How Do We Know Which Traditions Are Apostolic?

In response to my post on the NIV’s skewed translation (namely, that the translate bad paradosis as “tradition” and good paradosis as “teachings,” even though it’s the exact same word), a blogger calling himself “The 27th Comrade” raised a number of arguments.  He noted at the beginning of his second comment, “While this comment here may… Continue reading How Do We Know Which Traditions Are Apostolic?

The Two Boasts: The Pharisee and St. Paul

Speaking of justification (see this morning’s post), there was a point I wanted to make about last Sunday’s readings that I never got around to.  Like my other post on these readings, this was something that we talked about in Men’s Group, and I can’t take much credit for these insights.  The Gospel is Luke… Continue reading The Two Boasts: The Pharisee and St. Paul

Salvation by Faith Working in Love

Picking up where I left off yesterday, I had been talking about how Pope Benedict has argued that “Luther’s phrase, ‘faith alone’ is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love.” It’s a provocative argument from the Roman Pontiff, but one not dissimilar to Cardinal Newman’s argument that saving faith and… Continue reading Salvation by Faith Working in Love

An Interesting Sermon on Justification and Sola Fide

I think a lot of the disputes on justification are more smoke than fire — Catholics and Protestants use different terms (or worse, use the same terms, but mean different things), but seem to largely agree on the fundamentals, quite frankly. Given this context, I think it’s best if we just set the Catholic and… Continue reading An Interesting Sermon on Justification and Sola Fide

Why Pray for the Faithful Departed?

I had lunch with a Baptist friend of mine, who was troubled about CCC 1271. Yeah, he’d been reading the Catechism (which puts him ahead of a lot of Catholics). He was very uncomfortable with the idea that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered for the faithful departed that they might enter Heaven. It had everything… Continue reading Why Pray for the Faithful Departed?

John Henry Cardinal Newman on Faith and Obedience

Last night, my dad mentioned that he needed to read more of the Venerable John Henry Newman, because he had stumbled on a few quotes from him that he thought were very insightful (I think he stumbled on these in his Magnificat — a prayer aide I can’t encourage enough for anyone and everyone). This… Continue reading John Henry Cardinal Newman on Faith and Obedience

How the Last Supper Begins the Lord’s Passion

Earlier today, I tried to answer a couple questions some people have on the Eucharist: namely, “does It re-Sacrifice Christ?” and “what does it mean to say that the Eucharist is an Unbloody Sacrifice?” I tried to keep the post short, but I’m willing to go into more depth. Here, I wanted to discuss a… Continue reading How the Last Supper Begins the Lord’s Passion

The Double Standard

I was reading another review of John Armstrong’s book, from a different perspective. The reviewer is an Evangelically-inclined “ordained” Anglican named David, who says of the book, “I have to be honest with you, I really wanted to like this book. Really wanted to. Honestly.” Remember, this book is about mission-ecumenism, which the reviewer presumably… Continue reading The Double Standard

John MacArthur on Sola Scriptura and Justification

I.John MacArthur often has thoughtful and interesting things to say: just not, typically, on Catholicism. On this topic, he says things like: While there are many errors in the teaching of the Catholic Church (for example its belief in the transubstantiation of the communion wafer and its view of Mary), two rise to the forefront… Continue reading John MacArthur on Sola Scriptura and Justification

Answering the Specific with the General

I’m wondering how many times I’m going to make the comments section of iMonk’s post on Catholic radio an integral part of my posts, but hopefully two isn’t too many. The reason I’m posting from the now-closed comments section is that I’ve observed a trend lately which I think needs exploring, and I think this… Continue reading Answering the Specific with the General