People are Awesome

This guy has an amazing collection of pictures.

http://timothyallen.blogs.bbcearth.com/

Ironic Quote of the Day

I go back and forth about this blog.  Looks like Francis has some words (hah) for me.

“the flesh desires and is most eager to have words, but [cares] little to carry them out.  It does not seek a religion and holiness in the interior spirit, but it wishes and desires to have a religion and holiness outwardly apparent to people” Francis of Assisi, 

quoted by Angelyn Dries, "Mission and Marginalization: The Franciscan Heritage." Missiology: An Internal Review, 1, XXVI, Jan. 1998.

Some Ecumenism For Today

Last term, as a small part of one of my papers for a good class, I had to reflect on some similarities and differences between a whole bunch of Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic catechisms that we had read.  It was a lot of work, but I found the process exceedingly fruitful, and hopefully someone else might too.  A lot of the catechisms (modern and some older) are available online ... if you are into that kind of stuff.  Here is that part of the paper.

            The Christian world today is one of disunity.  The primary dimension of separation is along lines of tradition corresponding to the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches.  One of the ways each church defines itself is through its professed process of salvation: the Orthodox process involves the will, the Roman Catholic membership in the body, and the Protestant the mind.[1]  However, they agree on how Jesus Christ and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit enable this process of salvation.  The three groups also differentiate on understandings of the nature of the church and its relation to scripture, but they share in common the goal of unity with God.  Given some claims that salvation is sure only through group-particular beliefs, the differences do matter, but all three processes subsume a necessary belief in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

            The Eastern Orthodox catechism, Guiding All to the Heavenly Kingdom, by John Veniaminov begins by claiming that “all human beings desire … prosperity and happiness” which can only be found in God (80).  Assuming that people want to know God and the joys of heaven because they want to know the happiness found in that (Veniaminov, 81), it proceeds in claiming “Your salvation … depends on your own will” (Veniaminov, 90). This process of the will is following the suffering pathway of Jesus Christ the ultimate sufferer (Veniaminov, 88-89).  The moment of salvation is ambiguous but what is important is a whole hearted commitment to choosing to act in the way that leads to suffering, as Jesus did.  This suffering desired is primarily an internal tension which forms holiness (Veniaminov, 95).

            In contrast, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that it is the Church that is the goal of all things and the salvation of all (760).  It claims that “the Church is Christ’s instrument,” a universal sacrament of salvation (CCC, 776).  In other words, to be Catholic is to understand salvation as the process of membership into the Church’s (and Christ’s) body.  The Roman Catholic Church is the sole church (870), and outside the Church there is no guarantee of salvation (CCC, 846).  The need for this salvation becomes evident because one is a religious being (CCC, 28) who can naturally come to know God and the need of him through reasoning about the world (CCC, 32, 36).  God being evident, faith becomes “free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed,” which is held by the Roman Catholic Church (CCC, 150).

            For the Protestant, the realization of the need for salvation begins with an argument. In the Heidelberg Catechism, one is shown to be sinful because of how one’s life does not live up to the law of God (HC, 3).  After this acknowledgement, the process of salvation involves response to a single, reasoned argument of human insufficiency (Luther, 345), and the sufficiency of God’s grace and actions through Jesus Christ (Luther, 345).  What is necessary is acceptance of this grace and intellectual belief in the words of forgiveness declared in baptism and the Eucharist (Luther, 348, 352).  In this manner, inclusion under God’s forgiving grace is dramatic (Luther, 347) and depends on a mental conclusion that one wants to accept the gift of salvation and repent (Luther, 22).

            What is shared by all of the above salvation processes is the belief that they are enabled by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  The Eastern Orthodox believe that it is through following Jesus’ perfect life which paid for our sins that one finds the path of salvation (Veniaminov, 86-87, 84, 81).  The Catholic belief is that Jesus is the head of the church and it is through his work that the church has gained its salvific power (CCC, 763-766).  Protestants likewise believe that Jesus is the Redeemer and Saviour (Luther, 345; HC, 18).  All three understand the work of the Holy Spirit as that which continues the development of the Christian along the process of salvation (Veniaminov, 103; CCC, 734; HC, 53).

