Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Catholicism as True Enough

 Couldn't agree more with the Maverick Philosopher.  Choose your religion or denomination according to whether you think it is true that it will lead you and those in your care on the path of salvation.  His latest post verbatim:

Catholicism is true enough to provide moral guidance and spiritual sustenance for many, many people.  So if you are a lapsed Catholic, you could do far worse than to return to the arms of Holy Mother the Church. And this despite the deep post-Vatican II corruption. Better such a reversion than to persist in one's worldly ways like St. Augustine who, at age 30, confessed that he was "still caught fast in the same mire by a greed for enjoying present things that both fled me and debased me." (Confessions, Bk. 6, Ch. 11, Ryan tr., p. 149)
 But if you are a Protestant like Tim McGrew or James Anderson, should you 'swim the Tiber'?  Some branches of Protestantism are also good enough and true enough to provide moral guidance and spiritual sustenance.  And this despite the problems of Protestantism.
I should think that practice is more important than doctrine.  Better to remove the lust from your heart than to write an erudite blog entry about it.  The doctrines will always be debated and contested.  Does the Incarnation make logical sense?  Is it perhaps true whether or not it makes sense to the discursive intellect?  We will never know here below.  
Would it not be folly to postpone the reform of one's life until one had solved intellectual difficulties that we have good reason to believe cannot be solved in our present state?  Orthopraxy trumps orthodoxy.  Three elements of Christian orthopraxy: follow the Ten Commandments; avoid the Seven Deadly Sins; observe the Two greatest Commandments.
  

4 comments:

  1. But how does he know that "Some branches of Protestantism are also good enough and true enough"?
    To say something is true enough, one already must know the exact truth.
    If it is really so "one must eat my flesh" to have eternal life, then maybe Protestants are risking a lot. And intellectual Protestants like Tim McGrew are even in greater danger than unintellectual ones.
    "He that knows suffers more than those that had lesser knowledge" (Letter from Beyond, available online).

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  2. I don't think that Bill thinks that Orthodoxy doesn't matter at all. He listed some truths that he thought vital about the 10 Commandments, etc. Orthodoxy serves Orthopraxy.

    As far as Protestantism goes, if one thinks Catholicism is true enough or the best Christian sect then one has reason for thinking that various forms of Protestantism is good and enough and true enough since Catholicism teaches that.

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  3. I am not sure I understand your second para. What reason one has for thinking Protestantism good enough since Catholicism teaches what?

    Given Catholicism, the Protestant intellectuals such as McGrew are running a severe danger of hell since they willfully refuse to partake of the flesh and blood of Christ.

    Also, on what basis does Maverick Philosopher choose some truths that are essential vs other truths that are not?

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  4. 18th Proposition of Syllabus of Errors:
    "Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church."

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