In my view, one of the big challenges between Catholic and Protestants is how to approach topics without appearing narrow minded on either front, or reducing all discussions to black-and-white type answers. And neither camp gets a pass: I have seen both Catholics and Protestants use misguided approaches to Christianity.
For example, in the Catholics groups I belong to on social media, I occasionally see blunt attacks against Protestants: that Martin Luther helped forever screw up Christianity, Protestants are living under a rock if they think Sola Scriptura (“scripture only”) is true, or that Protestantism is the possible “Anti-Christ.” Keep in mind that I *occasionally* see these posts – it’s not that droves of Catholics are being blatantly arrogant; rather, just as with any discourse in life, there is usually a small percentage of folks who apparently think if they shout, “we are right and you are wrong!” enough times, everyone else will get the point and suddenly convert their worldview.
Think about it: How many people do you know have been taught the Gospel in a single conversation, and then they immediately proclaim their belief in God and accept Christ as our savior? Exactly – it’s just not that common. It takes time. It takes work. It takes a genuine commitment to working through all doubts that seekers have, for as long as seekers need in order to make a decision about the Catholic faith.
And Protestants, as mentioned above, are not off the hook either: Not only are some denominations on a crusade to bring down the Catholic Church, I sadly see more vitriol all-around from non-Catholic Christians. That’s not to sound biased because I am Catholic — I am going by my own observations, including during my time as a former atheist.
Case in-point, I saw a meme today on Facebook, posted by an evangelical Christian, taking a jab about gold in Catholic architecture and sometimes in liturgical items (chalices, etc.): In short, it made a strawman argument that the Catholic Church pretends to care about praying for the poor, but is actually hypocritical about charity and instead hoards money and riches. This, of course, is massively incorrect – yet it illustrates the point that Catholics and Protestants have some more growing up to do if we are to become more united in sharing what’s most important: God’s covenants with humanity, His ultimate covenant of forgiveness through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit’s role in guiding our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and why and how Christ established a Church here on Earth.
On that note, let’s look at Church Authority as the first topic. As Karlo Broussard points out in Meeting the Protestant Challenge, Protestants tend to view the Church as simply involving fellow Christians who have accepted God’s grace and may fellowship about this, versus an actual institution with an overall authority on Christian theology, Sacred Scripture, Sacraments, and preserving Christian teaching. To be fair, some Protestant denominations have some degree of church hierarchy – however, none of these churches accept the Catholic Church as the overarching authority.
We Catholics, on the other hand, believe that both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition – under *one* authority — are necessary to living a Christian life. In fact, this understanding of Catholicism has been embedded in the Church teaching for 2000 years now. That doesn’t mean the Church hasn’t made errors – even a few severe ones – in its history; however, it *has* stayed diligent to its theology, to the Sacraments, and to Sacred Scripture.
Yet we can’t dismiss that Catholics and Protestants have staunch differences on Christian theology, including who or what has ultimate authority under God.
From Karlo Broussard’s chapter on Church Authority, here is one key challenge and how to respond to it: “Jesus – not Peter –is the *foundation* for the Church” (and which, according to Protestants, is not meant to be a visible entity).
To dive into the answer, Broussard first points to 1 Corinthians 3:11: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” And while that may sound like a slam-dunk rebuttal to Peter being a foundation as well, or that it collapses the Catholic Church altogether, there are several rebuttals to this rebuttal:
First, when we look at Sacred Scripture, it’s crucial that we carefully read for context, avoid embellishing interpretations of Scripture, and not overlook that Scripture is chalk full of metaphors. Some of these metaphors may even seem outwardly contradictory at first – however, when we take a holistic approach to metaphors, we often gain the whole picture in the meaning.
For instance, regarding Church authority, and as Broussard points out in comparing Matthew 16:18 with 1 Corinthians 3:10: Jesus refers to himself as the *builder* in Matthew, 16:18, yet Paul refers to himself as a *builder* in Corinthians 3:10, and further states, “Let each take care how he builds upon it” (the foundation). Therefore, in this example alone, we can’t just narrow the word “builder” down to meaning only one person.
Going back to 1 Corinthians 3:11, and now looping in Ephesians 2:19-20, we already know that Paul has proclaimed Jesus as the “one foundation” in 1 Corinthians 3:11, yet he refers to the apostles as *foundations* as well in Ephesians 2:19-20. Which means that, just like the comparison between Matthew 16:18 and 1 Corinthians 3:10, the same word used in multiple areas of Scripture can have associated meanings, or show how certain passages thread together to an overarching conclusion.
Which leads to a counter-challenge question that Broussard encourages us to ask and consider: “Must biblical metaphors be restricted to a single use? Can’t they be used in a variety of ways?”
And here is a follow-up to that question: Do we agree that the books in the Bible contain various genres, and that interpreting Scripture involves the following layers: literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical? In fact, I happen to have a video series on this channel regarding reading and understanding the Bible: Perhaps as we Catholics and Protestants go on this journey of exploring truth together, we use the Understanding the Bible series as a reference for the “Bridging Differences between Catholics and Protestants” series? I have included links below to help us move along in the conversation.
Now, my Protestants friends out there may be asking: What about the most common debate between Catholics and Protestants – that is, in Matthew 16:17-19 when Christ says, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church…”? Or what about the debates over Christ’s comment in Matthew 18:20 — “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” — Doesn’t this passage refute the Church as a visible institution?
Broussard thoroughly covers those questions, and several others regarding Church authority, in Meeting the Protestant Challenge. Also, be aware that, throughout my series here, I am focusing on one key angle for each topic. Here’s why: As with my dialogues with atheists and other forms of skeptics, including Protestants, I find the conversations frequently bounce around between different topics, and without fully resolving at least one topic, or one part of a topic. Further, as with other videos on my channel, I am giving more of a primer on information and including resources for further study.
With that in mind, the next topic in this series is “Scripture and Tradition”. Stay tuned!
Understanding the Bible: The Literal Sense — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlnRlzcPJjw
Understanding the Bible: The Allegorical Sense — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDR9t86N5I
Understanding the Bible: The Moral Sense — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XaokIRG_60
Understanding the Bible: The Anagogical Sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il2ELmZP7Z4
1 Corinthians: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/3
Matthew 16:17-19 — https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/16#:~:text=17Jesus%20said%20to%20him,you%2C%20but%20my%20heavenly%20Father.&text=19l%20I%20will%20give,to%20the%20kingdom%20of%20heaven.
Ephesian 2:19-20 — https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ephesians/2#:~:text=19So%20then%20you%20are,of%20the%20household%20of%20God%2C&text=20built%20upon%20the%20foundation,Jesus%20himself%20as%20the%20capstone.