GRGR: Gospels & stuff

[David Morris]

--- Peter Petto wrote:
>> Paul Mackin said that the Vatican isn't all that
>> hung up on biblical text (not like the
Protestants).

Not in any way similarly to the "fundamentalist"
protestants.  Protestantism has its roots in vesting
biblical text above Papal authority or church
tradition, a value-system promoted by Martin Luther
most notably.  This text-oriented birth of
Protestantism shows a logical end in the present-day
fundamentalist insistence on the Bible being
word-for-word infallible and literally true.
 
> I'd agree that there are multiple sources of
> authority in the Catholic 
> Church, and I know what he means. But it's a bit
> like the chicken and the egg.
> 
> The bureaucracy of the Church -- the magesterium? --
> the body of Christ -- 
> exerts its authority alongside the historical
> documents in a way that is 
> much like a circuit court. It must follow precedent.
> Look at a Papal 
> Encyclical, nearly every sentence is footnoted with
> a Biblical or other 
> scriptural reference.

I think the purposeful setting of the Pope's
"ex-cathedra" words as higher authority than the
written text of the Bible is primarily for the
consolidation of power.  When the text is given more
authority than the Pope upstarts like Martin Luther
arise.  Don't forget how many people were put to death
by the R.C.Church for printing and distributing Bibles
after the advent of the printing press.

David Morris


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