by Lioba » February 18th, 2009, 4:45 pm
Stanley- I think I saw the harshness not only towards the person of Michael- , but in your general judgement of protestantisme.Remember: many protestant minority- groups that couldn´t cope with any of the greater churches found a home in America. the good thing about this is the freedom and independance of the religious life in the States, the hrm difficult aspect of it is that those little denominations have often in themselves a inherant tendency to separatisme and individuality .In the Old World we still see the 2 great schismata as tragic events and not the original will of our Lord.
[quote][As an additional point, what if Scripture itself points to something away from itself (and in doing so, not "in place of", but "in addition to" itself of course)? /quote]
Well- IF it really does- for example does scripture say that the Apostle Peter "holds the keys" or all his successors?
That´s what I meant with the two different questions.
Is scripture the foundation of Christian teaching - yes.
Do all three great branches of Christianity interprete it equally - no.
The primacy of the Apostle Peter himself is rather obvious and needs no interpretation.
But what about his successors? Here are disagreements.
But differences in interpretation are not the same as wanton separatisme and arbitrariness.
Iustitia est ad alterum.