Can we trust non-catholic sources?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Walterross
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

Walterross

Guest
My question arises from wanting to learn more about Jesus and the history of the church, etc. I realize that there are many christian denominations, each with their own little bias here and there of what they publish/write.

My question is can we trust other sources such as protestant, presbyterian, or jewish sources? For example, if I want to learn more about the history of the life of Jesus (not including the bible) I’m sure everyone has their interpretation of it. How do I weed out good information from bad ones being that I’m unaware of the facts myself?

And this doesn’t just go for research. YouTube videos for example, have many non-catholic speakers and video creators such as Joel Osteen as well as many others. Should I give videos of other denominations any thought or dismiss them altogether?

I run into this problem quite a bit when researching anything pertaining to God. It seems the only way to do it correctly is to type “catholic” at the end of every search query 😅 , although I feel like I may be getting only catholic bias, which might lead to blind-faith which I want to avoid.

Does anybody run into this issue as well?
 
If at all anything is close to truth, that is Catholic tradition and literature simply because they kept the flame of faith in Christ from being extinguished in the worst of times of Christianity (they trusted in their documents and traditions and the experiences in Christ).
 
The easiest way I wrap my head around it is something like this I think…
Catholic is canon, while non-catholic sometimes can be used as resources.
 
I was raised protestant and am Catholic now so you obviously know where my bias lies, but having went through a process on and off for years of looking up and reading about Christianity largely through Google searches (not a good method, I know) and almost always reading non-Catholic material: trying to find precision and cohesion in what you read is like trying to ballet dance with snowshoes. It’s all over the place. Catholic sources vary and disagree with each other too, but it’s not even in the same ballpark.

So yeah a person can possibly use them as resources or gain spiritual insights from them but don’t forget about the pre-denominational Church you came from.
 
Last edited:
Walterross said:
Does anybody run into this issue as well?
Click to expand...
You run into issues within Catholic literature as well. Sometimes points of view are presented as irrefutably and unarguably fact (or even doctrine), whereas the magisterium has not taught it as such.

Down to it, all reading - whether of Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, non-religious literature - ought to be done with a good degree of circumspection. Never hesitate to ask questions (even to yourself): make a note of things that you’d like to query and then consult a Catholic resource for clarification.

At the end of the day, there’s no problem - in principle - consulting non-Catholic sources. After all, the critical texts (which are the basis of Catholic Bible translations, including the Latin Vulgate) of the Hebrew OT and Greek NT are largely compiled by Protestants at the German Bible Society.
 
Personally, I don’t trust non Catholic sources. Jewish sources I can trust on OT subjects. But anybody else: No way.

It might make interesting reading from an apologetic point of view. Like when I read Protestant theology in order to apologetically take it down.

As for Joel Osteen: I avoid him like the plague when I’m at the bookstore. The man’s a Prosperity Gospel preacher; if I’m not mistaken.
 
Walterross said:
My question arises from wanting to learn more about Jesus and the history of the church, etc. I realize that there are many christian denominations, each with their own little bias here and there of what they publish/write.

My question is can we trust other sources such as protestant, presbyterian, or jewish sources? For example, if I want to learn more about the history of the life of Jesus (not including the bible) I’m sure everyone has their interpretation of it. How do I weed out good information from bad ones being that I’m unaware of the facts myself?

And this doesn’t just go for research. YouTube videos for example, have many non-catholic speakers and video creators such as Joel Osteen as well as many others. Should I give videos of other denominations any thought or dismiss them altogether?

I run into this problem quite a bit when researching anything pertaining to God. It seems the only way to do it correctly is to type “catholic” at the end of every search query 😅 , although I feel like I may be getting only catholic bias, which might lead to blind-faith which I want to avoid.

Does anybody run into this issue as well?
Click to expand...
Go to the source that was actually there. The only source instituted by Christ Himself. The Catholic Church.
 
The more research you do, the more you’ll come to trust Catholic sources. But that’s coming from someone who tested the waters in a variety of places; we all have to seek and learn for ourselves.

And, yes, we can learn from non-Catholic sources; CS Lewis is widely regarded as having wisdom we can all benefit from. Even non-Christians can have elements of the truth, and express that truth in a manner that’s profitable to hear. They just won’t have the fullness of truth and will be lacking in some knowledge that’s critical for man to have. Anyway, I like Augustine’s statement, “All truth is God’s truth”. We never need to fear truth regardless of where we happen to find it.
 
Last edited:
Walterross said:
My question arises from wanting to learn more about Jesus and the history of the church, etc. I realize that there are many christian denominations, each with their own little bias here and there of what they publish/write.

My question is can we trust other sources such as protestant, presbyterian, or jewish sources?
Click to expand...
Your best Source re: JESUS is He Himself.

Get to Know all you can about Him via the New Testament - especially the GOSPEL - accounts,
which present His Actual WORDS / TEachings…

That said, that doesn’t mean one can never find Truth about Jesus - within non-Catholic - and then, non-Christian sources. But obviously, due to even some strong oppostion to Jesus in some cases, then it becomes far easier to encounter falsehoods claimed at true…

_

_
 
It is an interesting question.
For a Catholic who is new in terms of years, or in terms of education and experience, it is more prudent to stick with Catholic approved writings within the faith tradition. As Catholics we are blessed with an incredible breath of writings within Catholic orthodoxy. Scholastic writers, mystic writers, Saints scholars, poets on and on. A long history and tradition.
At some point when people are able to discern their own tradition and faith, there is a perennial tradition as well. First book I ever read by SAINT POPE John Paul II included his summation of many faith traditions. He evaluated ideas in common, of value, and where they depart from Catholic theology. As a guide, SPJPII provided a safe and larger picture. He also wrote about the richness of certain writings from the Eastern church and encouraged reading them.
Writers like Thomas Merton wrote about features of Zen as a Catholic writer. His own contribution to the body of Catholic writings included a revival of Catholic mystic tradition and the Desert and early Church fathers, Wisdom tradition, Sophia, and other subject matter.
Personally I find the breath of Catholic writings one of the riches of our tradition. While some Catholic choose to rigidly confine themselves to theology of certain periods, I have found that venturing out sometimes results in finding a particular author or Saint that speaks to you.
 
