Recently I was asked for my evaluation of Doug Wilson’s article titled “Authority and Apostolic Succession.” For the sake of any others who may be interested in a Catholic evaluation of Doug’s article, I am posting my evaluation here.
Throughout the past year on Called to Communion, the various blog posts and full-length articles by the contributors have been met with objections of various stripes and sizes. It has been a mixture of excitement, hope, prayer, frustration, and calls for mercy for me to read many of those posts and the dialogue that has [...]
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? [...]
On this day, March 7, in the year 1274, seven hundred and thirty six years ago, St. Thomas Aquinas departed from this life, and thus today is his traditional feast day.1 Last year, on this day, I began a series of posts intending to show how St. Thomas’s theology helps explain the soteriology set forth [...]
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 [...]
Ligonier Ministries recently posted an excerpt from the late John Gerstner’s Primer on Justification. This article, taken together with things he has written elsewhere concerning the nature of faith, manifests an interesting and important inconsistency in Dr. Gerstner’s thinking about justification. Before turning to that problem, I want to make a few comments on the [...]
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?
Here is a simple synopsis of God’s original plan for Adam by Saint Augustine. Notice how Augustine views humanity as “between the angelic and bestial,” since man consists of a immaterial, separable soul and a material body:
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 [...]
In the second part of the second part of his Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas explains the seven virtues: the three theological virtues (i.e. faith, hope, and love), and the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance). In his section on Faith, St. Thomas says something quite shocking to modern ears.
