Three-ring parable

[Constantin]

Do you know the three ring parable by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? If not, I suggest you read a summary somewhere.
Originally, it was meant as a parable on the three religions Islam, Judaism and Christianity. But could it not be read as a parable on Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and Protestantism? The Orthodox having preserved tradition and liturgical purity, the Catholics unity and social works, the Protestants love for the word of God as well as missionary zeal?
What do you think? Has the true ring been lost?

 

[vsedriver]

it presupposes that the Catholic Church has not preserved Tradition, liturgical purity, love for the word of God, and missionary zeal. None of which I find as true.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

It’s an utter nonsense parable.

It claims that all there of those religions are equal holders of God’s truth. This is literally impossible, as each faith holds tenants which are anathema to the others.

• Christianity’s core tenant is that Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of God. Judaism and Islam reject this.
• Islam teaches that Mohammad was a prophet of God. Christianity and Judaism both reject this.

These two beliefs are not compatible, and cannot be reconciled. To be as kind as I possibly can, this is the story of a deceitful warmonger who was trying to trick a man out of his wealth so he could wage further war.

As it applies to the Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic division, a better parable might be this.

One day God came down to a humble farmer, and gave him a golden ring. Recognizing the glory of this gift, the man passed it on to his son through each successive generation. Along with the ring came control of the man’s estate, and all that labored under him. The eldest son of each generation cared for the ring, and passed it along for a thousand years.

Then, one of the father’s younger sons got into an argument with the eldest son, and started to say the ring was not necessary to be head of the household. He took a portion of the lands that belonged to his brother, and went off to run his own farm. In time, that man’s sons took some portions of the land, enough to live off of. Though saddened by this, the eldest son continued the tradition, and passed the ring on and on for another five hundred years.

At this time, one of the holder’s youngest sons rejected the story about the ring being a gift from God. He convinced many of the other brothers, and many of their workers, that he was right. They took their lands, leaving behind the family name. Almost immediately, the brothers began to feud over who was in control and who knew how to best work the land. Each generation, the land was divided up more and more until the present day, where no one has a parcel of land big enough to work and support their family.

All the while, the ring has passed, generation after generation, to the eldest son, who has governed the lands and it’s workers, hoping that one day the lost family units may return home.

 

[Constantin]

I like your parable. However, it indirectly says that the part of the family who always passed down the ring lack something: After all, they lost (considerable) portions of the land and people.
So I wonder if each part of divided Christianity is not lacking something without the others.
The Catholic church has lost lot of its traditions, both in liturgy and practice. The liturgy which is celebrated in maybe 95%+ of the cases today is not the liturgy which was celebrated for many centuries. Catholic tradition is getting more and more of a niche thing in the public perception , despite the apparent growth of some traditional communities. Fasting and abstinence, once very important factors also in Western Christianity, have come down to an optional Friday abstinence from meat. The East objectively has managed to do a lot better in those regards.
However, Orthodoxy is riddled with ethno-phyletism and infighting for power, see for instance the attempted and failed recent council on Crete as well as the current estrangement between Moscow and Constantinople.
Protestants all over the world still do a lot of missionary work, bringing the faith to many regions in the world.
They have a spirit of renewal, something also the Catholic church took up thankfully and integrated with the Charismatic movement which is nowadays the source of so many vocations.
On the other hand, Protestants unfortunately went away from so many things believed by all at all times and are in clear contradiction to so many church fathers - we all know that.

Can any single out of those three - Orthodoxy, the Catholic church, Protestantism - really claim to be complete without the others?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

I like your parable. However, it indirectly says that the part of the family who always passed down the ring lack something: After all, they lost (considerable) portions of the land and people.

I wrote it in about ten minutes. Parables will never express the full weight of the reality they are referencing.

Rather than having lost something, the main line had things taken from them, to the detriment of the takers. That is accurate to the history of the Church, so I see no need to fix it. The Church was damaged when the Orthodox left. Even worse, the people were severely hurt when Protestantism started up. My parable reflects this.

So I wonder if each part of divided Christianity is not lacking something without the others.

Christ’s Church lacks nothing by way of Truth, but we are certainly lacking the unity which Christ desires for us.

As to the other aspects of your post, today’s reading is actually pretty relevant. The external trappings of tradition which the Orthodox cling to are not bad in and of themselves, but they mask an inner lack which the split with Christ’s Church has created in them. They look good, and I agree it would be nice if Catholicism re-instituted some of the traditions they have maintained (Friday Abstinence, for example), but the outward trapping of faithfulness are not necessarily indicative of inner holiness or correctness.

Protestants do mission work as a direct response to Catholic mission work. If you look at their history, most Protestant groups actively denounced missionary work until the last hundred to hundred and fifty years ago. Catholics do far more mission work than the majority of them combined.

Catholicism will always have the fullness of Truth which the other are lacking; and in and of herself is complete. God is not made lesser for those souls which reject Him, and neither is His Church. That being said, until all people come into the fold, we will be lacking the Unity of faith which Christ prayed for. However, you cannot blame the Church for the people who will not believe in Her.

 

[vsedriver]

However, it indirectly says that the part of the family who always passed down the ring lack something: After all, they lost (considerable) portions of the land and people.

I don’t see that at all in this parable. The younger son disputed the authority of the elder and took what he could and left. No where does that imply that the elder son failed to hold the ring of authority.

The Catholic church has lost lot of its traditions, both in liturgy and practice.

traditions can come and go. It is Tradition that the Catholic Church holds to. The concepts and teachings haven’t changed. How they are expressed from age to age may change. If an outward appearance no longer conveys the inner truth it represents then that ‘tradition’ needs to be changed to better reflect the truth of ‘Tradition’.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Did God make a mistake when he gave us our faith?

The Jews are God’s chosen people.

Christians are chosen by Christ.

And in Islam, Allah chooses whom he wills.

There is only the ‘One god’; and the same God hears all our prayers despite our differences.

 

[Constantin]

There have been so many atrocities of single parts of Christianity against one another (e.g. the sacking of Constantinople, Thirty Years’ War) that it is hard to see that anyone has been “right” throughout history. What does that say about us as a whole? We cannot even hold peace among ourselves. The love for our brothers and sisters, once a characteristic trait of early Christians, was soon lost.
With each schism, the mathematical likelihood for a single Christian to be in the true church decreases. Triumphalism will not help that in the least.