Friday, May 04, 2012

Affirming Protestant Unity



Roman Catholics like to make the point that they are unified, whereas Protestants are not.

To some degree Protestantism exhibits a superficial lack of unity, given that it arose in a particular historical context. Protestants of the Reformation were unified in that they all knew they had to get out of Rome. But they headed in different directions. That’s not the kind of problem that some might think it is. Because most conservative Protestants in our day, now having separated themselves from the theological liberal influences within their midst, (unlike Rome, which has embraced its liberal wing only now to be seen to be changing its mind and cracking down on it) are unified around core doctrines that have always been the core doctrines of historical Christianity.

In the model showing the Churches of the Reformation, salvation is by Christ alone. Christ alone, and Him crucified, is the object of our faith. Explicating this, there is a core of orthodox beliefs, surrounding Scripture, God, Christ, man, sin, redemption, etc. That is, the doctrines explain how Christ brings about this salvation. With some small exceptions, these doctrines, especially for the first 100 years or so after the Reformation, virtually all the big and important doctrines were the same among the Protestant churches. Any differences that existed among these churches were to be found not in the core doctrines, but in some of the peripheral ones. (And the list in the illustration is taken from the order given in many systematic theologies of what is known as “theology proper” -- again, this is not intended to be representative of any one school of thought, but just to be representative of how things worked).

James Anderson has shown, for example, how early Presbyterian and Baptist confessions, to which many conservative Protestants now adhere, are essentially the same document, with minor changes in areas of sacraments and church government. These differences are not central to their faith.

Roman Catholicism, however, as I’ve been showing, puts a façade of unity over top of some deep-seated rifts. I don’t want to make any predictions, but the in the Internet era, in the age of communication, things can happen quickly.

Just sayin’. Stay tuned. 

3 comments:

  1. "Because most conservative Protestants in our day, now having separated themselves from the theological liberal influences within their midst, (unlike Rome, which has embraced its liberal wing only now to be seen to be changing its mind and cracking down on it) are unified around core doctrines that have always been the core doctrines of historical Christianity."

    Liberal Protestantism is detestable.

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  2. Liberal Protestantism is detestable.

    It seems as if liberal Roman Catholics and conservative Roman Catholics, finding themselves caught in the same net, are disliking each other more and more these days.

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  3. Much depends on whether one looks at institutional form or at functional substance.In legal form, for example, the People's Republic of China is a centralised unitary state with a single, legally supreme national government, while the European Union is a loose confederation of independent, sovereign nation-states. Yet Beijing can find it impossible in practice to enforce policy on, or collect taxes from, recalcitrant provinces, especially the richer ones like Shanghai. Whereas the EU can fine British grocers for selling bananas by the pound instead of the kilogram.

    Another reason for the confusion is that Catholics (even ex-Prot ones) often view Protestantism through their own grid or filter. Eg, many, probably most, Catholics join, or remain with, the RCC because in some way they consider it the One True Church whose leadership is in some way divinely guaranteed by God. Thus they tend to assume, often unconsciously, that Protestants, too, select (or justify [NPI]) their denominational affiliation on the same basis: that, eg, if you are currently fellowshipping at Grove Way Reformed Baptist Church because the pastor is an energetic Evangelical and a good preacher, therefore you, too, must believe that the Baptist Church is the One True Church, denominationally contiguous with Jesus at Galilee, and infallible - a claim which is manifestly risible (which is why the Grove Way Reformed Baptist Church would never make it). Likewise, many Catholics think that Anglicans view Henry VIII in analogous terms to the way Catholics view their popes (at least the less embarrassing post-Vatican II ones). Whereas Anglicans themselves tend to dislike Henry: CS Lewis had Screwtape talking about feasting on the king's soul in hell, Dean WR Inge conceded that Henry was only a little better a man than Luther, and Peter Jensen describes him as "that tyrannical pope of England". (I should clarify that the last two were not meant as compliments).

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