Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Questions I Still Have

I'm trying very hard to be Roman Catholic without being triumphalistic, which is usually the key feature of converts, John Donne was so right when he wrote "the heresies men leave are the one's they hate most" - obviously Donne wasn't referring to Protestantism (a Catholic convert to Anglicanism himself), but the point is, I don't want to seem over-zealous, but still remain firm in my faith.

So I figured, I'd post a bunch of questions I still have of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism (Hopefully many of which will be answered as I read more Church History).

1. How on earth do you justify "satisfaction" as a part of penance? (I'm reading St. Anselm's "Cur Deus Homo" on this)

2. Why on earth does the Roman Church still use the Vulgate and claim it is accurate, and translate to English based on it (Douay-Rheims, Ronald Knox) when manifest errors remain in it that they know about like "do penance", and a mistranslation of Genesis 3:15 which claims Mary instead of Christ will crush Satan's head? (I'm guessing an argument about the indefectibility of the Church will be used to go against the facts in support of the Vulgate)

3. What is the importance of the "filioque" and what did the Fathers say about the procession of the Holy Ghost? (probably divided)

4. If it's the Holy Spirit that transforms the elements at consecration in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition (as the Reformed keep arguing it is) then why do they believe a valid priest is necessary?

5. How do the Reformed justify their ecclesiology from Tradition?

6. How do Anglicans justify their Church's authority outside of England?

7. What do the Lutherans believe the "point" of their confessions and absolutions are?

8. What did the Fathers teach about Mary? specifically, the orthodox Fathers.

9. Aren't C.S. Lewis and N.T. Wright correct that while the invocation of the saints is not anti-biblical it's emphasis can practically deny the New Testament doctrine of Christ's intercesion for us and our direct access to God?

10. How does Catholicism understand predestination? What is Molinism?

11. Why do the Orthodox believe God stopped defining things in 1054?

12. Why do the Reformed love the Eastern Orthodox, when the Eastern Orthodox clearly deny salvation by faith alone and the validity of Reformed Churches?

13. How did the reunion of Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches occur?

14. Is Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism more Augustinian?

15. Why should we care so much about Augustine? Didn't all the other fathers (expecially the Greeks) deny Original Sin?

3 comments:

  1. Are these personal or open forum for others?

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  2. These are open forum, but obviously I'm looking for Catholics to answer things like the Vulgate question, as the answer "because they're idiots" isn't really satisfactory for me, but ya if you feel like answering any, I would appreciate it.

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  3. I think your boy McGrath would have a few answers for the Vulgate issue and some of the effects therein. Haha :)

    He would intellectually rip you apart in the nicest ecumenical way possible :)

    ReplyDelete