rejoinder<\/a>. I\u2019m sure Doug will have more to say if he reads the book, and I\u2019ll try to respond then. Here I limit myself to a few notes. I state a clarification, highlight an irony, expose a rhetorical misdirection, point to Doug\u2019s leading error, and close, in good revivalist fashion, with an invitation.<\/p>\nThe clarification: I do recognize the gargantuan import my proposal has for Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but I\u2019m a Protestant speaking to Protestants. My proposal, in any case, has gargantuan import for Protestants too. If we are to achieve the unity Jesus desires, Protestants will<\/i> have to give up something essential to our identity\u2014our self-definition over against Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\nThe irony: Doug claims that I\u2019m impatient because I urge people to strive for a sort of unity that will only be realized in the future. But Doug is postmillennial. He believes that the nations will be converted and Christianized and cultures will be transformed by the gospel. He doesn\u2019t passively wait around for it to happen. He\u2019s founded schools, churches, a publishing house; he writes books, debates, preaches, blogs, who knows what all. Holiness is as much an eschatological note of the church as unity and catholicity, but as a pastor Doug (impatiently?) strives to make the church holy now<\/i>. If he\u2019s zealous for holiness now, why be a quietist concerning catholicity and unity? Doug is a living refutation of the logic he applies to me. <\/span><\/p>\nThe misdirection: Doug says that I\u2019m offering Anglo-Catholicism with all the frilly frills, all its surplices and genuflections, its coquettish flirtations with Rome. Doug is refuting an argument I never made. I urge reforms for Protestantism because<\/i> I\u2019m Protestant, because at a number of points Protestantism doesn\u2019t measure up to Scripture, or, for that matter, to the Reformation. Nothing<\/i> in the article he cites, or in my book, is distinctively Anglo-Catholic. \u201cAnglo-Catholic\u201d is an effort to refute by labeling, a scare word designed to convince readers that I\u2019m not to be trusted.<\/span><\/p>\nThe error: Doug\u2019s theological error is the way he distinguishes \u201cinstitutional\u201d unity (Doug\u2019s word, not mine or Paul\u2019s), which is eschatological, with the sort of unity that is inherent in the church\u2019s being the church. \u201cInstitutional\u201d is another scare word. It\u2019s the kind of unity that Anglo-Catholics or Roman Catholics want. It\u2019s an un-Protestant sort of unity.<\/span><\/p>\nWith Doug, I delight in the forms of communion and cooperation that Christians enjoy in our current denominational system. But the church isn\u2019t a collection of individuals, and the unity we confess isn\u2019t just the unity that a Catholic enjoys over lunch with a Methodist. The church is a society, and the unity we confess is a corporate unity.<\/span><\/p>\nA<\/span>s a practical matter, no human society can be unified without institutional features. Human beings are bodies in time, and we need order, pattern, structures of authority if we are going to live together at all. Local churches are unified institutionally, as are denominations. When denominations commune and cooperate as denominations<\/em>, that can\u2019t help but take institutional form. <\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a pneumatological point here. The Spirit gives gifts to the church, human beings equipped with abilities to be used for the common good of the whole body. Among these gifts are gifts of leadership and administration. A Spirit-filled, Spirit-unified church crystallizes in institutional patterns and forms. Spiritual unity includes<\/i> institutional unity. <\/span><\/p>\nFinally, the invitation: By Doug\u2019s own ecclesiology, we\u2019re already one. There is only one plane, though (following Lewis, a real Anglican) some of us are in economy, some in business, and some in first class. (I\u2019m hoping they gave me the extra leg room I paid for.) Whether he likes it or not, Doug and I are flying together, and Jesus is taking us to the same destination. It\u2019s a destination Doug knows because he confesses it every week\u2014a church that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.<\/span><\/p>\nBuckle up, relax, and enjoy the ride.<\/span><\/p>\n(An earlier version of this post stated that Lewis was Anglo-Catholic.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My End of Protestantism (the book) deals with a number of the questions Doug Wilson raises in his rejoinder. I\u2019m sure Doug will have more to say if he reads the book, and I\u2019ll try to respond then. Here I limit myself to a few notes. I state a clarification, highlight an irony, expose a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[699],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reformational-catholicism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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