A mistake commonly made by modern Catholic apologists is that of assuming that the early Church looked much like the Catholic church of today. While this notion isn’t totally baseless—I would contend, contra a fair number of Protestants, that neither did the early Church look much like most of today’s Protestant churches in either [...]
Archive for November, 2007
Klaus Schatz on Priesthood, Canon, and the Development of Doctrine
Posted in Apologetics, Church History, The New Testament, Theology on November 30, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Jaroslav Pelikan on Christian Unity
Posted in Church History on November 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
From The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600):
No passage in Cyprian’s writings has received more detailed attention than the two versions of the exegesis of these words in chapter 4 of his Unity of the Church: one version seems to assert the primacy of Peter as prerequisite to unity among the bishops, while the other [...]
C. S. Lewis on Purgatory
Posted in Apologetics, Purgatory, Theology on November 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
For the past few months, a friend of mine has been participating in the RCIA program at a local parish. I tagged along for the first meeting and decided to stick around; the leaders are providing solid, orthodox catechesis—a welcome change from what is, at least to my knowledge, standard fare in American parishes—and their [...]
Devotion to Saints and Angels (3)
Posted in Apologetics, Catholic Devotion, Mary and the Saints on November 15, 2007 | 1 Comment »
4. Catholics, however, it is said, do much more than this; not only do they ask the saints and angels to pray for them, but also to give them this or that temporal or spiritual blessing, to help or defend them; in a word, to interfere actively in their behalf, as though they were themselves [...]
Devotion to Saints and Angels (2)
Posted in Apologetics, Catholic Devotion, Mary and the Saints on November 10, 2007 | 1 Comment »
2. But this will appear still more clearly from the passages which will be quotes in answer to the second and most popular objection, namely, that even though the saints and angels may pray generally for all Christian people, for the whole estate of Christ’s Church upon earth, yet they know nothing of the wants [...]
Devotion to Saints and Angels (1)
Posted in Apologetics, Catholic Devotion, Mary and the Saints on November 7, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Devotion to saints and angels is a part of the Catholic religion, from which Protestants shrink with horror, and which they loudly denounce as superstitious and unscriptural. Now if they used this word “unscriptural” only in the sense of “not to be found in holy scripture,” it would scarcely fall within the scope of our [...]
The Religion of Catholics the Worship of Jesus (3)
Posted in Apologetics, Catholic Devotion, Jesus, Mary and the Saints, The Real Presence on November 5, 2007 | 1 Comment »
But Protestants will say perhaps that they also meditate, and that it is an easy thing to do so, especially for gentle and thoughtful minds, and at particular times when they are in a humour for it. This, however, is mere natural meditation; meditation as the Church would have it is a very different thing. [...]
The Religion of Catholics the Worship of Jesus (2)
Posted in Apologetics, Catholic Devotion, Jesus, Mary and the Saints, The Real Presence on November 3, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Consider again, what is the one great act of Catholic worship, which surpasses all others in dignity, and in the frequency of its celebration, and in which all Catholics are bound to join, at least on Sundays and great festivals, on pain of mortal sin. It is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Protestants, rejecting [...]
