“More Egocentric Than Theocentric”
Dear Catholic: Can you say the following about your diocese or parish or both? “I…have been troubled by the increasing vacuity of much…preaching and worship…. People can no longer sense the sacred either in the preaching or in the liturgy. The atmosphere…is clubby and convivial rather than adoring and expectant What is missing is the fear of God…. Our worship is…. far more egocentric than theocentric…. Worship has become therapy.”
If this describes your situation, you’re not unlike that multitude of heartsick Catholics who’ve left the Church for evangelical Protestantism over the past 30 or so years.
But if, perish forbid, you should have any thoughts of taking such a leap yourself, think again, for the words quoted above are from Evangelical theologian Donald G. Bloesch, writing in the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today (Feb. 5), and he is writing, not about Catholicism, but about evangelical Protestantism!
You May Also Enjoy
Malaria kills many in Kenya when there is no chloroquine, but the West consistently sends “huge stockpiles of contraceptives.”
The author argues that Christianity must jettison just about every element in its doctrinal proclamation and moral teaching that has characterized it throughout its history.
Kasper's interest in the decentralization of Church authority is aided by the interpretive “wiggle room” provided by freelance historical and biblical interpretation.