The decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-63) are the pinnacle of the counterreformation launched by the traditional medieval church that wanted to both preserve what they saw as correct developments within the Christianity of the Middle Ages but to reform practices that were obviously corrupt. My purpose with this series is to go through the council and critique where I think the council erred. It may be assumed that those things I do not critique are things with which I either agree or that I find adiaphora (e.g., meeting on Thursdays for communion).
The council opens up in its first sessions (Sessions 1-2, 1545-46) to both inaugurate the council, state its purpose for reform against heresy and improper conduct by its own members, and to make sure all members of the council are repentant and living out lives dedicated to the Lord through the church.
The Third Session held in 1546 is where the council describes what it is doing is setting forth a confession of faith that had not been set forth before. It declares,
"Wherefore, that this its pious solicitude may begin and proceed by the grace of God, It ordains and decrees that, before all other things, a confession of faith is to be set forth; following herein the examples of the Fathers, who have been wont, in the most sacred coucils [sic], at the beginning of the Actions thereof, to oppose this shield against heresies; and with this alone, at times, have they drawn the unbelieving to the faith, overthrown heretics, and confirmed the faithful."
Herein is an admission that anything in the confession is not something set down before. There is nothing wrong with this as I would agree that it is necessary to further combat any new heresy that comes along, but it does need to be noted that when a new heresy does not stem from an old one, one cannot establish their continuity with the early church merely be forming a new confession. The case must be made that the new teaching is, in fact, both new and a heresy if the confession should delcare it as such. Otherwise, the confession itself is an innovation.
Hence, the council begins from the Nicene Creed as the foundation of orthodoxy and cites the creed as its foundation.
The Fourth Session (April 8, 1546) is really where the council begins to set down its confession, and it does so by beginning with the canon of Scripture, as well as stating its foundational authority as not being sola Scriptura.
"The sacred and holy, ecumenical, and general Synod of Trent,–lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the Same three legates of the Apostolic Sec presiding therein,–keeping this always in view, that, errors being removed, the purity itself of the Gospel be preserved in the Church; which (Gospel), before promised through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first promulgated with His own mouth, and then commanded to be preached by His Apostles to every creature, as the fountain of all, both saving truth, and moral discipline; and seeing clearly that this truth and discipline are contained in the written books, and the unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down even unto us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand; (the Synod) following the examples of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety, and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament–seeing that one God is the author of both –as also the said traditions, as well those appertaining to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ’s own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession."
So both the Scripture and tradition are equally received and venerated with an equal affection of piety and reverence. Trent claims that both the Scripture and tradition have come from the mouth of Christ or the apostles or the Holy Spirit and so both have God as their author. It further claims that it has preserved all of these equally through continuous succession.
I'm going to assume that this means a continuous succession of popes, which historically seems unviable. Scripture was not preserved by popes (it was largely preserved by monks), doctrines which are viewed as heretical by the RCC have been taught by popes, and tradition has changed and added innovations over the years. Hence, the need to say that the Holy Spirit speaks things into tradition to explain these observations ends up as a hail-Mary that contradicts the idea of preservation by continuous succession. One can say that some things were preserved by continuous succession but obviously the idea that they came from Christ or the Apostles or the Holy Spirit is just a religious claim that has no verifiable backing. One must simply trust that the church has the same credence to its claims that the Bible does and exercise the same faith toward it that he or she does toward the Scripture.
This is where I have a problem with Trent in the same way that I have a problem with cults and cult leaders, individuals claiming to be led by the Spirit, etc. There is no external verification that can take place. The Scripture claims to be from God and one must have faith that it is, but I would also argue that Scripture is not self-defeating in its claims. If it can be shown that the church did not preserve even the verifiable teachings of Christ and the apostles or that its religion is self-defeating or ultimately contradicts itself in some way then the claim can actually be shown to be false, but there is no way to show whether it is true as secret teachings cannot be verified and whether God has given new teachings to the church by the Holy Spirit is equally unverifiable even if they did not contradict the teachings found in the Scripture. This is because a claim that God said X can only be verified by something that one knows God said. The entire Christian church agrees that God said X in Scripture but whether He also said Additional Teaching Y secretly cannot be confirmed just because it may not contradict X. For instance, if the Trent claimed that we can affirm that God said unicorns exist just because it does not contradict anything the Bible teaches, we cannot confirm that God actually said unicorns exist because He did not say anything of the sort in the Bible. Hence, we are left to merely trusting the person or institution claiming that God spoke X by Christ, the apostles, or the Holy Spirit without any proof that He did.
However, as said before, we are able to evaluate anything that Trent claims God said by the work in which we both agree God spoke. This means that the claim that any doctrine that contradicts Scripture is from God can be evaluated, and it must be evaluated by both parties by Scripture, not tradition since whether or not it is truly a tradition of God is the thing under dispute.
The counter to my claim might be laid by arguing that tradition sets the canon, and therefore, must be superior to it. I will argue in my next post why both the tradition contradicts the claim that it is uniform and passed on/preserved by succession and why it is self-defeating.
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