before commenting.
Becoming Reformed after a six year sojourn in the evangelical world of Calvary Chapel, I was pleased to give up speculations about the end of the world via the notion of an imminent Rapture. There was a lack of historical support for thinking this way, and there was also a pleasing emphasis on Scripture as opposed to the newspaper. But every once in awhile, I must admit that the pure joy of thinking about the coming of God Himself to earth seemed to be too distant for someone like me to continue to enjoy. Was there any place for a continued hope of God coming to earth? Or was all of that joy based on predictions that so often never came to pass? (Continue Reading…)
This is the third in a three part series. Part One may be read here. In this post, I want to make a few remarks about how language, particularly in its stylistic or aesthetic aspect, relates to reality. I will do this by way of briefly indicating how Middle Earth is rooted in language, and how language functions in that world. This bit will be extremely rudimentary (relative to the depth and complexity of the subject), but should at least illustrate the point I hope to make; namely, that translations of biblical and liturgical texts should be beautiful and traditional, even if this is accompanied (or constituted) by a certain strangeness, or unfamiliarity, as compared to contemporary and common forms of speech. (Continue Reading…)
Recently a friend reminded me of a common Protestant analogy regarding salvation and merit. The analogy is that sinners have a ‘bank account’ wherewith to ‘pay’ for their eternal salvation. The problem is that man cannot possibly have enough in this account to pay the ‘amount due.’ Faith in Christ is equivalent to having a blank check payable from Christ’s own account of merit. So in that analogy, God does not withdraw the ‘merit’ from the sinner’s account but from Christ’s account. (Continue Reading…)
The impetus for this brief post is Bryan’s recent response to Rose in the thread on St. Augustine on Law and Grace. Rose asks about the contention she has heard from Protestants that St. Augustine did not understand the meaning of δικαιόω (dikaiow), which means, according to the Protestants, to count righteous rather than to make righteous. Bryan’s comments on the lexical fallacy and the tradition of interpretation are great, but the Catholic position is also not without its own lexical merit. In this post I will examine the morphology of δικαιόω, show that there is sufficient lexical evidence to support the factitive/causal interpretation and briefly touch on the translation history of the gospels into Latin. (Continue Reading…)
This is not exactly a story, though it is partly autobiographical, and partly allegorical, or perhaps just highly allusive. Mostly, it is a farrago, which I must have written after reading something by Belloc. Anyway, I found it, finished it, touched it up, and here it is. The whole thing is called “The Last Road.”
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Allow me to introduce Stephen Wilkins, our third new contributor in the month of August. Stephen is a long time regular in the combox of Called to Communion. You may have seen him comment as “Wilkins.” Stephen, a convert from the PCA, will be helping us fill an editing role and will also be writing for CTC. He holds an MA in English and is currently pursuing his second MA, this time in theology, at Franciscan University. He has formerly volunteered as proofreader for The Glass, a literary journal published in the UK by the Christian Literary Studies Group. (Continue Reading…)
In a previous blog post, I wrote about the joys and similarities which bind together the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. As tragic as our lack of full communion with one another is, there is a bond which unites us even now while our sacramental reunion is mostly a hope for the future. This bond is so deep in my estimation that it is with much fear and trembling that I write this post. But to be honest to my conscience and to my understanding of the Apostolic Churches that are not in full communion with one another, I must state it loud and state it clear: I love the Orthodox too much to be Orthodox. (Continue Reading…)
Recently Juan Callejas wrote about the relics of St. John Bosco (Don Bosco) being brought on a tour of Guatemala. Juan described his own perplexity at the eagerness and excitement of Catholics upon the arrival of the saint’s relics. (Continue Reading…)
Just a few months before I was certain I needed to enter the Catholic Church, I wrote the following post on a blog I had been using to write out my thoughts about discerning the Church. I re-post it here, with some edits that seem appropriate now that I am Catholic, to reach Called to Communion’s particular audience.
An early 2009 Christianity Today contained a provocative article entitled Jesus Is Not A Brand. In it, the author, Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, analyzes the conflation of evangelism with sales marketing. He states: (Continue Reading…)
Our second new contributor is Barrett Turner. Barrett was still a Protestant when he first commented at CTC. Now he’s in the doctoral program at Catholic University of America. Here’s Barrett’s bio:
Though raised United Methodist, Barrett was heavily influenced by Reformed University Fellowship and a local PCA church at the University of Virginia. During his time at Covenant Theological Seminary after college, he became increasingly intrigued and troubled by “the Catholic question”. As a result, he and his wife began a period of discernment and eventually RCIA. They were received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis at the 2010 Easter Vigil. Barrett is currently a doctoral student in moral theology at the Catholic University of America.
Barrett, welcome to the team!
