Wednesday, December 07, 2005

A question for apologist types

Tim Bayly, whose posts I link to quite a bit here, brought up the pope's offer of a plenary indulgence for observers of the feast of the Immaculate Concception. Now, I don't pay a lot of attention to indulgences in general; it feels too much like keeping score of good things I've done as though I had no other reason to do them. I tried to explain to another reader in the comments section that indulgences aren't related to salvation, but after that point I got bogged down. I can more or less picture in my head how they work, but I can't find a way to express it that doesn't make it sound like earning God's favor, in a quid-pro-quo arrangement.

How would y'all explain Catholic beliefs about indulgences to a Protestant, without getting so technical that I couldn't follow it myself?

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