Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

New: "The Case for Catholicism: Answers to Classic and Contemporary Protestant Objections"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

The Case for Catholicism: Answers to Classic and Contemporary Protestant Objections

by Trent Horn

This is the most up-to-date, comprehensive, and thorough defense of the Catholic Church against Protestant objections in print. This book is especially relevant as the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation draws near and discussion of the arguments made against the Church during that time in history receive renewed interest.  

The Case for Catholicism answers arguments put forward by early Reformers like Luther and Calvin as well as contemporary defenders of Protestantism like Norm Geisler and R.C. Sproul. It provides a meticulous defense of the biblical and historical nature of Catholic doctrines from Scripture and church history. Finally, in both answering Protestant objections to Catholicism and in providing evidence for the Faith, The Case for Catholicism cites modern Protestant scholars who question Reformation assumptions and show how evidence from Scripture and church history support aspects of Catholic theology.

This book is divided into four sections, with each answering a key question Christians have asked about the nature of their faith. Those key questions are:

• What is my authority?
• What is the Church?
• How am I saved?
• Who belongs to the body of Christ?

The Case for Catholicism will become a reliable, resource for any Catholic who desires a well-researched, readable, and persuasive answer to Protestant arguments made against the Catholic faith.

Trent Horn, a convert to Catholicism, has a BA in history from Arizona State University, and an MA in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is a regular guest on the radio program Catholic Answers Live, and a lecturer nationwide on the Catholic faith. He is the author and the author of Answering Atheism, Persuasive Pro-life, and Hard Sayings.

New: "The Great Heresies" by Hilaire Belloc, with Foreword by Karl Keating

Now available from Ignatius Press:

The Great Heresies

by Hilaire Belloc

Foreword by Karl Keating

In this new edition of a classic work, the great Catholic apologist and historian Hilaire Belloc examines the five most destructive heretical movements in Christianity: Arianism, Mohammedanism (Islam), Albigensianism, Protestantism, and Modernism. Belloc describes how these movements began, how they spread, and how they have continued to influence the world. He accurately predicts the re-emergence of militant Islam and its violent aggression against Western civilization.

When we hear the word "heresies", we tend to think of distant centuries filled with religious quarrels that seemed important at the time but are no longer relevant. Belloc shows that the heresies of olden times are still with us, sometimes under different names and guises, and that they still shape our world.

Hilaire Belloc was one of the most important and versatile authors of the 20th century. A social commentator and a master of finely crafted prose, he wrote numerous books on social, historical and theological topics. His books include The Path to Rome; The Battleground: Syria and Palestine, the Seed Plot of Religion; and many more.

"We live with the aftereffects of twenty centuries of heresies. If this book speaks to us as though it were written yesterday, it is because heresy is a perennial problem. 'All men by nature desire to know', said Aristotle, but many men are incapable of knowing well or of thinking clearly. The result is religious error. To deal with it, we must learn its origin and history. There seldom has been a better teacher than Hilaire Belloc."
— Karl Keating, from the Foreword; Author, Catholicism and Fundamentalism

"The Great Heresies is a masterpiece of intellectual history which takes us on a journey across the landscape of the centuries. With the inimitable Belloc as our guide we follow the path of the Church Militant as she passes, sure-footed with the grace of orthodoxy, through the quagmire of errors which characterize the prideful wanderings of the human mind and heart."
— Joseph Pearce, Author, Catholic Literary Giants

New: "Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other?" by Peter Kreeft

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other?

by Peter Kreeft

The widely read author and philosopher Peter Kreeft presents a unique book that focuses on the important beliefs that Catholics and Protestants share in common. He says this book is inspired by Christ's high priestly prayer in the Gospel of John "that they may be one," and by St. John Paul II's ecumenical encyclical, Ut Unum Sint, which is also based on Christ's prayer for unity. While there are still significant differences, Kreeft says that there has been a radical step of agreement on the single most important issue, justification.

Kreeft says the style of the book is that of Pascal, Nietzsche, Solomon, and Jesus: short answers, single points to ponder rather than long strings of argument. It is direct, simple, and confrontational, but vertically rather than horizontally, "directing arrows not against each other (Protestant or Catholic) but against our own hearts and minds and wills."

It is timely because, as Pope St. John Paul II said, this next millennium is destined to be the millennium of Christian reunification as the first millennium was that of Christian unity, and the second one of Christian disunity.

Above all, Kreeft says that this work is simple, not easy, or obvious, but condensed. It – like all of reality – is Christocentric. Its purpose is to be "like an Australian sheep dog, herding and hectoring Christ's separated sheep back to His face. For that is the only way they can ever return back to each other."

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Boston College, is one of the most widely read Christian authors of our time. His many bestselling books cover a vast array of topics in spirituality, theology, and philosophy. They include How to Be Holy, Practical Theology, Back to Virtue, Because God Is Real, You Can Understand the Bible, Angels and Demons, Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing, and A Summa of the Summa.

"Peter Kreeft has a remarkable gift for expressing complex issues in lucid, accurate, and pithy ways. He also has the fairness and insight needed to undertake a tractate to bring Catholics and Protestants into closer union. This book will no doubt help understanding and dialog between both."
— Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., Author, The Soul's Upward Yearning

"No one has taught me more about what healthy ecumenism looks like than the brilliant and eloquent Peter Kreeft. He is a peerless apologist for truth and has been an inspiration to me for over two decades on the happy and vital connections between serious Catholic and evangelical faith."
— Eric Metaxas, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Bonhoeffer; Host of the Eric Metaxas Show

"Readers will expect-- and be gratified to find -- what we always find in any work by Kreeft: thorough, solid, intelligent work, and agile prose style, brought to the service of dependable content. This book should help us to find a real step forward in the mutual understanding of these two sectors of the Ancient Faith."
— Thomas Howard, Author, On Being Catholic

"Peter Kreeft, one of our finest Christian writers today, has given us a passionate plea for Christian unity, one that builds upon the great common core of Christian belief confessed by faithful Protestants and Catholics alike. A volume full of faith-and hope."
— Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University

"In his unique style, Kreeft avoids academic verbosity and cuts right to the chase. His uncanny ability to reduce the complex into readable text is like poetry in motion. Christians from various traditions will find this book a pleasure to read."
— Stephen Ray, Author, Crossing the Tiber

"If only this book had been written five hundred years ago! Peter Kreeft is a reliable sherpa, guiding us safely through the theological and historical impasses into which countless unwary Christians have stumbled."
— Patrick Madrid, Author, Life Lessons; Host of the Patrick Madrid Show

"This is a book that lives up to its title, and will be a useful resource for any Catholic with Protestant friends or colleagues - and vice versa. It invites the reader to explore these often contentious issues with respect for both perspectives, and with genuine hope for resolution and reunion."
— Holly Ordway, Author, Not God's Type

The Liberty of Dogma vs. the Tyranny of Taste

St. John the Apostle, a portrait from the Book of Kells, c. 800 (Wikipedia)

The Liberty of Dogma vs. the Tyranny of Taste | Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report

Those who say that doctrines must serve the Church's pastoral mission have both inverted the proper order of things and placed sentiment above shepherding.

