St. Thomas writes the following about attaining true happiness: [M]an cannot attain his end of Perfect Happiness by his own powers, but only by God’s grace. [ST I-II q.5 a.5] The Throne of Grace Why? Because for man, perfect happiness comes only through seeing God Himself. Aquinas refers to what St. Paul writes in 1 […]

St. Augustine, God rest his soul, can’t be happy about how Western Christians have been fighting over the rights to his theological legacy for the last five hundred years. This in-fighting notwithstanding, a few issues make Augustine stand out as decidedly Catholic. Recently we discussed the issue of the canon, and Augustine clearly supports the […]

In Summa theologiae II-II, q. 4, a. 4, Saint Thomas Aquinas examines James 2:24 and the faith that does not justify. Thomas distinguishes between “faith formed by love” and “faith not formed by love”. Thomas says that the faith of each is one and the same. They are not two different kinds of faith. Rather, […]

In this episode, Tom Riello interviews Sean Patrick and Tim Troutman on the topics of their recent articles on Called to Communion: Soli Deo Gloria and Sola Gratia. [podcast]https://www.calledtocommunion.com/media/Called%20to%20Communion%20-%20Podcast%20Episode%203.mp3[/podcast]

Growing up in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), I was taught that the five solas were the central doctrines separating the Reformers from the Catholic Church, and that the convictions revealed in the five solas provided the impetus that triggered the Protestant Reformation. In this paper, I consider one such ‘sola’ — namely, sola […]