Unintended Consequences

We just finished reading Leszek Kołakowski's book Modernity on Endless Trial for my Twentieth Century European History class. For the last several years I have considered the debate between modernity and post-modernity, which are both slippery terms to define.

One thing from the book that captured my attention was the author's thoughts on the Reformation. Kołakowski was a Marxist who converted to Catholicism, which accounts for his dim view of Protestants, especially the Reformers, and particularly John Calvin.

He effectively says that the Reformation brought about the downfall of Christianity. Calvin sought a return to apostolic Christianity. In the process he marginalized Aquinas, as a theologian, and many of the church fathers. The result was not a return to more authentic Christianity, but that the Church in the process was stripped of is moorings to past. It was now adrift, tossed about on the waves of secular reason. What followed were the deists and proponents for natural religion.

What this says is that we, as Christians, need to be careful about how we handle our differences with fellow Christ followers who have a different take.