Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Cordial Catholic

Home
Catholic
Catholics Got It Wrong (Except for the Bible)

Catholics Got It Wrong (Except for the Bible)

Last updated on: March 18, 2016 at 12:02 pm by K. Albert Little

Catholics Got It Wrong (Except for the Bible) 2016-03-18T12:02:40-04:00 K. Albert Little

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo by Fr. James Bradley.

Dale Ahlquist is the brother-in-law of the late, great Larry Norman—arguably one of God’s greatest gifts to Christian music. Ahlquist is also the president of the American Chesterton Society and a convert to the Catholic Church from Evangelical Protestantism. As Ahlquist tells in his own conversion story, it was Norman, an Evangelical, who first encouraged him to read G.K. Chesterton and it was Chesterton, once an Anglican, who convinced Ahlquist to become a Catholic.

As Chesterton himself tells it, one of the cruxes that finally led him to become Catholic after a long and stubborn journey from atheism through the Anglican Church was a deeper understanding of Scripture and a better understanding of the historical formation of the biblical canon.

This was the case in my faith journey, too.

Chesterton explains it, and expounds upon it brilliantly, so it’s worth the work to follow his logic through.

Ahlquist, in an article about his own conversion, sums up G.K. Chesterton’s thinking like this,

Chesterton says he can understand someone looking at a Catholic procession, at the candles and the incense and the priests and the robes and the cross and the scrolls, and saying, “It’s all bosh.” But what he cannot understand is anyone saying, “It’s all bosh — except for the scrolls. We’re going to keep the scrolls. In fact, we’re even going to use the scrolls against the rest.”

This sentiment, when I first happened upon it, spoke so precisely to my experience, “It’s all bosh, except the scrolls.”

Like Chesterton, I could not fathom how the perspective which says: Catholic Church got everything wrong except the Bible.

But I didn’t always think that way.

Whether I realized it or not in the Evangelical tradition from which I sprung up I was the unfathomable thinker that Chesterton describes.

I was the one watching the Catholic procession go by and saying, “All of that is bosh, except those scrolls.”

Somehow those scrolls—the Scriptures on which my Evangelical faith was based—were above “boshness”, even though the bosh predated the scrolls.

Somehow, my way of thinking went, the Bible is reliable and without error even though the tradition it emerged from, the tradition that predates it, is itself fatally flawed.

Whether knowingly or not, that’s what I believed.

I believed that I was capable of drawing a line and making an arbitrary distinction about what, in that ancient Catholic procession, was Christian and what was not.

The Bible, I will take.

The Trinity, I will take.

Prayer to the saints? No thank you.

The Real Presence of our Lord in Communion? No thanks.

This kind of arbitrary rejection and acceptance, on the face of it, seems a little bit odd if not egotistical.

Instead I’ve come to believe that the Bible—those scrolls Chesterton refers to—was put together under the authority of the Catholic Church. This isn’t so much a matter of faith as it is a matter of history. The Catholic Church agreed on which gospels, epistles, and writings ought to be considered a part of the biblical canon. The same Catholic Church that uses incense, that has a celibate priesthood, that encourages its members to pray for the intercession of the saints and the Virgin Mary. This is one and the same Catholic Church. So how can all that be bosh, but somehow the Bible survives?

In the past, I could’ve argued, in good conscience, that the Catholic Church fell into error at some point after putting together the Bible. God established this Church but it didn’t last forever. For good measure, this is the same argument used by Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And it doesn’t make sense, at least not to me, and at least not anymore. Because plenty of traditions and practices that are condemned by Protestant Christians pre-date the collection of the Bible in its current form.

Ancient documents outlining the Mass; church fathers’ pronouncements of the Eucharist as the actual blood and body of Christ; evidence of early veneration of the saints; a sacramental understanding of baptism; the papacy. These are things that pre-date the official canon of the Bible.

How could everything else about the Catholic Church be “bosh” except the Bible—especially when some of those objectionable things came before the Bible?

If the Catholic Church had enough God-given authority to reliably put together the Bible—and we all take that for granted—why and when did that authority sudden cease, and how do we know? If all the trappings and traditions of the Catholic Church is faulty, how can we say the Bible isn’t?

If my journey towards Catholicism could be described as a walk down a wooded trail, this was the sudden and unexpected landslide. If the Catholic Church is “bosh” then it needs to all be bosh and I can’t see a way to reliably pick and choose. I cannot see a what to reliable reject some and take the others.

I cannot see a way to say, “Catholics got it wrong… Except for the Bible.”

Stay in touch! Like The Cordial Catholic on Facebook:

The Cordial Catholic

Previous Post

March 14, 2016

On Lent and Letting Go of Grudges

Next Post

March 23, 2016 Why I'm Becoming a Catholic At Easter

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Appearances Christian Living Explaining the Faith Podcast Tough Questions Uncategorized Why I'm Catholic

Select a Month January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian principle is shown by the story of the widow's mite?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Never give Give only if rich Generosity from the heart Give to be seen

Support this
Column