Wednesday 1 April 2015

A very interesting piece- Some thoughts

I have not fully absorbed everything at the following link but it rings a lot of bells for me.  

http://onthesideoftheangels.blogspot.co.uk/

It has seemed to me for some time that, immensely important as is the grave matter to be discussed at the forthcoming synod, the synod itself, is of yet weightier moment than even the subjects for discussion. A comparison I have in mind is with the unfolding of "the King's Great Matter" as Henry VIII sought an annulment of his marriage in the late 1520s when, as it transpired, much more was at stake than one dynastic marriage. In spite of a subsequent effort of restoration the real outcome, then, was the death of Catholic England.  What seems to be at stake now is...even more.
One of the words trotted out by those pushing the "Kasper line" is "development". This is not, to my mind, the "Development" of Blessed John Henry Newman. Newman's concept has a kind of organic character. It is about the unfolding or opening out of what is pre-existing. It does not involve violence to the original deposit. Dissidents' use of "development" involves an essentially Hegelian model- the clashing opposition, or  struggle, of thesis and antithesis in order from their annihilation to bring forth a synthesis(- thanks to which we have such delights as Marxism, "Mein Kampf" and "the Survival of the Fittest" ). 

The notion behind this, of course, is that we are in a state of ignorance and that we are to advance by a process of refining guesswork. Were we studying the material nature of the Universe this approach might have something to recommend it. The Church, however, is not in ignorance since it has the truth revealed by Christ- the incarnate Word of God.

I reckon that the dissidents need to wake up to the Incarnation. And the rest of us have some real praying to do.