Posted by Helen on: 09.06.2007 /
John Armstrong e-mailed me yesterday about a Protestant/Catholic dialog event he’s organized for September 16. I wasn’t surprised to see that the Roman Catholic participants are from Mundelein Seminary, since they hosted Protestant Archbishop NT Wright’s lecture series I attended in the Spring.
Reading what Catholics said about their own theology was one of the things that opened my eyes to how careless Evangelical Christians can be about spreading misinformation. The picture of Catholic theology Evangelical Christians had given me didn’t line up at all well with what Catholics themselves said. I was forced to conclude that the Evangelical Christians who had ‘taught’ me about Catholic theology hadn’t researched it much at all. They had had a knee-jerk negative reaction to it and were spreading inappropriately inaccurate information about it.
It’s been years since I was actively reading about this, so I don’t remember all the details (in other words, please don’t ask me for them). I do remember enough to be glad there are Protestants like John Armstrong open to seeking common ground. I expect John will be criticized by other Protestants who think this dialog is at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous, because it could lead to Protestants making theological compromises with people whose theology is fatally flawed.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all, because I’ve seen how much misunderstanding there is. Steve S. mentioned in a comment yesterday how much apparent disagreement is in fact misunderstanding. In this case I agree there’s a lot of that.
Comment by: Steve S.
1 09/8/07 7:04 PM | Comment Link |I was very fortunate to have parents who were very aware of the silliness of denominational infighting. They took us to so many different types of Churches growing up that we just never knew anything else; Roman Catholic, Baptist, Non-Denominational, Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Seventh-Day, etc.
I remember the first time I realized that some Christians thought other Christians were going to hell. I was really shocked by it (I didn’t come across that attitude until I was in my early 20’s). I credit my parents as being responsible for blessing me tremendously and teaching me the value for other ways of seeing, doing and being.
Of course the incessant church-shopping had other adverse affects on my spiritual development…