Sunday, February 26, 2006

A Challenge

"The Christian should reflect for a moment: Are there any Christian goods he does not owe, directly or indirectly, to what he perhaps contemptuously dismisses as 'institution' or the 'establishment'"?*

Anyone?

* Hans Urs von Balthasar from Mary: The Church at the Source (Ignatius: San Francisco, 1997)

2 Comments:

Blogger Rino said...

hi eric, i found your blog through dom's website.

first of all, let me say i really enjoy your catholic perspective and tradition.

this quote is very interesting. i do think that much of what i have learned about god comes from other people, whether in a sunday morning setting or in conversations like this. however, i do not think that everything i have learned is dependent on my culture. if this were so, then there would be no possibility of new ideas, and there may not even be the possibility of freedom to choose which belief to hold.

what do you think.
god bless.

3:19 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

Hi Dwayne.

The quote is about 'Christian Goods'. Certainly, we learn things from outside of our culture. And there is a degree of innovation in our thinking, learning, and even believing that is not dependent on our Christian culture.

The Bible is a production of the 'institutional' Church, and is an example of a Christian good that Balthazar is referring to. Even a conversation about believe is only possible, indirectly, because of the Church preserving the message to be discussed. Of course, our intellectual heritage, which includes the explosive development of science, is dependent on the the Church. The same can be said of our political order; it is not coincidental that liberal democracy is a product of Western civilization.

1:19 AM  

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