Years ago I wrote an article titled "Dogma is Not a Dirty Word". In it, I noted how those who criticize the Church for being "dogmatic" fail to understand that everyone is dogmatic in a very real sense, as G.K. Chesterton noted in his 1905 book Heretics: "Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. . . . Trees have no dogmas." Along those same lines, in 1928, Chesterton observed, “There are two kinds of people in the world, the conscious dogmatists and the unconscious dogmatists. I have always found myself that the unconscious dogmatists were by far the most dogmatic.”

In fact, the unconscious dogmatist has a funny way of dogmatically insisting he is entirely free of dogma—or, at the very least, he has attained a special perch above and beyond the clutches of dogma and doctrine, which are sources of discord, confusion, and contention. Examples abound within the secular realm. Far more disconcerting, however, are examples and instances within the Church. As when, to draw upon my dusty article, we encounter those who declare "that real ecumenism and real Christianity are not found in dry formulas but in the 'spirit of Christ.' Much is made of 'love' or 'sincerity' but often with little or no reference to the kind of demanding, self-denying life of holiness that Jesus set before his disciples." 

This came to mind upon reading a recent Crux interview with Bishop William Kenney of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2013 to be, as his online bio states, "co-chair of the international conversations between the Lutheran and Catholic Churches." It's not that Bishop Kenney is unaware of various theological or doctrinal concerns, but it appears he has happily moved past them, saying:

The things that we thought caused the Reformation have been taken away- the excommunication of the Lutherans was lifted, the condemnation of the Catholics were lifted. That is the formal Churches’ position now, it is not just a theological proposition. There are those who say this has already achieved unity; it is certainly a major step forward, and it has removed most of the problems of the Reformation.

Yes, he acknowledges, the "women priests question is complicated", but he then muses that when it comes to the Eucharist, "Lutherans have more or less the same doctrine as we have." How much more, or in what way less is not clear. But does it really matter? Apparently not. "Would Martin Luther have been excommunicated today? The answer is no, he probably wouldn’t. And he did not want to split the Church - he came to that, but it’s not where he began." In truth, contra the bishop's Monday morning quarterbacking, Luther was a man of many moods and many positions, perhaps even multiple personalities. As Dr. Christopher Malloy, a theologian who has studied and written extensively on Catholic-Lutheran matters, said to me in a lengthy June 2007 Ignatius Insight interview: "We need to pay attention to the following question: 'Which Lutheranism? Whose Luther?'" 

Not to worry, however, as Bishop Kenney serenely assures readers:

Continue reading on the CWR site.

New: "The Time Before You Die: A Novel of the Reformation" by Lucy Beckett

Now available from Ignatius Press:

The Time Before You Die: A Novel of the Reformation

by Lucy Beckett

A powerful, beautifully written historic novel of loss, finding and being found, set in a very traumatic period in Europe. The turbulent sixteenth century saw the disintegration of medieval Christendom as it was split into sovereign states. This was particularly destructive in Tudor England where rapid switches in government policy and religious persecution shattered the lives of many.

Especially affected were the monks and nuns who were persecuted by the wholesale dissolution of the monasteries carried out under Henry VIII. One of these monks, Robert Fletcher, a Carthusian of the dismantled priory of Mount Grace in Yorkshire, is the hero of this novel.

The story of this strong, vulnerable man is told in counterpoint with the story of one of the most interesting men in all of English history, Reginald Pole, a nobleman, scholar and theologian who was exiled to Italy for twenty years. He was a Cardinal of the Church, papal legate at the Council of Trent, and as Archbishop of Canterbury, with his cousin Queen Mary Tudor, they tried, in too short a time, to renew Catholic England. This man, in the tragic last months of his life, becomes in the novel the friend of Robert Fletcher, condemned as a heretic.

Readers will learn much from this novel of the anguished period which gave birth to Tridentine Catholicism as well as to the Anglican and other Protestant churches, and which martyred Carthusian monks as well as Thomas More, John Fisher, Thomas Cranmer and many others. The profound issues raised in this novel, which contains no altered historical facts but more human truth than facts alone can deliver, have not gone away. With the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017, there will be wide interest in these issues.

Lucy Beckett lives in Yorkshire and was educated at Cambridge University. For many years she was a professor of literature at Ampleforth Abbey. Her books include In the Light of Christ, a comprehensive study of the Western literary tradition; The Time before You Die, a novel about the English Reformation; and A Postcard from the Volcano. These have been warmly praised on both sides of the Atlantic. She is married and has four children. 

Praise for The Time Before You Die:

“This great novel places us in the turbulent time of the English Reformation where we experience the common trauma of the day, and then, as in all excellent historical fiction, we ask ourselves, ‘Where does my choice lie?’ Seldom has this challenge been given so well. Beckett is a very gifted writer."
—Michael D. O’Brien, Author, Father Elijah: An Apocalypse

“Lucy Beckett combines scholarship with imagination to tell the story of an evicted Carthusian monk and of a great ecclesiastical statesman who tragically failed to save England for the Catholic Church. An enlightening, moving, historical novel that is a pleasure to read.”
—Piers Paul Read, Author, Alive: The Andes Survivors

Why did these Evangelical seminarians become Catholic?

Over at National Catholic Register, Kathy Schiffer asks; "Why were so many students from Southern Evangelical Seminary willing to risk losing their jobs, ministries, and even family and friends to embrace a religion they once rejected as false or even heretical?" She writes:

Douglas Beaumont has brought together ten compelling conversion stories in a new book, Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome, published by Ignatius Press. Included among the Catholic converts who contributed to this book are Francis Beckwith, professor of philosophy and Church-State Studies at Baylor University; Joshua Betancourt, a lay Catholic hospital chaplain who has worked with St. Joseph Communications and Lighthouse Catholic Media; Andrew Preslar, a founding member of Called to Communion who had studied for the Anglican priesthood before being received into the Byzantine Rite; and seven others, all of whom have at least a Master's degree. Although ten SES students and faculty contributed to this book, Dr. Beaumont reported that there were two or three times as many converts whose conversion stories are not included in this collection.

