Social Thought

There is a blog out there called “Mirror of Justice” that I have taken to reading a lot lately. It is in short, a blog about the development of Catholic legal theory. Professionally, I have been immersed in Catholic legal and social thought for the past several months and I have to say that it has been much, much more enjoyable and edifying than I would have thought. In fact, the other day I heard and interesting quote from a protestant about why it was possible to have robust theological debate in the Catholic Church that doesn’t happen in Protestant (or Evangelical) churches. “When we disagree we start a new church,” he said simply while explaining that there is a long history in the Catholic Church of people on many sides of a particular issues remaining loyal to the key tenets of the church.

I’m not sure any of that would matter much to me, but I have found myself increasingly drawn to those key tenets. I am currently reading the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching and I find that the keys to the faith as recorded in that book are compatible with what is being taught as essential in 90% of the evangelical churches out there. In the end, what it boils down to are the inerrancy of the Bible, the literal person and atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and the inherent dignity of each person that God has ascribed to each person. It is fascinating stuff, particularly how many of the things I thought were true about Catholicism as a whole were in error.

These past few months I have seen faith in a much newer light, and I’m starting to understand more and more that as “Evangelical Christian” becomes some kind of demographic to be owned, it loses its power. I am particularly challenged by the fact that we are warned as Evangelicals to be wary of any church that says, “Christ plus anything else is to be avoided.” We are saying that from pulpits with denominational statements of faith that are sometimes 10 or more articles long and in membership classes we teach that all must agree with these things to become members of the church. I wonder what Luther would think about the church his revolution has wrought.

Does all this disturb me? Strangely no. It is a liberating feeling to understand more about social justice and to know that those tendencies which I have in my own theology are in fact not foreign to the gospel.