“A case could be made that Catholics are pope- or church-centered, rather than Christ-centered, since they mediate their relationship with God through the church bureaucracy. But the same could not be said about Lutherans, Methodists, and various Calvinists. The founders of those strands of Christian thought put the emphasis (to varying degrees) on Christ himself.
I myself wouldn’t call Catholics non-Christians, by the way.”
You better not. Which Christian Church came first in history, Catholicism which was and is the original Church of Jesus Christ from the very beginning or the various offshoots that broke off (considered heretical in its day) from that original Catholic Church. So how could you say the various religious offshoots have any more credibility than the Catholic Church in belief? As far as I can tell, what the Catholic Church believes and teaches is the authentic Church, and everything that came after is a reinterpretation of the original faith, or a bastardization of it, depending on the religious sect that broke off from the Mother Church. As Martin Luther himself said upon his deathbed, and I paraphrase, any milkmaid can now start a religion. So, who has the real truth when it comes to Christianity, the original religion contemporaneous to Christ’s life, or the various offshoots that sprung from it much later in history? This ought to get your juices flowing.
“You better not.”
Good, because I didn’t.
“What the Catholic Church believes and teaches is the authentic Church, and everything that came after is a reinterpretation of the original faith, or a bastardization of it, depending on the religious sect that broke off from the Mother Church.”
Note that after all the huffing and puffing, you are calling my religion a mere “reinterpretation” at best or a bastardization at worst, and I have called your religion no such thing. That’s perfectly fine, of course; we aren’t liberals in need of the notion that everything everyone believes is true. But just keep in mind that that’s what’s going on here: I accept your religion, and you don’t accept mine.
“So, who has the real truth when it comes to Christianity, the original religion contemporaneous to Christ’s life, or the various offshoots that sprung from it much later in history?”
The Catholic church was not contemporaneous with Jesus in any meaningful sense. Yes, Jesus gave Peter the “keys to the kingdom,” which Catholics take as an endorsement of a bureaucratic papal system (quite a leap). But even the earliest Gospel wasn’t written until 40 years after Jesus died, and the canon wasn’t closed until about 300 years later. There was constant infighting — leading to another church that claims originalist roots, the Eastern Orthodox.
Of course you are right that Protestantism came about as a response to Catholicism, but that does not by definition make it a reinterpretation or bastardization of the Christian faith. Rather, Luther argued that Catholicism itself had become a bastardization of the faith. (Remember “indulgences?” Sure, that’s true Christianity for you.) So your tut-tutting about the timeline says nothing, in itself, about which forms of Christianity are most authentic. I myself think many forms work just fine.