Fundamental Catholic Doctrine Questions and Confusion

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Hi Everyone-

I am new to the forum, so I will give a very brief introduction here, just so that you all know my background. I am a 24 year old graduate student in physics and a practicing Catholic. I would consider myself to be a “liberal” Catholic. As of late, I have had a great number of questions about the Catholic church and the Church’s doctrine, which I would like to investigate. Being that I am in the sciences(hopefully this won’t sound arrogent), I like to find proof for different claims, and I see religion as being similiar. I would like to understand why the Church believes what it does and where the justification comes from for that belief.

At any rate, my latest investigation has been about what are the fundamental things a practicing Catholic should believe. Now I know that the Apostle’s Creed contains the essential proclaimations of faith, so to be Catholic you must believe those things. I feel like in Catholism there are “levels” of belief, some which are absolutely essential to be called Catholic and some that are more of “the church’s position” on different topics. I would like to determine which is which. As some examples, what is the justification for the Immaculate Conception? What are the church’s teachings about sex, where does all that come from? I am also wondering if there are “levels” of belief such as belief in the Communion of Saints is absolutely essential, whereas, believing in the church’s view on stem cell research may not be as essential. So I am wondering if there are any good book titles that help to sum up a lot of the doctrine, that are fairly straight forward to understand?

Now I’d imagine many of you are thinking, “just read the Catechism!” I’ve tried that, at least in earnest, and I find it to be difficult to navigate through that book. The book seem to run you around in circles, so I am wondering if there is another book about catholic doctrine and theology that is also a bit more succinct.

Thank you all and understand that I am trying to be a good practicing Catholic here and hopefully not failing miserably in the process!
 
I’m not too fond of the current Catechism as it can be very vague…

The Baltimore Catechism is highly recommended. That and the Summa Theologica (St. Thomas Aquinas).

A Douay-Rheims Bible is good to find the teachings in Scripture…some of the newer (though approved) mix things in a negative light. The writings of the Church Fathers is very good also. That’s all I have off the top of my head to recommend…when in doubt, go the traditional way! In all seriousness, it’s the liberal stuff that needs to be regarded with suspicion as the Popes, Saints, and Church in general (thru-out it’s history) do not support their claims in the least.

One more thing, Church Councils! If something is anathemized, it’s an absolute no-no. My only recommendation here is to stay away from Vatican II (I’m not saying it’s heretical or anything like that, but unless you’re firm in the teachings of the Church, the wording of this Council can have you going the wrong way. Study the others first, Vatican II last of all…it doesn’t deal with doctrine, the others do). God Bless.
 
Try reading these Papal Encyclicals which you can get from the EWTN libraries: Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Redemptor Hominis. All by Pope John Paul II
or if you don’t mind spending a little money try: This is the Faith database: for $25. you get so much information and numerous books, encyclicals, ECT…
actually I believe they are having a sale right now and it would cost you even less than $20.

JLC
 
kb9pzm said:
Hi Everyone-

I am new to the forum, so I will give a very brief introduction here, just so that you all know my background. I am a 24 year old graduate student in physics and a practicing Catholic. I would consider myself to be a “liberal” Catholic. As of late, I have had a great number of questions about the Catholic church and the Church’s doctrine, which I would like to investigate. Being that I am in the sciences(hopefully this won’t sound arrogent), I like to find proof for different claims, and I see religion as being similiar. I would like to understand why the Church believes what it does and where the justification comes from for that belief.

At any rate, my latest investigation has been about what are the fundamental things a practicing Catholic should believe. Now I know that the Apostle’s Creed contains the essential proclaimations of faith, so to be Catholic you must believe those things. I feel like in Catholism there are “levels” of belief, some which are absolutely essential to be called Catholic and some that are more of “the church’s position” on different topics. I would like to determine which is which. As some examples, what is the justification for the Immaculate Conception? What are the church’s teachings about sex, where does all that come from? I am also wondering if there are “levels” of belief such as belief in the Communion of Saints is absolutely essential, whereas, believing in the church’s view on stem cell research may not be as essential. So I am wondering if there are any good book titles that help to sum up a lot of the doctrine, that are fairly straight forward to understand?

Now I’d imagine many of you are thinking, “just read the Catechism!” I’ve tried that, at least in earnest, and I find it to be difficult to navigate through that book. The book seem to run you around in circles, so I am wondering if there is another book about catholic doctrine and theology that is also a bit more succinct.

Thank you all and understand that I am trying to be a good practicing Catholic here and hopefully not failing miserably in the process!
Click to expand...
Go to the Catholic Radio archives here: catholic.com/radio/calendar.php and select a topic of interest.

These folks are a wealth of information about the Church and usually give plenty of good resources. Plus you can rest assured that they are giving you the real Catholic deal.
 
Jlcastagna said:
Try reading these Papal Encyclicals which you can get from the EWTN libraries: Humanae Vitae, Veritatis Splendor, Redemptor Hominis. All by Pope John Paul II
or if you don’t mind spending a little money try: This is the Faith database: for $25. you get so much information and numerous books, encyclicals, ECT…
actually I believe they are having a sale right now and it would cost you even less than $20.

JLC
Click to expand...
Just a nitpick…Humanae Vitae was issued by Paul VI.
 
kb9pzm said:
Hi Everyone-

I am new to the forum, so I will give a very brief introduction here, just so that you all know my background. I am a 24 year old graduate student in physics and a practicing Catholic. I would consider myself to be a “liberal” Catholic. As of late, I have had a great number of questions about the Catholic church and the Church’s doctrine, which I would like to investigate. Being that I am in the sciences(hopefully this won’t sound arrogent), I like to find proof for different claims, and I see religion as being similiar. I would like to understand why the Church believes what it does and where the justification comes from for that belief.

