One major point of circular reasoning with Protestant thought on the identification of the canon is the concept of the canon as its own standard. For example, the Reformers claimed that the New Testament books were obviously canonical because of their apostolic character. But according to them where do we learn of the apostolic faith? [...]
When I was younger, I used to think that God actually could lie if He wanted to, but He simply chose not to because of His goodness. I didn’t realize, and I think many people still don’t, that He literally cannot lie. Some theological errors can be avoided by understanding that God cannot [...]
Proponents of sola scriptura, especially those who would like to believe that the early Church fathers espoused this doctrine, have an important question to consider. Why didn’t the Church address the canon issue at Nicaea?
One liturgical year ago on this day, Ash Wednesday, we launched Called to Communion with the vision of engaging Reformed Christians on the fundamental issues that keep us divided. Our ultimate goal has ever been the restoration to full sacramental unity of all of God’s people. The division among Christ’s followers scandalizes a [...]
With a title like this, the reader might initially expect a long list of patristic quotes, but I’ll take a different route. In fact, I intend to write this without quoting the fathers even once. Let’s see if I can withstand the temptation.
The ante-Nicene Church was, from a political perspective, an illegal network [...]
Called to Communion is now back online (obviously) and running on new servers. Our old hosting service was always sluggish and sometimes painfully slow. So far, the site seems to be running much faster. Also notice our slightly updated design, we hope you like it. Finally, I want to draw your attention to a new [...]
In the recent discussion following Bryan and Neal’s article, which demonstrated that there was no principled difference between solo and sola scriptura, one guest conceded that there might not be a principled difference between the two, but there was a practical difference. That claim was addressed, but perhaps insufficiently, and I think it’s an [...]
The proud man, says C.S. Lewis, cannot see God because he is always looking down his nose at things and people, and so long as you are looking down, you cannot see what is above you. We can never let ourselves forget that in this on-going search for truth, the truth will always remain above [...]
God is said to will a thing in one of two ways: absolutely or contingently. If God wills a thing absolutely, then it necessarily happens. So a thing which does not happen cannot be said to have been God’s absolute will. But we know per divine revelation that God wills some things [...]
Before we launched Called to Communion, the team discussed at length how we would make our vision explicit. We didn’t want to be just another group blog, and we didn’t want to be an apologetic website where parties argue back and forth to no end. We want to achieve something more.
