The Anglican Scotist offers an intriguing argument that allowing the unbaptized to take communion is not only not prohibited, it is to be preferred. He summarizes the argument thusly:
[A1] (1) If CWOB [communion without baptism] is forbidden, God is not omnipotent.
(2) God is omnipotent.
Thus, (3) CWOB is permitted.
In reading the Scotist’s first premise, you’ll probably have the same reaction I did: “Says who?” He rightly recognizes that that his premise must be defended. He does so fairly deftly, with two additional syllogisms arguing that we’re obligated to hope for universal salvation, and thus we should err on the side of admitting people to the communion table.
It’s a worthwhile read, along with its predecessor posting, “On Open Communion.”
With no apologies whatsoever to the infamous Arnaud Amaury, I would riff on the Scotist’s argument as follows: Feed them all! God will know his own.
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