Protestantism III
The Age of the Enlightenment came at the hegemony of rationalism. The personalities of this age are described as one of the greatest exchange of ideas in the history of philosophy. The budding of scholars who tried to penetrate every possible question in reality had every mind of Europe gripped with confusion and in flux. The continental Europe whose exchange of ideas have been a singular source of its greatness and weakness created a traffic of development and expansion of theories, hypotheses, and exponents. The lasting effect of this will be felt until now, the Postmodern world.
The Catholic Church at the time found herself defensive against the ideas of the era. The Church had been attacked from within and without, even when some of these greatest minds had been Catholics or educated in Catholic schools themselves. Yet, the Church had to encounter, and, hence, She has to respond by turning inward and find the essence that She has been born out. France had not been kind to her. After the fall of Bastille, the Revolutionary forces who toppled the monarchy the graphic representation of it was by beheading the last Bourbon monarch, Louise XVI, usurped the government and became so hostile to the Church. The Catholic religion for the first time in France had been stripped off of Her patrimony that had helped the French populace in its advancement both in the material and spiritual benefits.
However, the encounter of the Church with the Kantian’s Copernican revolutionary and critical philosophy, empiricism that fell after skepticism from rationalism, the idealist thought that followed along in its wake, and the nationalist sentiments hovering over the whole of Europe made the Church conscious of Herself as ever. In one sense, the Church was made stronger in Her identity by the meeting of these solvent ideas. If She had been shaken with rationalism, which She helped foster, She, nonetheless, found the flowering of music in that age. The great masters of the day from Hadyn to Beethoven, and then to Mozart wrote voluminous musical masterpieces that would define the zenith of musical history in after years.
Here is the inverse relation of the beauty of reason and the beauty of music particularly in this time. Though reason which the Church did not expunge from Her apprehension of truth had been used through those years as a test against Her during the corrosive years of the Enlightenment, She still found the another way of magnificent presentation of truth in the form of melody and musical harmony. If the world becomes hostile through philosophy, then through music it can. This is the beauty of the Church. She does not express Christ only to certain modes of presentation but exhaust every means to offer it either to let it be discovered or make it as a constant sign for the world to hear and see.
The Age of the Enlightenment had been spurred in part by the coming of Protestantism. The view that disbelieving the perennial teachings of the Church could become legitimated by at least a credible person of the hour whose credentials at the very least could be the primary source of its validity. The outcry of Luther paralleled that of the fermenting ideas of the Renaissance and the growing sentiments of Europe toward its identity through national lines had given fertile grounds for pure Rationalism, whose primary characteristic was contemptuous toward religion especially Christianity, to fallout in the 18th century. Protestantism had become the vehicle of some of these ideas to prosper, and in the end, it too became its victim.
This is one of the reasons why Protestantism can never be a valid religion. The validity of this religion lies in its claim to purify the Church from the filth of its doctrine, discipline, worship, devotion, and life. And, because of that, they proposed sola scriptura and sola fidei as the fundamental criteria to which all things in faith had to be measured. The effect of this is 40,000 christian denominations in the world today and counting. The unity that was always at thoughts of Paul in his admonition to the different Churches from Rome to Philippi had been rendered impossible in human terms. Notwithstanding is the 1054 schism of the Eastern Churches we now called Orthodoxy. Thus, to each and every christian in today’s world, one has to feel the gravity spiritually of Christianity’s disunited fact. If certainly Protestantism can offer to the world Christ whose teaching is one and the same, then where is it? Its legacy is a total wreck and failure due to its natural predication: confusion.
Luther’s revolt against Rome could not be a cogent proposition for a renewed Christianity. Only by perfecting the Church inside can it be a valid recourse. The principles governing the Church are ancient and foundational for She drew it not from Her own accord but from Christ, the one essence with the Father and whose being is the visible truth that became man and whose teachings the Church has always protected and whose God-ness She has always proclaimed to the world. The founder did not promise the Church to be perfect in Her members. Albeit, He is inviting them to perfect themselves without cease in the world that tend to draw them against Him their master.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:42 am e
what is in the sentence up above the moon? can we see any capital letters there? in short, what’s the blah blah all about… coherence and more to the point please. a good writer gives life to the reader and language is not substance nor substance is language.
in short, what is in the “story”? all that was said can be written in just one short paragraph.
page 2 please…