Teasing out an apparent conflict from Trent: How Good Works contribute to the increase of our Justification without necessarily playing a directly causal role in effecting our Justification.
Thank you, Stephen, for taking the time to share your thoughts here on Substack. Like Shore Healing said, it is heavy reading what you write and so it is for a particular audience. You just have to find that group of people. Not all Christians have the time or want to wade through Theological stuff. I have an interest in it, but if you could simplify it for us, it would make it easier for us to digest. We are not all academic. I did a long search for many years. I did a Diploma in Theology with the Jesuits, I spent some time in Bible College and I studied a lot at church and alone, so my knowledge comes for a lifetime of being a believer. However, this article has proven a good point that Catholics do not believe that good works will get them into heaven. There are many Protestants and Catholics who do good works to look good, but I don't know if they've ever really thought about whether it gets them into heaven or not.
redux: good works do help us get to heaven but indirectly. They increase our participation in the good and consequently our consciousness of sin and possibility for contrition for sin, which allows us to be forgiven, sanctified in Christ´s blood. They are like leaves of a tree, necessary for growth but not the reason for regeneration of the plant, but they do support the blossiming of flowers and development of fruit. The reformation critique is basically saying something like plants would be better without leaves because fruit alone saves. voila. this is the most important aspect but i wrote so much because its actually a little more complex! thanks so much for reading! i enjoy writing this sort of genre and if I find a few readers as I have then thats more than enough. I am grateful!
Thanks for the encouraging comment. Been waiting for someone to weigh in on this post for weeks. Thanks for the reference as well ill have to check out john Cade.
i dont know sometimes i think there is quite a bit smoke and mirors on substack with people liking without reading, etc. unfortunately my posts have tended to be quite long, and this one is also relatively dense reading so i think its rare even for subs to give up a half hour to chew through the whole thing, but Im glad you did! yeah this john cade story seems fascinating, have a lot of books I would like to read but I will add it to the list.
Yeah i left the academic world in the middle of my doctorate in theology. i started this blog because i still have a passion for it, but the academic world wasnt really developing me how i wanted and or needed to be developed spiritually so I left. so from someone who was on the inside and i think this is one of the things i really feel compelled to share with all "conservative" or "reactionary" people is that the problem is not that there are liberals or heretics or enemies, our problem is how corrupt and impotent the good guys are. nothing is more disturbing than the state of academic theology in the few "good" places to study, in my opinion. i was in a very liberal department which is probably the only place i could survive as I could fly under the radar. with my supposed bretheren i am more likely to pick fights, and they are more likely to start them with me. and i really dont like how roman catholic theology developed for the past 60 years so... its not obvious where I fit in. But at least I am back writing and for the first time ever, I have found a few readers.
but thanks so much for this encouraging word! it really meant a lot to me. i have been so surprisingly pleased with your posts, the psalms are so powerful and its wonderful to see them distilled according to your insights and gifts!
Thank you, Stephen, for taking the time to share your thoughts here on Substack. Like Shore Healing said, it is heavy reading what you write and so it is for a particular audience. You just have to find that group of people. Not all Christians have the time or want to wade through Theological stuff. I have an interest in it, but if you could simplify it for us, it would make it easier for us to digest. We are not all academic. I did a long search for many years. I did a Diploma in Theology with the Jesuits, I spent some time in Bible College and I studied a lot at church and alone, so my knowledge comes for a lifetime of being a believer. However, this article has proven a good point that Catholics do not believe that good works will get them into heaven. There are many Protestants and Catholics who do good works to look good, but I don't know if they've ever really thought about whether it gets them into heaven or not.
redux: good works do help us get to heaven but indirectly. They increase our participation in the good and consequently our consciousness of sin and possibility for contrition for sin, which allows us to be forgiven, sanctified in Christ´s blood. They are like leaves of a tree, necessary for growth but not the reason for regeneration of the plant, but they do support the blossiming of flowers and development of fruit. The reformation critique is basically saying something like plants would be better without leaves because fruit alone saves. voila. this is the most important aspect but i wrote so much because its actually a little more complex! thanks so much for reading! i enjoy writing this sort of genre and if I find a few readers as I have then thats more than enough. I am grateful!
Thanks for breaking that down, Stephen.
We need to write what we feel we need to write. The readers will come in time.
Who wants the wrong kind of reader anyway?
I ask myself, “For what purpose am I writing?”
Sometimes, I just want to share my thoughts and if they resonate with others, good, if not, no problem.
Other times, I am just sharing the gospel.
Thanks for the encouraging comment. Been waiting for someone to weigh in on this post for weeks. Thanks for the reference as well ill have to check out john Cade.
i dont know sometimes i think there is quite a bit smoke and mirors on substack with people liking without reading, etc. unfortunately my posts have tended to be quite long, and this one is also relatively dense reading so i think its rare even for subs to give up a half hour to chew through the whole thing, but Im glad you did! yeah this john cade story seems fascinating, have a lot of books I would like to read but I will add it to the list.
Yeah i left the academic world in the middle of my doctorate in theology. i started this blog because i still have a passion for it, but the academic world wasnt really developing me how i wanted and or needed to be developed spiritually so I left. so from someone who was on the inside and i think this is one of the things i really feel compelled to share with all "conservative" or "reactionary" people is that the problem is not that there are liberals or heretics or enemies, our problem is how corrupt and impotent the good guys are. nothing is more disturbing than the state of academic theology in the few "good" places to study, in my opinion. i was in a very liberal department which is probably the only place i could survive as I could fly under the radar. with my supposed bretheren i am more likely to pick fights, and they are more likely to start them with me. and i really dont like how roman catholic theology developed for the past 60 years so... its not obvious where I fit in. But at least I am back writing and for the first time ever, I have found a few readers.
but thanks so much for this encouraging word! it really meant a lot to me. i have been so surprisingly pleased with your posts, the psalms are so powerful and its wonderful to see them distilled according to your insights and gifts!