October Pundit 1
Ross Douthat
"The Slow Road to Catholic Schism"
The New York Times
Sept. 14, 2019
Ross Douthat discusses the possibility of a future schism in the Catholic Church due to Pope Francis's more progressive interpretation of Catholicism. Conservative Catholics fear that liberal theologians are leading Catholicism towards a more liberal stance on moral issues. Douthat had anticipated years ago that the Pope's liberalism would make progressive catholics keep pushing for reform while also making conservative catholics afraid of the direction their religion was going.
Yet, Douthat argues that if a schism were to occur, it would not do so for a long time. Unfortunately he gives little meaningful evidence to support this claim. Douthat attempts to support this claim with another claim- that because most of the talk about a schism is online, the chances of it actually occurring are slim. He gives no backup for this claim either. However, Douthat does appeal to the audience's sense of authority. He does this by mentioning that he wrote a book about the Pope and the future of Catholicism. Generally, Douthat's piece was well written, but seemed to lack concrete evidence for a few claims.
"The Slow Road to Catholic Schism"
The New York Times
Sept. 14, 2019
Ross Douthat discusses the possibility of a future schism in the Catholic Church due to Pope Francis's more progressive interpretation of Catholicism. Conservative Catholics fear that liberal theologians are leading Catholicism towards a more liberal stance on moral issues. Douthat had anticipated years ago that the Pope's liberalism would make progressive catholics keep pushing for reform while also making conservative catholics afraid of the direction their religion was going.
Yet, Douthat argues that if a schism were to occur, it would not do so for a long time. Unfortunately he gives little meaningful evidence to support this claim. Douthat attempts to support this claim with another claim- that because most of the talk about a schism is online, the chances of it actually occurring are slim. He gives no backup for this claim either. However, Douthat does appeal to the audience's sense of authority. He does this by mentioning that he wrote a book about the Pope and the future of Catholicism. Generally, Douthat's piece was well written, but seemed to lack concrete evidence for a few claims.
Mr. Douthat, this piece was quite interesting. Your appeal to the audience's sense of authority is very successful. I'm a little confused regarding your argument though. Maybe I'm just missing it or not comprehending it, but you don't seem to provide very tangible evidence regarding why exactly a Catholic schism is not in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was difficult to follow some of Douthat's claims. He had major claims but failed to use many strategies to support them. The few strategies that he did use (such as his appealing to credibility), however, helped significantly in supporting his claim. I found it difficult to determine exaclty which side Douthat was arguing for, however, as he suggested a few different ideas. Perhaps he was attempting to stay unbiased.
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