Tolerance of Religious Error - Keith Kuwata

In this episode, Dr. Keith Kuwata joins host Ron Snyder to discuss Newman's sermon "Tolerance of Religious Error," preached on the Feast of St. Barnabas in 1834. Keith, who was raised in a non-sacramental evangelical tradition before becoming an Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian and eventually entering the Catholic Church in 2003, draws on his own journey to illuminate Newman's critique of the Christianity of his age. He describes how his evangelical upbringing reduced faith to a single conversion experience — accepting Christ's atoning death — after which good behavior was expected to follow spontaneously, with any effort toward obedience feeling almost sinful, as if works might replace Christ's merit. Newman identifies three schools of thought that distort Christianity by separating love from truth: the school of expedience, which reduces faith to social kindness and rejects eternal punishment; the school of excited feelings, which places all hope in a one-time conversion and eliminates the need for self-denial or working out salvation with fear and trembling; and the mystical school, which reduces religion to a vague spiritual sensibility disconnected from doctrine and daily moral life. The common thread across all three is that charity becomes detached from truth and drifts into merely "being a good person" rather than being rooted in Christ. Newman's answer is that genuine Christian love must be grounded in Scripture, dogma, and Christ Himself — combining the zeal of St. Paul with the kindness of St. Barnabas — so that charity always has Christ as its goal and focus. To approach Newman's majestic thought it is highly recommended to download the formatted sermon at www.newmanontap.com. Comments and suggestions are appreciated on the same site.