In the case of Catholicism in particular, this is a feature and not a bug. Catholics famously and proudly don’t read the bible, but rather have its presumptive contents preached at them — with various degrees of translation, omission, or addition to suit the current whims of the Church — by their deacon.
A significant portion of what people assume to be modern Christian belief among multiple sects and denominations is not supported scripturally, to put it mildly. But the Catholics manage to institutionalize that phenomenon to a degree that makes all the others look like a monthly book club.
The catholic church was very much against distribution of the Bible in English (rather, not in Latin) because then people might read it themselves rather than having it delivered to them and interpreted by the clergy.
Yes, and this type of thing is exactly why. The Catholic church has always been all about control — seating kings, selling indulgences, owning land, financing crusades, all that kind of malarkey — and any religious effect imparted on the world in the process has kind of been ancillary side effect.
The church didn’t want any laymen reading the book and coming to their own conclusions, because the end result of that as has often been seen throughout history is that once people do that, they tend to stop being Catholics.
In the case of Catholicism in particular, this is a feature and not a bug. Catholics famously and proudly don’t read the bible, but rather have its presumptive contents preached at them — with various degrees of translation, omission, or addition to suit the current whims of the Church — by their deacon.
A significant portion of what people assume to be modern Christian belief among multiple sects and denominations is not supported scripturally, to put it mildly. But the Catholics manage to institutionalize that phenomenon to a degree that makes all the others look like a monthly book club.
The catholic church was very much against distribution of the Bible in English (rather, not in Latin) because then people might read it themselves rather than having it delivered to them and interpreted by the clergy.
Turns out they had nothing to worry about.
Yes, and this type of thing is exactly why. The Catholic church has always been all about control — seating kings, selling indulgences, owning land, financing crusades, all that kind of malarkey — and any religious effect imparted on the world in the process has kind of been ancillary side effect.
The church didn’t want any laymen reading the book and coming to their own conclusions, because the end result of that as has often been seen throughout history is that once people do that, they tend to stop being Catholics.
All the trappings of a cult.