A strange remark
from Dr Williams
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"A great Catholic writer of the last century said that the only reason for moving from one Christian family to another was to deepen one's relationship with God."
I don't know who this writer was, and I would like to see the exact quotation but, in any case, Dr Williams made the view his own.
It's an odd view for a Christian leader to hold — that religion be measured by its usefulness. I decide what beliefs and practices will help me on my spiritual journey, and choose them.
If this religion helps me on my way, this is where I should go. If that one helps you, that's where you should go. Such a view is pure relativism.
If religious faiths are to be measured by their usefulness it is only a short step to saying that one religion is as good as another.
Catholic teaching is very different. It measures religion by truth. It asks, which religion reveals the truth about God and about man, his dignity and destiny. That is the true faith, the one we must follow.
It was not simply a desire to deepen his relationship with God that led the great John Henry Newman to the Catholic faith, but the realisation that here was the true Church founded by Christ.
Here he would find the fulness of truth. He would not judge its usefulness to himself. Rather, it would measure him and his desires, and call him on to God.
Comment: This is a most unusual and obscure piece of writing in a Dominican publication. I would have thought the purpose of religion was to get closer to God. Apparently this doesn't suit when there is a danger of two way traffic. Were I a Protestant and contemplating another port of call I would certainly shun one so smug and arrogant as this one. The Catholic Church claims exclusive access to God via the eternal truth which it claims that it, and only it, possesses. How contemptuous can you be of the Christian beliefs of others held in good faith.