tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6829387754982675014.post8352646476284038081..comments2023-09-08T08:37:05.568-07:00Comments on here you will find my mathoms: Why the first council of Nicea shows a non-Protestant view of the world (and why you should care), part IIcontrarian 78http://www.blogger.com/profile/06104559106619389825noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6829387754982675014.post-51885291109924353512009-08-20T09:48:41.794-07:002009-08-20T09:48:41.794-07:00John,
Thanks for your comment. I haven't read ...John,<br />Thanks for your comment. I haven't read any full-length books on the matter. Have absorbed this concept talking to priests, one of whom is married due to a dispensation given his Anglican background. Father Dwight Longenecker is an avid blogger who is also a priest with children. My take home on this issue is that if one is married, he should be the husband of one wife, and in the Eastern traditions, married deacons and priests cannot remarry if their wives pass away.<br />All in all, the practice of priestly celibacy as normative in the West is a little "t" tradition, and the larger picture that there is simply no place for such a practice in Protestantism is far more striking than the problem of whether one thinks that a particular practice is overindulged. As to your comments on the problems the Church faced circa 325, you are right...God spoke that message clearly at that Council. The question is--do we have the courage to listen to all of it, or will we reject it piecemeal?<br /><br />Blessings on your journey,<br />Jonathancontrarian 78https://www.blogger.com/profile/06104559106619389825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6829387754982675014.post-28657524741520438402009-08-15T07:47:32.731-07:002009-08-15T07:47:32.731-07:00Thanks for this, Jonathan. I'm a Protestant co...Thanks for this, Jonathan. I'm a Protestant considering becoming Catholic, and one of the things I still haven't received a particularly clear answer to is the apparent discrepancy between St. Paul's description of a presbyter as the "husband of one wife" and the Catholic requirement of celibacy. If you know of a thorough discussion on the topic, I'd love to be pointed in that direction. As to your specific point here, I think this does illustrate the need Christians have of a reliable authority to speak clearly on certain biblical texts. It also strikes me that there is a metaphorical sense in which Evangelicals (and non-Evangelical Christians too, really) can "cut themselves off from the world" for the sake of the kingdom of God. It seems that Nicea was speaking to this broader tendancy among Christians in a specific, prototypical form here. The lesson I hear is, "Don't deny your own status as part of humanity just because you are set apart for God." Christ wants us to be faithful and active in the world, and it would He seem He spoke this to His people at Nicea.John C.noreply@blogger.com