Non-Catholics (and yes, even the Eastern Orthodox) do not enjoy the ecclesial unity Saint Paul prescribed for the Church of Jesus Christ. Saint Paul is resolute in his conviction that the Church of Christ must be one. Most of his epistles specifically speak against disunity within the Church. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians seems […]

Saint Augustine famously interpreted the “closed gate” through which passed the “prince” in Ezek 44 as a type of Mary’s perpetual virginity. Mary is the closed city and the prince miraculously passed through the closed gate. Here is the beautiful passage from Augustine describing from Scripture why Saint Joseph and Saint Mary did not consummate […]

This post originally appeared at the Canterbury Tales blog. Let me begin by saying that I am honored to have received a response from N.T. Wright in Christianity Today last month. He is a giant and he has probably influenced me more than any other living theologian (yes, even more than Ratzinger/Benedict XVI). At the […]

Tim Troutman interviews Taylor Marshall, former Episcopal priest, and Andrew Preslar, formerly studying for Anglican orders, on the subject of the new Anglican Ordinariates and what that means for Christianity and ecumenism. [podcast]https://www.calledtocommunion.com/media/CTC%20Podcast%20Episode%209%20-%20Anglican%20Ordinariates.mp3[/podcast] Download the mp3 here.

[Look for a Called to Communion podcast on the Anglican Ordinariates this week. Tim Troutman, Andrew Preslar and I recorded on Friday evening.] The Holy Father has announced the formation of a “personal ordinariate” for Anglicans coming into the Catholic Church. A lot of people are confused by what is meant by “personal ordinariate.” The […]

I want to thank Tim Troutman and the rest of the Called to Communion fellows for allowing me to put up a quick post about my new book: The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of Catholic Christianity now available on amazon.com. The book begins with an event in which I encountered a Jewish Rabbi […]

Dr. Scott Hahn’s Kinship by Covenant is a revised and updated version of his 1995 doctoral dissertation Kinship by Covenant: A Biblical Theological Study of the Covenant Types and Texts in the Old and New Testaments published for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. The great biblical scholar, David Noel Freedman (d. 2008), recognized that […]

Years ago while listening to Hank Hanegraaff’s Bible Answer Man radio program, a caller called in about “Christ suffering in Hell.” Hank rightly explained that “Christ suffering in Hell” is not a biblical doctrine, but noted that the doctrine was held by John Calvin. Hank respectfully disagreed with Calvin. We can argue back and forth […]

Augustine uses the term “infusion” (like the Council of Trent) and not “imputation” (like Luther and Calvin) when discussing God’s act of justification: “For by this grace He engrafts into His body even baptized infants, who certainly have not yet become able to imitate any one. As therefore He, in whom all are made alive, […]

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 […]