Why are all Protestants uneducated in Christian history?

[DixiesFinest]

I’m a just your avergage antidisestablishmentarian trying to find a place in the religious world. I call my brand of Christianity “Christians-For-The-Abolishment-of-Long-Winded-And-Pointless-Denominational-Titles” CFTAOLWAPDT, for short.

Okay, so no. Just kidding.

I am a former Protestant and currently un-Catechised Christian. I wish very much to be initiated into the Catholic Church … but unfortunately, my mom is against the idea. She is a traditional Southern Baptist, and if I’d have to guess she’s convinced it’s some type of idolatry, a religious institution that prides itself on its worship of Mary and the Pope … Even my sister, a non-Christian, was upset by the idea, saying, “Wait! No! They can’t even go straight to God! They have to … like, go through Mary or someone …” I pointed out that this was a misconception.

Anyway, as of now, my conversion is too “inconvenient” for my mom’s taste, as the nearest parish I’ve shown an interest in is a little ways away. sigh Anyway, I was a passionate non-denominational Protestant attending a Baptist church on Sundays and Mass every now and again on Saturdays when I showed up hereo on the forums at first, though.

I also am an un-confirmed Catholic. However, my family (though Southern Baptist) is fine with it, and show a little bit of interest. I will be praying for your family to wake up and smell the incsense.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Why are Protestants uneducate in Christian history? Most of them have no clue about Early Church Fathers. I hate to say this but they sure seem to be afraid of it.

They are taught that the NT fairly represents what the early church believed. Thus they apeal to theological primacy, that is getting back to what the early church taught in the NT. Which boils down to what their church believes. Thus they see no reason to study beyond the NT. Then some, see “pagan rome” as attacking christians like in Foxe’s book of mrytars. Then they jump to the reformation. Then they jump to their own restoration movement of sorts, getting back to what the NT church taught and believed which acourse is what their own church teaches.

does that make sense?

 

[O.S.Luke]

Why are Protestants uneducate in Christian history? Most of them have no clue about Early Church Fathers. I hate to say this but they sure seem to be afraid of it.

More sweeping generalizations that are both untrue and inflammatory.

 

[brotherhrolf]

I am on a history roll today. You need to look at the ECF’s in the context of the culture and history in which they are writing. The functional equivalent is to look at any of JP II’s writings 2,000 years from now without knowing that he survived Nazi Germany, experienced communism, saw man land on the moon, survived an assination attempt, etc. These were real people, living in a real time, and affected by the culture and history of their day.

Everyone, Protestant and Catholic, would benefit from looking through the lens of history. [sign] History major here! [/sign]

 

[St_Violet]

I am aware that there are denominations out there who update their history and yet continue to misrepresent the Catholic Church to being the villan still.

I’ve seen protestants speak about the apocrypha and bring up how even thought Martin Luther included the apocrypha he did not consider them as equal authority to the scripture, but they often forget to mention he also felt the same way about the book of james, revelations, etc etc but also harshly insulted them.

My favorite has to be that the Catholic Church began during the life of constantine and they seem to ignore that , St. Ignatius of Antioch referred to the Christian Church as the Catholic Church before the life of constantine ( correct me if I am wrong ), but I usualy get " oh but well he was referring to a Universal Church as in a Universal belief blah blah blah"

I believe the minds of protestants have been polluted, it is the hatred of th Catholic Church that brings Protestantism together, which I find really sad.

 

[Cat]

Simply put, lectio divina (I hope I’m spelling it right) is meditating upon and praying a passage of Scripture.

It’s the latest “big thing” in our local Protestant churches. Drives the anti-Catholic Protestants CRAAAAZY because it’s so Catholic!

 

[frnate]

Why are Protestants uneducated in Christian history? Most of them have no clue about Early Church Fathers. I hate to say this but they sure seem to be afraid of it.

As a former “historically challenged” Baptist, I can attest to the accuracy of Cardinal Newman’s statement. It was personal interest and study of the Church in the first century that made a dramatic shift in my paradigm regarding pre-Reformation Church history.

