Christian Commonality

As I do history of the spread of Christianity I realize more and more how essential 2 things are that all Christians hold in common. They were so important that Abp. Thomas Cranmer said England had officially reformed as a country when the people had learned these 2 things in English/Vernacular.

The Creed, and the Lord's Prayer

It's interesting to me that Abp Rowan Williams 400 years later has agreed that these are the centerpiece of the Christian faith. I'd like to make them more important in my life.

Pelikan, Waugh, & Williams - Thoughts on Vacation Reading

I'm almost done Volume 4 "Reformation of Church and Dogma" by Jaroslav Pelikan. I read a big chunk of it on my vacation this last week, and I've really enjoyed it. I didn't want to read anything about Zwingli or any more about Calvin (no offense), but I pushed on through that part and got to Trent which I thoroughly enjoyed. I feel like Pelikan is the most objective historian out there. He doesn't single-mindedly affirm any position really, and he puts in really interesting facts about them. I never knew how big an impact Zwingli and the Remonstrants (or was it Anti-Remonstrants?) / Arminians had on the Reformed Tradition. I also felt more and more that Luther was much more Catholic than any of the other Reformers. I don't know which one of Pelikan's Dogmatic histories to read next. I've done 3 and now am finishing 4, but I really don't care about the East/Orthodox (typical Catholic) and I don't know if his book on modern theology (Volume 5, 1700-present) includes any Catholic stuff, so I might get his 1st volume.

I bought and finished reading "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh. I really enjoyed it. It had been so long since I read fiction that it was refreshing. The way he writes characters and how realistic everything seems is almost eerie. Granted it wasn't the most exciting book in the world, but I still heartily enjoyed it. There were alot of great Catholic moments that made it a bit of an indulgence into my fantasy world: English Catholicism from 1850-1950 (the only area of modern history I would consider doing history graduate work in).

Finally, I'm almost finished reading "A Ray of Darkness" by Rowan Williams (written before he was Archbishop of Canterbury). As I was reading them I remarked that it was the weirdest author I've ever read in that within the same paragraph I could highlight an idea I completely agreed with, and another idea I absolutely hated. Abp. Williams had that Anglican/Anglo-Catholic style I love where they teach the Catholic and Protestant doctrines and then show how both of them are in a way wrong and then propose some new idea or middle ground. His theology is so strange, because he cites almost exclusively Roman Catholic authors (Hans Urs Von Balthasar for example), and pre-reformation (Catholic?) mystics like St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila. He seems to have no Protestant thinkers outside John Donne (a former Catholic) that influence his theology (obviously there are some, but he never cites them). His deeply personal and poetic style has taught me alot about homiletics (even just by reading), and I have much more respect for him. Some sermons in the collection were great and I've highlighted almost all of them, and others are just empty modernism and mockery towards any Christian claiming to have absolute truth. All in all I've enjoyed it though, and I think I'll continue to read him.

I'd recommend all these books.

Love: Why Traditionalism Makes Me Sick

I was just reading a blog post from a Traditionalist Catholic blog about the "horror" of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams) celebrating a eucharistic liturgy in a church in Rome that was the head church of the Dominican order.

Now let me say, I get that Catholicism has declared Anglican ordinations "null and void" in 1896. But I'm also aware what Vatican II said about Anglicanism, and that Pope John Paul II preached in Westminster Abbey and called the Anglican Communion "our beloved sister church". I know canonically it is an ecclesial communion and not truly a church (dominum iesus). But again, the spirit of ecumenism isn't something that should evoke "horror". Maybe my objection is baseless and I should agree with them, but I just despise such outright hatred for fellow Christians (which Anglicans have been concilliarly defined as being, again Vatican II).

The other things I hate about Traditionalists are their neo-Donatist conceptions of sacramental validity. They seem to think that if you are receiving communion at a Mass in English or if someone plays the guitar at your church that somehow Christ can't be present. As if the tongue of the pagan Romans or gregorian chant were what Angels spoke. I get the love for aesthetic beauty, I don't get their strange ideas about Baptisms only being baptisms if the person holds your views on anything from the papal tiara to denying the holocaust. (I'm overreacting here I know).

Furthermore, Traditionalists seem to worship Tradition to the point of idolatry. If someone did something in the past it was therefore valid. The Tridentine Mass is a great example. It was a complete "innovation" of the 16th century, but after it sits around for 400 years, then it's holy. Traditionalists mock Dave Armstrong for using the Bible to defend Catholic beliefs as if teaching the Scriptures is too "protestant" a thing for a respectible Catholic to do.

Finally, completely absent is the love of Christ. Yes it sounds trivial, yes it's argued alot, but at the end of the day, love is supreme (1 Cor 13), it is the greatest.

So may the liberals stop trying to rape Tradition of any holiness, and may the Traditionalists stop destroying charity and ecumenism.

"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. " - 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

I love this passage, and how St. Paul says that even if you understand all mysteries and knowledge and have all faith *cough sola fide cough* but have not love, you are nothing.

One of my few proud quotes is that 'to be a theologian without love is to be a theolo-gong'... and if you think that's stupid, well... my friend didn't when I told her, so there! (note my Nietzschean logic)

Final Books of the Summer: Peter Kreeft and Rowan Williams

I ordered 2 more books yesterday to be my last for the summer.

