But given CatholicismвЂ™s understanding of the indissolubility of marriage, why should this be? Why should the death of one spouse end this marriage? There are arguments to be made for both Orthodox and Catholic positions, but that is the point: arguments and interpretations of the evidence must be advanced and different churches, neither of whom consider the other to be heretical, have taken different positions. On the other hand, in the Catholic Church, if a spouse dies, one can marry again with no questions and no problems. Mark Silk points out that the Orthodox Church does allow second and even third marriages, but that a penitential path has to be followed prior to a second marriage, and this is the case even if the person seeking a second marriage is a widow or a widower, since one, indissoluble marriage is the ideal. Father Paul Keller gives excellent examples of these interpretive choices, so I will not cover a lot of the material he does but encourage you to read his post.ДЇor instance, the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have interpreted JesusвЂ™ teaching differently in one significant practical matter. The positions taken by the Roman Catholic Church on divorce, remarriage and communion are not self-evident, but the product of numerous interpretive moves. Scripture is not self-interpreting, though, but it requires the believing church. Douthat's thought regarding the issues discussed at the recent Synod on the Family is that he seems to hold a fundamentalist view of Scripture, namely, that its sense is always plain.

This is offered as a response to some recent Ross Douthat columns, blog posts and Twitter discussions, particularly his requests that his interlocutors engage him in a discussion on the theological issues. In the spirit of all of us belonging to one church, I want to offer some thoughts on how development has occured in church teaching, using examples from the New Testament.

The problem with discussing development and change in church teaching using the language of вЂњconservativesвЂќ or вЂњliberalsвЂќ is not that differences among Catholics do not map broadly onto this template, but that it imports the political sense of a zero sum game: there are winners and losers and those with whom I disagree are my opponents.

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