Friday, October 30, 2015

A perfect summation of the new "gospel" of the new church

Well, I'm not sure what the "new church" is, exactly, though there's been a lot of talk about that both since the latest Synod and since the Second Vatican Council.

In any case, I think I've hit upon precisely the quintessential summation of its "new" theology in a quotation from H. Richard Niebuhr's The Kingdom of God in America:
“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
Niebuhr was, of course, describing Protestant Liberalism, but what's the difference? Beats me. Did we hear any official spokesmen for the Synod say anything about mortal sin (which, according to Church teaching, is involved in the very topics of divorce and "remarriage" and "homosexual relationships" over which they seem to have obsessed in their deliberations), much less the wrath of God? It's not that I enjoy the subject of mortal sin and divine wrath any more than the next guy; but if hell and damnation are mere fictions that can be brushed aside, then for what did our Savior suffer and die? What is "salvation" from? As St. Paul says in his syllogism in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ be not risen [fill in the subordinate premises here, I'm paraphrasing], we ought to quit talking blithely about the "New Evangelization," pack our bags, and go home.

[Hat tip to E. Echeverria for the reference]

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