Re: Conflicts, contrasts or differences between Catholics and Protestants in Great Britain

Alec Brady wrote:

[Paul Dean:]
Eh? You surely can't be claiming that the original users of the phrase
"Catholic Church" intended to describe the Roman Catholic Church that we
know today?

[Alec:]
Cyril lived at the time of the Nicene Council, and his interpretation
of that clause of the Creed is contemporaneous with what that Council
meant. He clearly thinks of the Catholic Church as being a specific
and identifiable body.

Sure. But that body is not the same thing as the RCC is now,
and its relationship to the other bodies intended to be excluded
by the wording is not the same as the RCC's relationship now to
non-RC Christian groups such as (say) the Methodists or the Baptists.
It's not clear to me whether someone saying the Creed and taking
"one holy catholic ... church" to mean "one universal church consisting
of all real followers of Christ, including in particular plenty of
people from all the main Christian denominations but probably not
most Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons"is nearer or further from that
original meaning than someone saying it and taking it to mean
"the body now calling itself the Catholic Church, headed by the
Pope" -- but I must say the first seems nearer the mark to me than
the second. (I agree that someone thinking it means "absolutely
everyone who thinks of himself or herself as a Christian" is probably
further off than either. Whether their meaning is a better or worse
one than the original, more or less deserving to be enshrined in a
creed, is of course a separate question.)

--
Gareth McCaughan
..sig under construc
.

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