Nothing condescending about anything written here. Surely if you dismiss with a wave of the hand the vast constellation of Catholic theologians from Augustine to Aquinas to Newman and Benedict (whose works are studied in the theological departments of all the great universities and colleges around the world) and Bible Christianity is even rebuffed your own pre-eminent Protestant theologians who decamped and converted to Catholicism, surely the “condescending” and “self-righteous” is on your part to say nothing of hubris. Over and over again, its Protestant and Lutheran theologians who have indicated how terribly shallow Bible Christianity is.
Bible Christians swim in the shallow end of the theological pool. When taken to the deep end their either drown or converted to Catholicism.
So now we have another dissing the works of St. Ignatius! These are among the early Church father who sifted through hundreds of scraps of written texts and cross-checked them against the oral tradition and finally declared under Petrine Authority, the authenticity of the canonical texts they chose to include in the Synod of Rome in AD 382.
I am sure you know the books in the Bible did to fall from the skies and re-assembled themselves in the order we find them.
These we the painstaking efforts of the early Catholic theologians. The infallible authority of the Church did not suddenly disappear into thin air ELEVEN centuries with the curse of Reformation in 1517. No wonder, the renowned essayist Hillaire Belloc wrote that”unlike other heresies, Protestantism spawned a cluster of heresies.” No one dared call him “ignorant of Bible Christianity.”
Today Bible Christianity ha been reduced to a caricature. Each person, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry gets to crack open the pages of the Bible authoritatively put together by Catholics and feel free to toss out scriptural quotes, ignore altogether the received sacred oral tradition (against which the written texts were silted) and then each according to “his” mind “authoritatively” interpret them in contradiction to what the Church Fathers and early disciples did. What an absurdity!
All you can do is dredge up the “personal lives” of priests and popes as misdirection to discuss matters of doctrine. Apparently, we Catholic have no stones left to throw on the personal lives of Protestant leaders and local pastors, adulterers, and murderers.
The rubbish you written “ Communion with my Lord and Savior requires no middleman,” is typical of shallow Bible Christians. Apparently, the great Lutheran theologians who converted to Catholicism were hoodwinked, and great intellectuals like GK Chesterton, and even our own Judge Bork, Justice Thomas, Laura Ingraham, and the Chief Rabbi of Rome (to name a few) who converted to Catholicism have all been misled. Maybe they could not read straightforward plain text!!! What shame!
“…gets to crack open the pages of the Bible authoritatively put together by Catholics…”
NO! Put together by the Holy Spirit!
“The rubbish you written “Communion with my Lord and Savior requires no middleman,” is typical of shallow Bible Christians.”
You are writing rubbish. You are writing the party line of agnostic Catholic Theologians.
“Today Bible Christianity has been reduced to a caricature. Each person, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry gets to crack open the pages of the Bible authoritatively put together by Catholics and feel free to toss out scriptural quotes, ignore altogether the received sacred oral tradition (against which the written texts were silted) and then each according to “his” mind “authoritatively” interpret them in contradiction to what the Church Fathers and early disciples did. What an absurdity!”
I will pray for you that God opens your eyes and gives you a taste of true communion with Him, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ. What God has given me, and many like-minded brethren of mine, is NOT Caricature! I may open the Bible, put together by the Holy Spirit, inspiring the words there, and not by Roman Catholics. That much is housed in a library in the Vatican does not make it ‘Catholic’! And we know, both you and I, that Catholic Tradition does not necessarily mesh with the Word of God!
“The rubbish you have written…”
Again, you subvert yourself to condescending tripe.
“Surely if you dismiss with a wave of the hand the vast constellation of Catholic theologians from Augustine to Aquinas to Newman…”
I know Newman…Cardinal Newman. A great man in the faith. Cardinal Newman was 21 years an Anglican Priest. He was contemporary with others in the 1800’s in England. I have studied him, about him and his family. John Henry Newman is well known on college campuses in this country. I have studied Augustine and Aquinas and those in between. They were true followers of Jesus Christ. And they would have been so, with or without any connection to the ‘Catholic’ Church.
‘So now we have another dissing the works of St. Ignatius!’
You subvert the truth. I did no dis the works of Ignatius. Ignatius was one of the great early church fathers, and I have read his writings.
“Petrine Authority”
Peter was a stone, a pebble. Jesus built his church on a rock…He Himself the Rock…the First Cornerstone…
“I am sure you know the books in the Bible did to fall from the skies and re-assembled themselves in the order we find them.”
No, they did not ‘fall from the skies’…they were given to us by the Holy Spirit, who inspired their writing, and inspirationally gave them to us.
“The infallible authority of the Church…”
There is no infallibility in the Roman Church. Infallibility is in the Word of God as given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell on all who were there (Jews). Period. It had nothing to do with Peter.
At the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit fell on all who were there. (Gentiles). It had nothing to do with Peter.
“Apparently, we Catholic have no stones left to throw on the personal lives of Protestant leaders and local pastors, adulterers, and murderers.”
We addressed that in a previous comment. It is not about throwing stones. If we were to do that we would dredge up the Inquisitions in Spain…we would talk about Joan of Arc…we would resurrect the ‘Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini’.
Each person, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry gets to crack open the pages of the Bible authoritatively put together by the Holy Spirit and use them for edification and for instruction, as the Holy Spirit leads.
HaHaHa...God's revelation to man creates shallow Christianity...
While the intellectuals and philosophers have it all figured out...
1Co 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1Co 2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
I guess you are the anti-type of the apostle Paul...If one has never read the bible you may be able to gain some traction...But for us who have read the bible, out you go with the bathwater...