Funny. Although it often comes dangerously close to falling into the sola scriptura heresy. Not all traditions are “man-made” as it says at the end. Indeed the holy spirit guides the Church and gives us valuable traditions. Also, isn’t it the tradition in much of the Christian world that the Lord was born in a cave or grotto and not a stable?
So, whether X or Y, [insert lovely truth here] – why did we do all this parsing again? That said, it does have a good point, that it’s the substance, not the trappings that matter. I think they’re definitely of a sola scriptura mindset. But how about this – I think it was a stable in a cave. Ooooh, scary… 😉
Funny! But as Anthony said above, we have to be careful not to get too nit-picky about the details.
The British narrator at the beginning sounds a little bit like the asparagus from Veggie Tales (Reggie, I believe? He plays King Darius in Daniel & the Lions' Den).
The recording of the Gospels, in terms of their significance of conveying a message, tended to develop from the resurrection on back. The fact of the risen Christ, and His teaching, came first. Attempts to tell his life story came next. Over time, we have attempted to give shape to the story, either through the accounts themselves, various apocryphal sources, and legends or folk tales.
There are really only two reasons for this sort of presentation. One is to confuse people to the point of shaping their faith. The other is to clarify certain events to increase our understanding of the Gospel.
This account avoids the former, but does the latter rather badly. For example, why would we not assume there were only three wise men? There were three gifts, and three men’s names were mentioned in one of the apocryphal gospels (the Protoevangelium of James, I think). That’s what we have to go on, unless the twit in the voiceover was actually there.
How complete are the Scriptures as historical account? Read the last verse of the last chapter of John, and get back to me.
"The British narrator at the beginning sounds a little bit like the asparagus from Veggie Tales (Reggie, I believe? He plays King Darius in Daniel & the Lions' Den)."
Hehe, fantastic. While it can lead to a sola-scriptora mentality I think the point in the end is that the trappings of the holyday don’t matter, the incarnation matters.
In other words, don’t get caught up in the world’s presentation. Remember on this day the reunion of human and divine is celebrated.
Anthony, Nzie, Chris, and dcs, All of you just failed dogmatic theology. These people are not sola scriptura at all, since sola-scriptura denies Tradition, not traditions, and none of the details thrown out by the narrator of this video are Tradition but rather simply traditions. Know the difference, because if you deny the latter, you have a tolerated theological opinion, but if you deny the former, you are a heretic.
Most of us weren’t saying it was sola scriptura, we were saying (and you may agree) that this kind of thinking which is against traditions in general could lead to the abandonment of Tradition writ large.
The second narrator consistently rejects anything that is not scriptural, and suggests insteads ideas inferred from details in Scripture combined with very limited historical information, and then proceeds to say that basically that info isn’t that important (it cannot be Scripturally validated).
I think it is a logical inference that at the very least the film is sympathetic to the sola Scriptura doctrine, which is all that any of us implied. Moreover, it is an unproven assumption on your part that none of us knows the difference between “small t” and “big t” tradition(s). So, in short, don’t hand out Fs just yet!
December 12, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Funny. Although it often comes dangerously close to falling into the sola scriptura heresy. Not all traditions are “man-made” as it says at the end. Indeed the holy spirit guides the Church and gives us valuable traditions. Also, isn’t it the tradition in much of the Christian world that the Lord was born in a cave or grotto and not a stable?
December 12, 2008 at 7:15 pm
So, whether X or Y, [insert lovely truth here] – why did we do all this parsing again? That said, it does have a good point, that it’s the substance, not the trappings that matter. I think they’re definitely of a sola scriptura mindset. But how about this – I think it was a stable in a cave. Ooooh, scary… 😉
December 12, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Funny! But as Anthony said above, we have to be careful not to get too nit-picky about the details.
The British narrator at the beginning sounds a little bit like the asparagus from Veggie Tales (Reggie, I believe? He plays King Darius in Daniel & the Lions' Den).
December 12, 2008 at 9:56 pm
The recording of the Gospels, in terms of their significance of conveying a message, tended to develop from the resurrection on back. The fact of the risen Christ, and His teaching, came first. Attempts to tell his life story came next. Over time, we have attempted to give shape to the story, either through the accounts themselves, various apocryphal sources, and legends or folk tales.
There are really only two reasons for this sort of presentation. One is to confuse people to the point of shaping their faith. The other is to clarify certain events to increase our understanding of the Gospel.
This account avoids the former, but does the latter rather badly. For example, why would we not assume there were only three wise men? There were three gifts, and three men’s names were mentioned in one of the apocryphal gospels (the Protoevangelium of James, I think). That’s what we have to go on, unless the twit in the voiceover was actually there.
How complete are the Scriptures as historical account? Read the last verse of the last chapter of John, and get back to me.
December 12, 2008 at 9:56 pm
That’s the GOSPEL of John.
December 13, 2008 at 12:41 am
"The British narrator at the beginning sounds a little bit like the asparagus from Veggie Tales (Reggie, I believe? He plays King Darius in Daniel & the Lions' Den)."
Archibald Asparagus. 😉
December 13, 2008 at 1:26 am
Hehe, fantastic. While it can lead to a sola-scriptora mentality I think the point in the end is that the trappings of the holyday don’t matter, the incarnation matters.
In other words, don’t get caught up in the world’s presentation. Remember on this day the reunion of human and divine is celebrated.
December 13, 2008 at 3:34 am
Yeah, let’s throw out all the “man-made traditions” like the priesthood and Holy Mass.
December 13, 2008 at 5:29 am
Anthony, Nzie, Chris, and dcs,
All of you just failed dogmatic theology. These people are not sola scriptura at all, since sola-scriptura denies Tradition, not traditions, and none of the details thrown out by the narrator of this video are Tradition but rather simply traditions. Know the difference, because if you deny the latter, you have a tolerated theological opinion, but if you deny the former, you are a heretic.
~cmpt
December 13, 2008 at 6:44 am
Most of us weren’t saying it was sola scriptura, we were saying (and you may agree) that this kind of thinking which is against traditions in general could lead to the abandonment of Tradition writ large.
December 13, 2008 at 5:33 pm
The second narrator consistently rejects anything that is not scriptural, and suggests insteads ideas inferred from details in Scripture combined with very limited historical information, and then proceeds to say that basically that info isn’t that important (it cannot be Scripturally validated).
I think it is a logical inference that at the very least the film is sympathetic to the sola Scriptura doctrine, which is all that any of us implied. Moreover, it is an unproven assumption on your part that none of us knows the difference between “small t” and “big t” tradition(s). So, in short, don’t hand out Fs just yet!
December 14, 2008 at 1:04 am
It’s a small step from rejecting “traditions” to rejecting “Tradition.”