Dennis Taylor notes via Paul Tillich on Protestant-Catholic complimentarity

Shakespeare's age was marked in part by a Protestant-Catholic feud echoed perhaps in the feud between Capulets and Montagues in Romeo and Juliet.

Dennis Taylor (author of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Reformation: Literary Negotiation of Religious Difference), has a web page of notes[1] (from which the following is taken) related to Shakespeare and Catholic-Protestant issues;
under the year 1984, he has this interesting note on some ideas from Paul Tillich, which may offer a refreshing alternative to the Elizabethan Protestant-Catholic conflict:
~~~~~
Tillich, The Protestant Era: “The decrease in sacramental thinking and feeling in the churches of
the Reformation and in the American denominations is appalling. Nature has lost its religious
meaning and is excluded [from] participation in the power of salvation … The Protestant protest has
rightly destroyed the magical elements in Catholic sacramentalism but has wrongly brought to the
verge of disappearance the sacramental foundation of Christianity” (see earlier).Tillich
popularized distinction between Catholic spiritual embodiment, and Protestant critical principle
protesting such embodiment. “Christianity, he held, is essentially constituted by a Catholic
substance and Protestant principle, each needing the other as its own counterpoint”: Tillich’s
distinction has “had an enormous influence on authors of many traditions” (But, distinction tends
to make Protestantism too negative a principle, and to deny criticalness to Catholicism--Dulles).
“Lutherans of our day, such as Jaroslav Pelikan … continue to warn that the Protestant principle is
needed to prevent Catholicism from becoming ossified, magical, demonic, and idolatrous” (these
last quotes, from Dulles, Catholicity 1985).
~~~~~
Shakespeare's plays have long been noted to include references to, and signs of the influences of, both Protestantism and Catholicism, as well as Puritan, Jewish, Islamic, and pre-Christian elements.

The word "Catholic" is not a Latin word meaning "universal" but a Greek word meaning something more like "inclusive of the whole": Perhaps both Shakespeare and Tillich reach to include many things in the hope that much more might be "redeemed" than some of us imagine?

NOTES:
[1] Dennis Taylor, "Post-Shakespeare Chronology 1900-2010
History of Shakespeare-Catholic/Protestant interpretations, with chart of
significant events in Protestant/Catholic relations [...],"
Unedited notes, Revised March, 2013
https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/publications/relarts/pdf/Shakespeare-Chronologies-March-2013/4%20-%20March%202013.pdf

IMAGES:
Dennis Taylor, Professor Emeritus, Boston College
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/english/people/retired-faculty/taylor--dennis.html

Book Cover:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666902082/Shakespeare-and-the-Elizabethan-Reformation-Literary-Negotiation-of-Religious-Difference



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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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