Wednesday, August 8, 2007
My opening post.
Believe it or not, after a couple of years of promptings and chastisements from friends, I have finally created my own blog!!!
My prolonged reticence about creating a blog was due in part to my lack of cyber skills and a certain willingness to commit to a sustained presence on the blog. However, after much prayer and reflection, I have placed my concerns behind me, and have leaped (uhhh…stumbled) into the 21st century.
I shall initially try to focus on issues/studies that are of great interest to me: Catholicism, Mormonism, Patristics, and “counter-cult” apologetics/ministries.
It is my sincere hope that I am able to make at least some productive contributions for my fellow bloggers, interested readers, and a place for spirited (whilst charitable) dialogue.
Grace and peace,
David
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4 comments:
Welcome to blogging!
I wanted to let you know about a site devoted to discussing apologetics: DebateGod.com
It's community driven. You can link blog post or web articles about religion. The community then votes for their favorite pieces.
Thanks,
David
You are officially book-marked.
Steve
Dear David,
You are seriously mistaken in taking the Reformers as the sole progenitors of modern evangelicalism. The modern evangelical movement is a product of the convergence of several tributaries, including the Reformers, the Radical Reformers (or Anabaptists), and the Holiness movement. Its ecclesiology is nearest not to the Reformers, but to the Anabaptists.
The Protestant Reformation was a much more complicated phenomenon than either the Catholic version (which has Protestant "schismatics" apostasizing and revolting) or the Protestant version (which has "reformers" getting excommunicated and/or martyred by a trenchant, corrupt Catholic leadership) allow. Luther was likely a sincere man whose initial views were substantially different from his later views. His vision unfortunately got distorted (even in his own mind) and appropriated by a variety of political forces. The Anabaptists tried to follow Luther's sincere religious sentiment to its logical conclusion, and with the exception of Munster I think acted more heroically than any other group during the period. But even they had problems, as in the Munster case just mentioned.
The stage for the schism of the Catholic church was set not just by its leaders' corrupt practices but also by tremendous political foment. It is terrible that it was so bloody an affair. But I think the angst of the Peasants' War also gave people the courage (or perhaps just the impetus) to break with tradition, something that is very difficult for any person in any culture to do. That is the good that came from it all: a large number of people finally broke with the Great Tradition that had had such a stranglehold on Christianity as to practically eclipse the message of Jesus. I could care less about sola fide, etc. I think the doctrine of sola fide is absurd. But the Anabaptist ecclesiology, in my opinion, is much closer to what Jesus intended than the choking, top-down hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. And in the sense that it moved people to break Christendom and return to Christianity, the Protestant Reformation was a success.
-Chris
oops... wrong blog. Let's try that again...
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