The Three Basic Questions

Certainly many people feel very strongly about the Catholic vs. Protestant debate, but it seems to me that this question is moot until three others have been addressed:

1. The god question. Yes, god rather than God. God, if not referring to a particular conception of deity, at least has a number of inherent assumptions lumped in with it. I posit that we must establish the intelligibility of god (which we can't even really define yet), before looking at whether god is really God.

2. The Jesus question. Jesus existed. That is not really a question. What is a question is whether he was more than a first century Jewish teacher, whether he was, rather is, the Incarnated God, that is, the Jewish God made flesh. The Jesus question is tied up in the god question. If there is not God, and a particular conception of God, then the common view of Jesus is problematic. From the other side, Jesus' claims of divinity radically altered the conception of God in Judaism, which places a unique burden of warrant on the Christian church. She must argue for both the Jewish conception of Jahweh and the transformation of that conception by the Church. These two, seemingly opposing viewpoints must both be reasoned out and reconciled.

3. The Christianity question. Flowing from the Jesus question is the question of what he intended to do. Did he found a church? If so, is one of the competing Jesus movements correct over and against the others? Can we even know that, and, if so, how?

Admittedly, these are huge questions, but remember that I am not offering a defense for the Christian faith per se. Rather, by piecing out various arguments for each of these matters upon which both Catholics and Protestants already agree, I hope to clearly demonstrate my intended mode of argumentation and set the stage for certain questions to be addressed later. Enough for now.