:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Saturday, June 28, 2003 ::

Rock, Paper, Scissors

A very honest and well written essay was recently posted by this Quaker woman about the nature of the church, the relationship it has had to paganism, sacramentality, and sola scriptura. Considering her theological background, her conclusions are facinating.

It generated a firestorm of comments and reactions around the blogosphere. If you get a chance, it's an interesting read. One of the participants in the discussion, Tom Round, posted this amusing observation about the confusion inherent in three-way ecumenical dialogue (Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant):

"Adding Constantinople to the Rome/ Geneva stoush, making it a three-way dogfight, really makes things interesting. It produces what we political science types call a "Condorcet cycle" where stone beats scissors, scissors beat paper, but paper wraps stone (by a 2-to-1 vote each time). So the results on each of the following "Resolveds?" is as follows:

Is the Bible alone sufficient, without Tradition? Catholics + Orthodox no, Protestants yes...

Is the Pope infallible when he speaks on faith and morals as head of the Church in communion with the bishops [etc]? Protestants and Orthodox no, Catholics yes ...

Was Augustine right about original sin? Catholics + Protestants yes, Orthodox no ...

So a majority-vote head-count among the three gives us ... Augustinian Orthodoxy. Come back, Patriarch Cyril Loukaris; all is forgiven!"

:: Karl :: 8:17:00 AM [Link] ::