Is the Reformation Over - Additional Views

Richard John Neuhaus, in his Dec 23, 2005 post on First Things weighs in on Mark Noll's book "Is the Reformation Over?"

I have been of the opinion that the differences between Protestants and Catholics have been about soteriology and ecclesiology. There has been, with certain fringe group exceptions, agreement in the basic doctrines of God. Neuhaus focuses on the Doctrine of the Church as the remaining obstacle:

"I believe it is correct to say that the great question now is ecclesiology, and that question has many parts. But it should not be overlooked that, as a consequence, there is a qualitative change in the relationship between Catholics and evangelicals. When the decisive difference was justification, it was a difference over the ultimate question of salvation.

"From the Catholic perspective, ecclesiology also entails that degree of ultimacy. The Second Vatican Council teaches that, if one believes that the Catholic Church is what she says she is, then one cannot be saved except by entering into and remaining in full communion with the Catholic Church.

"There is in that teaching a very big 'if.' The non-Catholic Christian who thinks of the church (usually lower case) as a voluntary association of believers–whether local or connected with other such voluntary associations–can, in the Catholic understanding, certainly be saved. Saving and sanctifying grace is certainly present in such associations or “ecclesial communions.” They are not unrelated to the Church, the Body of Christ apostolically ordered through time, but neither are they that Church."

Geoffrey Wainwright's review is linked there as well. Wainwright, interestingly, wrote a book in 2000 with essenatially the same title. He agrees with Neuhaus that ecclesiology is the key point of contention.

"Biblically and theologically, the authors welcome some convergence between the parties on the doctrine of salvation but rightly recognize the doctrine of the Church as “the crux of Catholic-evangelical disagreement.”

"...our authors share the regular inability of evangelicals to grapple with the necessary tangibility of ecclesial unity."

He finds Noll's book lacking in a few key points, such as...

"...they also neglect to note the phraseology of Pope John Paul II when he called for further study on “the relationship between Sacred Scripture as the highest authority in matters of faith and Sacred Tradition as indispensable to the interpretation of the Word of God” (Ut Unum Sint, 79)—a formulation that I think may hold the best promise of resolving the question since the sixteenth century. Nor do the authors pick up on the same pope’s astonishing invitation of the leaders of other churches and their theologians to a “patient and fraternal dialogue” to help find ways in which the pastoral and doctrinal ministry of Peter might be differently exercised in the service of universal Christian unity—a move that opened the prospect of a “reformed papacy” such as Luther, at least, was willing to contemplate."

In light of some of my past posts on the individualism of the evangelical movement, particularly in recent years, I found the following quote telling.

"No mention is made of the heresy of “Americanism” that was condemned as a form of modernism by Pope Leo XIII at the very end of the nineteenth century. Noll and Nystrom seem less perturbed than they might be by the ways in which the individualism endemic to Protestantism may have contributed to the contemporary “dictatorship of relativism” castigated by Joseph Ratzinger on the eve of his election as Pope Benedict XVI."

Frank Schaeffer, in his conversion to Orthodoxy entirely blames the Protestant movement for the relativism that plagues Western culture. I think that is a quite overblown way of looking at things, which is typical of Frank Schaeffer's "blunt instrument" writing style. But there is a point to be made, shared apparently by others. I doubt if full union with Rome is something most Protestants will warm to. Marian dogmas, purgatory, and papal infallibility still appear to be innovations, rather than part of the original deposit of the faith. But at the same time, Protestants, like myself, are beginning to see the value of reading scripture in the community of the whole church and not only in the privacy of the personal prayer closet.

Something is happening in the worldwide Christian community. Where it will lead remains to be seen, but I see encouraging signs.