In my post yesterday, I explained why I find Orthodoxy as well as Protestantism deficient in a certain respect: I wrote that the former's general attitude toward doctrinal development strikes me as "fundamentalist, for want of a better word," even though broader and more realistic than other alternatives to Catholicism. But the responses I've received, both public and private, have been uniformly negative. I should have known they would be. "Fundamentalist" has become such a hot-button word in these days of jihad and embittered domestic politics that its mere use wounds feelings and deflects attention from the truly substantive issues. Thus offense was taken where none was intended. I plead guilty to imprudence and apologize.
Alas, what's been said cannot be unsaid. I just wish there were a short-and-snappy way to characterize the relevant difference without a dry, tedious, potentially exhaustive academic disquisition.
