(November 13, 2021 at 2:24 pm)emjay Wrote:(November 13, 2021 at 1:10 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Catholics and protestants both agree that man is a fallen creature. Hell, the protestants are the ones who took it to the nth on that issue.
Yeah, I know that, it just wasn't given the same emphasis, or at least not in the same way, in the sort of Christianity I was brought up in... I guess because it tended to focus on the positive side rather than the negative... for instance I don't think they talked about hell much... it was more focusing on your personal relationship with Christ and all that.
I was raised catholic. It's pretty mechanical, all about obeying rules and constant ritual. Eg prayer in the formulaic way of the rosary. Rosary beads are divide into 'decades; 10 Hail Mary's and an our father. Say enough and you can earn a plenary indulgence, which is a get out of hell free card, Then there's confession and the other six sacraments. Central is the Mass. Catholics are taught that during the mass, the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus. Conveniently, appearance, texture, taste , does not change. That teaching was just one of the causes of the Protestant Reformation.
Protestants tend to be more Bible focussed. Each man is left to interpret the bible in his own way. At my Catholic school, we were actively discouraged from reading the bible. The church interpreted the bible for us. That's why there's such a conflict between Catholic and protestant reformation about some topics. EG did Jesus have a brother? Catholics 'no', his mother Mary remained a virgin. Protestants 'Yes', he had four; James, Joses, James and Judas. (according to the gospels of Matthew and Mark). Also apparently sisters, but these are not identified in the Bible.
