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The Crisis of Authority in the Reformation
Coming Home Network ^ | Kenneth J. Howell, Ph. D.

Posted on 04/01/2008 4:32:20 PM PDT by annalex

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1 posted on 04/01/2008 4:32:21 PM PDT by annalex
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To: 353FMG; AlaskaErik; Always Right; Antoninus; ArrogantBustard; CTK YKC; dan1123; DogwoodSouth; ...
50 Days of Easter 2008 Celebration ping, dedicated to converts to the Catholic faith. If you want to be on the list but are not on it already, or if you are on it but do not want to be, let me know either publicly or privately.

Happy Easter. Christ is risen!

Alex.


Previously posted conversion stories:

Anti-Catholicism, Hypocrisy and Double Standards
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part I: Darkness
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part II: Doubts
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part III: Tradition and Church
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part IV: Crucifix and Altar
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part V: The Catholics and the Pope
Why I Returned to the Catholic Church. Part VI: The Biblical Reality
His Open Arms Welcomed Me
Catholic Conversion Stories & Resources
My Personal Conversion Story
My (Imminent) Reception into the Roman Catholic Church
Catholics Come Home
My Journey of Faith
LOGIC AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF PROTESTANTISM
"What is Truth?" An Examination of Sola Scriptura
"Have you not read?" The Authority behind Biblical Interpretation

2 posted on 04/01/2008 4:33:11 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex

Protestantism is, unfortunately, something that will inevitably shatter into a million pieces. Each person picks the thing that he likes best and makes it the keystone of his faith. If he’s a powerful and convincing person, then he gets others to go along, and soon this fragment of the truth has been exalted as being the Truth itself. And then somebody else finds a fragment of the truth he likes better...and so forth.

When we talk about the destruction of unity, we’re not talking about merely the destruction of an external, formal unity, but about the destruction of the unity of doctrine. And that is the fundamental problem of Protestantism and the theory behind it (and behind any and all of its multitude of spin-offs and spin-offs of spin-offs).


3 posted on 04/01/2008 4:49:25 PM PDT by livius
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To: annalex
Well, two things spring to mind from this very interesting article:

1) The confessional Lutheran view of the Eucharist hasn't changed an iota since Philip Melanchthon first issued the Augsburg Confession, and 2) Confessional Lutherans don't privately interpret Scripture and don't reject the authority of tradition; they only do so where that tradition contradicts the clear meaning of Scripture (which it doesn't often do).

4 posted on 04/01/2008 4:55:20 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: livius

What you and the author describe comes naturally to the modern mind. We simply don’t see any problem in endless diversity of opinion, which the democratic process integrates into a self-contradictory whole. However, this is no way to do Christianity, which has a single sacred source.


5 posted on 04/01/2008 4:58:45 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: Mr. Lucky
The confessional Lutheran view of the Eucharist hasn't changed an iota since Philip Melanchthon

But granting that, this is not a very long time. Ours hasn't changed since the Last Supper.

6 posted on 04/01/2008 5:01:58 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex

AAAAAHHH! *running, arms waving* IT’S A CRISIS!! *panic, eyes rolling*


7 posted on 04/01/2008 5:14:32 PM PDT by roamer_1 (Globalism is just Socialism in a business suit.)
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To: roamer_1

Didn’t mean to drive you to panic, sorry.


8 posted on 04/01/2008 5:18:56 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex
Didn’t mean to drive you to panic, sorry.

Whew! I'm O.K. now. You know how it is with us Protestants, what with no leadership and all ;)

9 posted on 04/01/2008 5:39:02 PM PDT by roamer_1 (Globalism is just Socialism in a business suit.)
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To: annalex
I believed that the Reformation represented a return to the biblical freedom from which the Roman Catholic Church had slipped into bondage.

No, not even close. Luther and the others just put lipstick on a pig. They didn't go nearly far enough.

10 posted on 04/01/2008 5:47:54 PM PDT by ovrtaxt (This election is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if McCain wins, we’re still retarded.)
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To: annalex

Without a doubt the sin of the reformers was why Jesus prayed so fervently for unity. The division caused by these wayward children of the Church just adds to the wounds that Christ suffered for our sins.


11 posted on 04/01/2008 5:55:04 PM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words". ~ St. Francis of Assisi)
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To: livius
You have succumbed to a common myth about Protestantism. It is not "every man for himself." There is a long record of agreement on orthodoxy (vs orthopraxy).

I would venture to say that there is not as much unity in Roman Catholicism as a lot would like to believe.

12 posted on 04/01/2008 6:21:19 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: livius
You have succumbed to a common myth about Protestantism. It is not "every man for himself." There is a long record of agreement on orthodoxy (vs orthopraxy).

I would venture to say that there is not as much unity in Roman Catholicism as a lot would like to believe.

13 posted on 04/01/2008 6:22:17 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: ovrtaxt

Was Stalin’s work more to your satisfaction?


14 posted on 04/01/2008 6:52:06 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: LiteKeeper
not as much unity in Roman Catholicism as a lot would like to believe.

Someone pointed to me privately that great diversity of opinion exists, for example, on the inerrancy of the Bible among the Catholics. Some of it indeed exists. Even greater diversity exists over the reforms of the Vatican II. Moreover, our dispute with the non-Catholic apostolic sister Churches such as the Eastern Orthodox Church or even the pre-Chalcedon Churches is on an entirely different footing, and very little of it is theological.

The difference is that all these disputes are not about what we commonly hold to be the sacred deposit of faith. We agree on what Christ taught, what the sacraments of the Church are, what work the Church is supposed to be doing, where the authority of the Church is coming form, what is the authority of the scripture.

15 posted on 04/01/2008 6:59:33 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: annalex

We were commanded to seek God, not blindly follow traditions of man.


17 posted on 04/01/2008 7:15:54 PM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
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To: LiteKeeper

Martin Luther is responsible for the loss of more souls than any other person in history


18 posted on 04/01/2008 7:44:44 PM PDT by terycarl (lurking, but interested and informed)
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To: Always Right
We were commanded to seek God, not blindly follow traditions of man.

This is the strongest condemnation of Protestantism I know.

19 posted on 04/01/2008 8:25:29 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: LiteKeeper
I never heard the phrase "every man for himself" applied to the Protestant religious movements.
20 posted on 04/01/2008 8:36:50 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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