And now I see why you ask your question.“So many past controversies between Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic approaches and seek instead to grasp more fully what unites us, namely, our call to share in the mystery of the Father’s love revealed to us by the Son through the Holy Spirit.”
ncregister.com/daily-news/christian-unity-demands-encounter-not-theory-pope-francis-says/
The Holy Father seems to say we should stop attempts at apologetics. Am i misunderstanding this?
Blessed John Henry Newman, on his first months in Rome, was approached by a very influential nobleman who was eager to see the Anglicans visiting Rome reach home. A prominent young English woman who had just died before converting and he strong-arm ed Newman into preaching a funeral sermon which was the very sort of thing to dissuade prospective converts. Mean was absolute horrified but he could hardly public ally reveal that he had been pressured to do so. It is hard to look out on the world of many people who are walking blithely along thinking themselves safe when we want to bring our resources to bear to tell them that their sins might take them any moment; and sadly it's not very hard to persuade people that statements on unity are universalism ill-cloaked. But the most brilliant of apologists did not bring all the sheep into the fold; Chesterton, the best in the language, always thought the best of individuals while seeing his natal confession going off the rails.Well said.I was wondering what the heck you were talking about until I came across this paragraph:
And now I see why you ask your question.
The pairing of “polemical” (which means harshly critical) with “apologetic” suggests that the Pope is referring to the type of apologetics which is not allowed on this Forum (and which will get you banned) - nasty, sniping behavior. The kind of thing you would find on carm.org every day.
I’m sure the Holy Father does not mean to discourage respectful and reasoned dialogue about religious differences, especially when people come to us (Catholics) with these questions. Every non-Catholic that is here came here willingly.
He holds up the example of Jesus and the Samaritan woman (a Jewish heretic) to encourage us to engage with those whose beliefs differ from ours.
I think so. Pope Francis has encouraged apologetics several times, as documented here: ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-pope-francis-just-diss-apologists-9-things-to-know-and-sharencregister.com/daily-news/christian-unity-demands-encounter-not-theory-pope-francis-says/
The Holy Father seems to say we should stop attempts at apologetics. Am i misunderstanding this?
He also made this very similar comment where he is more clear that apologetics is good:OK, thanks for clearing that up. I missed the connection of Polemics and apologetics.