The remedy for this is the Eucharist. Baptists are highly Christocentric—it is a natural conclusion that if Christ really is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament, then it ought to be the center of all Christian practice.
Baptists do have many qualities that would be of use to the Church, they are resilient as you said, they maintain a communal identity, and they are very dedicated to reading the Word and learning the word. Some of the most combative Christian’s I’ve met were Baptists (for better or for worse).
I think some other considerations would need to be ironed out as well to bring Baptist’s into the fold. Baptist’s, even more traditionally aligned ones, have a very low view of the Church as an institution and an inflated view of Scripture. And though I may appreciate the Baptists ability to grow good preachers, they have a synagogal type of “worship”; to the Baptists, 3 songs and the Pastor’s 3 points is the worship, they are not sacramentally aligned. Catholics may have issues raising good preachers but that’s also because the point of the Mass is not the sermon.
“The remedy for this is the Eucharist. Baptists are highly Christocentric—it is a natural conclusion that if Christ really is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament, then it ought to be the center of all Christian practice.”
The issue though is that they don’t hold the same view of the sacraments, going so far as to call them ordinances. They don’t believe in the Real Presence or even a Spiritual Communion like the Calvinists.
Baptists are not “Reformation Christians”, we can easier draw the Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and even Methodists. The aforementioned wanted to Reform the Catholic Church, and originally saw themselves as the continuation of the Catholic faith (Anglicans and Methodists perhaps being an exception). Baptists come from the Ana-Baptists which were “Radical Reformation” in that they didn’t want to reform, rather they wanted to tear down and start from scratch… no large institutions, no councils, Bible alone.
Adoration I think would be a great draw for Baptists and especially the Pentecostals, however, to suppliant it with a Baptist service would be to take the focus away from Christ.
Juniper, I think we are in full agreement. This argument presupposes that Baptist Catholics would participate in the normal Mass at the parish and be fully aligned with/converted to Catholic theology. That's why I call them Baptist Catholics and not Catholic Baptists! You're right that Baptist sacramentology basically could not be lower; but their love for Christ primes them to see just how world-changing the Eucharist is.
I don't envision this supplanting Adoration. I envision this as a *type* of Adoration. Baptist theology rightly emphasizes Scripture as God speaking to us, so to have the Word exposited in the literal presence of Christ, far from creating competition, would (I think, to a Baptist) be the natural way to go deeper into love for the Blessed Sacrament. That's why I take a moment to somewhat pedantically consider where to place the preacher. We'd have to do it right, but I've been to Adoration services like Catholic Underground which are effectively already doing this. In any case, there's no reason why we wouldn't still have times for silent Adoration, too! The more time we spend on the "highway to heaven," the better :)
The remedy for this is the Eucharist. Baptists are highly Christocentric—it is a natural conclusion that if Christ really is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament, then it ought to be the center of all Christian practice.
Baptists do have many qualities that would be of use to the Church, they are resilient as you said, they maintain a communal identity, and they are very dedicated to reading the Word and learning the word. Some of the most combative Christian’s I’ve met were Baptists (for better or for worse).
I think some other considerations would need to be ironed out as well to bring Baptist’s into the fold. Baptist’s, even more traditionally aligned ones, have a very low view of the Church as an institution and an inflated view of Scripture. And though I may appreciate the Baptists ability to grow good preachers, they have a synagogal type of “worship”; to the Baptists, 3 songs and the Pastor’s 3 points is the worship, they are not sacramentally aligned. Catholics may have issues raising good preachers but that’s also because the point of the Mass is not the sermon.
“The remedy for this is the Eucharist. Baptists are highly Christocentric—it is a natural conclusion that if Christ really is physically present in the Blessed Sacrament, then it ought to be the center of all Christian practice.”
The issue though is that they don’t hold the same view of the sacraments, going so far as to call them ordinances. They don’t believe in the Real Presence or even a Spiritual Communion like the Calvinists.
Baptists are not “Reformation Christians”, we can easier draw the Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and even Methodists. The aforementioned wanted to Reform the Catholic Church, and originally saw themselves as the continuation of the Catholic faith (Anglicans and Methodists perhaps being an exception). Baptists come from the Ana-Baptists which were “Radical Reformation” in that they didn’t want to reform, rather they wanted to tear down and start from scratch… no large institutions, no councils, Bible alone.
Adoration I think would be a great draw for Baptists and especially the Pentecostals, however, to suppliant it with a Baptist service would be to take the focus away from Christ.
Juniper, I think we are in full agreement. This argument presupposes that Baptist Catholics would participate in the normal Mass at the parish and be fully aligned with/converted to Catholic theology. That's why I call them Baptist Catholics and not Catholic Baptists! You're right that Baptist sacramentology basically could not be lower; but their love for Christ primes them to see just how world-changing the Eucharist is.
I don't envision this supplanting Adoration. I envision this as a *type* of Adoration. Baptist theology rightly emphasizes Scripture as God speaking to us, so to have the Word exposited in the literal presence of Christ, far from creating competition, would (I think, to a Baptist) be the natural way to go deeper into love for the Blessed Sacrament. That's why I take a moment to somewhat pedantically consider where to place the preacher. We'd have to do it right, but I've been to Adoration services like Catholic Underground which are effectively already doing this. In any case, there's no reason why we wouldn't still have times for silent Adoration, too! The more time we spend on the "highway to heaven," the better :)