Archaic Authority

A very common objection to the Catholic Church is the hierarchy. Many Protestants claim that the Pope is not only not scriptural, but just plain wrong. To this, I pose the following riddle.

A Southern Baptist, Oneness Pentecostal, and a Jehovah's Witness are in a police deposition room. On the table in the middle of the room, there is a King James Version of the Bible. The three people have each studied that Bible thoroughly, and have come to mutually exclusive understandings of who Jesus is. The Southern Baptist holds the traditional understanding that Jesus is both God and Man (the Trinity), the Oneness Pentecostal believes that there is only one Person in God, and that he manifests himself in different ways (an ancient heresy called modalism), while the Jehovah's Witness believes that Jesus was really only an angel (a form of Arianism). They begin debating who is right, throwing scripture quotes at each other until they're blue in the face. You are watching this, and with you, there is a person who has never before been exposed to Christianity. He turns to you and asks, "How can I know who's right?"

Historical Spotlight: Revenge of the Semi-Arians

This week, we’ll be picking up where we left off last weekend. To settle the dispute over the bishop of Constantinople, as well as the dozens of other problems facing the Church, it was decided that a local council was to be called.

Hosius of Cordova

The Council of Sardica happened in 343 AD and involved 170 bishops. The split between Semi-Arians and orthodox bishops was 76 heretics to 94 orthodox. The bishop presiding over the council, Hosius, was also present at the Council of Nicaea, and was getting very, very old. The Semi-Arians tried to prevent Athanasius from appearing at the council, doing what they could to stop him from arriving, but when Athanasius walked into the council, the Semi-Arians fled. Because of this, any bishop who fled the council was deposed and considered a heretic. The results of the council led to appeals to Rome to decide whether or not a bishop has been validly deposed. If a bishop has been deposed and he appeals it to Rome, it can’t be filled until the investigation is complete.

Historical Spotlight: Rise of Semi-Arians

Today, we’re going to take a look at the after effects of the Council of Nicaea, which we discussed earlier. I mentioned the little story about how some of the bishops from the council added an iota to the “homoousios” to change the word from “consubstantial” to “of a similar substance,” which let them continue being Arians, while also being okay with the Church. This was a very long and very messy affair.

True Love

Finally, it’s time to end this series, which started here. Are young people capable of feeling true love? Is it possible? (Coincidentally, it also happens to be Valentine’s Day. That’s pure coincidence.)

Working off our definition of love, we’ve established that love’s perseverance is best shown through commitments. Are young people capable of making these commitments? Yes. Without a doubt, yes, young people through the ages have been capable of making commitments such as marriage at a very young age. However, there is a minor detail about the modern age that needs to be discussed.

What Is Love?

Continuing the series that starts here, it’s now time to try to work out a definition of love.

 

From the past posts, we’ve seen that love is most certainly not an emotion, nor is it something easy. We’ve seen that God’s version of love is incredibly perseverant. Now it’s time to synthesize both of these things with other aspects of love that the world has missed out on.

Love...

Alright, time to finish up the analysis of 1 Corinthians 13. This is part of a series, part 1 can be found here.

“Love bears all things…” Love will endure things patiently. Alternately, love “covers all things.” Love will cover up the flaws of another in order to “know no evil.” This doesn't mean that love ignores evil, though. It means that love will put it in the past. Love bearing all things is also a restatement of the fact that love is patient. The fact that this is restated is a huge commentary on that particular character of love. It will suffer quietly and with dignity for the good of the beloved. Once again, look to the Passion of Jesus. That was the highest form of love imaginable to humans, that the God of the Universe, who knows no wrong, would come to earth, humble himself into taking the form of a human, and willingly suffer and die in one of the most humiliating and painful ways imaginable. This is love bearing all things.

Why I Hate the YouCat

A little while ago, I mentioned that I had a certain very strong dislike for the YouCat. Here, I’m going to go into why.

The Council of Trent, ending in 1563, put out a catechism for the general Church in order to counter the growing power of the Protestant Reformation. This Catechism was then put into the world through a number of translations. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, also known as the Roman Catechism, was put into print in 1565 by Pope St. Pius V. The Bishops of the United States met at a synod in Baltimore in 1884. The next year, the Baltimore Catechism was put into print. From 1885 to the 1960s, this Catechism was the basis of Catholic education for all students of various grades. Generally, though, it was mostly for students through First Communion and on up to about the fifth grade. The question and answer based format was used mostly to teach students the answers by rote memorization. To this day, it is possible to tell if someone was educated with the Baltimore Catechism by asking them one of the first four questions.

Historical Spotlight: First Council of Nicaea

The first council of Nicaea occurred in 325 AD, convened by the Emperor Constantine to discuss the rising problems of Arianism and the conflict growing in Christendom.

When Constantine announced the council, he asked for bishops from all over the world come together to Nicaea to discuss the question. He also provided transportation for the bishops and during the council, he provided for all the needs of the members. Compared to the policy of the emperor 30 years before this, where he’d just kill the Christians at random, Constantine’s providing for transportation and the food were a massive step forward.