tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938983304459855111.post153791056078291133..comments2023-04-02T07:03:21.099-05:00Comments on Principium Unitatis: Evangelicals and the Crisis of AuthorityBryan Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13269970389157868131noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938983304459855111.post-59035508097437460572009-11-19T12:20:53.119-06:002009-11-19T12:20:53.119-06:00The perfidy, I think, which facilitates such peren...The perfidy, I think, which facilitates such perennial crises is the assumption (or perhaps presumption) that discussion is itself a per se good. When someone gets away with seemingly innocently asking, "why can't we just have an honest debate on the subject?" she has already been given the upper hand, especially on an issue such as this, where the church has historically and unambiguously ruled. <br /><br />But,discussion is seemingly not a per se good, but an instrumental good the goal of which is the truth. If approached in this way, then the questioner has no answer to John Eck's question, "For what purpose does it serve to raise a new dispute about matters condemned through so many centuries by church and council?"<br /><br />As both a Calvin alumnus and a Catholic, I have been ever disheartened by the direction the school has taken, not because it is liberal, but because it is non committal. Too scared to upset either side, the school, claiming to be a bastion of serious Christian inquiry, instead becomes a parody of it. Unwilling to have an identity, it has none. And this is called a virtue! I do think, as you intimated in this article, that this is a logical consequence of Protestantism as a whole. This realization was a primary, if not the primary, motivation for my conversion to Catholicism in undergrad. My heart truly breaks for Calvin College.Stephen Kroghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10000165989213732857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938983304459855111.post-4654641648419664282009-11-18T22:26:14.308-06:002009-11-18T22:26:14.308-06:00Pastor Tonkowich gave sermons on a semi-regular ba...Pastor Tonkowich gave sermons on a semi-regular basis at the last Presbyterian congregation which I attended. Two points of interesting note--one sermon focused on discussing the Lord's Prayer, and in dealing with the paradoxical nature of praying "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" he utilized our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's book Jesus of Nazareth.<br /><br />Second, he also decried the Protestant practice of reading along with the reading of the Scriptures in a church service. He was an advocate of believing that faith comes by HEARING, and he had interesting comments on the individualism that came out of the advent of the printing press.<br /><br />He also mentioned how his Eastern Orthodox upbringing (which he has clearly left to some extent) was a good remedy for such individualism.<br /><br />May God guide us all into His loving arms.contrarian 78https://www.blogger.com/profile/06104559106619389825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1938983304459855111.post-35222275815585249822009-11-17T20:19:53.082-06:002009-11-17T20:19:53.082-06:00Thanks for the heads-up, Bryan; I just left a comm...Thanks for the heads-up, Bryan; I just left a comment on that article.Devin Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13706894435441471620noreply@blogger.com