At any rate, my latest investigation has been about what are the fundamental things a practicing Catholic should believe. Now I know that the Apostle’s Creed contains the essential proclaimations of faith, so to be Catholic you must believe those things. I feel like in Catholism there are “levels” of belief, some which are absolutely essential to be called Catholic and some that are more of “the church’s position” on different topics. I would like to determine which is which. **As some examples, what is the justification for the Immaculate Conception? ** What are the church’s teachings about sex, where does all that come from? I am also wondering if there are “levels” of belief such as belief in the Communion of Saints is absolutely essential, whereas, believing in the church’s view on stem cell research may not be as essential. So I am wondering if there are any good book titles that help to sum up a lot of the doctrine, that are fairly straight forward to understand?

Now I’d imagine many of you are thinking, “just read the Catechism!” I’ve tried that, at least in earnest, and I find it to be difficult to navigate through that book. The book seem to run you around in circles, so I am wondering if there is another book about catholic doctrine and theology that is also a bit more succinct.

Thank you all and understand that I am trying to be a good practicing Catholic here and hopefully not failing miserably in the process!
Click to expand...
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is an infallible teaching of the Church as defined by Pius IX in 1854. You have to believe it and accept it. You do not have to understand it or question the justification for it. It is one of the few infallible teachings issued by the Church.

The Church has many teachings on sex. Almost all if not all, are biblically based. You’d need to be more specific on this one.

As a start in your quest to see if True Catholicism is acceptable or if you can more or less pick choose and refuse, we call that cafeteria catholicism by the way, pick what you like and discard the rest, try the old Baltimore Catechism, level; 3. It outlines the doctrines of the faith in very clear concise terms and is not veiled in ambiguity as are some later documents. That should give you a good firm base on which to expand your quest into other more detailed areas.

There are very few things in Catholicism that would fit into your theory of levels of belief. One that would do so, would be private revelations, apparitions and visions, such as Our Lady of Fatima and our Lady of Lourdes. While approved by the Church no one is required to believe what was revealed by them but you can if you want to… Other visions, those in Bayside New York as an example, have not been sanctioned by the Vatican and should not be accepted by anyone.

Catholicism is a big tent, no doubt about it, but one is not free to pick what he or she likes or finds rational and acceptable, and merely discard the rest.

Good luck on your quest:thumbsup:
 
Two books I highly recommend are The Church Teaches and The Popes Against Modern Errors, both of which are available from TAN Publishers. Another good overview of the Church’s basic teachings is the book My Catholic Faith.
 
Refugium said:
Two books I highly recommend are The Church Teaches and The Popes Against Modern Errors, both of which are available from TAN Publishers. Another good overview of the Church’s basic teachings is the book My Catholic Faith.
Click to expand...
I was actually considering buying The Church Teaches recently with a Barnes and Noble gift card. Do you think it’s worth it, if I already own a large number of Catechetical and Doctrinal works? (Trent, Baltimore, St. Pius X, My Catholic Faith, This Is The Faith, Fr. Hardon’s Catechism, CCC, Compendium, Ott, Denzinger)

Oh, and Oorah, Devil Dog.
 
Here is a start-

Things I MUST believe - EVERYTHING decreed from an Ecumenical Council or Roman Pontiff in matters of the Faith.

Things I must obey: ALL Catholic church disciplines such as fasting, moral use of the sex act in marriage, Mass attendance, precepts of the Church, etc…

You may dissagree with the things you must obey (Such as dissagreeing with Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae Encyclical that forbids Catholics to use Artificial Contraception)- but you must not use AC…or teach others contrary to the Catholic teaching in this matter.

You are forbidden to “dissagree” with things such as the “Communion of Saints”, “Immaculate Conception” or even “Papal Infallibility”…if you do then you are excommunicated ipso facto because you believe a “different faith” than defined by the Church or its Pope.
 
I do believe there are levels of belief, enumerated by theologians. I would say they are rather advanced, and not at all what you had in mind. For example see Ludwig Ott, “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma” from Tan books.

The highest level is “de fide” and are infallible statements, from the pope or councils. Such as dogmas like the immaculate conception, or transubstantiation. But there are lesser levels of certainty (in the old days; no one talks much about them now, for some reason), in which experts have the freedom to withold their assent, or can withhold assent plus freely debate.

Such things I would say are the Council of Vienne’s condemnation of Olivi’s particular thesis denying that the intellective soul is the form of the body; this does not entail that St. Thomas Aquinas’ doctrine of the unicity of the substantial form is now dogma, nor that certain versions of the plurality of substantial forms cannot be maintained, eg. that of bl. John Duns Scotus, which is different from Olivi’s. It is left up to individual theologians to make up their own mind about it.

Needless to say, one must be greatly proficient in speculative theology to nagivate these waters. All of the issues the original poster mentioned are probably all in the class of “irreformable” de fide teaching.
 
Really all Catholicism is a framework of truth which puts you on the right track with God and behavior.

You can study, speculate, imagine all sorts of other life issues around this framework. So it is certainly possible to study physics in this framework, it just would be wrong to push someone out of a window to validate their particular terminal velocity.

Catholicism is all about truth, the accumulation of wisdom and the submission to God. It is just like learning music, it frees you up to understand, appreciate and even participate in beauty.

If you have many questions, don’t start at the Immaculate Conception, but start at the beginning, for example (what is the Catholic Church?). Just like you might need to familiarize yourself with standard rules of math you would start at the beginning to understand and have a reasonable appreciation for the cohesiveness of the Catholic faith.

God Bless
Scylla
 
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