I'm still reading through Fr. Henri Nouwen which is good spiritual water for my dry soul, but I have such a long list of books I "need to read" that I have to keep going.

Right now I've finished Jaroslav Pelikan's third volume of the Christian Tradition (Medieval West) and am on page 55 of Jaroslav Pelikan's 4th volume about the Reformation. So in the hopes of finishing his Reformation history in my two days off this week, I've ordered 2 books.

Book 1: Peter Kreeft's "The God Who Loves You"



The first is Peter Kreeft's "The God Who Loves You: Love Divine All Loves Excelling". My favourite and most respected Reformed Theologian wrote this about the book:

"But Kreeft's book “The God Who Loves You” convinced me that there were good evangelical Catholics out there. But good evangelical Catholics are often bad Catholics, and Kreeft can probably be accused of such by many hardline Catholics with what Kreeft says in appreciation of Luther in that book. Kreeft is also indebted to Pascal for his worldview, and I think he has some wonderful Jansenist tendencies (which Kreeft would deny)" - Jared (http://deadtheologians.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-secret-catholic-shelf.html)

I don't know about Kreeft being a Jansenist, he does love Pascal ALOT and calls him a Catholic constantly. Jared is alot smarter than me so he is probably right, but other "hardline" (I don't know what this means as the Roman church is far from monolithic) Catholics seem to like him, Karl Keating always gives him great reviews and speaks about his orthodoxy. In any case, I've been thinking about God's love alot as it is central to Catholic theology and I love reading Kreeft (but I too probably have Jansenist tendencies in that I love Pascal and Augustine and hate Molinism and some of the Jesuit Molinists of the 18th century).

But then again as Catholicism (and Protestantism for that matter) move onward, I think they are noticing more in each other to appreciate than they have in the last 5 centuries. After all Pope Benedict XVI while not saying Luther was correct, did actually admit this year that justification is by faith alone if this faith is not opposed to love. And then clarified his position as justification by love alone. this is basically where Kreeft lives, so technically he is an orthodox Catholic.

Book 2: "A Ray Of Darkness" by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams



It is doubtful that my love for this man's theology, and pastoral writing will ever die. It was almost sufficient to make me Anglican. My continual love of Anglo-Catholicism and my own faith which is usually: the closest views I can hold to Anglicanism within Roman Catholic teaching, make it a predictable book choice.

This book is a compilation of his sermons. Williams is -like Nouwen- one of the most pastoral priests I've ever read. I picked up his book on the Lord's Prayer yesterday at Chapters and started skimming and his thoughts were completely in line with the Catholic nun he co-authored it with and so I figured a kindly Anglo-Catholic like Williams isn't really a danger to me (this claim could easily be contested, but I like to think of myself as an Anglo-Catholic who accepted Papal Infallibility and thus joined the (Roman) Catholic Church)

Jesus - A Message Worth Teaching

I was talking with one of my old Baptist pastors on friday night about my conversion and why I'm becoming Catholic. It was actually ironic because I explained to him the logical arguments and why I felt I was obligated to become Catholic whether I wanted to or not and then I started complaining about the Church and about how no one actually knew Jesus or the gospel in it to the point that he started defending it lol. I found that ironic. Again today in RCIA we spent the time discussing papal infallibility (which is important) and we still haven't even covered the question the bible addresses in every page 'teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

I was reading about my 'hero' Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams and his views on Jesus and the Apostles Creed. He said he thought "(Jesus)who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary" was an intentional metaphor...

....

....

This man is in charge of the souls of 70 million worldwide in the Anglican communion and he thinks the gospel is a metaphor... What is the point of liberal theology? It's just vague moral platitudes and empty ritual. (as opposed to clear legalistic morality and meaningful ritual - which is Catholicism j/k). I no longer have any desire to become Anglican, and I have no more respect for the Archbishop.

I was listening to John MacArthur on the radio the other day and he was preaching about Jesus - a topic of his which I prefer to his previous series 'Evolution: Fact or Fiction' in which he claimed all proponents of theistic evolution or old earth creationism were heretics. But Johnny Mac was preaching like Spurgeon on the centrality of Christ. He was talking about how the Christology in Colossians says that Jesus created the Aeons (i hope that's the right greek word) and he explained it as:

'Jesus created every age, and the framework for ontological
existence, every second that the world continues to function it does so by his will and power. I often find it ironic that as Jesus walked the earth he was upholding not only his own existence but that of the entire universe' - John MacArthur (paraphrased by my memory)

Wow. And he didn't mean that metaphorically.

In mass today they read aloud: "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 3:11), and I opened my missal to a hymn in the back and read:

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet
sorrow and love flow mingled down
did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?

O wonderful cross!
O the wonderful cross
bids me come and die
and find that I may truly live.

O wonderful cross!
O the wonderful cross!
All who gather here by grace
draw near and bless your name.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offer far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

O wonderful cross!
O the wonderful cross
bids me come and die
and find that I may truly live.

O wonderful cross!
O the wonderful cross!
All who gather here by grace
draw near and bless your name.

O wonderful cross!
O the wonderful cross
bids me come and die
and find that I may truly live.

Jesus. YWHW is Salvation. "and on that cross where Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied". That is a message worth teaching.