For 1ke, the advantage your average Joe Catholic has over the average Joe Protestant is that they’re already Catholic.

Peace,
+N

 

[Beachcomber]

Protestant churches de-emphasize the Early Church Fathers because they are ‘too Catholic’ for comfort, I think. When they do speak about any of them, usually it is Augustine of Hippo they reference, and they don’t use the word ‘saint.’

For them, Christian history began in the 1500s with Luther. But, in order to fully understand how things got to where they are, they should study the entire scope of Christian history.

 

[quantumDeus]

Not all are ignorant of Church History, they simply ignore its implications, as I did for a long time.

“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant”
-John Henry Cardinal Newman

Very, very true statement. Implications of history are usually not followed through; usually in forums the tactic is to point to a view of history.

Rarely do most consider such from a more academic standpoint: (a) What other lines of evidence support or detract from that historical view? (b) What are the author/historian’s biases? (c) What is the societal context from which the historian writes?

It is in this last area that many – including, alas, myself – fall into. We place a historical context in our frame of reference and judge an historical occurrence by today’s standards and not the standards as understood at the time and within a cultural, societal context.

We also are prone, having the benefit of hindsight, to assigning intentionality to people. Unless someone has been very explicit in stating their intentions and it is thoroughly documented and understood, we begin to tread on shaky ground. It is always the wisest course not to transfer our concepts of intentionality to someone else when their intentionality is ill-defined or vague.

Now onto Western history of more modern vintage (post-Reformation). There is a huge anti-Catholic bias in Western history. Upon reflection, the whyfore of this should become evident.

Let’s pick a common one to illustrate: The Spanish Inquisition.

It is common to cite references that point to the RCC’s killing of hundreds of thousands. Yet, if we trace the evidentiary historical trail, we find that that number is based on how many were possibly interrogated by Inquisitors. The assumption is then made (erroneously) that everyone who was questioned was executed. In fact, over the course of 300-some years, only about 1,500 were executed; and they were not generally executed by the Church, but were found to be non-savable and given over to secular authorities for execution.

What gets glossed over in this is that the Church’s involvement in this, and the creation of Inquisitors, was to prevent secular authorities from using “heresy” as an expedient way to off dissidents. The Church (rightly) asserted that only it could determine if someone was a heretic or merely misguided, but faithful to the Church.

This is not the only historical misconception, the list could go on to include the history of indulgences, etc., etc.

 

[buffalo]

If they were educated then they wouldn’t be Protestants. It’s a self perpetuating system.

 

[quantumDeus]

Simply put, lectio divina (I hope I’m spelling it right) is meditating upon and praying a passage of Scripture.

It’s the latest “big thing” in our local Protestant churches. Drives the anti-Catholic Protestants CRAAAAZY because it’s so Catholic!

It seems they are finally “catching up” with the RCC/Orthodox, whose cycle of scriptural readings throughout the liturgic year, covers the entirety of Scripture in a two-year span.

So this fad is a good first step for our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, we can only impart to them the basis and meaning of sacraments, Apostolic Tradition and Magisterium, they might end up giving up those 20,000+ splinters and return to the fold of the kata holos church as Christ intended.

 

[Cat]

quantum, I’ve seen quite a few “Catholic” practices catching on in evangelical Protestant churches in our city. Contemplative prayer, candles, quiet in worship, chant, etc.

There is a local “Watchdog” Christian group that has a weekly radio program, and they are in a tizzy because of it! They report all these “romanist” practices in our city week after week. Nice of them to publicize it, IMO! If they just kept their mouth shut, perhaps it would fizzle, but because they blare it all through their radio broadcasts and in their emails, now all the Protestants in our city know where to go to try some of those “Catholic” practices!

IMO, it’s a stepping stone into the Catholic Church. (That’s what the Watchdog group says, too!)

 

[quantumDeus]

quantum, I’ve seen quite a few “Catholic” practices catching on in evangelical Protestant churches in our city. Contemplative prayer, candles, quiet in worship, chant, etc.