Of course, their reasons varied. The contributing writers arrived at their Catholic faith from different perspectives, and were motivated by different concerns: the nature of the biblical canon, the identification of Christian orthodoxy, and the problems with the Protestant doctrines of sola scriptura (“scripture alone”) and sola fide (“faith alone”). Many were attracted by the Catholic Church's great beauty—its music, art, great cathedrals. It's important to note that many of the writers had never shared their thoughts with the others before the book was published.

Doug talked with the Register about his own conversion, and about the factors which led him to swim the Tiber and enter into full communion with Rome. “Several things got me thinking about the ancient church,” he explained. “Even though I had studied the Scriptures, I wanted to know more about the formation of the biblical canon. I was interested in what 'counts' as orthodoxy among all Christians, not just those in my tiny little group.” And as he studied and talked with other Christians, in both large and small denominations, the same problems kept popping up; there was always one more step to go.

Beaumont asked himself a hard question:  If I trust the church for the Bible that I have, at what point does it become acceptable to not trust the church any longer? 

Read the entire piece on the NCRegister site. Learn more about the book at Ignatius.com.

The Joys and Challenges of Filming the Story of Salvation History

The Joys and Challenges of Filming the Story of Salvation History | CWR Staff

Steve Ray, who has been working for 16 years on the ambitious "Footprints of God" series, discusses his vision, describes the difficulties, and asks for assistance as the project nears the finish line.

Author and apologist Stephen Ray (CatholicConvert.com) along with his wife Janet, entered the Catholic Church in 1994, a journey from the Baptist tradition to Catholicism described in Ray's first book, Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church. Since then he has kept busy with giving numerous talks, leading pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Rome, and other locations, and writing more books, including Upon This Rock: St. Peter and the Primacy of Rome in Scripture and the Early Church, and St. John's Gospel: A Bible Study and Commentary. 

Steve and Janet have also kept busy working on writing, filming, editing, and producing the award-winning video series for Ignatius Press titled ”The Footprints of God”. The Rays and their crew have completed eight of the ten films and are busy making preparations for the final two films, including raising money to help with the costs of filming on location in countries including Israel, Turkey, Italy, and Egypt. 

Catholic World Report recently caught up with Steve shortly before he and Janet left the country to lead a pilgrimage in Rome and Assisi. 

CWR: You’ve been working on the “Footprints of God” film project for 16 years. Where did the idea come from and how did you get started on such an ambitious project?

Steve Ray: It started in the middle of the night around 2 a.m. Without any forethought I woke up with a start. I sat up in the pitch dark and grabbed my wife and began to shake her, "Janet, Janet! Wake up, we have to make a ten-part video series on the history of salvation from a Catholic perspective!" I had woken her up so abruptly she she was shaking from fright. When she finally realized what I was saying she responded, “What? Are you crazy? I thought the house was on fire or you were having a heart attack. You woke me up in the middle of the night and scared me half to death to tell us we have to make movie? We can't even take good pictures—how does God expect us to make movies? You're crazy, go back to sleep."

She rolled over and went back to sleep but I was wide awake—and I was on fire. For the rest of the night I was at my computer with fingers flying, getting it all down out of my head before it disappeared. The ideas flowed like a waterfall and by the time the sun came up I had the whole outline of the series figured out, along with the title. It was going to be called The Footprints of God: The Story of Salvation from Abraham to Augustine. It would consist of ten parts and each one would explain how God has come to his people to offer redemption and salvation—to the point that he even got his own feet dirty doing it!

CWR: How did Ignatius Press get involved in the project?

Steve Ray: We called Ignatius Press to tell them our idea. They invited my wife and I out to San Francisco for lunch and a meeting. I presented my idea. By the end of the lunch we had their approval and the funding for the first movie Peter, Keeper of the Keys. Within six weeks we were flying over the land of the Bible in helicopters getting the aerial footage, and six weeks later we were filming Peter in Israel and Rome. We are grateful from the bottom of our hearts for the unflagging support and funding from Fr. Joseph Fessio, Mark Brumley, and Tony Ryan of Ignatius Press.

These movies couldn’t be like anything else out there. We wanted them to be unique and one of kind—and they are! 

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

New: "Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome

Edited by Douglas Beaumont

Over the course a single decade, dozens of students, alumni, and professors from a conservative, Evangelical seminary in North Carolina (Southern Evangelical Seminary) converted to Catholicism. These conversions were notable as they occurred among people with varied backgrounds and motivations—many of whom did not share their thoughts with one another until this book was produced. Even more striking is that the seminary's founder, long-time president, and popular professor, Dr. Norman Geisler, had written two full-length books and several scholarly articles criticizing Catholicism from an Evangelical point of view.

What could have led these seminary students, and even some of their professors, to walk away from their Evangelical education and risk losing their jobs, ministries, and even family and friends, to embrace the teachings they once rejected as false or even heretical? Speculation over this phenomenon has been rampant and often dismissive and misguided—leading to more confusion than understanding. The stories of these converts are now being told by those who know them best—the converts themselves.

They discuss the primary issues they had to face: the nature of the biblical canon, the identification of Christian orthodoxy, and the problems with the Protestant doctrines of sola scriptura ("scripture alone") and sola fide ("faith alone")

Douglas Beaumont has a Ph.D. in theology from North-West University and an M.A. in apologetics from Southern Evangelical Seminary, where he served as assistant to President Norman Geisler and taught Bible and religion for ten years. Beaumont is the author of The Message Behind the Movie (Moody, 2009) and has contributed to The Best Catholic Writing (Loyola, 2006), The Apologetics Study Bible for Students (B&H, 2010), and Got Questions? (Pleasant Word, 2009). He lives in Charlotte, N.C., with his wife and four children.

