/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11319153]

Hey /lit/
Is there a “how to christianity” chart? Or just a good introductory book that gives a comprehensive view of the core belief system and the main branches that emerged in the religion to this day?
I want to read something like that before I delve deep into the the bible itself

[Anonymous No.11319179]

Catechism of the Catholic Church

http://ccc.usccb.org/flipbooks/catechism/files/assets/basic-html/page-I.html

[Anonymous No.11319223]

Catholic Rites Chart
This chart shows the various Catholic liturgical families (rites) and their ancestry. Jerusalem, the place of the founding of the Catholic Church, came first in time. Then three major branches eventually formed within the Church: Roman, Antiochian and Alexandrian.

[Anonymous No.11319228]

>>11319153
95 theses
systematic theology by wayne grudem
don't fall for the catholic meme, mainline protestant is the way to go

[Anonymous No.11319231]

>>11319228
>mainline protestant is the way to go
I'm so in awe of the balls it took to post that on /lit/ that i wont even argue

[Anonymous No.11319242]

>>11319153
Try this.

[Anonymous No.11319248]

>>11319153
You're gonna do whatever you want but I do suggest just reading the Bible first and then again and again, even if it's while you're reading the other stuff.

[Anonymous No.11319255]

http://catholicbridge.com/catholic/catholic_doctrine_flow_chart.php

Here's how John Pacheco at www.Catholic-legate.org explains it. This is a good accompaniment to the diagram
Empty Cup: Soul before baptism, lack of sanctifying grace
Water: Sanctifying Grace
Act of pouring water into cup: Infusion of sanctifying grace through the act of baptizing
Commission of Venial Sin: Water in cup becomes dirty
Commission of Mortal Sin: Water is poured out of cup
Act of True Repentance via Sacrament of Reconciliation: Pure Water is poured back into cup
Purgatory: Water is poured through filter and cleansed
Purpose in life: Let Jesus' sanctifying Grace be the water in the cup: no water in cup; no salvation.

[Anonymous No.11319271]

Aren't all Christians Priests?

Catholics agree that all true Christians are priests (1 Pet. 2:9). This is the "common priesthood."

At the last supper Jesus invited his apostles to a very special role in his ministry. We call this the "ministerial priesthood" and it has been passed down from generation to generation in the tradition of the Levites through the person of Jesus. Today when people talk about a priest they are generally talking about this special kind of "ministerial priest." (The guys with the collars.)

The one priesthood of Christ

1545 The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all; yet ...it is made present through the ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood: "Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers."

Two participations in the one priesthood of Christ

1546 Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church "a kingdom, priests for his God and Father."20 The whole community of believers is, as such, priestly... Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation the faithful are "consecrated to be . . . a holy priesthood."
1547 The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, "each in its own proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ." While being "ordered one to another," they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace --a life of faith, hope, and charity, a life according to the Spirit--, the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood...

This basically means that ministerial priests serve the lay people (common priests).

[Anonymous No.11319276]

>>11319231
kek
i personally can't deal with the catholic church's very long history of political entanglement and more recent scandals involving disrupting aids relief and pedophilia. further the whole authority structure and many of their doctrines (saints, purgatory, etc.) are clearly extrabiblical. i dont doubt their faith, or that most members have good intentions, but i still dont agree with those points

having been raised evangelical, evangelicals are creepy and very ready to take control over all facets of your life. it's like all the issues with the catholic church but instead of dying from one or two major wounds it's a million paper cuts. every church has its own weird extrabiblical doctrines and usually a cultlike fascination with the minister

mainlines tend to assume more maturity on your part. the church exists for your sake, not the other way around. their issue is sometimes being so liberal it stops being christianity and starts being a nice club. not a bad thing, but not a christian thing. ive had good experience with the anglican church, but they have some of the same political/monetary entrapments as the catholic chruch

sorry that was so long, hopefully it helps. im sort of between sticking with it and leaving but if youre interested in can do good for some people

[Anonymous No.11319292]

Covenantal theology is a scholarly, Roman Catholic approach to biblical theology, emphasizing a return or recovery of the Patristic model of scriptural interpretation. It employs a covenant-centric structural framework to interpret and understand the whole of scripture and thus salvation history

Through the use of the Church's teachings, the 'four senses' of biblical exegesis, Patristic understandings and writings, and a covenant-centered structural framework, there is to be found a cohesive unity between both the Old and the New Testaments that is centered upon, and emanates from, the covenantal correspondence between God and man

Covenantal theology is distinctive in its emphasis of the following tenets:

The biblical covenants (Edenic, Adamic, Noahite, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New or Messianic) are taken to be the chief structural framework for salvation history.
The Abrahamic covenant (as distinct from the Mosaic) is taken to be the central Old Testament covenant that is fulfilled in the New Testament, in accordance with Pauline theology (Galatians 3:6-29).
The Old and New Testaments are taken to be integrally related through the sequence of covenants, with prophetic fulfillment understood chiefly in terms of covenantal correspondence.
Scripture is interpreted via the four senses, literal, allegorical, anagogical, and moral. An emphasis on describing the correspondence between covenants via the allegorical sense.
Jesus' prophecy in the Olivet Discourse is understood to have been fulfilled by the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD.
Old Testament prophecy of a restoration of Israel in which Jews and Gentiles are united is understood to have been fulfilled in the Church
Jesus is understood to have inaugurated the Kingdom of God, which advances throughout history from the Ascension to the Last Judgment
The advance of the Kingdom of God throughout history is interpreted in terms of the Augustinian concepts of the City of God and the City of Man

[Anonymous No.11319304]

>>11319276
That's an interesting defence of Protestantism and you don't see those very often.
I was raised in the Nestorian Church although my family just calls themself Orthodox. I went to an Anglican school and was definitely disillusioned by the vague spirituality the Anglicans always preached. It always felt as if they molded God towards their needs until he was reduced to being the "invisible friend" the athiest types talk about. My church also has some corruptions, and there's been a bit of a power struggle lately.
It seems like we had opposite experiences with churches.

