Quote:
Originally Posted by mordwyr
(Post 1701522)
The Church has no problem explaining the mysteries of the Faith in its Catechism. It's all there, all laid out, all explained. It's just that people are ignorant. They haven't read it, don't care to read it, and don't listen when people explain the contents contained therein. The unbelievers say "Christianity can't explain these things!", when, in fact, Christianity has very clearly explained these things and continues to explain these things. Unbelievers just don't listen and don't care, so they continue in their comfortable, ignorant narrative.
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It's true that I don't care to read the Catechism, although as a child I was obliged too. As I recall, it provides answers in a rather legal style rather than explanations.
But my comment was not that "Christianity can't explain", because, as I understand it, Christianity reserves the right to side-step the need for explanations. Unlike science, where proof is necessary, Christianity, like other religions, talks in terms of faith and mystery.
What I did say was that "Christians have difficulty defining," and as I have a book about the Devil to hand, I might use that to illustrate the difficulty Christians have in agreeing about the Devil:-
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993) article 395:
"Satan's power is not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but always a creature."
Catholic Archbishop Milango:
"We are now in the last days of Satan's reign... his agents have penetrated to the very heart of Christ's Church to lull Christians, especially priests, into believing that the the Devil and his demons don't exist. Satan plays with priests like toys when they don't believe in him."
Bishop David Jenkins (C of E):
"If evil is the question, the Devil is not necessarily the answer. The Devil is one of a canon of Christian myths, historically significant, but [myths] must seem real to serve any purpose...and the Devil no longer seems real."
So we have spirit, creature, real existence (including demons), and historical myth. This ambiguity about the Devil's status is also apparent in Christianity's attitude to exorcism. Back in the infamous days of witch hunting, exorcisms were regular and proudly publicised events; victories in the war of good and evil, or (according to interpretation) opportunities to kill unpopular women. Today, witch trials aren't so popular, and even though the Vatican still has it's own exorcist, his activities are not given much attention, perhaps because (1970 Report by Bishop of Exeter, UK) "It cannot be overstressed that...this concept of demonic possession is extremely dubious."