Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Chief End?
BHT links to a post comparing and contrasting protestant and Catholic views of the Chief End Of Man. Here's the meat:
However, having said that, I, like the author, I find the Catholic understanding very compelling. To me the real question is, "What am I to do about that?" Am I to reject my deeply held Calvinism whole-hog, convert to Catholicism and start putting statues of the saints around? Of course not. Do I have to reject the Catholic understanding I find so compelling? I don't think so.
Where are the rules written that say I have to hold everything associated with a specific theological or denominational label? I grow increasingly weary of the label wars in faith. Whether it is the theological battles between charismatics and cessassionists or the politico-religious battles surrounding the candidacy of Mitt Romney.
In my experience, no group or ideology has a monopoly on truth. Truth is a large thing, it involves ideas and lives and behavior. Proper theology in a reprobate is a lie because it has failed to change his behavior. We often forget this.
What are we doing to put the lie to the tenants of our label? And in holdng our label so strongly, what are we doing to lose the pieces of truth hiding behind other labels?
God indeed created us to be free people. Maybe we ought start using that to generate love both towards Him, but towards each other.
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The Catholic Catechism notes that "sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him" (ibid., 387). I find this idea that there can be no love when there is no freedom simple and persuasive. If this idea and the Catholic view of the chief end of man are right, then of course man has free will.The vagaries of free will and Calvinism is difficult and not where I want to go. I am not sure that the self-negation is quite what is presented here.
If God's glorification requires receiving love from His (predestinated) elect creatures, and if there can be no love without freedom, then the Shorter Catechism's First Q&A is at loggerheads with Calvinism's double-election teaching. In other words, if His glory requires love, and love requires freedom, then our living out this Great Predestinated Drama will fail to meet our chief end.
However, having said that, I, like the author, I find the Catholic understanding very compelling. To me the real question is, "What am I to do about that?" Am I to reject my deeply held Calvinism whole-hog, convert to Catholicism and start putting statues of the saints around? Of course not. Do I have to reject the Catholic understanding I find so compelling? I don't think so.
Where are the rules written that say I have to hold everything associated with a specific theological or denominational label? I grow increasingly weary of the label wars in faith. Whether it is the theological battles between charismatics and cessassionists or the politico-religious battles surrounding the candidacy of Mitt Romney.
In my experience, no group or ideology has a monopoly on truth. Truth is a large thing, it involves ideas and lives and behavior. Proper theology in a reprobate is a lie because it has failed to change his behavior. We often forget this.
What are we doing to put the lie to the tenants of our label? And in holdng our label so strongly, what are we doing to lose the pieces of truth hiding behind other labels?
God indeed created us to be free people. Maybe we ought start using that to generate love both towards Him, but towards each other.
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