Pope Benedict’s been making waves of late, particularly with something called the Clarification on the Doctrine of the Church. If you have the inclination and patience to read some or all of the actual text, it conveys something slightly different from the mainstream media characterizations of it.
Second Question: What is the meaning of the affirmation that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church?
Response: Christ “established here on earth” only one Church and instituted it as a “visible and spiritual community,”[5] that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.[6] “This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […]. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him.”[7]
In number 8 of the Dogmatic Constitution “Lumen Gentium” ‘subsistence’ means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church,[8] in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth.
It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them.[9] Nevertheless, the word “subsists” can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe… in the “one” Church); and this “one” Church subsists in the Catholic Church.[10]
Third Question: Why was the expression “subsists in” adopted instead of the simple word “is”?
Response: The use of this expression, which indicates the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church, does not change the doctrine on the Church. Rather, it comes from and brings out more clearly the fact that there are “numerous elements of sanctification and of truth” which are found outside her structure, but which “as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity.”[11]
“It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church.”[12]
It’s undoubtedly not news that Roman Catholic doctrine proclaims Catholicism as the one true faith, but it rankles the infidels whenever it is restated. This infidel doesn’t see much point in joining the argument. Catholicism is hardly the only religion to lay claim to truth — that’s the business of religions, after all. A significant distinction to bear in mind, it seems to me, is between those believers that simply offer their understanding of the truth to the world and hope it is accepted, versus those who use compulsion, violence and murder to insist on the acceptance of their version.
And another important thought to bear in mind is that just because there are conflicting versions of religious truth being proposed by many different insitutions, it does not follow that there is no truth. The truth would, I guess, belong to God — if you believe in God.
But the job here merely remains to relate this all back to Bob Dylan. The subject of denominational disputes can’t help but bring mind a song I first heard on Dylan’s “Theme Time Radio Hour” show — the episode with the theme of “The Bible.” The song is by a mysterious singer named Washington Phillips, of whom Bob said:
He was a pioneering gospel performer of the ’twenties. He recorded only 18 songs, but boy, what songs. He was a traveling preacher who accompanied himself on an unusual instrument. Some say it was a dolceola, which was a zither-like instrument with a small keyboard. But other people say it was a modified zither. And some people even say that he played two different instruments, one with his left hand, and one with his right.
The song he played was Denomination Blues. It’s available out there in two parts, doubtless because the original 78 rpm issue had part one on Side A and part two on Side B. The YouTube version embedded below puts the two part together.
The song is not — strictly speaking — about the Bible, but Bob worked it into the show anyway. The sentiment must have appealed to him. In a 1985 interview, he reminisced about receiving his bar mitzvah from a rabbi with a white beard, black hat and black clothes, who came to live in Hibbing for a year, seemingly for that purpose alone.
Later I found out he was Orthodox. Jews separate themselves like that. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, as if God calls them that. Christians, too. Baptists, Assembly of God, Methodists, Calvinists. God has no respect for a person’s title. He don’t care what you call yourself.
A verse from Denomination Blues goes:
Now the Church of God has it in the mind
That they can get to heaven without the sacrament wine
But that’s all now
I tell you that’s all
But you better have Jesus, I tell you that’s all
Speaking of Jesus: if I’m not mistaken, the Gospel reading at Roman Catholic and many other Christian churches today included this passage (from Luke, Chapter 10):
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
A couple more clips of Washington Phillips:
What Are They Doing In Heaven Today? (arguing some fine points of doctrine, maybe)
and
