Last weekend, Called to Communion’s Tim Troutman and I got together for drinks with a fellow that Tim sponsored in his parish’s RCIA program. In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that I had been reading the transcripts and other documents pertaining to the Peter Leithart trial in the Pacific Northwest Presbytery of the [...]
I. The Reformed Position: The claim in the Westminster Confession of Faith that all controversies of religion ultimately are to be determined by the Holy Spirit speaking in Sacred Scripture contradicts the testimony of the Church Fathers, who repeatedly teach the necessity of judging such controversies by way of the Church and Sacred Scripture. The [...]
Brent Stubbs This is a guest post by Brent Stubbs, in which he reviews Christian Smith’s recent book The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. Brent is a convert to the Catholic Church from the Pentecostal tradition. However, his theology became Reformed while he was pursuing a BA [...]
Stephen Beck Stephen Beck was raised Evangelical, but read his way into the Reformed world. He became a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and then the Presbyterian Church in America. Stephen and his family were received into the Catholic Church on the Easter Vigil of 2011 at St. Andrew’s by the Bay Catholic Church [...]
Did Jesus provide for the continuing transmission of the Christian faith? What a simple and foundational question! And yet, oddly, it is one that Protestant apologists rarely ask. In the history of Protestant apologetics, great emphasis is placed on how we recognize the inspiration of Scripture (Church authority vs. internal witness of the Spirit), the [...]
This is a guest post by Michael Liccione, who is well known to regular readers of Called To Communion. Michael earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. in philosophy and religion at Columbia University. He has taught at a number of institutions, including UPenn, St. Francis College, the Catholic [...]
In November of 2009, Neal Judisch and I posted an article titled “Solo Scriptura, Sola Scriptura, and the Question of Interpretive Authority.” The article provoked a good deal of discussion, the comments now number over 1,200. Our article was a reply to Keith Mathison’s book The Shape of Sola Scripura, and focused on the distinction [...]
Catholics claim that when Jesus Christ established his Church, he permanently endowed her with a Magisterium that can teach infallibly on matters of faith and morals. Protestants deny this claim, appealing instead to the sole infallible authority of Sacred Scripture. Catholics respond to the principle of sola scriptura in various ways, including the claim that apart [...]
In this episode, Tom Riello, former PCA minister, interviews Annie Witz, a convert from the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Annie’s father is an elder in the OPC church and serves on the board of Westminster Seminary California. Annie shares her personal conversion story from being a devout OPC member to a Catholic in the [...]
One of the seven Old Testament books rejected by Martin Luther and subsequent Protestants was the book of Ecclesiasticus, alternatively known by its “Old Latin” title Sirach. The other books rejected by Protestantism are Judith, Tobit, Wisdom, Baruch, and 1 & 2 Maccabees. Ecclesiasticus/Sirach is found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (three copies to be [...]
