Comments on: Elizabeth Johnson’s Quest for the Living God http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/04/elizabeth-johnsons-quest-for-the-living-god/ A First Things Blog Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:35:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Austin http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/04/elizabeth-johnsons-quest-for-the-living-god/#comment-17803 Austin Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:24:20 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=10716#comment-17803 I think the authority issue in the Catholic church is getting resolved. New priests are almost all orthodox and no one has entered the orders of the liberal nuns for decades. The new Catechism has already changed most of the unorthodox school textbooks. The universities, however, have already gone the way of Harvard, Vanderbilt, and other universities formerly Christian, but now secular. I think we've lost Georgetown, for example, for good. As a former member of the Episcopal church, the chair of Peter performs a real service of unity and authority and I hope it become more expansive. "Where Peter is, there is the Catholic church." I think the authority issue in the Catholic church is getting resolved. New priests are almost all orthodox and no one has entered the orders of the liberal nuns for decades. The new Catechism has already changed most of the unorthodox school textbooks. The universities, however, have already gone the way of Harvard, Vanderbilt, and other universities formerly Christian, but now secular. I think we’ve lost Georgetown, for example, for good.
As a former member of the Episcopal church, the chair of Peter performs a real service of unity and authority and I hope it become more expansive. “Where Peter is, there is the Catholic church.”

]]> By: Truth Unites... and Divides http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/04/elizabeth-johnsons-quest-for-the-living-god/#comment-17731 Truth Unites... and Divides Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:50:02 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=10716#comment-17731 <i>"The differences from the Bell case are striking. But the similarity is also striking: <b>unstoppable polarization</b>, as if there are two churches struggling with each other inside the institutional unity of the Roman Catholic church, as much as within the movement known as evangelicalism."</i> Fred, there is a "civil" war between liberals and conservatives within the Roman Catholic Church and between liberals and conservatives within the broad landscape known as Protestantism. And it's been going on for some time. And it's been going on whether folks want to acknowledge it or not. As a rather rough example, let's look at the Manhattan Declaration. There are numerous liberal Protestants and liberal Catholics who support gay marriage and legalized abortion. They would not sign the Manhattan Declaration. On the other hand, there are numerous conservative Protestants and conservative Catholics who don't support gay marriage and don't support legalized abortion. Sometimes conservative Protestants feel more kinship with conservative Catholics than they do with liberal Protestants, despite the chasm of theological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. Good post! “The differences from the Bell case are striking. But the similarity is also striking: unstoppable polarization, as if there are two churches struggling with each other inside the institutional unity of the Roman Catholic church, as much as within the movement known as evangelicalism.”

Fred, there is a “civil” war between liberals and conservatives within the Roman Catholic Church and between liberals and conservatives within the broad landscape known as Protestantism. And it’s been going on for some time. And it’s been going on whether folks want to acknowledge it or not.

As a rather rough example, let’s look at the Manhattan Declaration. There are numerous liberal Protestants and liberal Catholics who support gay marriage and legalized abortion. They would not sign the Manhattan Declaration. On the other hand, there are numerous conservative Protestants and conservative Catholics who don’t support gay marriage and don’t support legalized abortion.

Sometimes conservative Protestants feel more kinship with conservative Catholics than they do with liberal Protestants, despite the chasm of theological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Good post!

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