The Defense of Dogma

W. H. Marshner

APOLOGETICS
REASONS FOR HOPE
© Christendom Educational Corporation 1978
Christendom College Press

In today’s world especially since the advent of Modernism, it is insufficient to simply define the authority of the pope and leave the faithful to follow his teachings. It is unfortunately fashionable to deny that Church teachings are to be taken literally, fashionable in other words, to retain the precise wording of dogmatic formulations while interpreting them in purely symbolic or metaphorical terms. Therefore, a further defense is necessary, a defense which is at times technical, but nonetheless indispensable: it is the defense that Church teachings mean what they say. And in order to appreciate the ways in which dogma is under attack today—some of them quite subtle—and to meet those attacks, we must begin by taking special pains to be fully clear about exactly what dogma is.

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Membership In The Church: Fundamental Questions

Membership in the Church: Fundamental Questions

by WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

FAITH AND REASON
Vol. 2, No. 3
Winter 1976
Christendom College

A pressing question before the Church today is precisely “Who is a member?” The importance of this matter, which seems on the surface to be rather obvious, stems from two scandalous but simple facts. First, the division of Christianity into competing sects has created the difficulty of defining the relationship of these sects to the true Church. Second, modern Catholics who deny even the most basic of Church teachings often confuse the issue by refusing to admit that they have left the Church. It is in this context, then, that F&R publishes the following rigorous, careful and technical treatment of Church membership by William H. Marshner. The argument demands and deserves careful reading and rereading with full attention to the notes. It is true that the casual reader will find certain traditional attitudes toward Church membership reinforced by the author’s conclusions. But the painstaking student of this article will find much more, for presented here are basic distinctions which go far toward ending the confusion about who is a member in good standing of the Catholic Church and who, in fact, is not.
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Fr. Carl Pfeiffer, S.J. – Heretics And Buffoons Meet In Washington

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER
March 29, 1973

(PART III)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The annual Religious Education Institute of the Archdiocese of Washington, held this year on February 24th, was a spiritual- intellectual disaster of the sorriest sort. In previous parts of this report, we have looked at the vulgar and hideous “liturgies” that were “celebrated” there and at the remarks of the featured speaker, Fr. Raymond Brown, S.S., a considerably over-rated New Testament scholar. In this final installment, we look in on one of the afternoon workshops, specifically, the one called “Celebrating Change Within Continuity.”

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