“More Egocentric Than Theocentric”
Dear Catholic: Can you say the following about your diocese or parish or both? “I…have been troubled by the increasing vacuity of much…preaching and worship…. People can no longer sense the sacred either in the preaching or in the liturgy. The atmosphere…is clubby and convivial rather than adoring and expectant What is missing is the fear of God…. Our worship is…. far more egocentric than theocentric…. Worship has become therapy.”
If this describes your situation, you’re not unlike that multitude of heartsick Catholics who’ve left the Church for evangelical Protestantism over the past 30 or so years.
But if, perish forbid, you should have any thoughts of taking such a leap yourself, think again, for the words quoted above are from Evangelical theologian Donald G. Bloesch, writing in the Evangelical magazine Christianity Today (Feb. 5), and he is writing, not about Catholicism, but about evangelical Protestantism!
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"Dualistic (and sexist) thinking about masculine and feminine has led to a ruthlessly competitive marketplace."
As Pascal notes in his essay "The Art of Persuasion," people base their beliefs less on proof than on the basis of attraction.