MARK SHEA ON APOLOGETIC MANIAS
LET'S HEAR LESS ABOUT EPISCOPALIANS, PLEASE
I NEED ONE MORE HIKER FOR THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
At his blog Catholic apologist Mark Shea has posted "Some Thoughts on the Apologetics Subculture": http://www.markshea.blogspot.com (scroll down to June 16).
Among other things, Mark bemoans the tendency, among some Catholic and not a few Protestant apologists, to get bogged down in minutiae. As an example, he refers to a discussion about the interpretation of the Greek behind the word "until" in Matthew 1:25: "and he knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son."
The link Mark provides takes you to an interminable tit-for-tat between a Protestant and a Catholic. Read just the first few paragraphs (you won't be able to get through the whole thing). What will come to mind is Macbeth's soliloquy in Act V: "It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The writer (in this case a Protestant, but Catholics have done the same) offers up thousands of words--19,000 of them in fact--that supposedly demonstrate that his understanding of "until" is true and that his Catholic opponent's understanding is false. In fact, the most he can hope to do is to prove that this particular Catholic committed an error here or there; he can't (and doesn't) prove that the traditional Catholic understanding of "until" is wrong.
Such a waste of time!
Look, I'm an apologist, and I like engaging in apologetics, but there are limits. There are limits to what apologetics can accomplish, and there are limits to my patience. When I come across a 19,000-word dispute about the meaning of a single term, I don't think: "This is impressive work." I think: "This guy needs to get a life."
Apologetics is the explanation and defense of the faith. It comes into play only when someone asks for an explanation or attacks the faith. It is not the same as evangelization, which is the promotion of the faith. Apologetics is reactive; evangelization is pro-active. The two often go hand-in-hand, but they are not coterminous and should not be confused with one another.
I think apologetics is important, and that is why I have been engaged in it for a quarter of a century. I think it is so important that I don't want to waste time writing or reading 19,000-word exercises in futility.
It is said that Joseph Conrad once spent the better part of a day trying to decide whether to describe a character as "penniless" or "without a penny." There is a subtle distinction between the two, but it is so subtle that I am sure that no reader of his story ever came across the passage and wondered to himself why Conrad didn't choose the other term.
To Conrad, choosing one word over the other was important. It was important to absolutely no one else. Sometimes apologists reduce apologetics to the same level.
BENIGN NEGLECT FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH?
The Episcopal Church has elected a woman to be the presiding bishop in the U.S. Katherine Jefferts Schori, who has been the bishop of Nevada for five years, is now "the first woman primate in the Anglican church," as London's "Guardian" put it. The newspaper went on to say:
"The result of Bishop Schori's election has implications not only for the unity of the U.S. Episcopal church but also for the Anglican communion around the world, already threatened with a split over homosexuality. It will affect the church's relationship with the Roman Catholic church, which has declared the impossibility of women serving as priests and has recently warned the Church of England that its discussions would be damaged if it moves to promote women to the episcopate."
There are 77 million Anglicans around the world, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is their head. The American branch of the Anglican communion, the Episcopal Church, has only 2.3 million members, one quarter of whom are over 65.
The Anglican Church in general--and the Episcopal Church in particular--has been riven with dissension ever since women were ordained to the priesthood. Things got worse when they were ordained to the episcopate and worse still when an openly gay bishop was installed.
Since its founding in the sixteenth century, the Church of England has had the British monarch as its titular head. This means that since 1953 a woman, Elizabeth II, has been leading the church, but in a political rather than a ministerial capacity. Schori's election marks the first time that a woman has been put in charge of a whole national church. The only higher step left would be for a woman to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
Inasmuch as the Episcopal Church is not only tiny (fewer than one percent of Americans belong to it) but has been in rapid decline for decades, one wonders why so much attention is paid to the denomination--especially by the Catholic Church.
There are twenty times as many Baptists as Episcopalians in the U.S., but when Catholics hear about ecumenical discussions, which Protestant denomination comes to mind? Do they envision our representatives sitting down with Baptists or maybe with Lutherans or Methodists? Yes, sometimes, but usually the image is of Episcopalians sitting across the table.
That's a fair image because, in fact, an inordinate amount of energy has been expended on relations with the Episcopal Church over the last several decades--but with what result?
Ecumenism always has had two chief goals: to get to know what the other party really believes and to move toward corporate union.
Years ago, many Catholics, even Catholic bishops and priests, misconceived what Protestants believed and why they believed it. Protestants had corresponding misconceptions about us. But it never was particularly difficult to learn what others believed, if you were so inclined. You just had to read what they wrote about themselves.
We are long past the point of misconstruing what Episcopalians believe, but we have made no progress on the second and greater goal, corporate reunion (which, in truth, means Protestants becoming Catholic, since it is only the Catholic Church that is the Church that Christ founded). The goal of union receded into the distance as the Episcopal Church moved toward self-destruction. Why are we still chasing something that is getting ever more distant?
Frankly, I wish the Catholic leaders in America would stop talking about trying to effect a reunion with the Episcopal Church. It's not going to happen. It never had much chance of happening, and today there is less chance of it than ever. It's time for benign neglect.
As the Episcopal Church fissures, with conservative segments spinning off into churches of their own, we will see individuals and perhaps whole congregations cross the Tiber. That will be welcome, but each time that happens, the rump Episcopal Church that remains will stand in ever greater contrast to the Catholic Church in terms of beliefs and sensibilities, until finally the Episcopal Church will be so far distant on the horizon that it will be lost to sight entirely.
ONE MORE HIKER NEEDED FOR THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL
As I mentioned a few months ago, this summer I'm leading a backpacking trip along the John Muir Trail in California's Sierra Nevada. I just learned that one of our group has had to drop out, due to an illness in the family, and that means we have an open slot on our permit. We have room for one more hiker. Might that be you or someone you know?
Our trip runs from August 7-24. We will cover 211 miles from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the Lower 48, averaging 12.5 miles per day through what many consider the most majestic mountain range in America. We will be hiking mostly at elevations between 8,000 and 10,000 feet, but we will cross several passes that exceed 11,000 feet.
One of our hikers is a priest, so we will have Mass daily, and we are certain to have good, Catholic conviviality all along the trail.
If you are interested in joining us, reply to this E-Letter, and your message will be forwarded to me.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' discussion forums at
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
|
Discuss
Index
Prior issue
Next issue
Sign up
