This is a bit heavier than my usual posts here, but it answers an important question that Protestant apologists have posed to me and other Catholic converts: Was I only drawn to the Catholic Church because its claims to authority offered an “easy out” to the difficulties of weighing Scripture and doctrine for myself? Paralysis …
Tag Archives: Roman Catholic Church
Were the churches of the New Testament independent of one another?
The beginning of a series: “How do I know the Catholic Church is the Church Jesus founded?” It is a commonplace of Catholic apologetics that we claim that “the Catholic Church is the Church Jesus founded.” On the other hand, opponents charge that the Catholic Church was in fact founded at some later date, often …
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Some Early Testimonies to the Authority of Apostolic Tradition
Part of an ongoing discussion at Reformation500. As I’ve been arguing, I think Protestants, in thinking about “Tradition,” fail to see the forest for the trees. You (and I presume these historians) are looking for “traditions,” “hidden doctrines,” something concretely novel or different from the Word of God in Scripture — but given that, according …
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The Prior Authority of Tradition
This originated as an off-the-cuff reply this morning, in this thread. I thought it came out rather well. I think you’re overlooking the very crux of the matter. “Sola scriptura” is more than just a claim that Scripture is an infallible standard: it’s a claim that it is the only infallible standard. And if we …
Oxford
Part of my ongoing conversion story. By the spring of 2010, I had narrowed my graduate search to three institutions, who each had accepted me to their history programs and offered me assistantships. I was not at all impressed with Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi; the less said about that the better. I was …
Baptism with the Holy Spirit or Fire?
Part of a series on Baptism in Depth. In my last post on Baptism, a commenter raised an important question that I had overlooked: When John prophesied that the Messiah would “baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire,” did he refer to an efficacious Sacrament of Baptism in water, by which believers would be immersed …
Towards the Truth
It’s been brought to my attention that I’ve left you all hanging for a while for the next chapter of my conversion story. Sorry about that. Deep in history The year I taught at Veritas brought great progress in what, I’d finally realized, was my search for the Church — or at least, I thought …
Reading Church History as a Protestant: The “Great Apostasy” Narrative
Recently I’ve been writing about assumptions and presumptions that Protestants make in reading the early history of the Church: particularly the presumption that if the Church they observe in early documents does not resemble their Protestant one, then it must have apostatized from the true, apostolic faith of Christ that they read in Scripture. Scripture …
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Was Peter the First Pope? A Comprehensive Response
Friends, here’s a very detailed post I’ve been working on, answering as comprehensively as I could, from Scripture and history, a question often asked by Protestants: Was Peter really the first pope? I’ve been working hard on this for a couple of weeks, so I hope you enjoy it. If anyone has any further questions …
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St. Irenaeus’s Testimony to the Apostles
Today is the feast day of St. Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 125–ca. 200), one of the earliest witnesses we have to the authority of the Church and to the doctrine of apostolic succession. I’m still trying to dig my way out from under this thesis, but I thought I would bring you a few quotes I’ve …