I like your logic and need to establish that one idea is more of a possibility or completely correct versus another in a debate setting. A subset of that is how one theory or idea helps change a prominent hypothesis. This is illustrated best in Hegel's use of the dialectic to present new truth that might be lacking in a subject. Basically, when you have a challenge to the current standard way of thinking the Hegelian method includes the thesis, antithesis and finally a synthesis. Someone challenges the prominent idea, with the new. After the new idea gets kicked around a bit, tested more, and scrutinized over time is it rejected or it may later become the mainstream conclusion on that subject. To really win one has to show that their newer antithesis has enough merits that the majority adopt it. Sometimes it replaces the current mainstream thesis and sometimes it becomes an addendum. Where we often fail though is not in engaging in debate, but rather are we being creative and willing to test new ideas. We also fail to grasp sometimes what is the best question to even ask.
For illustration I use the hypothesis: What is the most significant change occurring in the contemporary church? Is it protestant thought overtaking Catholics? I personally accept both as a way to heaven though I know that some do not. Anyway, I might suggest that Martin Luther and Protestant theology has been somewhat the antithesis to the Catholic traditions for hundreds of years. Still, it has not been adopted by the majority. The current growth rate of Protestants however is 3.3% versus Catholics growth at 1.3%
Source:
Growth of religion - Wikipedia
Current estimates are that there are one billion Catholics and 900 million Protestants. Estimates throughout this exercise vary widely, but I think the growth numbers exist no matter what base you start or finish at.
I could stop there and simply suggest that it looks like that after hundreds of years Protestant numbers may overtake Catholics? Still, just because one group becomes more prominent it does not mean that it is correct, it only means it is more popular. In this example so far, both groups are represented well but does it really tell us what is going on within Christianity today? If I ask: what is potentially the most significant change to contemporary churches, is there something different? What if I found a common denominator in church growth that had seemingly little to do with Catholic versus Protestant? I did and interestingly it is not new, it is a renewal of the old as it is closer to being back to the original early church. I didn't recall that the Hegel dialectic circles back to the beginning though often in a different form. Here is a quote in Reddit. "The consensus seems to be that
Hegel's system is circular, which is taken as a kind of "proof" that his system is complete."
https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/21bn98
Now that is chilling. That the church may circle back to similar events to the time of Acts to complete her journey. Perhaps that the whole time we have been looking to much at differences in theology when in reality we are missing part of the promise of the Holy Spirit.
So let's examine the numbers of the growth in the charismatic Catholic renewal and the Pentecostal/Charismatics.
Charismatic Catholics
1970 – 2,000,000
1980 – 40,000,000
2000 – 119,910,000
Catholic Charismatic Renewal Worldwide Statistics - WWCCR
2013 - 160,000,000
Catholic Charismatic Renewal - Wikipedia
Charismatic Protestants.
1970 - 58 million
2021 -656 million.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2396939320966220
So while it seems OK to consider the Hegel dialectic for how the mainstream is reacting to Christianity in terms of Catholic vs Protestants, the real movement for change or re-adoption in this case, is the same for both groups. That of charisma or the gifts of the Holy Spirit manifesting in both groups at a surprising rate.
"...according to scholar Peter L. Berger of
Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".
[68] Growth of religion - Wikipedia
“At the heart of a world imbued with a rationalistic skepticism, a new experience of the Holy Spirit suddenly burst forth. And, since then, that experience has assumed a breadth of a worldwide Renewal movement.” -Pope Benedict XVI
Catholicism has been around for some 2,000 odd years, and over the course of that time has encountered many varieties of saints, sinners, spiritualities and sins. In the modern age, one of the spir…
ignitumtoday.com
Sorry for the length but the Hegelian method I think is quite good, even though employed by the likes of Karl Marx and other anti-Christian thinkers. Even the hard sciences use this at times. From flat earth to round earth would be an example I think. Here, I started out with what kind of differences over time might illustrate this method and ended up with the newest antithesis to the church which is not denominational necessarily but rather the circling back to the oldest tradition in the church, a more completeness of the Holy Spirit and the gifts it gives. God bless!
Acts 2:17 (KJV)
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Acts 2:39 (KJV)
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