"This is a true 'Book of Exodus' — riveting like the original, inspired, and inspiring. The contributors have taken a long journey to the banks of the Tiber, and it is every step an adventure."
— Scott Hahn, President, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

"The integrity of this significant book is matched only by the passion of its contributors. Their honesty in recounting an odyssey of faith is refreshing indeed."
— Wayne Alan Detzler, Professor Emeritus, Southern Evangelical Seminary

"Just when I thought I'd heard all the reasons why Protestants become Catholic, I encountered Evangelical Exodus. This book has set a new standard for compelling conversion stories."
— Devin Rose, Author, The Protestant's Dilemma

"As these thoughtful contributors reveal, there is an exodus of smart Evangelical converts, marching backward in time, but forward in thought, to the promised land of Catholicism."
— Brandon Vogt, Author, Saints and Social Justice

"These conversion stories will encourage more Protestant ministers to come into the Church, as well as fallen away Catholics to come back home. I recommend this great book for everyone!"
— Terry Barber, Author, How to Share Your Faith with Anyone

Long Awaited "Memoirs" of renowned theologian Louis Bouyer coming soon from Ignatius Press

Ignatius Press announces that the much anticipated Memoirs of Louis Bouyer, one of the great theologians and church men of the last century, will be released in October 2015 and is available for pre-order now. In his Memoirs, Bouyer reveals many fascinating insights about his life and work not written about until now.
 
It is difficult to exaggerate Louis Bouyer’s contribution to Catholic theology and his behind-the-scenes role in certain great events of twentieth-century church life.  A French convert from Lutheranism, a priest of the Oratory, an expert on Scripture, liturgy, the history of spirituality, Newman, ecclesiology, and Reformation theology, twice-appointed member of the International Theological Commission, Bouyer was a man of immense theological vision and profound depth of knowledge and insight.  He was both a major theological contributor to the renewed vision that led to the Second Vatican Council and a staunch critic of its misunderstanding in the decades that followed it.
 
In this Memoirs, Bouyer recounts the story of his life and learning, the people, places, events, and ideas that shaped his profoundly Catholic life. He tells of his relationships and encounters with such theological and church notables as Yves Congar, Jean Danielou, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger (later, Pope Benedict XVI), Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Karl Rahner. A disciple of the Lord and a man of great love for the Church, he often writes with parrhesia – pastoral frankness – and wit about the shortcomings of Catholic institutions and life, especially with respect to changes undertaken in the name of “reform” but which did not truly partake of the sources of the Church’s life and mission.
 
Of the writing of his Memoirs Bouyer said, “In the pages that follow, what I would like to recall is what, on final, or undoubtedly very nearly final, reflection, seems to me to have the most meaning. I hope that those who read them, and especially my friends, both known and unknown (for a writer, are not many of these latter often among the closest?), will also draw some profit from them, perhaps more than I do myself. I hasten to add that the entertainment that these pages could, at least I hope, provide them is an integral part in my eyes of that potential profit. For it is a too-little-known but to me unquestionable fact that Providence has a great and, of course, the best sense of humor!”
 
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, says, “Fr. Louis Bouyer’s extraordinary Christian life was a template of the trials, passions, accomplishments, and unexpected consequences of the Catholic encounter with modernity. His Memoirs are required reading for all who would understand the Church’s situation in the 21st century, especially in Western Europe.”
 
About the Author:

LOUIS BOUYER (1913-2004) was born to a Parisian Protestant family and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor at age 23. He converted to Catholicism in 1939 and was ordained a priest for the Oratory in 1944. He became a prolific theological writer and teacher worldwide. His works have had an enduring impact on Catholic theology. His other books include The Church of God, Newman, and The Word, Church and Sacraments.
 
Mark Brumley, the President of Ignatius Press, and Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., the Editor in-Chief for Ignatius Press, are available for interviews about this book.
 
To request a review copy or an interview with Mark Brumley or Fr. Joseph Fessio, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]
 
Product Facts:
Title: MEMOIRS
Author: Louis Bouyer
Release Date: October 2015
Length: 304 pages
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 1-978-58617-695-2 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com

From Lambeth to the Land of Nod

"Cain flying before Jehovah's Curse" by Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon, c. 1880, Musée d'Orsay, Paris (Wikipedia)

From Lambeth to the Land of Nod | John S. Hamlon | CWR

Catholic teaching on contraception will always be a "sign of contradiction" and it will always point to an inconvenient, counter-cultural truth: more contraception means more divorce and more abortion.

In his preface to A Man for All Seasons, playwright Robert Bolt describes protagonist Thomas More as

a man with an adamantine sense of his own self. He knew where he began and left off… but at length he was asked to retreat from that final area where he located his self. And there this supple, humorous, unassuming and sophisticated person… was overtaken by an absolutely primitive rigor, and could no more be budged than a cliff.

“Adamantine”—unyielding, impervious, diamond-like—befits the real Thomas More who, as councilor to King Henry VIII, was convicted of treason and beheaded in 1535. He would not sign the First Succession Act, which was anti-papal authority, anti-Catherine of Aragon (including daughter Mary—fathered by Henry VIII), and pro-Princess Elizabeth (still in Anne Boleyn’s womb).

At the formal Catholic level, More is the patron of statesmen and politicians; in the pews, he is a defender of marriage and family.

The Beauty of Marriage and Family—Anglican Style

The Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 1920 were also diamond-like. Compared to the grimy, banal, all-purpose language used today, they spoke of marriage with an eloquence and directness that is, in a word, lustrous:

The fellowship between man and woman in marriage was the earliest which God gave to the human race…. What our Lord adds about marriage is not given as new legislation, but as a declaration of God's original purpose. The man and his wife are no longer twain, but one flesh: and those whom God has joined together, man is not to put asunder…. [God] will work, as those who wait for Him well know, the miracle by which the two lives become one, yet so that each life becomes greater and better than it could have been alone. (Lambeth Conferences—1867-1930; [SPCK, 1948], 29)

By contrast, the Catholic world—up until the watershed-year 1968—saw few lines about the unifying woof in the warp and woof of marriage. In Pius XI’s Casti Connubii (1930), for example, love’s primary purpose is to help husband and wife form and perfect their interior life so “they may advance ever more and more in virtue, and above all that they may grow in true love toward God and their neighbor” (23). In order of emphasis, Pius XI puts procreation first, conjugal honor (based on mutual fidelity) second, and spousal love third.

But the Anglican bishops, having set the stage with the “oneness” of marriage, continue with the importance of procreation:

Continue reading on the CWR site. 

Great Lent

Great Lent | Thomas Howard | From Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God In Liturgy and Sacrament | Ignatius Insight

Presently Lent arrives. This is the forty days leading up to Easter, which also recall the forty days of Christ's temptation in the wilderness. There is a telescoping of things here, since His temptation did not in actual fact immediately precede His Passion, but "liturgical time" is such that spiritual significance may override chronological exactness.

