One Roman Catholic Church vs. Thousands of Protestant Churches?

If you’ve had many conversations with Roman Catholics, you’re probably well aware that many like to compare the one, unified Roman Catholic Church with the divided and splintered Protestant church, which has spawned tens of thousands of denominations.

Scott McKnight argues in “From Wheaton to Rome: Why Evangelicals Become Roman Catholic”¹ that unity is one of the four main reasons for Protestants’ becoming Roman Catholics.

It is the splintering of the Church that disturbs so many ERCs [evangelicals who convert to Roman Catholicism] that they have sought out the biblical teaching on the unity of the Church as well as the articulations of ecclesiology in the history of the Church. Once again, the study leads many back to Rome (466).

A friend of mine who was considering becoming a Roman Catholic was drawn to the apparent unity of the RCC. It is natural and biblical that we long for unity, but does the Roman Catholic Church really offer the true unity for which we all long?

Eric Svendsen argues that the divisions in Protestanism parallel those in Roman Catholicism.

In any case, once we inquire into the source of the infamous 25,000-Protestant-denomination figure one point becomes crystal clear. Whenever and at whatever point Barrett compares true denominations and differences among either Protestants or Evangelicals to those of Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholicism emerges almost as splintered as Protestantism, and even more splintered than Evangelicalism. That levels the playing field significantly. Whatever charge of “doctrinal chaos” Roman Catholic apologists wish to level against Protestantism may be leveled with equal force—and perhaps even greater force—against the doctrinal chaos of Roman Catholicism. Obviously, the Roman Catholic apologist can take little comfort in the fact that he has only sixteen denominations while Protestantism has twenty-one; and he can take even less comfort in the fact that while Evangelicalism has no divisional breakdown, Roman Catholicism has at least four major divisions.

If the Roman Catholic apologist wants instead to cite 8,196 idiosyncrasies within Protestantism, then he must be willing to compare that figure to at least 2,942 (perhaps upwards of 8,000 these days) idiosyncrasies within Roman Catholicism. In any case, he cannot compare the one ecclesial tradition of Roman Catholicism to 25,000, 8,196, or even twenty-one Protestant denominations; for Barrett places Roman Catholicism (as a single ecclesial tradition) on the same level as Protestantism (as a single ecclesial tradition).²

I remember being surprised when I first found out that the Roman Catholic Church in China is anything but unified with Vatican.

What do you think? Does the Roman Catholic Church really have greater unity than Protestantism, or are there just as many differences and divisions with Roman Catholicism?

Perhaps a larger question to answer is whether the unity we all long for is even possible this side of eternity.

Sources:

• Scott McKnight, “From Wheaton to Rome: Why Evangelicals Become Roman Catholic,” JETS 45:3 (Sept 2002): 451–72.
• Eric Svendsen
  • “30,000 Protestant Denominations?”
  • “30,000 Protestant Denominations—Revisited”
• James R. White: “The 33,000 Denominations Myth: A Call to Roman Catholic Apologists to Repent of the Use of Simple Dishonesty in Their Presentations”

HT: Triablogue

Notes

1. JETS 45:3 (Sept 2002): 451–72. [↩ back]
2. This comes from Eric’s “30,000 Protestant Denominations?” Cf. his “30,000 Protestant Denominations—Revisited.” [↩ back]

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