Are Protestants the real 'Catholic' Christians?

Michie

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A recent article in Christianity Today sported the headline "Protestants: The most 'Catholic' of Christians."
Protestants: The Most ‘Catholic’ of Christians

With one eyebrow raised, I clicked on the link, wondering what could support such an audacious claim. It turns out the article was promoting the new Reforming Catholic Confession,
Reforming Catholic Confession

Which describes itself as a 'Mere Protestant' statement of Faith to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The statement currently boasts about 700 signatures from Protestant pastors and academics.

The idea is the brainchild of Christian philosopher Jerry Walls, who is set to release a co-authored book titled Roman but not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation.A description on the book cover says it is "A Critique of Roman Catholicism in Defense of the Catholic Faith."

If your head is spinning, let me try to set it straight.

Continued below.
Are Protestants the Real 'Catholic' Christians? | Catholic Answers
 
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Drick

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From someone who was raised Protestant: I don't think anyone could argue that Protestantism is Catholic in nature, especially nowadays, where more and more Churches become independent bodies in an overarching Protestant Confederation. Even so, relations between these single churches are actually pretty good on the whole, to the point I think you could argue that they're unified in a way, but ultimately, they are no more than a confederation, and it's not unheard of for competing denominations in a given town to be on bad terms with one another.

However, I do think that decentralization was an inevitable evolution of Christendom from the very second the printing press revolutionized the public availability of knowledge, whether that be a good or a bad thing. If it hadn't been Luther and Calvin and their lot, someone else would've come along and decentralized the religion, and perhaps in this alternate reality, there might actually be a sort of university, some catholicism within the Protestant Church. Unfortunately, we have to leave that to the realm of pure speculation.
 
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Hank77

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I read the first article and the Confession and think it is very well written and accurate.

In the second article, I think it is too bad that this portion was worded the way it was. Certainly Protestants also have man made traditions. It is these traditions that can be set aside when considering the universalism of the Protestant Christians.

Protestant churches share a collection of universal beliefs that represent the “Catholic faith” of the New Testament in contrast to the man-made traditions of the “Roman Catholic Church.”
Are Protestants the Real 'Catholic' Christians? | Catholic Answers

But here is what the first article actually says ......

According to the confession itself, the purpose is not “to replace the confessional statements of the various confessional traditions and churches here represented but rather to express our shared theological identity.” While the confession distinguishes itself from Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theology by being organized “according to the Protestant principles of faith (sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide),” the confession does not intend for its signatories to be “defining themselves against others” but rather as Christians “who affirm the common spiritual tradition to which creedal Christianity bears eloquent witness.”
Protestants: The Most ‘Catholic’ of Christians
 
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