How was the Papacy understood in the ancient Christian East? This is the topic of an essay by Archbishop Roland Minnerath entitled “The Petrine Ministry in the Early Patristic Tradition.” [1] I address Archbishop Minnerath’s essay because I do not want it to become an occassion for misunderstanding. In this ecumenical essay, the Archbishop acknowledges, “The East never […]
My conversion to the Catholic faith was a slow process, and contained many surprises along the way. One of the biggest surprises was the change in my thinking about relics, saints, and the Virgin Mary. As a good Presbyterian, I had naturally grown up with a revulsion to such things. The derision of Calvin’s Treatist […]
Nicholas Batzig is a graduate of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, Georgia. Nicholas and Anna Batzig Recently he wrote an article titled “The Justification of Imputation,” in which he provides an exegetical argument for the Protestant conception of justification by way of extra nos imputation. […]
There has been a great deal of discussion at CTC about the rational superiority of the Catholic interpretive paradigm over the Protestant interpretive paradigm. As Michael Liccione, and others, have pointed out, Protestantism has no principled way to differentiate dogma from theological opinion – no coherent way even to identify the contours of Christian doctrine […]
Is it wrong to desire certainty in our act of faith? If you peruse the Reformed blogoshpere these days, you might come to that conclusion. As more and more Reformed Christians join the Catholic Church in search of doctrinal certainty, an all-too common response from the Reformed world has been to impugn this desire for certainty as […]
In most cases when St. Irenaeus comes up in Protestant-Catholic discussion, the focus is on the papacy, apostolic succession, or the relation of Scripture and Tradition. Here, however, I examine what St. Irenaeus has to say about justification. His teaching on this subject is ecumenically relevant not only because the doctrine of justification was at […]
In light of the recent conversions and announcements of impending conversions of Reformed pastors and seminarians to the Catholic Church, some Reformed blog authors have suggested that these folks are merely doing what is now the trendy and “cool” thing by converting.
Ligonier recently posted a lecture by R.C. Sproul titled “A Divided Will?” in which Sproul sets out to present and criticize the Catholic doctrine of original sin and free will.
Dr. Taylor Marshall, Dean and Professor of Philosophy at Fisher More College, will be on EWTN’s The Journey Home program Monday night, July 2nd, at 8:00 EST. Taylor holds an M.A.R from Westminster Seminary and a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Dallas. Although Taylor has already been on The Journey Home, this new […]
Recently, I wrote about the Bible and the Catholic Church. I was motivated in order to address two matters that those considering the Catholic Church as the Church established by Christ might have: 1. that the Church encourages the faithful to read and reflect on the Bible; and 2. that the Church, because of the […]
