangential, but what I wanted to say is that I don‘t
expect from the Church leadership more certainty than in my decision as
a father of family. Of course, in the end, my trust in the Church not being
prevailed by the gates of hell is based on the mercy of God, not on 100%
infallibility of the Church leadership.
The Holy Protestant Tradition?
(written originally as a comment to the blogpost “How Many
Theologians Does it Take To Define Infallibility?” by Melinda
Selyms)
I am a Protestant, so I am not entitled to bring much to this
discussion, but we were yesterday with my wife in Wittenberg, so
I cannot resist to add …
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Otevřený dopis katolickému příteli
Povídali jsme si trochu o ekumenismu a Večeři Páně (resp.
svátosti Eucharistie; pro zjednodušení dále „Večeře Páně“, ale
nechci se tím nijak evangelicky vymezovat) a když jsem se vrátil
na místo na zbytek programu, tak jsem si uvědomil, že bych Ti
chtěl říci ještě něco. Nechtělo se mi ale otravovat …
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Cycles of Christianity
I was just listening to the series of three podcasts by Dave
Schemlzer on the Hero’s Journey and Fresh Christianity (episode
one, two, and three).
I haven’t came with some opinion on the series itself, but Dave
also mentioned on the side a book by Phyllis A. Tickle …
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Divorce and sin
(originally started as a comment on the article on First
Things).
A thought: isn’t the one of the root of whole problem, that
Catholics see the problem in “the second marriage”?
I am not sure who started ignoring what seems to me like more
obvious problem, which is the …
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Catholics and credibility
(originally started as a comment on the article on First
Things).
I completely agree with all this article says about the God's
mercy. Unfortunately, it seems to me that you mostly ignored the
path through the natural law, God’s teaching get to people. As
I see it (and yes …
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On unity, Cyprian, lapsed, penance, persecution, and Chesterton
(linked on A History of Christian Theology Facebook page)
I have just finished backlistening to whole podcast A History of
Christian Theology and I really liked it. However, the last
episode on the Saint Cyprian hit couple of pet peeves of mine, so
I feel I really need to respond …
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No one has defeating ISIS as their real priority
I had wished for long to say somewhere publicly the following,
and finally yesterday I had an opportunity which forced me to say
it on the comment on the First Things analysis of the Havana
Declaration of pope Francis I. and the Moscow patriarch Kirill:
You must be new here …
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Greek Church & Orthodoxy
With the end of the Jewish Church (early second century) the
Church as whole was more or less dominated by the Greek culture
until the Roman Church started to dominate the West. It seems to
me that we still carry the inheritance of that era more than we
generally recognize …
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On Practical Ecumenism; the reply to Carl R. Trueman
(reply to a nice article about ecumenism on The First
Things)
Good article! Thank you. It is really good to think not only about
general platitudes and ecumenical Kumbaya but about the real life impact
of our hope for unity.
I think what’s crucial is to disentangle couple of …
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Dominus Jesus
When we were on the vacations of our church in Prague in the hotel owned
by our denomination, one sister, who is a professor of medieval
literature (and thus interested in M. John Hus & co.) mentioned in
passing “that horrible letter Dominus Jesus”. I have heard about that
letter before …
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Three streams in the Christianity
Today Dave‘s sermon was mainly about the prophetic stream in the
Christianity, but before that he was talking about three different
streams of the ministry —I was quite pleasantly surprised that his three
different streams of Christianity were apparently pretty similar to what
I was thinking on the similar …
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Habent papam
Joseph Ratzinger was just elected as a pope Benedict XVI. I do
not know much what to think about it. On the one hand he is actually not
my pope (hence the title of this blog record), because I am not a
Catholic, and if he wants to be the …
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