SpecOpsElite ☦️

I've been watching the exchange w/ Catholic priest Fr. Rooney and Erick Ybarra on the atonement this last week. You can see a large part of it in the quote-tweet. Erick promotes PSA as part of Catholic teaching and has written a whole book on the matter. Fr. Rooney denies this and does of fine job of showing that Catholicism doesn't teach PSA. Fr. Rooney's points in many respects are the same points I and others have made with respect to PSA and the difference between PSA and Vicarious Satisfaction. He makes clear the differences between the Protestant view of PSA and the Catholic view of Vicarious Satisfaction not least of which is noting the entailment of a Protestant view of justification by the former. The exchange is useful for those on the Orthodox side of the fence who are confused by the promoters of PSA within an Orthodox framework and their spoof texting. Rooney rightly notes the ways in which it is anachronistic to read terms like debt, punishment, etc. in pre-Reformation texts in PSA terms, just as I and others have done, as well as pointing out the actual conceptual differences between PSA and Vicarious Satisfaction. That language can be and is used by non-PSA views. Hence pointing to that language doesn't of itself prove a given figure expressed PSA. As an added bonus, here we can be sure that Fr. Rooney did not derive his views from a study of Romanides or other figures but rather from a study of Catholic theology. And I'd bet money that Fr. Rooney or other Catholic academics know Catholic theology far better than any of the Latinizer crowd. But we are treated to other bonuses here as well. For some time I have had Erick Ybarra blocked. And the main reason I did so is because Erick is a time sucker. I don't write that with respect to his character, but with respect to his method and behavior. I have gone rounds with Erick in the past to establish a point, with a concession on his part, only to have him relitigate the point all over again with the same reasoning a few hours or days later. When Erick came out with his book defending the Protestant doctrine of PSA I knew a few things. I knew it was going to be a muddled mess. It is not that Erick is stupid, but he really lacks the education in this and related areas. The book defending PSA is just proof of it. I also knew that as soon as the book caught the attention of Catholic academics it would spell doom for Mr. Ybarra. They would pick it apart and that is what Fr. Rooney has begun doing, along with other Catholics. Another bonus is that Ericks fundamentally Protestant assumptions and frameworks for thinking about such issues would be laid bare. You can see this in the remark I have snipped below. Here the Protestant bifurcation between the justice of Christ, glossed as necessarily extrinsic, and the intrinsic state of the agent is pretty clear. Such a framework precludes a participatory relation that Catholic (and Orthodox) theology require. But the icing on the cake is the fact that Erick has written a whole book on a core area of Catholic theology and he has gotten the matter seriously wrong. So much so that Catholic theologians have had to step in to correct him publicly. What is more, Erick doesn't appear to grasp that he is in serious trouble both in terms of understanding as well as credibility as an apologist. He also doesn't seem to understand that it would be better for him to steer clear from discussions with academics like Fr. Rooney than to attempt to correct them and be outed for his clear error, inability to grasp the operative concepts, and represent Catholic theology. This howler of a mistake in turn undermines all of his other books as well. If he got the atonement this seriously wrong in Catholic theology, what about his book on the Trinity? But it appears that the desire to be a somebody in the realm of on-line apologetics is too great and here you can see Mr. Ybarra attempt to double down in the exchange with Rooney. Eventually it seems that he figured out that he was outmatched by Fr. Rooney and just goes dark. But it is too late and the damage is done. What is worse is the fact that Fr. Rooney is unmarried. He has no children. Currently, Rooney is in the prime of his academic career. He is young, accomplished and is cranking out articles and books published by major academic presses like clockwork. This is what he does. This is all he does, 24/7. I exaggerate but not by much. All Erick has done is provide Fr. Rooney with the motivation for another book project to correct the errors of Erick and others on the atonement. And the more Erick promotes his book, the greater that motivation will be. It is pretty obvious that Erick is engaged in a business model that requires him to engage others to promote his book. He is as the kids say "locked in" and not in a good way. The best part is that accomplishing this goal didn't require any work on my part. I didn't have to do anything to refute Erick or take away his credibility. I just had to sit and wait. After all, never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. This has the added benefit of showing that all the Latinizers who thought PSA was part of pre-Reformation Catholic (and Orthodox) teaching were not only wrong, but lack the ability to not only comprehend what they are reading but how to contextualize a text. But sure, they too can try their hand with Rooney or other Catholic theologians on this point, and please by all means do so. One thing is for sure. I am going to need to make a Costco run for more popcorn.