Lent, like Advent, is a time of penitence. Here we identify ourselves with the Lord's fast and ordeal in the wilderness, which He bore for us.

This raises a point worth noting in passing. There are some varieties of Protestant theology and spirituality that so stress "the finished work of Christ" and the fact that He accomplished everything, that they leave no room at all for any participation on our part. Such participation, encouraged by the ancient Church, does not mean that we mortals claim any of the merit that attaches to Christ's work, much less that we can by one thousandth particle add to His work. Nevertheless, the gospel teaches us that Christians are more than mere followers of Christ. We are His Body and are drawn, somehow, into His own sufferings. We are even "crucified" with Him.

My own tradition stressed this, but it was taught as a metaphor that meant only the putting to death of sin in our members. There was very little said about the sense in which Christ draws His Body into His very self-giving for the life of the world and makes them part of this mystery. Saint Paul uses extravagant language about his own filling up "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." We had succinct enough explanations as to what he might have meant here, but these explanations allowed no room for any notion of our participating in Christ's offering. This was looked upon as heresy, violating the doctrine of grace .n which all is done by God and nothing by us. We are recipients only. That the gracious donation of salvation by God could in any manner include His making us a part of it all, as He made the Virgin Mary an actual part of the process, and as Saint Paul seems to teach, was not the note struck.

The ancient Church, in its observance of Lent, once more asks us to move through the gospel with Christ Himself. The most obvious mark of Lent to a newcomer is the matter of fasting. I had own about this practice all my life. My Catholic playmates would give up chocolates or Coke or ice cream for Lent. I also knew that a few devout people in my own tradition of evangelicalism practiced fasting now and again for special purposes—a time of especially concentrated prayer, for example.

I myself thought of Lenten fasting and also of the old Catholic practice of refusing meat on Fridays as being legalistic, and perhaps even heretical, since it seemed to entail some notion of accruing merit. Since Christ had done all, why should we flagellate ourselves this way? Was it not a return to the weak and beggarly elements condemned by Saint Paul? Was it not to be guilty of the very thing that the apostle had a sailed the Galatian Christians for?

The Holy Spirit and the Contemporary Reform of the Catholic Church

Holy Trinity, by Sandro Botticelli (1491-1493).

The Holy Spirit and the Contemporary Reform of the Catholic Church | Rev. Fr. Philip-Michael F. Tangorra, S.T.L. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Status Quaestionis

Ecclesia semper reformanda est (The Church is always to be reformed). This phrase originated in the Nadere Reformatiae of the Dutch Reform during the 1600s, and first appeared in the 1674 work, Beschouwinge van Zion (Contemplation of Zion), by Jodocus van Lodenstein, published in Amsterdam. In this phrase, the Reformed Protestant movement offers a sort of examination of conscience for the Church itself, in which it evaluates its effectiveness and ability to lead people to holiness of life. During the 19th century, the Wesley brothers, inadvertent founders of the Methodist Church, founded the Holiness movement as a reform of Anglicanism. The focus of this reform was the activity of the Holy Spirit as anima Ecclesiae (soul of the Church), which is the People of God, and which leads us to perfect holiness, as evident from our witness to the Holy Spirit in our life.

The Catholic Church’s understanding of the Holy Spirit has become of particular interest since the time of Bl. Elena Guerra (1835-1914), who petitioned Pope Leo XIII to provide a clearer and more systematic presentation of the Church’s Magisterium regarding the Holy Spirit. In 1897, he responded with his encyclical letter, Divinum Illud Munus. This encyclical was quite apropos, as it came four years before the birth of Pentecostalism in 1901, when Charles Fox Parham was the first to formulate a comprehensive idea of praying for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit through the reception of charismatic gifts, such as tongues. He hoped, in this way, to recreate in his own day, the apostolic experience as spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles. In 1906, after William Seymour’s experience on Bonnie Brae St. and Azusa St. in Los Angeles, California, Pentecostalism took off with great fervor.

The Catholic Charismatic movement was ignited by the Duquesne University Revival, where, at a birthday party, the Catholic student association prayed for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and members began to speak in tongues. Even before this, the Catholic Church’s Cursillo movement was recognized by both Popes Pius XI and XII as a Spirit-inspired movement of the laity to consecrate the world. The expression of this role of the laity was later concretized at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In 1986, Pope St. John Paul II wrote the encyclical, Dominum et Vivificantem, which further defined the role of the Holy Spirit as Lord and vivifier of the life of the Church. Previously, the Holy Spirit was, by and large, addressed in theological works of the Papal Magisterium focused on Divine Revelation, such as Spiritus Paraclitus, by Pope Benedict XV, and Divino Afflante Spiritu, by Ven. Pope Pius XII. For this reason, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical is so very important, as it is the first since Divinum Illud Munus to explore the subject of the identity and mission of the Holy Spirit.

In 2006, the document, On Becoming a Christian: Insights from Scripture and the Patristic Writings: With Some Contemporary Reflections, was published, the result of an international dialogue between classical Pentecostal churches and the Catholic Church. This document specifically discusses the Holy Spirit in his role regarding his bringing people into the Church, (which Catholics view from a specifically sacramental perspective, for example, concerning baptism and confirmation), as well as that of guiding and sanctifying members to sustain the life of the Church.

Since the beginning of his pontificate, it has been very clear that Pope Francis is most interested in addressing the need (as in every age) for Church reform today. A look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church is a great starting point. Let us to examine what the Church believes regarding: 1) The role of the Holy Spirit to bring people into the Church; and 2) How the Holy Spirit sustains the life of the Church. This will allow us to see how the Holy Spirit engages all the People of God, both clergy and laity, in order to bring about holiness of life for the whole Church. Starting with these two points, we can explore the role of the Holy Spirit in reforming the Catholic Church today.

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Catholicism’s Latin American Problem

People hold crosses while standing behind a statue of Christ during a re-enactment of the Crucifixion April 18 near Monterrey, Mexico. (CNS photo/Daniel Becerril, Reuters)

Catholicism’s Latin American Problem | Dr. Samuel Gregg | CWR

Those interested in reviving Catholicism’s saliency in everyday life in Latin America should consider how they can make Christ front-and-center of their social outreach

It’s hardly surprising that the election of Latin America’s Pope Francis has focused more attention on Latin American Catholicism since the debates about liberation theology which shook global Christianity in the 1970s and 1980s. The sad irony, however, is that this renewed attention is highlighting something long known to many Catholics but which non-Catholics are now becoming more cognizant: that Latin America’s identity as a “Catholic continent” is fading and has been doing so for some time.

