I thought I would share this article posted by John Bugay on Reformation 500 a Facebook forum; the article is How Reformed Scholasticism differed from Medieval Scholasticism. Reformation 500 is a facebook forum for exploring the historical truths of Christianity reclaimed by the church Reformers of the 16th century. As a former Roman Catholic who is now a Reformed Protestant, a Presbyterian, I am very interested in the Protestant Reformation as part of Church history but also as a major part of Western and World History. Also my interest in undergraduate college studies led me to pursue a B.A. degree in History and Political Science as well as a minor in English and literature. I have always been very interested in the thinking and writings of people in world history and how their thinking and writing continues to affect the course of events and our lives today. I mentioned in a post I made the other day John Bugay is a friend of mine who like me was a Catholic and left the Roman Catholic church about the same time I did and converted to the Reformed faith and became a Presbyterian as I did also. We became friends as we discovered we were both on a similar faith journey. I said in the piece I wrote and posted the other day on the question of Authority and the Primacy of the pope; which I no longer accept, was the primary reason I left the Roman catholic church in 2006, I no longer accepted the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. I also said I was a freethinking Roman catholic who believed very much in the reforms of the RCC made by and initiated by Vatican II. I also recognized that Vatican II clearly documented and illuminated the concept of the Church as people of God. I thought as many did at the time after Vatican II that Rome was really coming to a consensus with the beliefs of the Protestant reformers and really in some agreement with the Westminster Confession of Faith which I now subscribe to as well as all the Reformed confessions regarding the church in that way. Vatican II teachings said firmly “Follow me” (Mt 8:22) is Jesus’ invitation to people of every generation. His words encourage all people to live faithfully as His disciples. We “follow Christ” faithfully when we allow Him to embrace us as His children — as members of the “new People of God” (Lumen Gentium, chapter 2), following the path of the Gospel in the direction of a better world. The foundation of this perspective is found in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. This Latin title means “light to the nations.” Each of us as God’s people is called to be that light as we fulfill our “obligation of spreading the faith” (article 17). The image of the Church as the People of God played a pivotal role in shifting the exaggerated view of the laity as second-class citizens, i.e. doing whatever the clergy asked of them, to taking their rightly place among the People of God by virtue of having been consecrated in baptism and thus sharing in the common priesthood of the baptized. However under the papacy of Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, I began to see that he was returning to the pre - Vatican II mentality and that old Roman Catholic dogma about “the Church” which was leading again to a misunderstanding of what Christ’s “church” actually consists of. For Roman Catholicism, under Joseph Ratzinger the Dogma #1 again seemed to be reverting to to be “The Roman Catholic Church is God’s Great Gift to Mankind” – see this first sentence in the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church”, Lumen Gentium: Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church. And by “the Church”, Benedict XVI again insinuated it to mean the hierarchy, dogmas and all. Here we see Ratzinger again saying that we on earth see Christ’s light because it is “brightly visible” on the face of the Roman Catholic Church. “Where we see Christ in the world” is not seen so well in Scripture; nor in other Christians, but “on the face and countenance of the Roman Catholic Church. I believe Benedict was retuning to the pre Vatican II mentality where Rome thinks very highly of itself. I began to think that maybe Rome was only hiding those feelings after Vatican II and now they were resurfacing. It was at that point I left the RCC and began to explore many of the Protestant denominations which culminated with my making a affirmation of faith as a Presbyterian in October 2010 and became a member of the First Presbyterian church of Manasquan and as such a Reformed Protestant who embraces the Reformed faith and theology today. How Reformed Scholasticism differed from Medieval Scholasticism explores the thinking of the Orthodox Reformed writers working in the generations after the Reformation, scholasticism was a method of doing things, not an appropriation of earlier doctrines. I think the article is very informative and it is why I am sharing it on my Timeline for others who may like to read it and learn something more about the Reformation and what the Protestant thinking was then and still is today and how it differs from Roman Catholic thinking and perspective on the Christian church and Christian church theology. ~ Dudley Davis ~ July 3rd 2014
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 16:40:44 +0000
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