Schism in Christianity is usually explained in terms of personalities, politics, scandals, or discipline. But those explanations never seem to reach the root of the problem. In this talk, I argue that the deepest cause of schism in the Church is not moral or historical, but philosophical. Beneath many modern disagreements—between Protestants and Catholics, and even among Catholics themselves—lies a hidden metaphysical assumption about where the Christian faith exists. Is the faith an abstract ideal that can exist apart from the visible Church? Or does it exist only as embodied, historical, and concrete? Drawing on the classical distinction between Platonism and Aristotelianism, this lecture examines how different understandings of truth, form, and reality lead to radically different views of the Church, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and Christ’s promises of indefectibility. We will explore: Why schism cannot be explained adequately by history or politics alone How both Protestant and “Traditionalist Catholic” positions often share the same hidden assumption Why the Catholic Church’s self-understanding is fundamentally incarnational, not ideal How the doctrines of infallibility and indefectibility depend on a realist metaphysics Why “Outside the Church there is no salvation” ultimately means that Christianity cannot exist as an abstraction This is not a polemic against persons or groups. It is an attempt to uncover an unexamined philosophical error that quietly undermines Christian unity—and to show why the Catholic understanding of the Church alone coheres with both reason and Revelation. If you have ever asked: Why Christianity keeps dividing Whether the Church can lose the faith Where the “true faith” actually exists, or Why the Church must be visible --this talk is for you.

Mr. William C. Michael, O.P. Headmaster Classical Liberal Arts Academy https://classicalliberalarts.com