Causation

Bryan Cross has an excellent post called "Monocausalism, Salvation, and Reconciliation". He did a better job than I ever could discussing some philosophical aspects of causation as it relates to salvation and divisions within Christianity.

He also linked to an older post he wrote, about Mary and monocausalism, here. One might conclude that I plagiarized his thought in my most recent post.

He said, "so much of what worries Protestants about Catholic treatment of Mary is based on a philosophical monocausalism. For example, the Catholic hymn "Salve Regina" involves calling on Mary to pray for us and have mercy on us. In the Protestant mind, only God can receive prayer and show mercy. Therefore, in the Protestant mind, this hymn deifies Mary, and is thus blasphemy or idolatry."

I said, "If I believe that God is the sole actor within His creation, then teachings of the historical merit of Mary's co-laboration, and of the continuing benefit of Mary's co-redemptive works seem particularly anathema. Since the Marianist has attributed to Mary a portion of what is for God (the monergistic force) alone, he has conflated Mary with the Divine."

It seems that, without my realizing it had happened, the seed of Bryan's thought took root some time in the last month.