Subversive Christian Unity

How the Protestants saved Roman Catholicism I lately read online a Catholic apologist who said, in essence, that the Protestant Reformation went a bridge too far . He granted that the Catholic Church of the Reformation era had become corrupt in morals; the mistake of the Reformers was to believe it had become corrupt in morals and also in doctrine. The Reformers should have contented themselves with reforming the morals and left doctrine alone, and conducted a reformation from within rather than leaving the Church. In support, he pointed out that Protestants ever since have never agreed on just what the correct doctrine is, but have many variations, in a growing number of separate denominations. Against this I would note that freedom to inquire into doctrine is essential to what it means to be Protestant, so it is not surprising that the habit continues. I do not think that Catholics, by and large, give Protestants enough credit. Protestants saved Catholicism. Without th...

Christendom needs an eighth ecumenical council, for the purpose of considering two questions. I. Is the motto "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty and in all things charity" a proper basis for Christian cooperation and inter-church reconciliation? II. If so, what are the non-essentials? Point II is the sticky one. We do not agree on what is secondary and debatable. What is one church's non-essential is, to another, a seemingly essential doctrine, primary rather than secondary in importance and not open for debate. If we cannot agree on some rather broad and substantial areas of Christian thought as being non-essential we can have no hope of ending our divisions on the basis of  "in non-essentials liberty." But can we pin down just where the non-essential areas lie, in a way that satisfies all corners of Christendom? There has been, to date, scant progress. The "liberty" part is important. I doubt that some Christians could ever be...