Last edited:
There are dozens of Catholic sources and Catholic apologists out there for you to learn about Jesus’ life and so forth. There are so many that I don’t have enough hours in my day or in my life to read them all. So obviously I don’t have time for a bunch of non-Catholic sources that I’d have to pick through carefully avoiding errors. No thank you.

Why would you want to turn to non-Catholic sources to learn about Catholicism when you have such a wealth of material coming from Catholics directly? I would hope it’s not just the laziness of not wanting to have to type the word “Catholic” in the Youtube search or whatever. There are also tons of sources that aren’t on Youtube. Youtube is great for entertainment, or for finding a quick six minute video of how to take my drain apart and unclog it, but I wouldn’t rely on it for all my in-depth learning about Catholicism unless I was just going to watch EWTN channel and Bishop Barron and similar.

And if you’re thinking these other religions have some kind of a fresh take or inside info on either the Church or Jesus, trust me, they don’t.
 
Last edited:
The Catholic bias is to be catholic, accepting whatever is true no matter what the source. There is nothing more Catholic than Aquinas using a prechristian Greek philosopher.

Adherence to the truth is not easy. Catholic sources can be as flawed as others. Many Catholics will use the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich to tell you about the life of Jesus, something even the Vatican would not endorse. The writings that appear under her name are so heavily influenced by the German romanticism of Clemens Brentano that is is hard to identify what came from the visions of ACE.

At the same time, her mystical visions give one type of information, but it is not the same as the knowledge gained by scholarly study. What you want to know about the life of Jesus may tend toward the scholarly, historical side rather than the mystical side. Or vice versa. Clarifying what you want to know can clarify what sources to use.

Every source has ro be evaluated, which can be hard amongst the great cacophany of opinions.
 
Kind of like how Wikipedia is a fine starting point but should never be a main source for serious research.
 
Protestant sources are likely going to be just like their bibles: they contain truth, but not the whole truth.
 
Dovekin said:
Many Catholics will use the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich to tell you about the life of Jesus, something even the Vatican would not endorse.
Click to expand...
I don’t think “many Catholics” are all that much into Anne Catherine Emmerich. Despite knowing a lot of people who were into apparitions and mystics, I never even heard anyone mention Anne Catherine Emmerich until I joined this forum. Perhaps she is more popular in other parts of USA or other parts of the world.

However, you make a good point about sources not approved by the Church. I would not call sources that are not approved by the church “Catholic sources”. Definitely if someone is interested in the insights of mystics then it’s important to check on whether the purported revelations have received any Church approval or are suspect in some way. For example one would not call “Poem of the Man God” a Catholic source for learning about Jesus given that it spent years on the Index of Forbidden Books and the Church’s position on it has not changed.

The vast majority of people I know who want to learn about Jesus simply read the Gospels.
If they find the Gospels are not sufficient, then from there maybe move on to some Gospel commentary or some books on the historical Jesus. This is where one can run into trouble reading sources by non-Catholic authors as they often tend to present their own opinions, or their own religion’s viewpoints, as facts.
 
Last edited:
Jewish sources can be controversial. For example, I find Josephus fairly reliable. However, I’ve been told by Orthodox Jews that he is considered anathema. Mainly because he wrote that the ark of the covenant in the Second Temple contained ‘nothing at all’.
 
I agree with the other posters about using Protestant sources. They’re going to be riddled with errors and biases that you’ll have to “ read between the lines “ through.

In my apologetics with Protestants, I’ve discovered that they can often have a skewed vision of Church history, see things they can use that reinforce their views and they cherry picked from the Church Fathers, some passages they accept and others they reject because it wasn’t a “ reliable witness “; in order to build their systems.

Contemporary Jewish sources I trust on OT topics. I find Jewish sources to be fairly reliable and scholarly in their approach.
 
Last edited:
Walterross said:
ouTube videos for example, have many non-catholic speakers and video creators such as Joel Osteen as well as many others.
Click to expand...
If you are studying theology or serious history, Mr Olsteen is not where I would look. His talks are that of a motivational speaker, he preaches the “health and wealth” message that is contrary to Scripture.

There are non-Catholics who write and speak who are very worth listening to, from serious scholars to great minds like C S Lewis to great preachers like the original Billy Graham (his son, sadly, does not hold a candle).
 
It blew my mind when I heard Fr Larry Richards say that Archbishop Fulton J Sheen and Billy Graham were friends.
 
Billy Graham took a ton of flack from some corners of the Christian world because he included Catholics.

When Mr Graham came to do one of those huge revivals, his team would first meet with the pastors of the town, from Nazarene to Catholic and everything in between.

Then, these ministers would be there for the revival. When people came forward at the “altar call”, the Graham team members would ask those people if they had a faith tradition/denomination. If you said “yeah, I was baptized Catholic”, you were directed to the Catholic priests. If you were raised Lutheran, you were guided to the Lutheran pastor, etc. Mr Graham did not approve of “sheep stealing” or trying to proselytize between denominations. There were some denominations/groups who would not participate in Billy Graham crusades, some who called him a non Christian, because of this.

I’ve said many times, Billy Graham and CS Lewis made me Catholic!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top