Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jhpb@granjon.garage.att.com Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: What's the difference? Message-ID: Date: 8 Aug 90 07:30:49 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Labs (Liberty Corner) Lines: 24 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu An infallible Church is an objective source? It seems to me that something written down once for all is much more objective than a bunch of archbishops and popes whose ideas change over the centuries. "But the Church and Since the Church is infallible, once it decides something, the decision can't be changed. Clerics, no matter how highly placed, are only allowed to argue about things that haven't been decided. The canons of Vatican I, Trent, and the definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception have been written down once for all, as you point out that the Bible has. They can't be changed any more than the Bible can. A principal difference between Reformation theology and Catholic theology is that there is a way in the Catholic Church to decide, once and for all, what the meaning of a particular part of the Bible is. The system of the Reformers, on the other hand, has no way to reach unanimous agreement on the meaning of any given verse. That's all I was talking about. Joe Buehler