- Question
- What do Christians believe?
- Position‹2 of 7›
- Catholic Christians
The Catholic church's primary text is the Holy Bible, but it also places a huge amount of importance on the Catholic church's traditions.
The argument
Christian denominations differ in what they use for the basis of their doctrines and beliefs. The Catholic church uses the Bible, and the words of church fathers, popes and bishops as the basis for doctrine. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches also accept certain “deutero-canonical” books that are not part of the traditional Hebrew Bible. They do not base their beliefs on the Bible alone. They are additionally bound by the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. There are many religious writings that hold great significance to Catholics such as the Cathecism. The Cathecism is a “compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals” - an organized presentation of the essential teachings of the Catholic Church in regards to both faith and morals, written by bishops, theologians, and other experts.
Premises
Counter-arguments
A rebuttal is that these details describe sources of authority — scripture together with tradition and the magisterium — rather than distinctive articles of belief, whereas the question asks what Christians believe. As the passage itself notes, basing doctrine on scripture plus tradition and accepting the deutero-canonical books is shared with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, so it identifies a broad catholic-tradition family rather than what is peculiarly Roman Catholic. Critics add that the Catechism is a text that organises and presents doctrine, not itself an item of belief. Listing holy books and traditions describes where Catholic teaching is found more than it states what Catholics actually hold.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Basing doctrine on scripture together with tradition and the magisterium is shared with Eastern Orthodoxy, so it identifies a broad catholic-tradition family rather than what is distinctively Roman Catholic. [Rejecting P3] The Catechism is a source that organises doctrine, not itself an article of belief; listing texts describes where teaching is found more than what Catholics believe.