My fellow ex-Budapester Sam alerted me to an interesting online quiz by posting his results on his blog. It came as no surprise to anyone that he was pegged as a Roman Catholic. It might come as a surprise to some that I got the same result, though I scored an equal amount of Emergent/Postmodern with my Papist portion. My first time around I whipped through the 63 questions, giving mostly gut reaction answers. The Catholics and Emergents tied for first, followed by a cluster of Reformed Evangelical, Classic Liberal, Neo orthodox, and Wesleyan. I decided it must be an aberration so I took the test again, this time more carefully considering each question. Again, the Catholics and Emergents tied for first (though my score was slightly different than the first time), followed by the Reformed and Liberal groups (no Methodists this time). I will say I felt some of the questions obviously aimed at Calvinists misrepresented the tradition. Even the Heidelberg Catechism doesn't give a straight up yes to “We are corrupt and incapable of doing any good.” It qualifies it with a big "except we are regenerated by the Spirit," if I remember right. The whole quiz obviously simplifies complex schools of thought. And, lastly, Fundamentalism came up dead last both times I took it.
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3 comments:
Ha! You'll be seeking the intercessions of the blessed Theotokos before you know it!
Of course those quizzes misrepresent a lot. No surprises there. This one gave the most superficial distinguishers, for example, between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. One thing that I do find amusing is that, as in the real world, I am much more catholic than a lot of nominal and liberal Roman catholics. (Or, to put it another way, I am in closer communion to the Holy See than a lot of catholics I know. And I think that could probably be said of you too, despite your irrational fear of the Holy Mother of God...) ;)
My two cents: almost no one understands Calvinism--even those raised in the tradition--so of course it doesn't get fair play. :)
And the continuities between reformed theology and that of (allegedly Cathlolic) early Christian thinkers such as Augustine and Aquinas is quite striking. Don't quote me on this, but I recall my dad referring to Augustine (only half in jest) as "the First Calvinist."
Long story short, you're not doing too bad there. Especially because of who ended up last. :)
No, no, John. The first Calvinist was Jesus. Augustine came second. In all seriousness, Roman Catholics are officially on the same page as Calvinists on the predestination thing. Of course, like in our tradition, most Catholics don't really know/care where their church stands on such issues. It's a bigger issue in the American church - a general anti-intellectualism.
I just read a review of Garry Wills latest book, which is called Head and Heart: American Christianities. You can find it at www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/books/review/Allitt-t.html?_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin
He's discussing American Christianity in terms of two main streams - an intellectual one exemplified by Jeffersonian Deism and a more emotional one demonstrated by the revival tradition from Whitefield to Billy Graham. (Of course both these streams have their roots in the Calvinist Puritans. Edwards, anyone?) I would like to read the book if only to see what he says about the last 20 years and what's happened to this once balanced dichotomy.
Also on this topic, Marianne and I visited Parkside Church on Sunday. It's a giant church in Solon (suburb of Cleveland) that's pastored by Alistair Begg. His sermon was right on the money. It included a strong admonishment to the Evangelical community to get its doctrinal ducks on order because this stuff matters on a daily, faith level, not just as an intellectual exercise. You can listen to or watch the service here: www.parksidechurch.com/site/c.iqLRIUOCKtF/b.1467791/
Of course I knew it would be good because when we pulled into a parking spot I noticed a Calvin Alum sticker on the car next to us.
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