Can church teaching be esoteric?

[Ben_Sinner]

Alot of people give their own interpretations of the Bible because it is so esoteric. Us Catholics believe that the Church infallibly defines what scripture actually means.

This leads me to another question that has been bugging me though.

Are the Church’s explanations esoteric as well and can’t be taken at face value?

I have this fear that there is a possibility that the Church could speak esoterically when declaring a Dogma that might seem cut and dry to the average person, but the leaders of the church may have their own mystic language.

So these thoughts cause me to wonder if I can trust what the Church says at face value. How can I put an end to this doubt? I’m just assuming that things like “Jesus was fully divine” literally means he was fully man and not a part of some “Christ Consciousness” that many Eastern mystics claim him to be.

 

[rinnie]

Alot of people give their own interpretations of the Bible because it is so esoteric. Us Catholics believe that the Church infallibly defines what scripture actually means.

This leads me to another question that has been bugging me though.

Are the Church’s explanations esoteric as well and can’t be taken at face value?

I have this fear that there is a possibility that the Church could speak esoterically when declaring a Dogma that might seem cut and dry to the average person, but the leaders of the church may have their own mystic language.

So these thoughts cause me to wonder if I can trust what the Church says at face value. How can I put an end to this doubt? I’m just assuming that things like “Jesus was fully divine” literally means he was fully man and not a part of some “Christ Consciousness” that many Eastern mystics claim him to be.

Simple the word of God he told his Apostles they have the Power of the Holy Spirit when they teach and preach. He told them he would give them the words.

So anothewards you have a promise from GOD himself that when they speak from the chair of Peter in his name, it is from God. ANd we have a Father who keeps his promises.

Its late here, if you need me to tommorow I can find you the scripture. Now I am going to go to bed and continue to cry because of how horrible my team played last night. It was a late night, (just kidding I am not crying)

 

[Michael_Mayo]

Our words and concepts only begin to point us in the direction of the mystery of God. As long as we live we can hope to grow in understanding and deeper realization of who God is and who we are. That being said, we each have different intellectual and “mystical” capacities. St, Bonaventure’s understanding of Church teaching can be very different from that of the average Joe sitting in the pew. We can always trust what the Church teaches “at face value” but we are not limited to that basic articulation. “Jesus was fully divine” can be taken as a contemplative starting point. What do we mean by “divine”? Beyond a simple verbal definition?

 

[rinnie]

Alot of people give their own interpretations of the Bible because it is so esoteric. Us Catholics believe that the Church infallibly defines what scripture actually means.

This leads me to another question that has been bugging me though.

Are the Church’s explanations esoteric as well and can’t be taken at face value?

I have this fear that there is a possibility that the Church could speak esoterically when declaring a Dogma that might seem cut and dry to the average person, but the leaders of the church may have their own mystic language.

So these thoughts cause me to wonder if I can trust what the Church says at face value. How can I put an end to this doubt? I’m just assuming that things like “Jesus was fully divine” literally means he was fully man and not a part of some “Christ Consciousness” that many Eastern mystics claim him to be.

Sorry I did not even address this when I posted, must have been half asleep.

My answer would be no. But what is nice is if you ever have a question on any Dogma, the Priest can explain it to you clearly.

But we all have to be able to have a clear understanding of any Dogma. If not we can ask others in the faith, or of course our Priest.