Yesterday Professor Lawrence Feingold gave an outstanding lecture on “St. Paul on Justification.” Listen to the lecture and the Q&A below: Lecture: Q&A: The mp3s for this lecture (and the Q&A) can be downloaded here. I’m creating a forum here for us to discuss this lecture.

Friends, As the blog discussions grow larger I wanted to remind everybody of our posting guidelines.  The purpose of these guidelines is to encourage a spirit of charity and to encourage an honest discussion.   The guidelines can be found here. We would ask that everybody read these again.  We really don’t want to be put [...]

Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, `You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but [...]

I stumbled across this article in Time Magazine while waiting for my oil change. I guess it’s old news by now but I’m interested in your reaction to it (particularly if you’re a Calvinist).

What did Christ do for us through His Passion, according to Aquinas? Was it necessary that He suffer? How do we receive the salvific benefits of Christ’s Passion? Was His Passion sufficient? Does God hate sinners?

I guess I’m starting to wonder whether any of the major players ever really disagreed with each other on the question of assurance of salvation. Everybody seemed to agree, at least at various points in their reflections, that you might not have (do not have?) strict certainty regarding (a) whether you are currently justified (or [...]

In this fifth post in this series, I examine what St. Thomas Aquinas says about the third of the three effects of sin, namely, debt of punishment. Why does sin cause a debt of punishment? Is the debt the same for mortal and venial sins? Is sin the punishment for sin? Does the debt remain [...]

What happens in justification and is it instantaneous? In ST IaIIae q. 113, a. 6, Thomas answers that there are four things necessary for justification of the wicked:

In this fourth post in our series on Aquinas and the Council of Trent, I examine what St. Thomas Aquinas says about another effect of sin, namely, stain in the soul. How does sin cause a stain in the soul? What is this stain? Is it caused by all sins or only mortal sins? Does [...]

In this episode, Tom Riello interviews Sean Patrick and Tim Troutman on the topics of their recent articles on Called to Communion: Soli Deo Gloria and Sola Gratia.