(urth) Lupiverse(es)

[António Pedro Marques]

No dia 16/03/2012, às 00:17, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> escreveu:

> Nowadays, one will easily find practicing Catholics and Protestants who find Aslan's conversation with the Tash-worshipper to be sensitive and insightful. I doubt that would have been nearly so common in 1960. Educated Catholics like to think of the Church as being "universalistic" regarding Soterology (and thus more rational than Reformed and Fundamentalist sects) and it probably is in their experience. But that certainly wasn't my experience growing up in a small Ohio town that was probably 75% Catholic. Nor is that the experience described by my friends who went to parochial school. The message was clear and emphatic: "Outside The Church There Is No Salvation".

I think the attitude swings to and fro. The Church always views itself as the home of Salvation. I don't think that has ever changed. What changes over time is the degree to which Salvation is found both inside and outside that home. There is no question of admitting non-catholic doctrines as valid (at least in the bits where they contradict catholic ones), but there is the possibility that all invalid doctrines are not necessarily damning, that non-Catholics can't reach salvation in spite of their doctrinal handicaps. Or that Catholics may fail salvation in spite of their doctrinal advantages! Weren't your mates constantly reminded that they were sinners and nobody could dare presume to know who is going to be saved?

Where catholic thought shines, IMO - and not only catholic, but modern orthodox to a degree, and some anglican and lutheran too (sorry, I have very little first hand knowledge of fundamentalism and what I do know I find appalling) - is in viewing salvation as organic and achieved through a number of factors, in contrast to the Protestant emphasis on this or that specific ingredient 'alone' (which only the denomination making the claim possesses, of course - as Chesterton put it, they learned to look down on men rather than up to God - much the same judgement the Council of Trent made). But it is my understanding that - apart from fundamentalists - modern Protestants are very far from the radical views of the first decades of the Reformation - which indeed means closer to the spirit of the first few years. I mean, I don't see modern Presbyterians eager to defend a Calvin or a Knox unless it's in de-fanged terms.