Zippy Catholic, who inspired The Dawn Patrol's recent post on sola scriptura (scroll down and look for the post with over 100 comments) has a new post today, "Salvation by What?", that—while by no means ending the argument—offers a lovely summation point for the Catholic side:
...[T]o understand the Catholic Faith you have to understand that it is not primarily about intellect, or even morals: it is about Christ received through the sacraments, because He commanded it, and because those who love Him will do as He commands because they love Him. And He commands as He does because He loves us. Understanding may follow practice, to a greater or lesser degree. But the Catholic faith is a loving response to our King and Redeemer, not an intellectual response to a text. A Downs Syndrome Catholic who can't read the Bible is in no way lesser than a theological polymath....Beautifully stated. I would add that Jesus' love is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
That isn't to say that there aren't sincere elements of all of these things in Protestant faiths. But the answer to "what must I do to be saved" can't be specified in a finite text, any more than "what must I do to make sure my wife still loves me tomorrow." There are no intellectual certainties, and yet the certainties transcend any intellectual certainties because they are rooted in love...
You can comment on Zippy's post on his blog.
