Wednesday, January 04, 2006

From Heretics to Separated Brethren: Reconciling the Church's View of Protestants from Trent to Vatican II (Part I)

In this post, I give a preamble to an attempted answer to the question proposed by the title of this post. In the one to follow, I attempt to answer the question more fully. Be on the lookout for it to follow soon.

I have been asked before whether I would desbribe myself as more of a Trentian Catholic or a Vatican II Catholic. Interesting question. As far as I can tell, the two Vatican Councils are simply further progress of dogma of what had previously been believed. If you're wondering what the progress of dogma refers to, note the following illuminating passages from two conciliar documents from Vatican II:


Now what was handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.

This tradition which comes from the apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts, through the intimate understanding of spiritual things they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For, as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her. (Dei Verbum, 8)

The body of the faithful as a whole, anointed as they are by the Holy One (cf. 1 Jn 2:20, 27), cannot err in matters of belief. Thanks to a supernatural sense of the faith (sensus fidei) which characterizes the People as a whole, it manifests this unerring quality when, ‘from the bishops down to the last member of the laity’, it shows universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. For, by this sense of faith which is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, God’s People accepts not the word of men but the very Word of God (cf. 1 Th 2:13). It clings without fail to the faith once delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3), penetrates it more deeply by accurate insights, and applies it more thoroughly to life. (Lumen Gentium, 12)



In addition to the above, the opening pages of Trent have rather strong declarations on Sacred Tradition (session 4). So, it is not as if an understanding of the threefold nature of authority (Tradition, Scripture, and Magisterium) was unknown prior to the 16th century. In fact, that would be a wholly false idea and unreflective of the actual history of the Church. However, staying on this idea of the progress of dogma for a moment, just as St. Vincent of Lerins says, it is genuine progress one sees (especially) in the last 3 Councils. There could be no denying or even downplaying the significant progress and unfolding of dogma seen in Trent, Vatican I & II.

But, to my mind this was not a difference in kind, just in extent. This is what I mean. The sheer breadth of the Councils of Trent and Vatican II is so enormous that they nearly equal the length of all the other 19 Ecumenical Councils put together. I have the 2 volume set Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils edited by Norman Tanner, SJ, which anyone reading this post ought to have on his shelves. And the way he arranges the conciliar decrees is to put all 18 Councils from Nicaea to Florence (1450-ish) in volume I and the last three in volume II. Do you see what I mean? The 2 volumes are nearly the same size, even though the first volume contains the decrees of 18 Councils! So, the point I'm trying to make is that in Trent and Vatican II one sees a sheer size in terms of the decrees themselves and the subjects addressed at length in a way unknown to all previous Councils. But, onto the subject proper in the next installment. These comments seem a necessary preamble though.

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