A
Antonius_Lupus
Guest
Recently, I have felt increasingly drawn to writing a missive on Protestant Christianity. I have been a practicing Catholic for a little more than three years now, but I still live in a Protestant household and the vast majority of my family is Protestant. Furthermore, I have many dear Protestant friends whom I cherish as nothing less than brothers and sisters in the Lord.
I want to share my view of them and of Protestant Christianity as a whole…with all the various understandings and perspectives of the relationship between Protestants and Catholics that I have learned over the five years I have spent researching and living that association in my daily life. I hope the readers of this open letter will see this little communiqué as a letter of love…and gratitude.
The first thing I suppose that should be dealt with is what I consider Protestant Christianity to be. I am of the opinion that a Protestant is best defined as a Christian whose understanding of Christianity is derived from the various groups and leaders of the Protestant revolt (I have chosen the word “revolt” over “reformation” because I feel the former is more objective). This definition does have certain parameters in my mind however. For example, only those non-Catholics Westerners who accept the basic tenets of orthodox Christianity (e.g. Diophysite Christology, Trinitarianism, etc.) can be properly called “Protestants.” Groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and such would not fall under the category of “Protestant” in my mind.
Even with this definition however, Protestantism remains a large umbrella term denoting many Christian ecclesial communities. Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed and/or Calvinists, Pentecostals, and so many other Christian groups fall into my definition of Protestant. Despite this multiplicity, there are many unifying factors in my mind that bind Protestants together. Including the basic tenets of orthodox Christianity described above, these factors comprise of the Five Solas in particular and also other similarities. Even as a Southern Baptist, I was aware of these commonalities and did not see too many overwhelming differences between my fellow Protestants and me.
Yet, I am now a fully initiated Catholic Christian of the Latin Church of Rome, and therefore my understanding of Protestantism has changed significantly since being a Protestant myself. I shall now attempt to relate my understanding of Protestantism, informed as it is by Catholic teaching and my own experiences. I submit fully to the correction and teaching authority of the Catholic Church in my subsequent discussion.
I suppose the hardest things should be dealt with first, that is, the negative. I am reminded of the words of Sacred Scripture: “For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you.” (1 Cor. 11:19). I would not have left Protestantism had I not felt something within it was flawed and that Catholic Christianity offered something better. Even still, I do not intend this missive to be an apologetic for Catholicism and a criticism of Protestantism. Rather, I simply wish to briefly relate my initial negative views so as to “set the scene” to the positive views (which I find much more compelling and important to my life).
I understand Protestant Christianity in many ways; however one of the most helpful is the notion of “abridged Christianity.” Let us imagine, for a moment, that Christianity is a stained glass icon. The whole work is completed by many colored panes which each together comprise an intelligible work of art. Catholic Christianity, in my view, is the complete stained-glass icon…“unabridged Christianity” if you will. Protestantism for me is certainly Christianity, but it is incomplete and is missing several of the colored panes. The icon is thus skewered by the lack of certain important pieces. These include a full understanding of Scriptural teaching, the Apostolic Tradition, historical continuity, and other issues which need not be mentioned here.
Indeed, one of the major factors in my reversion to Catholicism was the witness of history. I have always been a history lover and since an early age I desired to imitate the first Christians. Protestantism itself was conceived of as a return to this early Christian way of life, and that is what I understood being an Evangelical Protestant meant (in part anyway). Much to my initial dismay, the historical record did not support that notion. In reading the writings of the Early Church, I discovered that the first Christians were undeniably Catholic in theology and practice. That of course led me to a dilemma: if Protestantism was the restoration of Apostolic Christianity, then why did God allow the Early Church to fall into Papist error so early on? The dilemma further deepened as I continued my historical research. For approximately 1,500 years, nothing equivalent to the Evangelicalism I had grown up with appeared in the historical record. On the contrary, the overwhelming majority of Christianity, East and West, was Catholic for the first 1,000 years. Even after the Great Schism, the Eastern Orthodox Churches maintained many Catholic concepts…their only major disagreement was the issue of the Papacy (and even this objection was a novelty). I began to ask myself: “Why would God allow the Church to be in the dark until Martin Luther and the Reformation?”
