Studies in Philosophy And Theology
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV A TRULY CATHOLIC SPIRIT (Illustrated in John Wesley) D. A. Hayes In a democratic reorganization of Christendom it will be recognized that a very extensive unity in belief is neither necessary nor possible nor desirable. On the contrary, the widest divergence of opinion on many important themes will be recognized as consistent with thoroughgoing unity in the Spirit. A reunited and truly catholic church must rest upon the basis of absolute freedom of thought and "liberty of prophesying." The dogma of papal infallibility must be set aside and no assumption of infallibility on the part of any Protestant individuals or bodies must be permitted to take its place. The unquestioned right of private judgment must be acknowledged by all and the toleration of any theological opinions consistent with a holy and use
...ful life must be practiced by all. A universal church can neither be established nor maintained on any other foundation than that of loving liberty of thought and speech and action on the part of all its members. We must be willing to "think and let think," or we must be contented with a disunited Christendom forever. The Christian Church is to be a universal church, and a universal church will contain, and must contain, an almost infinite variety of racial, national, ecclesiastical, and creedal types. Its motto ought to be,and necessarily must be, that old motto of Meiderlin, In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus cantos. John Wesley saw this clearly enough in his day. He said: "It is certain, so long as we know but in part, that all men will not see all things alike. It is an unavoidable consequence of the present weakness and shortness of the human understanding, that several men will be of several minds in religion as well as in common life. So i...
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