While I have stopped being a Preacher in the RM and am now a Baptist Pastor who holds to Calvinism I will say that there is a good number within any baptist tradition that do not focus on our responsibility as stated above. That is always disheartening.

I think no matter what tradition you are in there is always a focus of what that tradition believes above living out the word of God as all of us are commanded to do. There is delight and power in obedience that God gives to His faithful children. All of us need to be teaching and preaching that.

calvinism

 Our theologans would say .
 is it the bible that needs to be made reasonable as Calvin's theology  made it? or is it  reason that needs to be made more christian?


The world in its wisdom did not know God. 1 corinthians 1:1

the foolishness of God is wiser than men . 1  corinthians 1:25

because of reason men have rejected  what the bible says ..

Mohammed ridiculed the doctrine of the Trinity
 the popes condemn the doctrine of justfication by faith alone
John Calvin  rejected the real presence at the Lords supper.

i want every one to think about this last statement
The very best christian  doctrines based upon mans reason's. can they not then  be easly over thrown once again by mans own reason?
but if doctrines are based on the word of God though they may seem foolish to the world we have Jesus his promise
THE HEAVENS AND EARTH MAY PASS AWAY BUT MY WORD WILL NEVER PASS AWAY.
 

It's a little more complicated than that, but no, the Catholic Church does not condemn justification by faith alone.  Catholics believe we are solely justified by our faith, but that faith must include hope, (trust), and charity, (love).  For a "faith" without trust in God's divine providence and mercy, or a "faith" without love, is a dead faith.

The inverse of this that surprises some Protestants is their oft' mistaken belief that Catholics teach that we can, somehow, work our way into heaven.  The Catholic Church not only does not teach justification by works, it is formally condemned as heresy.

LoL...We Catholics have been asking the same question for about 500 years.  To give you the best answer I can, however, I would say that on the specific question of justification, the difference with Luther involved the model, that had much wider ramifications, like a stone thrown in a pond.  Let's see...

1.  Luther divorced "hope" and "charity" from justification because he believed the "nature" of man was unchangeable.  Protestants of the true Reformation theology still adhere to the notion of the saving grace that is imputed, only, and not an actual renewal of the soul.  Luther's famous metaphor of 'man is a heap of steaming dung that grace covers like fresh white snow, but is still dung underneath', is the best example.  This is also the basis of the "I" in TULIP.  The Catholic view would be that man's "nature" is changeable, and must be changed through hope and love, in our cooperative response to God's grace.  This does not take away from God's sovereignty, but God can choose how that sovereignty of His will is expressed to us.  The ramification of these differences are enormous, even though they seem like just a difference in terminology only.


2.  To be fair to the Protestants, at the time of the Reformation, the Church had not dealt with some pretty serious abuses in quite some time.  I honestly think that Luther and others, although justifying their actions theologically, were at least initially motivated by decades and decades of grievances that often had little to do with one's actual salvation or theology.

I don't think that's quite fair Tantor, from my Catholic perspective.  By abuses, I was referring to the selling of indulgences for example, but Protestants are usually referring to something else, and a much longer list at that.  The primary differences between us, and the major effect of the Reformation, has to do with the concept of whether Our Lord established a visible church with real authority to act as His Vicar on earth.  Sola Scriptura declares this to be untrue.  Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and even a few high Church Lutherans, believe otherwise.

I don't always use Wiki Tulip, but in this case they have it about right.  The "I", of Irresistible, is one of the ripples of that stone in the pond I was alluding to.  If God's grace is "irresistible", as Luther said, than man has no part in his own salvation.  Calvin simply took Lutheranism, to it's logical conclusion.  I would stand by Wiki's  description here...

Luther came to understand justification as being entirely the work of God. Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are done in cooperation with God, Luther asserted that Christians receive that righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ, it actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us (rather than infused into us) through faith.

Luther used the phrase Simul justus et peccator, meaning that even though one is accorded a "saint", by being covered in God's grace, underneath, we are still of a corrupt nature.

Again, you seem to be going back to the "Catholics believe that they can "work" their way into righteous salvation."  Not only not so, but as I said earlier, it is heresy and anathema to say so, according to the Church.  Go back to my first post and you can see that I stated that the Catholic model is that we are saved by faith, but a faith that must include hope and charity, for a faith without them is a dead faith.  It is the saving grace of Our Lord, alone, that justifies us, but that is one that must be cooperated with in hope and charity.

I Corinthians 13:2 2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

James 2:14-26
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?...Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone...For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

The summation from the Catholic perspective would be this. By what means are we saved?  By the grace of Christ Whose Blood was poured out for us at Calvary. This Sacrifice is the only means of salvation; by Christ and Christ alone may a man be saved. There is no other way to the Father

Those Catholics who have faith and obey the will of the Father are being saved, by the grace of Christ alone. Catholics who don't have faith and don't obey the will of the Father will not be saved unless they repent and begin to have faith and keep the commandments."