CONTINUED…
I want to share my view of them and of Protestant Christianity as a whole…with all the various understandings and perspectives of the relationship between Protestants and Catholics that I have learned over the five years I have spent researching and living that association in my daily life. I hope the readers of this open letter will see this little communiqué as a letter of love…and gratitude.
The first thing I suppose that should be dealt with is what I consider Protestant Christianity to be. I am of the opinion that a Protestant is best defined as a Christian whose understanding of Christianity is derived from the various groups and leaders of the Protestant revolt (I have chosen the word “revolt” over “reformation” because I feel the former is more objective). This definition does have certain parameters in my mind however. For example, only those non-Catholics Westerners who accept the basic tenets of orthodox Christianity (e.g. Diophysite Christology, Trinitarianism, etc.) can be properly called “Protestants.” Groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and such would not fall under the category of “Protestant” in my mind.
Even with this definition however, Protestantism remains a large umbrella term denoting many Christian ecclesial communities. Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed and/or Calvinists, Pentecostals, and so many other Christian groups fall into my definition of Protestant. Despite this multiplicity, there are many unifying factors in my mind that bind Protestants together. Including the basic tenets of orthodox Christianity described above, these factors comprise of the Five Solas in particular and also other similarities. Even as a Southern Baptist, I was aware of these commonalities and did not see too many overwhelming differences between my fellow Protestants and me.
Yet, I am now a fully initiated Catholic Christian of the Latin Church of Rome, and therefore my understanding of Protestantism has changed significantly since being a Protestant myself. I shall now attempt to relate my understanding of Protestantism, informed as it is by Catholic teaching and my own experiences. I submit fully to the correction and teaching authority of the Catholic Church in my subsequent discussion.
I suppose the hardest things should be dealt with first, that is, the negative. I am reminded of the words of Sacred Scripture: “For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you.” (1 Cor. 11:19). I would not have left Protestantism had I not felt something within it was flawed and that Catholic Christianity offered something better. Even still, I do not intend this missive to be an apologetic for Catholicism and a criticism of Protestantism. Rather, I simply wish to briefly relate my initial negative views so as to “set the scene” to the positive views (which I find much more compelling and important to my life).
I understand Protestant Christianity in many ways; however one of the most helpful is the notion of “abridged Christianity.” Let us imagine, for a moment, that Christianity is a stained glass icon. The whole work is completed by many colored panes which each together comprise an intelligible work of art. Catholic Christianity, in my view, is the complete stained-glass icon…“unabridged Christianity” if you will. Protestantism for me is certainly Christianity, but it is incomplete and is missing several of the colored panes. The icon is thus skewered by the lack of certain important pieces. These include a full understanding of Scriptural teaching, the Apostolic Tradition, historical continuity, and other issues which need not be mentioned here.
Indeed, one of the major factors in my reversion to Catholicism was the witness of history. I have always been a history lover and since an early age I desired to imitate the first Christians. Protestantism itself was conceived of as a return to this early Christian way of life, and that is what I understood being an Evangelical Protestant meant (in part anyway). Much to my initial dismay, the historical record did not support that notion. In reading the writings of the Early Church, I discovered that the first Christians were undeniably Catholic in theology and practice. That of course led me to a dilemma: if Protestantism was the restoration of Apostolic Christianity, then why did God allow the Early Church to fall into Papist error so early on? The dilemma further deepened as I continued my historical research. For approximately 1,500 years, nothing equivalent to the Evangelicalism I had grown up with appeared in the historical record. On the contrary, the overwhelming majority of Christianity, East and West, was Catholic for the first 1,000 years. Even after the Great Schism, the Eastern Orthodox Churches maintained many Catholic concepts…their only major disagreement was the issue of the Papacy (and even this objection was a novelty). I began to ask myself: “Why would God allow the Church to be in the dark until Martin Luther and the Reformation?”
CONTINUED…
