From the 16th century onwards, the Protestant Reformation was unified by the Reformers’ belief that the Roman Catholic Church had drifted so far away from Christian Truth, that it had withered to un-salvageability and must be completely abandoned.
When I was becoming Orthodox, one of my protestant mentors earnestly tried to persuade me to remain Evangelical. He argued that everything I was discovering, through history, philosophy, art, literature, the liturgy itself, these were all things that the evangelical church would benefit from. He hoped that I could be a sort of liason, bringing gifts and riches into the evangelical tradition from outside of it.
This article is a good articulation of exactly why that can't work. Very few people, if they seriously read history and the Fathers, can remain evangelical protestant. The few who can can find no good soil in the tradition for the gifts they are trying to plant, and they wither away.
When I was becoming Orthodox, one of my protestant mentors earnestly tried to persuade me to remain Evangelical. He argued that everything I was discovering, through history, philosophy, art, literature, the liturgy itself, these were all things that the evangelical church would benefit from. He hoped that I could be a sort of liason, bringing gifts and riches into the evangelical tradition from outside of it.
This article is a good articulation of exactly why that can't work. Very few people, if they seriously read history and the Fathers, can remain evangelical protestant. The few who can can find no good soil in the tradition for the gifts they are trying to plant, and they wither away.
Look forward to reading more of your work!