[Philosophy] The Protestant Culture of Reinvention

[Acco]

Author: Zenith Darksea
Original Thread: The Protestant Culture of Reinvention

The Protestant Culture of Reinvention

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, and then through the period that has become known as the 'Renaissance' and the 'Enlightenment', Western Christianity saw a quite amazing phenomenon, a phenomenon which has gone positively wild in the United States of America in recent years. To put a name to it, you could call it the Christian Reformation, or some might use the more simplistic 'Protestantism'. I personally consider this to be a very poor catch-all term, as there is a tremendous difference between, for example, the High Anglicans and Lutherans on the one hand, and the Evangelicals and Southern Baptists on the other. In fact, a recent estimate puts the number of separate Christian groupings at 34,000, the vast majority of which are extremely small 'Protestant' groups in the West.

In this post I would like to attack the fundamental Protestant ethic that has led to this rather bizarre fragmentation effect. If anyone feels that I have gone too far, or that I am just wrong, then I trust that they will inform me of this in a restrained and polite manner.

To introduce the topic, it would be well to briefly sketch out the history of this effect. Early Christians were, broadly speaking, almost entirely united in belief. It could be argued that this is a result of a certain vagueness that existed at the time, but considering the written evidence for a strong consistency in the Gospels read and in the dogma of the various communities, this explanation can only go a short distance. There were a few heretical splinter groups now and then, but they scarcely grew to any significant size whatsoever. The first Churches to fragment from the Orthodox Catholic Church were the Non-Chalcedonians - a rather small fraction in the Levant and Egypt. Until the eleventh century, with the exception of a few heresies that again never grew to any significant size, the Orthodox Catholic Church remained united, being separated in the end into Latin and Orthodox largely through political reasons. Then came the Reformation. One group split away from the Latin Church, followed by another, and then another, and then groups began to split off from them, and then groups split off from them, and so on until the present day. What explanation can be given for this?

This is not the place to go into that question in any serious depth, but an answer might be found in the growing Western culture of entrepreneurial commerce, philosophy and education. People began to consider matters of theology seriously for themselves. While this is undoubtedly a very positive thing, it was influenced by an atmosphere of individualism and cultural separation with the past. Whereas the early Protestants may have wanted to revert the Latin Church to its original Orthodox Catholic form (and it is undoubtable that many did and still do), the past was soon forgotten and a culture of continual reinvention was created. Though it might seem sensible to return to the actual original Christian Church, which still exists today, thanks to their spirit of individualism and the natural Western tendency to legalistic approaches, many Protestants came to the following opinion: The Latin Church is not what Christ must have originally wanted. I know of nothing except the Latin Church, therefore I must reinvent the 'original' Church. I will read scripture and create what seems most like the original one for myself.

Of course that approach has flaws:

1. It is based on ignorance of what the 'original' Church was or is, as the Protestant has only their own personal judgment to rely on.
2. It is commonly acknowledged that there is more than one part of the Bible that can be taken different ways (if this were not the case, then how on Earth could there be so many denominations?), and so various other people will have their own idea about what the 'original' Church was, sparking the culture of constant reinvention.
3. It is totally centred around Western culture. Many Protestants thus have a great deal of trouble with the concept that Christianity is actually an Eastern religion (relative to themselves) and that their Western precepts might not be the best basis for Christian interpretation.
4. Even taking into account the erroneous chant of sola scriptura (an idea that no Christian subscribed to until the late Reformation), the concept of 'recreating' the Church is un-Biblical and unacceptable within Christian doctrine.

The first three of those will have been anticipated, but the latter may seem surprising. Quite simply put however, the Church cannot be 'reinvented', because to do so would imply that at some point the Church had ceased to exist. And yet that is clearly not what Christ had in mind for His Church. 1 Cor. 3.9-11:

“Brethren, we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”

Many Protestants will answer (as has been my experience) that our definition of the 'Church' is too strict - it's really just the community of all the denominations. God grants personal revelations to different groups, and that each group is equal in the eyes of God and all form a sort of 'invisible Church'. This is a view that cannot be upheld, considering, for instance, John 17.20-23:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

God created the Church at Pentecost, and that Church has never ceased to exist so that it would need to be 'reinvented'. Rather, as Christ said:

“On this rock I shall build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

He also promised:

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28.20)

John 16.13 tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide the Church into all truth. Since God is one and God's Truth is one, how can all the Protestants possibly uphold this claim if they believe that the Church is really an 'invisible' union of all Christians?

Protestants try to imitate the Church of the New Testament. But this is not only unnecessary, it is harmful and runs counter to historical Christian belief and the promises of Christ. Their willingness to leave the Latin Church and its authoritarian innovations is commendable, but the Protestant culture of reinvention has no tenable intellectual or historical basis. The Latin Church at least knows the value of its Apostolic Succession.

The Orthodox however do not try to imitate the Church of the New Testament, they are the Church of the New Testament.