How many different Beliefs Systems are there within Post Reformation Western Christianity

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JRKH said:
For the sake of the topic here such would not apply in my opinion. If we get into every variation on every teaching in every church by every individual weā€™d have 5 billion one person Churches.

You rpost does raise an interesting idea thoug, and that would be to discover what the major reasons are for people leaving one Church for another.

Peace
James
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I think I read somewhere (canā€™t cite the source, though!) that the major issue that causes disagreement is: sexual morality. That, I suppose, would include divorce.
 
PRmerger said:
I think I read somewhere (canā€™t cite the source, though!) that the major issue that causes disagreement is: sexual morality. That, I suppose, would include divorce.
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I wouldnā€™t be surprised about that at all. That being said, I still donā€™t think it is fundamental theologically in most cases.

Which is very interesting - what is most important to many average people in the pews is perhaps not the deep teachings of the church they attend, but how is affects their lives on a day to day level.
 
Bluegoat said:
I wouldnā€™t be surprised about that at all. That being said, I still donā€™t think it is fundamental theologically in most cases.

Which is very interesting - what is most important to many average people in the pews is perhaps not the deep teachings of the church they attend, but how is affects their lives on a day to day level.
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Indeed. People want to do what they want to do, and they want to go to a church where they feel God has affirmed their desire to do whatever they want to do. Only problem is, thatā€™s not what Scripture affirms.
 
PRmerger said:
Indeed. People want to do what they want to do, and they want to go to a church where they feel God has affirmed their desire to do whatever they want to do. Only problem is, thatā€™s not what Scripture affirms.
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I think that is often the case. But also for many, I think the difference between some theological points seems hopelessly abstract and unreal, and they have a hard time relating to them. I tend to notice people as either feeling that the material world and their sense experience is real, and the immaterial is an abstraction, or the opposite - the immaterial seems the most real to some. It is I think a matter of being born one way or the other, and most are in the material/experience is real group.

Effective teaching for the Church, then, would mean making those more abstract things somehow real for those not naturally inclined to think that way.
 
Bluegoat said:
Effective teaching for the Church, then, would mean making those more abstract things somehow real for those not naturally inclined to think that way.
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In my opinion, the CC has done a fabulous job of making church teaching accessible and understandable to all, that is, to those who care to learn.

We have great scholars and doctors of the Church, like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, but we also have saints whose ā€œtheologyā€ is quite simpleā€“like Mother Teresa, St. Faustina, St. John Vianney.
 
PRmerger said:
In my opinion, the CC has done a fabulous job of making church teaching accessible and understandable to all, that is, to those who care to learn.

We have great scholars and doctors of the Church, like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, but we also have saints whose ā€œtheologyā€ is quite simpleā€“like Mother Teresa, St. Faustina, St. John Vianney.
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And let us not forget another Doctor of The Church, St Therese of Liseaux (sp) and her ā€œLittle Way of Loveā€. Talk about simple, yet tremendously difficult at times.

Peace
James
 
Yes, those are good examples of people with simple faith. OTOH, I know many cradle Catholics who have had very poor teaching as young people. I think it is a bit like the advice Screwtape gives to Wormwood not to try to convince his patient through reason, because he is used to ideas and actions being separate. Most people are used to that. How do we teach people, against the tide of the general culture, that they are not. (And, how to do it without turning them into monsters who advocate tyranny is another problem.)

As long as they are separate for people, no matter how simple or complex their faith, they arenā€™t going to make the connection.
 
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