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 [...]
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:
Lawrence Feingold
Two weeks ago, Lawrence Feingold of the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Ave Maria University, presented a teaching on the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministerial priesthood, at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. The audio of this teaching is available below, in two parts, each about 34 minutes [...]
Fr. Dwight Longenecker has written a nice summary (in two sentences!) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel, The Lord of the Rings. I was moved to comment there, and now to post a greatly amplified version of that comment here. One justification for the latter move is that the subject has some bearing upon recent discussions at [...]
I was involved in a wonderful conversation the other day with a few friends of mine, two Catholics (one of whom is a priest) and a Presbyterian (PCA). Over some good tobacco and coffee at the local cigar shop we discussed a variety of things, including Baptism. My friend, the Presbyterian, spoke about [...]
I was blessed to spend roughly 6 years as a part of the OPC. Love them or leave them, you cannot deny their tenacity for truth and orthodoxy. While the Eastern Orthodox have been called Orthodox for a long time, there is a sense in which this denomination which began in the 1930s has “earned” [...]
Someone recently remarked that sacramentalism was a medieval corruption of authentic Christianity. Perhaps the early Christians were cold rationalists, unswayed by superstitious notions that God had created a magical world. God’s world acted strictly according to scientific laws He had put in place and to suggest otherwise amounted the high treason of believing [...]
Recently, in another forum, I made some comments about “conversionism.” Casting matters in terms of isms might be seen as pejorative, but it helps me keep certain conflicting tendencies clear in my mind. You are free to call my position “sacramentalism.”
Several years ago when I was once a Calvinist, I remember reading this quote by John Calvin and being impressed by it:
We must confess, then, that if the representation which God gives us in the Supper is true, the internal substance of the sacrament is conjoined with the visible signs; and as the bread is [...]
As I was reading Calvin’s refutation of the Seven Sacraments, I found his argument against Extreme Unction especially unusual. Calvin recognizes that the Anointing of the Sick has its origins with Christ (Mark 6:13) and was performed by the Apostles (James 5:14-21).
