Are Catholics Christians?
How to understand the other side better and grow in the process...
I read from a lot of different traditions. Whether that be Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Reformed protestants, etc.
I did a poll on Twitter asking people if they believed Catholics are Christians. I’m not talking about if they are devout about their faith or not, but if their doctrine is Christian or not. Half of the people said yes and half said no… now to be honest only a few people did the poll because I barely post on Twitter and don’t get much engagement lol.
But I do think that’s what a lot of people think… I have found 2 problems that protestants/reformed/evangelicals fall into.
They have a lot of caricatures of other traditions.
They have a different philosophical lens and therefore there is a semantics issue.
For example, many protestants will say that Catholic doctrine teaches that you are saved by grace, through faith and works.
However, protestants would agree with this to some degree if we could understand their theological framework. Catholics believe that it is only by faith you are initially justified, but at the end time of judgment if there are no works in your life you are not saved. Calvinists would say the same but in a different way.
Now, what Catholics believe in salvation is more nuanced than that, but for the sake of this argument just roll with me here.
You don’t fully understand something until you can defend it. Many Protestants could not defend from the Catholic perspective Marian doctrines. I don’t mean you need to agree with their doctrine… you just need to understand it well enough to be able to defend it. That’s how you know if you understand the other side.
Here’s a quote from Peter Kreeft (a Catholic philosopher from Boston College), “There are two very different assumptions behind asking questions, whether the question is addressed to a person or to an idea. When two persons are involved, the question is asked either in the spirit of a student or in the spirit of a prosecuting attorney. The student questions the teacher under the assumption that the teacher speaks the truth, while the prosecuting attorney questions a hostile witness under the assumption that he does not. There are also two ways of questioning ideas. We can assume the idea is true until we prove it false, as Socrates does, or we can use Descartes’ “universal methodic doubt”, which is a principle of the scientific method, and treat all ideas as false until we prove them true.”
Want to grow deeper theologically? Expand outward and read the best of other traditions as well as your own of course.
Here is one book about church history that you will love. This book is great because whether you have dived into this subject or not I think this book is easy to read and follow and will engage your heart to go deeper within church history.
The book is called, “Water From a Deep Well” by Gerald L. Sittser
Click this link to find it on Amazon: CLICK HERE
If you are enjoying this newsletter share it with a friend.
I appreciate you all!
Have questions or a comment? Feel free to email me!
Austin