There is a local “Watchdog” Christian group that has a weekly radio program, and they are in a tizzy because of it! They report all these “romanist” practices in our city week after week. Nice of them to publicize it, IMO! If they just kept their mouth shut, perhaps it would fizzle, but because they blare it all through their radio broadcasts and in their emails, now all the Protestants in our city know where to go to try some of those “Catholic” practices!

IMO, it’s a stepping stone into the Catholic Church. (That’s what the Watchdog group says, too!)

Why then, we should be giving them more stones on which to step!

 

[O.S.Luke]

You folks sound like a bunch of bigoted Protestants. Tit for tat?

 

[PaulDupre]

When I brought up the subject of the ECFs with my anti-Catholic Baptist brother a few years ago, he informed me that at Boston Baptist College, which he attended, they studied the ECFs “extensively” and he was satisfied that he understood what they taught. I was perplexed, until I asked to see what source materials they used. He had a textbook on the early church written by Baptists that had some “excerpts” from the ECFs. I read through these excerpts for nearly an hour, and could find nothing about the Eucharist and nothing about the visible structure of the Church such as bishops, priests and deacons. These were things the ECFs wrote about in great depth and detail, and yet they were completely expunged from this Protestant text. When I informed my brother of this, he was not interested. He accused me of wanting to corrupt the writings of the ECFs with “Roman additions”. Arrrrrggggggg! And my brother is a “music pastor” at his non-denom church. The thought chills me to the bone.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Why are Protestants uneducate in Christian history? Most of them have no clue about Early Church Fathers. I hate to say this but they sure seem to be afraid of it.

Do you really think that most Catholics have a clue about early Church Fathers? They may know about them as Saints, but how many average Joe Catholics have actually read their writings?
And from what I’ve seen, most of them don’t know much about Church history either. Heck, most people who identify themselves as Catholic don’t even make it to Mass–a sad but true fact. Catholics who post in these type of forums are not your average Catholics.
I often have cradle Catholics ask me elementary questions about our faith–things I learned in grade school. And believe me, I am no apologist, scholar, theologian or anything of the sort. I am often appalled at the lack of knowledge about our beliefs among Catholics.One of my dear friends, a regular Churchgoer, thought that the Immaculate Conception referred to Jesus’ conception, not Mary’s. And despite her upbringing as a Catholic, my own daughter claims she did not know it was a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday without a good reason. And she also attended the RCIA classes with her husband! I nearly fainted at that one.
We have a lot of work to do.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Why are Protestants uneducate in Christian history? Most of them have no clue about Early Church Fathers. I hate to say this but they sure seem to be afraid of it.

Do you really think that most Catholics have a clue about early Church Fathers? They may know about them as Saints, but how many average Joe Catholics have actually read their writings?
And from what I’ve seen, most of them don’t know much about Church history either. Heck, most people who identify themselves as Catholic don’t even make it to Mass–a sad but true fact. Catholics who post in these type of forums are not your average Catholics.
I often have cradle Catholics ask me elementary questions about our faith–things I learned in grade school. And believe me, I am no apologist, scholar, theologian or anything of the sort. I am often appalled at the lack of knowledge about our beliefs among Catholics.One of my dear friends, a regular Churchgoer, thought that the Immaculate Conception referred to Jesus’ conception, not Mary’s. And despite her upbringing as a Catholic, my own daughter claims she did not know it was a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday without a good reason. And she also attended the RCIA classes with her husband! I nearly fainted at that one.
We have a lot of work to do.

 

[CB_Catholic]

I am very sorry about the double {I hope not triple} post. A computer glitch.

 

[DixiesFinest]

He accused me of wanting to corrupt the writings of the ECFs with “Roman additions”. Arrrrrggggggg! And my brother is a “music pastor” at his non-denom church. The thought chills me to the bone.

Roman additions? whatever…

By the way…what on earth does a “music pastor” do? Is he just like the head of the choir?