By that I don’t mean that most Latin Americans no longer identify as Catholic. That’s still the case. Indeed, in many countries south of the Rio Grande, it remains overwhelming true. But what’s clear is that Catholicism’s ability to shape Latin America’s religious context is in decline, or, from another perspective, faces some significant competitors: and not just from Evangelicals but also agnosticism and atheism.

Two recent surveys of religion in Latin America have underscored this point. The more noticed survey, conducted by Pew, illustrated that the percentage of people identifying as Catholic in almost every Latin American country has fallen significantly. And even among those who identify as Catholic, significant numbers describe themselves as being at odds with Church teaching on some key faith and morals questions. Indeed, 60 percent of converts to Evangelicalism say that one reason they left the Catholic Church was that they were looking for more assertive teaching on moral questions. This matters in societies in which, as the Pew survey indicates, most people say they adhere to what would be conventionally called conservative positions on all the usual hot-button issues.

It is true, the survey notes, that regular Mass-goers in Latin America cleave much more closely to Church teaching than those Catholics who don’t. That pattern is more-or-less universal in global Catholicism. It’s also the case that the practicing rate of Latin American Catholics puts your average Western European country to shame. That said, the survey also states that Evangelicals are generally more committed to a life of prayer, regular worship, and other church-based activities than even church-going Catholics.

One reason we can have some confidence that the Pew survey presents a relatively accurate picture of Catholic Latin America is that the results track very closely with another less-noticed survey of religion in America, released in April this year by the Latinobarómetro Corporation, one of the continent’s most respected survey organizations.

To give one example, the Latinobarómetro survey suggests that fewer than half of Hondurans today (47 percent) are Catholic. That’s down from 76 percent in 1995.

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Is Pope Francis an Evangelical, Charismatic Catholic?

Pope Francis arrives for an encounter with more than 50,000 Catholic charismatics at the Olympic Stadium in Rome June 1, 2014. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Is Pope Francis an Evangelical, Charismatic Catholic? | Fr. Dwight Longenecker | CWR

Experts in Evangelical Christianity and the Charismatic Movement discuss the roots and focus of the Holy Father's ecumenical dialogue and interaction

Labels are most often used not only to define a person, but to deny the person. Once we slap a label on them it is easy to limit them to that label. That’s why I used to tease people by describing myself as an “Evangelical, Charismatic, Catholic.”

I used the label to defy labels. I also used the description because I genuinely valued all three streams of Christian tradition. I wanted to affirm the Evangelical’s missionary zeal and love of the Scriptures, the Charismatic’s warmth and personal experience of the Holy Spirit, and the strong rootedness of the Catholic tradition.

Not long ago a priest friend admitted to to me that Pope Francis was “an enigma”. Now, a year and half into his papacy, after watching and listening to the pope carefully I’m convinced that he is, at heart, an Evangelical, Charismatic Catholic. Breaking out of common Catholic categories, Francis has reached out to Evangelicals and Charismatics both within the Catholic Church and beyond.

His friendship with bishop Tony Palmer is a good example. Before his untimely death, Palmer was a leader in a new church movement which weaves together the zealous missionary spirit of the Evangelicals, active use of the charismatic gifts, a love for liturgy, and the apostolic succession. Through Palmer, Pope Francis reached out to charismatic evangelist Kenneth Copeland, preached in a Pentecostal church in Rome and welcomed Evangelical leaders for a breakfast time visit.

To assess my hunch that Pope Francis is an Evangelical, Charismatic Catholic, I spoke to two Catholic leaders in the Church who are experts in Evangelical Christianity and the charismatic movement.

Catholic Charismatics

Dr. Ralph Martin is a well-known author, theologian, and teacher. He holds degrees in theology from Notre Dame, Princeton and a the Angelicum. He is associate professor of Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and is the director of Catholic Renewal Ministries. Ralph worked with Pope Francis in this year’s world meeting of charismatic Catholics in Rome. I asked Ralph for the inside story on Pope Francis and the charismatic movement.

Fr. Longenecker: Pope Francis seems open to the Renewal Movement in the Catholic Church. What do you think he sees as the movements strengths and weaknesses? By reaching out to charismatics is he simply trying to stem the tide of Catholics converting to the Pentecostal/Charismatic Protestant churches?

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"The Sacraments as True Causes of Grace: An Ecumenical Obstacle"

 The Baptism of Christ by Paolo Veronese-1661

The Sacraments as True Causes of Grace: An Ecumenical Obstacle | Joshua Madden | HPR

If the Church can be accused of anything at all, (it is that) she attributes too much power to God, for it is only she who proclaims to the world that God is so powerful that he takes up creation and uses it to bring about that which he wills. 

n his treatment of the sacraments in the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas naturally begins the discussion by asking what a sacrament is, 1 and whether they are necessary. 2Immediately following these introductory questions, Thomas broaches the topic we will here be discussing, the question addressed in the very first article of question 62, “Whether the Sacraments Are the Cause of Grace?” In this article, the third objection to this question appears to be the strongest: “what is proper to God should not be ascribed to a creature. But it is proper to God to cause grace, according to Psalm 83:12: “The Lord will give grace and glory. Since, therefore, the sacraments consist in certain words and created things, it seems that they cannot cause grace.” This is a lucid and forceful objection that cannot be swept aside lightly, and it is this exact objection that the Protestant Christian will raise against the Catholic understanding of the sacraments. John Calvin, who will act as our dialogue partner in this treatment, says as much in his defining work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, when he states, “They (the sacraments) do not of themselves bestow any grace.” 3 In response to this objection, Thomas makes clear the distinction in causes relating to the sacraments, distinguishing between a principal cause and an instrumental cause. It will soon become clear why we can say that the sacraments truly cause grace by acting as instrumental causes, deriving their power from the Incarnate Word who has ordained them to confer grace through the mediation of the Church. Understood in this way, the question, “Whether the Sacraments are the Cause of Grace,” can be answered in the affirmative.

Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin on Sacramental Efficacy

It is no secret that one of the main points of contention between Protestant Christianity and the Catholic Church (and the Orthodox churches) is the institution and efficacy of the sacraments. Most of Protestant Christianity will affirm the existence of only two sacraments: baptism and communion, or “The Lord’s Supper,” as it is commonly called

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The Worst Rapture Movie Ever Made

Nicolas Cage stars in a scene from the movie "Left Behind." (CNS photo/Teddy Smith, courtesy Stoney Lake Entertainment)

The Worst Rapture Movie Ever Made | Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report blog

The "Left Behind" reboot starring Nicholas Cage continues a dubious tradition of Fundamentalist "end times" movies that are unbearable, unbelievable, and unbiblical

A dozen years ago, I wrote an article, “No End In Sight”, for First Things, in which I wrote, perhaps with a dash of sarcasm: “Only two more Left Behind books to go and we’ll finally know how the world ends. I can hardly wait. I feel fortunate that I live at a time when someone finally figured out what the Book of Revelation really means.” I noted that the novel, The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon, which was the most recent Left Behind book at that time (it was #13, and three more followed between 2003-2007), had a first printing of 2,750,000 copies. “That’s a serious number of people learning the secrets of the Book of Revelation,” I wrote, “Unfortunately for them, the secrets are stale, recycled, and false.”

Four years ago, Christian Post reported that Cloud Ten Pictures, the company that produced the first Left Behind movie in 2000, starring Kirk Cameron, had finally settled a lawsuit with Tim LaHaye—creator and co-author of the mega-selling novels—that was rooted LaHaye's claim that “the producers made a lower quality film than the contract demanded.” That is funny in it's own right, since LaHaye (b. 1926), a high profile Fundamentalist pastor based in San Diego who has authored or co-authored some fifty books, should know that it's impossible to make a good Rapture movie—or so it appears, based on all available evidence (including the three previous Left Behind movies).

But LaHaye was persistent, saying, “My dream has always been to enter the movie theater with a first-class, high-quality movie that is grippingly interesting, but also is true to the biblical storyline – and that was diluted in the first attempt, but Lord willing, we are going to see this thing made into the movie that it should be.” And so LaHaye had agreed, in 2010, to allow Cloud Ten Pictures “to make a Hollywood version of the New York Times bestseller series.”

Two nights ago, I took two friends to the opening night of the Left Behind “reboot,” the so-called “Hollywood version” of the series. I can safely say, with my right hand on a Bible and a stiff drink in my left, that the new movie is not first-class, high-quality, grippingly interesting, or true to the biblical storyline. It's so bad that Nicholas Cage—apparently the “Hollywood” in “Hollywood version”—looks embarrassed to be in the film, and I'm guessing that Cage has rarely felt embarrassed about much of anything.

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Five Myths About the “Rapture” and the “Left Behind” Industry

Five Myths About the “Rapture” and the “Left Behind” Industry | Carl E. Olson | CWR

On the (short) history, (bad) theology, and (continuing) appeal of premillennial dispensationalism

This year has marked a sort of second coming of “the Rapture”. On June 29^th, HBO launched a new series, "The Leftovers", based on the 2011 novel of the same title, written by Tom Perrotta, which follows the struggles of various characters living in the aftermath of the sudden disappearance of millions of people. “And then it happened,” states the novel's Prologue, “The biblical prophecy came true, or at least partly true. People disappeared, millions of them at the same time, all over the world.” The twist is that Perrotta apparently uses the Rapture as a plot device, but does not adhere to the dispensationalist belief system which features the Rapture (more on that below).

The recent movie, “The Remaining”, however, is completely dedicated to the “left behind” theology, as co-writer and director Casey La Scala explains:

And ever since I was a kid, I wondered what would happen if the Rapture were to happen and all of the sudden we were in seven years of hell. So, I went through Revelations and I got to the sixth trumpet, in which the Abyss is opened and the demons are released, and I said, ‘There it is!’ ... In the process of writing The Remaining, once I was sure the project would stand up to an evangelical base, I did a lot of work on making sure the rules of the Rapture were biblically accurate.

If La Scala really did refer to The Apocalypse as “Revelations”, then readers will be forgiven for questioning the depth of his research and knowledge of Scripture. Then again, being “biblically accurate” has never been a strong suit of the “left behind” theology (again, more on that below).

And then there is the new “Left Behind” movie, in theaters this coming Friday, starring Nicholas Cage (yes, he's still acting—or at least appearing in movies). The verbiage is boilerplate and sensational, a combination that has been an essential part of Rapture fiction since British author Sydney Watson published a trilogy of end times novels a hundred years ago—Scarlet and Purple (1913), The Mark of the Beast (1915), and In the Twinkling of an Eye (1916):

In the blink of an eye, the biblical Rapture strikes the world. Millions of people disappear without a trace. All that remains are their clothes and belongings, and in an instant, terror and chaos spread around the world.

With all of this eschatological excitement in the pop culture air, it's not surprising that I've received e-mails and questions about the newest round of Rapture roulette. The biggest question is simply, “Are the 'Left Behind' books and movies compatible with Catholicism?” Others follow. I addressed those and many, many other questions several years ago in my first book, Will Catholics Be Left Behind? A Catholic Critique of the Rapture and Today's Prophecy Preachers (Ignatius Press, 2003; e-book). I also write a number of articles about the “Left Behind” phenomenon, including pieces about the unoriginal nature of the Tim LaHaye/Jerry B. Jenkins novels, a short history of the “left behind” theology, a comparison of dispensationalism and Catholicism, and a rather scathing review of the Glorious Appearing, the twelfth Left Behind novel.

With that in mind, I am reposting an article I wrote in late 2003 for Crisis magazine, which examines five of the central myths, or misunderstandings, about the Rapture and related matters. I've not updated it (for example, there are a total of sixteen Left Behind novels, and they have sold around 65 million copies in all), but the main points are still just as good today as they were then.

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Three years ago I mentioned to a Catholic friend that I was starting to work on a book critiquing the Left Behind novels and premillennial dispensationalism, the unique theological belief system presented, in fictional format, within those books. “Why?” she asked, obviously bewildered. “No one really takes that stuff seriously.”

That revealing remark merely reinforced my desire to write that book, Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”? (Ignatius, 2003). Other conversations brought home the same point. Far too many people, including a significant number of Catholics, do not recognize the attraction and power of this Fundamentalist phenomenon. Nor do they appear to appreciate how much curiosity exists about the “end times,” the book of Revelation, and the “pretribulation Rapture”—the belief that Christians will be taken up from earth prior to a time of tribulation and the Second Coming. In addition, I hoped to pen the sort of book I wish that I, as a Fundamentalist, could have read while studying and approaching, by fits and starts, the Catholic Church.

In the course of writing articles, giving talks, and writing the book, I have encountered a number of questions and comments—almost all from Catholics—that indicate how much confusion exists about matters of eschatology, not to mention ecclesiology, historical theology, and the interpretation of Scripture. The five myths I present here summarize many of those questions, and I seek to provide basic and clear answers for them.

