Monday, April 13, 2015

Gavin D'Costa presents an irrational view of the Catholic Faith to the Islamic Society of the University of Bristol and visiting Muslim professors

Gavin D'Costa, Catholic professor of theology at the University of Bristol, U.K  in response to the blog post which I e-mailed the University of Bristol 1 says he does not wish to dialogue on this issue and is not interested in 'any of your thoughts'.
My views? No.This is the official teaching of the Catholic Church which I follow. They are not my personal views.They are the teaching of the Magisterium according to Church documents.
Gavin D'Costa presents Muslims with a Vatican Council II, interpreted with an irrational premise and inference.This is not Catholic.
I have cited references for my Catholic beliefs 2. I also mentioned the irrationality of three points which Gavin D'Costa has not addressed.3. Even a non Catholic would realize that these three points are irrational and they should not be used by a professor to interpret any text.
Gavin D'Costa does not want to dialogue.Yet he will dialogue with liberals from other religions and present a false view of what the Catholic Church really teaches after Vatican Council II.
He presents a non traditional  view of the Catholic  Faith to the Islamic Society of the University of Bristol and visiting Muslims professors.This is done with an irrational premise.It  becomes the basis for his fantasy theology.This is unethical.
Instead of correcting the objective error he has written a book using this irrational reasoning.This is bad theology. It also becomes a lie when it is repeated after being informed.-Lionel Andrades
1
Muslim professors must know exactly what are the teachings of the Catholic Church about Islam and other religions, before and after Vatican Council II
 
2.
Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. -Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II.
 
the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church.-Lumen Gentium 14, Vatican Council II.
1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them... The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit."- Catechism of the Catholic Church.



20. Above all else, it must be firmly believed that “the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door”. This doctrine must not be set against the universal salvific will of God (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); “it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”.-Dominus Iesus, Pope John Paul II.
 
Dialogue should be conducted and implemented with the conviction that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation and that she alone possesses the fullness of the means of salvation-Redemptoris Missio 55.
  • “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” -Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.
  • “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”-(Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302
  • “The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” -Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441 http://catholicism.org/category/outside-the-church-there-is-no-salvation
  • Dialogue should be conducted and implemented with the conviction that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation and that she alone possesses the fullness of the means of salvation - Redemptoris Missio 55.
     
    3.
    1. The physically dead for us, who are now saved in Heaven in invincible ignorance or with the baptism of desire are considered exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.They are not known or visible to us on April 10,2015.Yet salvation in Heaven is objectively seen on earth for D'costa and others, to postulate these cases as living exceptions to the dogma. Vatican Council II (LG 16,LG 8,UR 3, NA 2 etc ) cannot refer to exceptions since these cases would only be known to God.Yet they are exceptions for D'Costa and other Catholics. While a Muslim scholar would agree that there cannot be exceptions to the dogma for us humans, the university faculty does not accept this simple empirical observation.
    2. Similarly someone who allegedly died centuries back without the baptism of water would not be an explicit exception to the dogma on exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church today, April 10,2015.A hypothtical case cannot be a defacto exception today.A theoretical case of the past cannot be objectively seen today.So D'Costa cannot refer a case of the past as being a defacto case and an exception in the present times.Yet he does. This would be philosophical reasoning gone wrong.Yet this is being done at the University of Bristol's Department of Religion and Theology.
    3.Similarly the University of Bristol faculty would not personally know of someone today April 10, 2015 who would be saved in future, without faith and baptism and so would not need to be a formal member of the Catholic Church, to avoid Hell as the dogma teaches.They cannot posit someone living today as being an exception to Ad Gentes 7 ( all need faith and baptism) and Cantate Domino, Council of Florence 1441, which says extra ecclesiam nulla salus.Yet this irrationality is maintained by the Faculty in this department.
    As a Catholic lay man I reject the irrationality in these three points above promoted by the University of Bristol, even after they have been informed. I do not interpret Catholic Church ( magisterial) documents using this irrationality, which I refer to as Cushingism.
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