            Another way to define what it means to be Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic is their understanding of the nature of the church and its relation to Scripture.  For the Orthodox believer, the ultimate goal of life is the ecstasy of heaven (Veniaminov, 81), and as such, the formation of an earthly church is to ensure that individuals can learn what it means to be true Orthodox Christians.  Through immersion in the church, the reality of Christ the Saviour emerges experientially.[2]  Study of the Scripture is necessary to ensure that it is the foundation of the Orthodox Church’s faith (Veniaminov, 91), but after such a realization, it is the corresponding action to “live with Him in the Church” that is important (Clement, xv).  For the Catholic Church, the Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Scripture have one common source in Christ, and each are “accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence” (CCC, 81, 82).  These two streams come together in the truth of Christ which is bound to the Church itself.[3]  The Pope and the bishops in communion with him are the sole authority for interpretation of Scripture (CCC, 100).  Contrastingly, a Protestant’s faith is founded on the primacy of Scripture alone.  Both Luther’s Small Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism demonstrate a focus on the scriptural basis for every conclusion they make.  The Church is that body of believers chosen by God for everlasting life (HC, 54), which arises when a culture adopts the truth of the gospel message.  What all these traditions share is the belief that God has acted to reveal himself through both a body of believing people and his written, holy, word.

            In a world where ‘tribal’ membership is important for identity, often the essential components of a Christian faith tradition become that which differentiates it from other Christian traditions.  In a practical way, this must be acknowledged as important, since the tradition may claim its knowledge to be the only sure means of salvation (CCC, 846; Veniaminov, 81). Yet even these divisions, at their core, stem from common beliefs[4].  God has acted in Jesus Christ to unite humans together with him.  How that happens can be debated, but all three traditions agree that it involves belief: that Jesus’ path is the way to the kingdom of heaven (Orthodox), that Jesus has redeemed and continues to redeem the world through the church his body (Catholic), and that Jesus’ sacrifice is the ultimate atonement for sins (Protestant).  A Protestant may point to an Orthodox believer and claim they outwardly practice without any inner belief.  Likewise, a Catholic may tell a Protestant they do not grasp the full truth of God’s plan because it has always been held within the Church, and an Eastern Orthodox may claim all others haven’t experienced the mystery of God because of their lack of suffering.  Each tradition holds tightly to its own conclusion, in essence making those beliefs more ‘essential’ than the shared foundation.  In contrast, I would judge that which each tradition has shared for centuries to be ‘essential,’ exactly because of the agreement.

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[1] I do not mean to ignore practical doctrinal differences, including the differing use of Icons, transubstantiation of the Eucharist, and pre-destination etc.  Yet, the effort to define the true differences among the churches, especially with respect to their teaching, needs to begin at a point preceding that of the end practices, and as such, my analysis is focused on base differences in understanding.

[2] As discussed by Dr. Radner in class on December 7, 2010.

[3] As discussed by Dr. Radner in class on December 7, 2010.

[4] One can begin to see this in the common use of the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments for catechesis.

Works Cited

Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1997. St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm (accessed December 11, 2010).

Clement, Olivier (ed.). 1989. Living God. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

The Heidelberg Catechism. 1563. Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/heidelberg.html (accessed Nov. 13, 2010).

Luther, Martin. 1959. Small Catechism. In The Book of Concord. ed. and trans. Theodore Tappert. Phiiladelphia: Fortress Press, pp. 337-356.

Veniaminov, John. 1987. Indication of the Pathway Into the Kingdom of Heaven. In Alaskan Missionary Spirituality. ed. Michael Oleska. New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, pp. 80-119.