Will the teaching of a systematic theological system help people resist the apologia of other sects?
Teaching the major heresies and the problems with them directly also is valuable. A course in apologetics with heresies/cults as a focus will give people the tools to speak to anyone being sucked into a cult.
The truth is that there are few social benefits to becoming Catholic and many disincentives. Most who become Catholic are rejected by their former friends. If they are clergy, they lose their social status entirely, and their salaries. There is little to be gained by becoming Catholic save the security of knowing one has come home to the only church founded by Christ himself.
On the other hand, Protestant congregations are trained to fawn all over a wayward Catholic. It is a great prize to snatch a Catholic from the fold. A Catholic venturing to a Protestant church will quickly find a new set of zealous “friends.”
As for theology—this article is a joke. Those who become Catholic do so because they have done tons of reading, and thinking and deliberating and praying. They are intelligent and educated in the faith and it is their study of scripture and tradition which leads them to the truth of Catholicism.
On the other hand, those who leave the Catholic Church are usually divorced and remarried, gay, have a rebellious spirit or are so poorly educated as Catholics that they fall prey to a barrage of bible quotes and cant defend themselves.
Fortunately, three new developments of the past 15 years have slowed the tide of Catholics from the Church and even reversed the trend: 1. the Catechism of the Catholic Church is readily available, well written and satisfying to the intelligent mind. 2. the apologetic movement has clarified and made avaiable all that a Catholic needs to understand and defend his faith. 3. the internet has brought these two resources to the masses without needing to buy a library.
So, as well trained Protestant clergy continue to trek their way to the Catholic Church and those seeking an easier path find their way to the Protestant ecclesial bodies, it is becoming ever more clear we are getting their best and they are getting our worst.
No systematic protestant theology course is going to reverse this trend, because the movement of the Beckwiths of the world into the Catholic Church is based on years and years of study. Any course you could put up, he could tear down in half the time. The problem with Protestantism is not the number of courses offered, it is the content of those courses.
Swan’s questions seem silly. Sure, some converts did not study systematic theology before becoming Catholics. Some did. What does that prove?
Look at the hundreds of ministers who have converted in recent years. I know two personally - both former Lutheran ministers. They studied systematic theology. They converted. What does that prove?
Ping to read later. I love your threads, Ottofire!
I'll bite, none, that is why they are now Catholics. The are Christians who were looking for the fullness of faith and it resides in the Catholic Church.
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"Counsel" of God, surely.