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JillD
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| Location: | Visalia, California USA |
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| First Name: | Jill | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | heathen, EvFree, Messianic, LC-MS, Catholic 2007 |
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Posted: Thu Nov 16th, 2006 11:24 pm |
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I read a most interesting summary of a book by Louis Bouyer called The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism. In this summary, he mentions how the philosophy of "nominalism" is what really steered Protestants in the wrong direction.
Can anyone explain this philosophy to me in a clear way and what about it made the Protestants go even further afield? Philosophy makes my eyeballs go crossed. I do not get it. Reading philosophy is like reading legalese. It's incomprehensible except to a chosen few.
Thanking you in advance!
The summary, by the way, is at http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0097.html
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"I praise you, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are our works! My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret." Ps 139
"Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men." Ps 140
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David W. Emery
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Posted: Fri Nov 17th, 2006 01:08 am |
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Bouyer’s book is one of the finest surveys of Reformation Protestantism that I have encountered. Bouyer himself was a convert to Catholicism, and his attitude is clearly sympathetic to his Protestant background. I think he has done much to promote understanding between Protestants and Catholics.
You will find a series of definitions for the term “nominalism” here. “Universals” have to do with the mind’s ability to abstract the different qualities from individual objects and form a unified mental concept of them.
Back in the 14th century there was a man by the name of Ockham, who developed Nominalism into a full-blown system of thought. He is in a very real sense the ancestor of what we today call “psychologism,” whereby it is understood that the data received by the senses are not in themselves intelligible, but are merely raw data that the human brain then imposes order on and proceeds to extrapolate patterns and implications. This mechanistic concept of the mind’s function may have been quite understandable during the heyday of rationalism and the industrial revolution, but it has evolved to the point of existentialism and deconstructionism in recent times. It is also the driving force behind New Age and the present-day subjectivity in morality.
One notable follower of Ockham was Martin Luther, who outspokenly rejected scholastic Realism in favor of Nominalism. Realism is an outgrowth of St. Thomas’ Christian Aristotilianism.
David
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JillD
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| First Name: | Jill | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | heathen, EvFree, Messianic, LC-MS, Catholic 2007 |
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Posted: Fri Nov 17th, 2006 01:57 am |
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Thank you, David, for leading me to those definitions. I have a vague idea of what the concept of nominalism is, but the more important question to me is how nominalism affected the thinking of Reformers like Luther. What might have been different if he had been a Realist and not a Nominalist?? And can you explain how nominalistic thinking manifests itself today especially in Christian thought? Are there modern day nominalists?
(My hat is off to anyone that can explain this to me!!)
____________________
"I praise you, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are our works! My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret." Ps 139
"Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men." Ps 140
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David W. Emery
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Posted: Fri Nov 17th, 2006 02:20 am |
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One of the primary influences of Nominalism is the subjectivist mindset it fosters. Since the brain supposedly invents all the relationships between things through its acts of abstraction and association, the natural conclusion is that everything is relative, private and not subject to objective authority. If you look at what Luther believed and did, you see that this is precisely what he was about. Then, if you look at the history of Protestantism, you can see that the basic philosophy has not changed: it has become increasingly subjective by privatizing religion and rejecting all authority outside one’s own private opinion. So your question about whether there are present-day Nominalists should be pointed in the direction of the entire Protestant tradition.
David
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brian
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Posted: Fri Nov 17th, 2006 03:26 am |
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david,
I have a few times heard you say things like a Catholic view of justification is that we are somewhat responsible. That God does all the heavy lifting, but that He leaves a miniscule amount to us. does that square up with what Bouyer says here?
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According to Bouyer, the main thrust of the doctrine of sola fide was to affirm that justification was wholly the work of God and to deny any positive human contribution apart from grace. Faith was understood as man's grace-enabled, grace-inspired, grace-completed response to God's saving initiative in Jesus Christ. What the Reformation initially sought to affirm, says Bouyer, was that such a response is purely God's gift to man, with man contributing nothing of his own to receive salvation.
In other words, it isn't as if God does his part and man cooperates by doing his part, even if that part is minuscule. The Reformation insisted that God does his part, which includes enabling and moving man to receive salvation in Christ. Man's "part" is to believe, properly understood, but faith too is the work of God, so man contributes nothing positively of his own. As Bouyer points out, this central concern of the Reformation also happened to be defined Catholic teaching, reaffirmed by the Council of Trent. "
although i have alos heard you acknowledge the importance of grace several times, i am wondering if your comments on us doing a small part of the work are worded correctly, or if i misunderstood.
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David W. Emery
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Posted: Fri Nov 17th, 2006 08:41 am |
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It’s another of those cases of “both/and,” Brian.
In the first instance (that is, at the beginning of the process), justification is entirely the work of grace.
“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Romans 4:2–5).
But in the second instance (once the process is under way), man has, through grace, a means of contributing to the process through cooperation and to merit increased grace by obedience, i.e., by doing good and avoiding evil.
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:21–24).
Here is what the Catechism has to say about it:
CCC 2006 The term “merit” refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it.
2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.
2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.
2009 Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us “co-heirs” with Christ and worthy of obtaining “the promised inheritance of eternal life.” (Council of Trent: DS 1546) The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1548) “Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due. . . . Our merits are God’s gifts.” (St. Augustine, Sermo 298, 4–5)
2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.
2011 The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.
2025 We can have merit in God’s sight only because of God’s free plan to associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man’s collaboration. Man’s merit is due to God.
2026 The grace of the Holy Spirit can confer true merit on us, by virtue of our adoptive filiation, and in accordance with God’s gratuitous justice. Charity is the principal source of merit in us before God.
2027 No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
Notice how this theological harmony reflects back on the discussion of Nominalism and Protestantism. First, we make the distinction between faith and works, maintaining their mutual necessity for salvation — while the Protestants historically divided the one against the other and chose faith alone as their standard. Second, the distinction between grace and merit, maintaining their mutual necessity for salvation — while the Protestants historically divided the one against the other and chose grace alone as their standard. Third, the distinction between authority and conscience, maintaining their mutual necessity for salvation — while the Protestants historically divided the one against the other and chose conscience alone as their standard. All this under the subjectivist influence of Nominalism.
DavidLast edited on Fri Nov 17th, 2006 09:38 pm by David W. Emery
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