Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This is normally a paid subscription feature, but today’s is free of charge. Please consider subscribing to enjoy this weekly missive along with an occasional “Off The Shelf” feature about books and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.
Dear Friends,
In this week’s Quarter Inch I wrote about the (to my mind, fatal) problems with the Roman Catholic Church’s self-conception as the “final” and infallible interpreter of Scripture. Monday’s release of Pope Francis’s Fiducia Supplicans is a picture-perfect illustration and test case.
Perusing my Facebook page, it strikes me that I was probably a bit too casual and glib. I have devout Roman Catholic friends on social media, and they are—what’s the word?—upset. And I ought to better sympathize. If I believed Rome’s claims of her infallibility and status as the one true church on earth—outside of whom one cannot be saved—if I had devoted all my life’s energies into supporting and serving that church, if I had even stuck with her and defended her through all the sordid sex abuse scandals, only now to have a Pope betray and undermine the ethical teachings of the Christian faith, I think I would be existentially upset. At least my worldview would be very, very rattled, and that seems to be true of some.
I would like to offer some comfort, and it is sincerely meant. Coming as it does from a Reformed theologian, it might not seem very comforting. You can find the pleasant and easy kind of comfort from many soothing Roman Catholic voices who whisper that everything is just fine, there’s nothing to see here, and that none of this really calls into question any of Rome’s doctrinal claims. No, I must start out upfront by admitting that as a matter of studied conviction I simply do not believe Rome’s claims about her exclusive authority and infallibility, and current matters certainly do call into question those claims.
And here is my sincere attempt at comfort:
You needn’t believe them, either.
The Church of Rome is not, in fact, the exclusive earthly expression of Christ’s body and bride, and her supreme bishop is not the sole vicar of Christ on earth. The church’s traditions are not infallible, nor are they an unchanging, seamless garment passed down from antiquity. Those are all self-aggrandizing claims unsupported by Scripture and the actual historical record. I do not intend to re-litigate the entire Protestant Reformation in the course of a Square Inch Newsletter. But I would like to invite Roman Catholics who may for some reason find themselves suddenly interested in these topics to perhaps explore—maybe for the first time—the myriad alternatives. And by “explore,” I mean reading something other than pop Roman Catholic apologists. And I would begin with this superb essay.
There are, in fact, vibrant church communities outside of Rome’s dominions. That is one of Rome’s problems: it isn’t catholic. You’ll find that a lot of these people outside the Vatican’s walls love the ecumenical creeds and our shared heritage, the ancient and medieval fathers, and even liturgical worship—all the weird robes and everything. You can find some that have so high a view of the Eucharist that even you would feel comfortable with it. Oh, sure, you’ll also find some very weird folks, too—Pentecostals, Charismatics, and big “nondenominational” arenas with rocks bands and the Eucharist once or twice a year whether you need it or not. It is really catholic out here. There is a lot of diversity. But you know what most (if not all) of these folks have in common? They baptize in the Triune Name, and they love, serve, and proclaim Jesus Christ as the resurrected Lord and our only hope of salvation.
What they do not believe is that their Spirit-worked union with Christ is exclusively mediated through the sacramental system of Rome and her institutions. Jesus is the mediator. He needs—and has—no supreme “vicar” to dole out his benefits. His benefits accrue en toto to every believer by virtue of their union with him by faith. That doesn’t make the institutional church superfluous, by any means; but it does recalibrate its vocation as servant, not lord and master. They also believe that Holy Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice, and that our dogmatic claims and pronouncements are always subordinate and subject to the Bible. There must be the possibility of reform, which Roman dogma seems to make impossible (when you’re incapable of doctrinal error, what’s to reform?).
There are many, many other things you’ll have to work through, of course. Debates over the papacy, the nature of justification, the mode of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, the meaning of baptism, the veneration of saints—there is no shortage of disputed matters, and even a casual glance at the history of the church will show you that these are simply the very same debates that have been the stuff of Christian theology for a millennium and more. The thing is, in the sixteenth century your church decided that all of these debates were suddenly forever settled in the favor of the powers-that-be and it placed them completely off limits for debate. And a fairly novel doctrine of infallibility was invoked to that (one might say, bullying) end. A great many learned theologians, themselves steeped in the ancients and medievals, were astonished, thought this did violence not only to Scripture but also to Christian tradition itself, and they protested. They had very good reasons to protest.
We are still here. We worship the Triune God, love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaim the gospel of his kingdom, and baptize and disciple the nations. We have our problems, too. Churches abuse the sheep and fail. Sometimes whole denominations compromise on aspects of biblical orthodoxy. But whatever the problems, serious as they often are, we are unhindered by a wholly unnecessary and unwarranted dogma that makes such aberrations an existential crisis for the church catholic. Our ultimate faith is in the Risen Lord, not a particular institutional expression of his rule. Churches can, have, and do err. Christ can and does remove lampstands (Rev. 2:5). That is a liberating realization, spiritually and psychologically. The failure of a Pope is not a failure of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. For he doesn’t have the authority and role he claims in the first place.
The moment you start seriously entertaining that idea, you have stepped into the waters of the Tiber and are wading out toward the other shore. Because you really cannot consistently remain Roman Catholic without embracing Rome’s self-conception. I imagine wading into that water produces anxiety. But I can assure you that you will not find strangers or barbarians on the other side. You’ll find a warm Christian welcome.
Thank you for reading The Square Inch Newsletter, and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! Gloria in excelsis Deo!