[Anonymous No.11319360]

>>11319304
i understand why seeing God reduced to an invisible friend is weak/discouraging but it's more reasonable than the total control you see in evangelical churches. as i said in the long post, i appreciate churches (usually mainline) stepping back and understanding that people have their own lives outside of the church. it's hard to explain but it's a sort of assumption of maturity i dont get from evangelicals. most evangelicals i know who take it seriously and don't go for daycare have almost entirely christian friends, do mostly christian activities, use christian or christian approved entertainment etc. it's like the church becomes their new parents and they never grow up. maybe the assumption is there on the catholic side, but as i said i have other bones to pick with catholics

[Anonymous No.11319364]

>>11319276
>>11319304

#JesusIsTooCatholic ?

[Anonymous No.11319368]

>>11319364
can you explain?

[Anonymous No.11319387]

>>11319304
>was raised in the Nestorian Church
What the fuck century are you from?

[Anonymous No.11319406]

>>11319387
Did you not know we still existed?

[Anonymous No.11319436]

>>11319406
i should have added this book provides an excellent overview of the main branches of christianity from its beginning

[Anonymous No.11319494]

>>11319368
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%23JesusIsTooCatholic

[Anonymous No.11319499]

>>11319494
i did nothing came up
can you please explain

[Anonymous No.11319703]

>>11319228
>>11319276
What's a "mainline" protestant? In my country there are Lutherans (usually ethnic Germans) and Unitarians (usually Hungarians), plus a host of smaller confessions which have been gaining attention and attendance in the last two or three decades through proselytising, be it more aggressive or subdued (Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecostals, etc.) Which of these, or others, would you call mainline?
And what are evangelicals? Sometimes I hear Lutherans call themselves evangelicals, though I'm not sure we are taking about the same group of people.
It looks like I'm in the same boat as op, that is, badly in need of a good overview book to make sense of all this.

[Anonymous No.11319815]

>>11319703
systematic theology by wayne grudem is a good overview of current protestant theology (a large portion of which will match catholic), and >>11319436
is a good overview of its history.
im not 100% sure what the official definition of mainline is but it usually refers to older denominations associated with the upper class. the "high church." evangelicals tend to be more conservative and more dogmatic. if mainline is classical music, evangelicals are rock and roll. evangelicals correlate closely with the foreign perception of american southerners, but obviously many do not fit the stereotype

[Anonymous No.11319819]

>>11319815
it's worth adding evangelicals are much more prominent in america and maybe asia. theyre pretty much gone in europe.
lutheran is mainline, orthodox is its own thing im not familiar with

[Anonymous No.11319882]

I can always appreciate a good double
>>11319255

[Anonymous No.11319892]

>>11319255
venial and mortal sin are never mentioned in the bible
stop making shit up so you can charge extra for your legal team

[Anonymous No.11319996]

>>11319815
>>11319819
Yes, I'm pretty sure Lutherans would fit in your mainline protestantism, along with Calvinists and Anglicans, I suppose?
And in my country they do call themselves evangelicals, though I don't think it's the same confession that you're describing. The official name of the Lutheran church in Romania is "Biserica Evanghelică de Confesiune Augustană din România" (Evangelical Augustan Confession Church of Romania). They're pretty far from my stereotype of American southerners though.

[Anonymous No.11321186]

>>11319996
Anglicans are definitely mainline, calvinist theology can be mainline but in the us there's a lot of evangelical calvinists as well.
Lutherans in the US are mainline, and i would suspect they are in europe as well, but ive never been so i cant say for sure

[Anonymous No.11321201]

>>11319228
people who defend protestantism in 2018 are braver than marines

[Anonymous No.11321213]

>>11321201
idk if im defending it, im probably leaving myself. but comparatively it makes more sense, especially traditional denominations that haven't devlovled into snake handling and cultism
what makes me so brave? im a burger who is looking forward to getting the hell out of the south so maybe im just used to it being normal

[Anonymous No.11321232]

>>11321213
Haha, it's just because all the right wingers on /lit/ are all catholic and hate protestants because of that and all the left wingers on /lit/ are anti-capitalist and hate protestantism because of its association with capitalism (protestant work ethic etc.)

So coming out as a defender of protestantism is just something so rare on /lit/ that it's honestly just funny. I'm not making fun of you or anything. And I actually do think protestantism has a lot of good things going for it, especially in its earliest incarnations

[Anonymous No.11321244]

>>11319153

The Bible is the essential book to understand the relation of God to humanity and Jesus Christ as a person, but this doesn’t really help you to understand why churches (as well as the entire history of Christianity) have ended up the way the have.

A basic book of historical theology and/or church history may help. I like McGrath’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought.... or something like that. If you can get at least a basic sense of the development of doctrines and the conflicts that arose from that, you’ll have a better understanding than most pew-warmers of why different churches and denominations relate to each other they way they do.

[Anonymous No.11321245]

>>11321232
this makes sense, thx

[Anonymous No.11321271]

>>11321201
GO BACK TO TWITTER FAGGOT
FUCK YOU
FUCK YOU
FUCK YOU

[Anonymous No.11321275]

>>11319153
dude just go and live in any decent non-tourist attraction monastery local to you.
shit's not in the books, trust me.

[Anonymous No.11321276]

>>11321271
definitely a normal reaction to seeing a 4chan post