“The Christian faith is permanently sane and is therefore always a bit out of fashion. Fads and fashions are mild insanities, Chesterton taught, and that is why the church always seems behind the times. It is actually beyond the times” (Writers to Read, p. 27).
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Which is why there are no longer any Puritans in England (Old or New), and there is still a Pope in Rome.
J’, there is still at least one Puritan in New England! (Two if you count my dad! Three if you count my mother!) ; – )
By contrast, the current Pope in Rome might be a bit too “fashionable” in the non-timeless department!
There are still Nestorians in the Near East – though their time too has passed.
J’, “permanent sanity” never passes out of time. Fashions and fads, such as communism , monarchy and Levitical judahism do.
In addition to the pope, there is still sin in Rome, along with everywhere else. Sin will continue to be “permanently crazy” until all things are made new.
Godly people, Puritan or Catholic are still very much around!
There are still communists (guess who they are endorsing for president!), monarchists (even here in America), and Levitical Jews (they are working to rebuild the Temple) around today.
Amen to your second paragraph.
Yes, the papal form is still with us, Trinitarian at its core, with lots of mossy accretions in every direction. But no one should think that the modern Pope wouldn’t be excommunicated on the spot by the Popes of the first millennium for a variety of innovations, including the embrace of the doctrines of evolution.
I’m grateful that it is God who preserves His Word, and His Church, and will continue to sanctify His people in the truth. He is far more patient than we are.
I wonder if it is easier to be patient if you happen to be eternal?????
I expect that it is!????
Evolution, of course, was not a subject of discussion in the first millennium and therefore none of the popes of that time had an opinion on it. In the last 150 years, when it has been discussed, popes have not “embraced” it. Rather, they have been clear that theories of biological evolution, properly understood, are not necessarily contrary to the Christian faith.
Excommunication, when handled properly, is a result of an extensive investigative process and not done “on the spot”.
Does that include the anathemas/excommunications of the Second Council of Nicaea?
Since the council took several years to arrange and met over the course of a full month, then yes.
Now that we have touched on both science and Puritanism, the full context of the Chesterton quote is most relevant. It comes from his second novel, The Ball and the Cross. Two of the protagonists are Scotsmen: Turnbull, the proprietor of an atheist bookshop in London, and McIan, a young man from the Bay of Arisaig, “that little wedge of Roman Catholics which is driven into the Western Highlands”. After walking together through the English countryside and debating all night, McIan says: “[T]here are only two things that really progress; and they both accept accumulations of authority. They may be… Read more »