Christians Disagree on Ranking: Tradition, the Bible or Me-And-God


Since I can't travel to meetings about religion it is fun the eve's drop on what goes on at them. Reading what religious writers write, learning what preachers preach, what academics are looking into, learning about the earliest 500 years of the faith and speculating on what those in the pews, who pay for all of the above, are thinking is a career in and by itself. All of these forces work against each other.

The link points out that change, and challenging the status quo, is not only common in the faith but the reason the faith began. Jesus was said to challenge the "fathers" and "authorities" in the faith. Then, whatever was written or believed during the first 300 years was revised and pieced together by dictator Constantine's conference that cranked out the Nicene Creed. A hundred or so years later it was revised. Then that was soon criticized by the famous Augustine. 

Until the 200 CE there was no vast hierarchy in Christianity. That was soon remedied between 200 CE and 500CE when some men took control. What we now know as Catholics named themselves as the authorities. Then they took enough money from the pews to pay for men to study the Bible and instruct others about what they found. These were the first scholars. In the 1500's Protestantism was born and its talkers made fun of the tiny details Catholic scholars debated, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

But then Protestants found a need for their own scholars. Its scholars decided angels on the head of a pin was not so ridiculous and they are still counting. Thus, the actual traditions of the faith were practiced before 200 CE. Some of what was practiced or believed was forced to change in Nicene. Following that, men pushed their way into authority and instructed those in the pews. Scholars came into the mix to stir the pot. Also into the pot went various people who heard from God or had ideas "revealed." This became the countless denominations of Protestants and factions among Catholics.

The link concludes there was never one moment in time when one could say confidently "The faith was correct at that moment." The conference said even the great Augustine in the late 200's said humans are here to ponder and argue back and forth what stuff means.

Hovering over all of this is myth that "the faith never changes."

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