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From: sdyer@bbnccv.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: RCs and WORKS
Message-ID: <355@bbnccv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 02:29:14 EST
Article-I.D.: bbnccv.355
Posted: Wed Feb 13 02:29:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Feb-85 07:04:18 EST
References: <542@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 22

Ken, although you seem to have read some on the Council of Trent,
I think you are misrepresenting the RC's position on faith, works
and justification.  The Council's rather extreme statement
("...anathema sit") was designed to clarify a situation grown muddy
with the rising Protestant movement and its controversy--as you
say, a bit too late.

But this is not the same as Luther's "sola fide", or the Calvinist
model of faith as a manifestation of pre-ordained salvation.  It
is fair to say that the Catholic position on Faith and Works goes
roughly like this:
  Faith may exist without Works, though this is not a "living" Faith;
   that is, it is somehow flawed or incomplete. 
  A Living Faith engenders and is manifested in Good Works.
  Good Works are saving only insofar as they are manifestations of Faith.

Naturally, those more qualified than I in such matters should feel free
to correct any doctrinal errors.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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