“The Left Behind books represent a fringe belief system that very few people take seriously.”

Exactly how many copies of the Left Behind books must be sold before the theology they propagate can be taken seriously?

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Sticks, Stones, and Broken Bones: The History of Anti-Catholic Violence in the U.S.

 From left to right—Bishop John Hughes, New York, 1844; cartoon from Anti-Catholic book published by the Ku Klux Klan, 1926; Burning of St. Augustine Church, Philadelphia, 1844; Fr. James Coyle, Birmingham Alabama, murdered, 1921.

Sticks, Stones, and Broken Bones: The History of Anti-Catholic Violence in the U.S. | Fr. David J. Endres | HPR

We do not recall these instances of anti-Catholicism to foster more animosity or violence, but recall them as part of our history, a history that, like so many others, included the targeting of ethnic and religious groups for persecution.

You have, no doubt, heard the children’s rhyme: “Sticks and stones may break my bones / But names will never hurt me.” That is not exactly true. For in the history of the Church in America, Catholics have been wounded by both physical violence and hate speech. This article will examine episodes of violence against American Catholics, considering the sticks and stones, the broken bones, and the words that encouraged such violence. ¹

An Unmentioned History

If the presence of anti-Catholic violence in American history is unknown to many, it is for good reason. We as Catholics do not usually like to talk about being a minority; we do not like to talk about persecution. For generations, our immigrant ancestors and their descendants fought to be considered “100% American,” not “hyphenated” Americans: Irish-American, German-American, Polish-American, or Italian-American. We Catholics have spent decades trying to assimilate into “White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant” (“WASP”) America and have, consequently, downplayed our distinctiveness. We wanted to fit in, and to achieve the American dream—to get good jobs, get a college education, and move to the suburbs.

Aspects of Anti-Catholicism

In considering some episodes of anti-Catholicism, it should be noted that not all violence against Catholics was motivated exclusively by religion. In many cases, religious misunderstanding blended with nativism, and xenophobia, to bring about a toxic reaction to the United States’ Catholic newcomers. Consequently, anti-Catholic groups—that included the Know-Nothing party, the American Protective Association, and the Ku Klux Klan—espoused a form of bigotry, both religious and racially/ethnically motivated.

It should also be acknowledged that most manifestations of anti-Catholicism have not been violent.

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Catholic Ecumenism: Towards an Integration of Faith, Hope, and Charity

Catholic Ecumenism: Towards an Integration of Faith, Hope, and Charity | Dr. Christopher J. Malloy | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

The purpose of this one Church is to bring about the supernatural communion of all humanity together in the Spirit, under Christ as head, giving praise to the Father.

This article aims to accomplish two things. First, it presents a Catholic vision of ecumenism based upon an ecclesiology consonant with the Catholic Magisterium. Second, it highlights three stages of the Catholic Church’s involvement in the ecumenical movement, linking each stage with one of the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. It calls, in the end, for an integration of these three virtues in the development of an ecumenism that is uncompromising in principles, ardently hopeful of reaching the goal of full visible communion through God’s grace, and suffused with charity in listening to the other, benefiting from him, and impelling both self and other—without that distortion of pressuring which is called “proselytism”—towards true union with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

Ecumenism in Catholic Ecclesiology

As the Catholic tradition teaches, misreadings of Vatican II, which has existed in its fullness on earth since Pentecost, and will remain intact until the end of this age. The purpose of this one Church is to bring about the supernatural communion of all humanity together in the Spirit, under Christ as head, giving praise to the Father. This purpose is not identical with the very essence of the Church on earth, since, on earth, the Church embraces venial and mortal sinners. Although called by God and, thus, wooed by him, the mortal sinner does not exist in a living communion with God. A real member of the Church, a Catholic mortal sinner is, nevertheless, dead unto God. Further, even those who by God’s grace achieve great holiness on earth have a threefold longing: They groan for the redemption of their bodies (Rom 8: 23); they cry with Paul to be delivered from concupiscence, that “body of death” (Rom 7:24) that lies in wait for them (Gen 4:7); and they long to depart and be with Christ (Phil 1:23). Notwithstanding, these deficiencies in her members, the very Church Jesus founded does exist, in its fullness, on earth.

This Church of Christ is endowed with a threefold gift:

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Cahill's Self-Serving History of Heretics and Heroes

Left: King Henry VIII; right: Pope Adrian VI (Photos: www.wikipedia.org)

Cahill's Self-Serving History of Heretics and Heroes | Dr. Michael B. Kelly | CWR

Outrage-free history has never been easy to write, and Thomas Cahill is not up to the task in his new book on the Renaissance and Reformation

Since publishing the amusing How the Irish Saved Civilization in 1995, best-selling author Thomas Cahill has added five further volumes to his history of the West, the Hinges of History series. The latest volume, Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Changed Our World, contains Cahill’s take on the great European intellectual, cultural, and religious movements of the period now commonly referred to by historians as “early modern”. According to the author, this series aims to “retell the story of the Western world as the story of the great gift-givers, those who entrusted to our keeping one or another of the singular treasures that make up the patrimony of the West.” Such “gift-givers” left behind “a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong” than the one they had entered.

“We normally,” Cahill states, “think of history as one catastrophe after another, war followed by war, outrage by outrage—almost as if history were nothing more than all the narratives of human pain, assembled in sequence.” The Hinges series, however, is dedicated to “narratives of grace, the recountings of those blessed and inexplicable moments when someone did something for someone else, saved a life, bestowed a gift, gave something beyond what was required by circumstance.”

It seems we are in for a newer, gentler, kinder history of the West.

Outrage-free history?

And yet Cahill’s approach, as advertised, is not all that novel. Hear how an earlier writer distanced himself from conventional historians with their predilection for bloodshed and brutality: “Other historians record the victories of war and trophies won from enemies, the skill of generals, and the manly bravery of soldiers, defiled with blood and with innumerable slaughters for the sake of [their] children and country and other possessions. But our narrative of the government of God will record . . . the most peaceful wars waged in behalf of the peace of the soul, and will tell of men doing brave deeds for truth rather than country, and for piety rather than dearest friends.”¹ As the Father of Church History, Eusebius of Caesarea, penned those words in the first half of the fourth century it can be seen that Cahill is, at least in aspiration, in good, and rather well-worn, company.

Outrage-free history, however, has never been easy to write.

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