Part of a series on Baptism in Depth. In my study of Baptism so far, I’ve taken for granted that the baptism of John the Baptist was somehow irrelevant to Christian Baptism, since all Christians agree that it was merely a foreshadowing of Christ’s. I now think my omission was a mistake. All combined, the …
Category Archives: Theology
Protestantism as a Negative: No Reason for Being in Itself?
The more I read of Protestant apologetics, the more I am convinced that Protestantism exists only as a rejection of the Catholic Church. It is wholly a negative; it has nothing substantive or positive to say in support of itself. When it comes down to the issues that define the Protestant tradition, the venerated “five …
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The Mercy of Purgatory
(Today is All Souls’ Day, the commemoration of the holy souls in purgatory. As it happens, I had this post half-brewed already after a recent e-mail conversation with an anti-Catholic.) One of the most frequent charges I hear from anti-Catholics against the doctrine of purgatory is that it “nullifies the finished work of Christ on …
Defending Sola Scriptura: A Challenge
(I’m going to attempt to write the post I tried to write yesterday before I lost it to a tangent.) Recently I’ve been talking to Protestants, especially those who present themselves as being of an apologetic bent, and asking them to defend the principles of the Reformation. St. Peter exhorts us to “always be prepared …
Sola Scriptura and Authority: What authority does your interpretation of Scripture have?
(I shouldn’t write much today. I stand poised to wrap up a draft of the last chapter of the thesis. But I know it’s been a little while and I wanted to share a little bit lest you forget about me. I have a bit of previously written material I may share over the next …
Denying Original Sin (Baptism in Depth)
Part of a series on Baptism in Depth. Growing up as an Evangelical Protestant, I didn’t have much of a theological foundation. But if there was any doctrine that I knew well and understood, it was Original Sin: Because Adam and Eve chose to reject God and sin, we have all inherited a fallen nature, …
The Sovereignty of God, or, My Brush with Calvinism, Part 2: A Crisis of Faith
The next post in my spiritual autobiography, and the conclusion(?) to my account of my struggle with Calvinism. I don’t know; maybe there will be more. I thought I would nudge a couple of Reformed friends in case they might be interested in my thoughts. I grew a lot as a person and as a …
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The Sovereignty of God, or, My Brush with Calvinism, Part 1
The next chapter in my conversion story, a long-promised episode that I think will be of interest to many of my Reformed brethren. In the year or two after my revolution, I began searching for God and for my true spiritual home, more earnestly than ever. Despite all my wanderings and stumblings, I still had …
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Justified by Faith: Paul and Baptism (Baptism in Depth)
Part of a series on Baptism in Depth. A few days ago, I had a startling realization about St. Paul. I’ve always been frustrated by Paul’s lack of emphasis on Baptism. If Baptism is what saves us (1 Peter 3:21), why does Paul so seldom mention it in conjunction with salvation? Reformed Protestants are quick …
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The Doctrine of Justification: Augustine is Catholic
Today is the feast day of St. Augustine, and though I have a lot of other things on my plate today, I thought it was an opportune time to make a first post in a matter that’s been boiling over in my head for a while. A couple of months ago I finished reading Alister …
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