Is Roman Catholicism the same thing as Christianity?

David wrote:

A very interesting far fetched theory Forbes.

I do not pose it as a theory. I merely pose the questions. I have absolutely no idea what the truth is.

David wrote:

Read what Jesus had to say ...

This is where I have a big problem.

There are three things:

1) What Jesus said.

2) What Jesus said as recorded in the gospels.

3) What people have thought Jesus meant when he said what he did as recorded in the gospels.

I believe it is highly likely that some of what Jesus said is recorded in the gospels, although perhaps not in his exact words. We must remember for a start that Jesus spoke Aramaic and the gospels are in Greek. Secondly, the gospels were written some time after Jesus died. I think it also highly likely that Jesus did not say everything that is attributed to him in the gospels. I have no idea what the proportions are. I suspect that the parables are very much Jesus. I sometimes feel there are two different Jesus in the gospel: one who preached love and one who seems angry. Perhaps there were two different reforming rabbis at the same time and they somehow "merged" in people's minds. These days with modern techniques such as photography we find it difficult to conceive of well known people not being recognised.

David wrote:

Hence the millions of followers many of whom are highly intelligent people are hardly likely to be so easily duped.

I do not think it is helpful to think of religion in terms of people being duped or the intelligence of believers.

David wrote:

As a great man once said Jesus only spoke of love and many in the world have heard of him and still follow him 2000 years later.

I could equally well say the Buddha only spoke of love and many in the world have heard of him and still follow him 2500 years later.

Hello David. The quoting thing doesn't seem to want to work for me today, so all your quotes are in ialics.

One achieves Buddahood

There some schools of Buddhism which maintain that we are all Buddhas, but most of us do not know it, but we won't go into that.

I maintained that people were not easily duped.

I think it depends on whether you want to be duped.

Certainly very little was written in his exact words but those who wrote knew him well

Is this the case? I am no New Testament scholar, but I thought it was generally accepted that the writers of the gospels did not know Jesus and were writing sometime after his death.

Finally anger is very much part of love.

Not sure I understand that.

Jesus to Christians was both human and divine.

Not all Christians have believed in the divinity of Jesus and some have denied he was human.

I believe the original question had to do with Roman Catholics being Christians

Indeed. It is difficult to see how anyone could maintain that Catholicism is not a Christian religion. From a historical point of view Roman Catholicism is clearly part of Christianity; any book on Christianity which left it out would clearly be defective. Catholics believe themselves to be Christian; indeed they believe Catholicism to be the true form of Christianity.  Essentially Catholics believe in the apostolic succession and see the Pope as the successor to St Peter. Catholics believe that that divine grace is obtained through the sacraments administered by the Church and that the Church alone can interpret scripture. Protestants believe in a more direct relationship with God and feel that every man has the right to interpret scripture - the impetus for vernacular versions of the Bible comes from Protestantism, not from Catholicism. Any who denies Catholicism is part of Christianity is really just saying they do not accept the historical argument of the Catholic Church. If you believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus you are surely a Christian.

Yes they are even though some may not act as such

This can be said of the members of any Christian sect.

Conus Lotus wrote:

Is Roman Catholicism the same thing as Christianity?

The very simple answer is 'No'.

Christianity encompasses numerous denominations, of which Roman Catholicism is only one.  This subdivision of belief systems within a major world religion is not unusual.