A Christian's Road Home to Rome and Journey Onward
This is the seventh post in my series on James R. White’s The Roman Catholic Controversy. This post is the second part of my review of Chapter 6, “The Thousand Traditions.” Part One. I should thank James White for introducing me to a new concept in the understanding of Catholicism, of which before I was …
Continue reading “The Roman Catholic Controversy: Catholic Epistemology”
Blog friends, I want to show you something cool. I was recently introduced by Jimmy Akin's podcast to Logos Bible Software for Catholics. I have long slavered over Logos’s incredible software libraries, with bibles and lexica and commentaries galore — whole books by the hundreds loaded up on the cart. Unfortunately, their scholarly packages are …
Continue reading “Logos Bible Software for Catholics: A not entirely selfless plug”
This sixth post in my series on James R. White’s The Roman Catholic Controversy. I am really getting bogged down with this. White’s chapters aren’t getting longer, but my responses to them are. I reckon his accusations are growing more and more onerous and his tone more and more condemning, and I feel there is …
Continue reading “The Roman Catholic Controversy: Tradition and the Magisterium”
Continuing my Saturdays with Mary, here is a quote from Pope St. Leo the Great (c. 391–461): He was engendered by a new kind of birth, conceived by a Virgin, born of a Virgin, without a father’s carnal concupiscence, without injuring his Mother’s integrity. Indeed, such a birth was appropriate for the future Savior of …
This is a little reflection I meant to make a few months ago on May 3, the Feast of Saints Philip and James, regarding the confusion about who that particular Saint James, the son of Alphaeus, actually is. But I got busy that day and didn’t post. Today is the Feast of Saint James the …
Continue reading “Too Many Jameses: Untangling Jesus’s Family and Friends”
A little flash that just occurred to me: Protestants argue sola fide, that we are justified by faith alone. The Catholic position is often presented as fide et operis, by faith and works. But Catholics and Protestants agree that it is not our action or operation, either in having faith or doing works, that saves …
One of the most iconic phrases of the English New Testament, one of the Apostle Paul’s great quotes that has always echoed in my ears growing up, is to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). But what does that even mean? Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so …
I am really deeply troubled. I can’t entirely put my finger on why, but this is the same burden that has been dogging me all weekend. It seems very wrong, very contrary to the will of God, that even in the decadence of modern secular society — a decadence that threatens even the Church — …
In line with my recent posts discussing Protestant and Catholic conceptions of authority, here is a really splendid post on Called to Communion, exploring the topic in more depth and greater theological and philosophical acuity than I could hope to: “The Catholic and Protestant Authority Paradigms Compared.” It’s piercing, astute, and thought-provoking, as Called to …
Continue reading “The Catholic and Protestant authority paradigms compared”
Whew. That last post wore me out. I am feeling very troubled and worn at the polemic tone my blog has taken the last week or two. It has never been my aim to attack Protestants or evangelicals. I was one for so long, and still share in that heritage, and most of the Christians …