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Magazine: Growing Trend--Evangelicals ‘Crossing the Tiber’ to Catholicism
TheSacredPage.com ^
| August 6, 2010
| Michael Barber
Posted on 08/07/2010 3:38:50 PM PDT by Salvation
The magazine Religion Dispatches has a new piece up by Jonathan Fitzgerald, entitled, "Evangelicals Crossing the Tiber to Catholicism: Under the radar of most observers a trend is emerging of evangelicals converting to Catholicism."
As he points out, there are an increasing number Evangelicals coming into the Catholic Church. In fact, while my wife and I were at Fuller we witnessed this phenomenon firsthand. Indeed, students would come up and ask us if they could follow us to daily Mass (which was celebrated at a Catholic Church down the street). I went to Mass with many fellow students who had never experienced a Eucharistic liturgy. . . and, for many of them, once they started attending they couldn't stop.
Here's the story as Fitzgerald
reports it:
In the fall of 1999, I was a freshman at Gordon College, an evangelical liberal arts school in Massachusetts. There, fifteen years earlier, a professor named Thomas Howard resigned from the English department when he felt his beliefs were no longer in line with the colleges statement of faith. Despite all those intervening years, during my time at Gordon the specter of Thomas Howard loomed large on campus. The story of his resignation captured my imagination; it came about, ultimately, because he converted to Roman Catholicism. Though his reasons for converting were unclear and perhaps unimaginable to me at the time (they are actually well-documented in his book Evangelical is Not Enough which, back then, I had not yet read), his reasons seemed less important than the knowledge that it could happen. I had never heard of such a thing. . .
. . . [M]y parents never spoke ill of the Catholic Church; though the pastors and congregants of our non-denominational, charismatic church-that-met-in-a-warehouse, often did. Despite my firsthand experience with the Church, between the legend of my parents conversion (anything that happens in a childs life before he is born is the stuff of legends) and the portrait of the Catholic Church as an oppressive institution that took all the fun out of being saved, I understood Catholicism as a religion that a person leaves when she becomes serious about her faith.
And yet, Thomas Howard is only the tip of the iceberg of a hastening trend of evangelicals converting to Catholicism. North Park University professor of religious studies Scot McKnight documented some of the reasons behind this trend in his important 2002 essay entitled From Wheaton to Rome: Why Evangelicals become Roman Catholic. The essay was originally published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and was later included in a collection of conversion stories he co-edited with Hauna Ondrey entitled Finding Faith, Losing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy.
Thomas Howard comes in at number five on McKnights list of significant conversions, behind former Presbyterian pastor and author of Rome Sweet Home, Scott Hahn, and Marcus Grodi founder of The Coming Home Network International, an organization that provides fellowship, encouragement and support for Protestant pastors and laymen who are somewhere along the journey or have already been received into the Catholic Church, according to their Web site. Other featured converts include singer-songwriter John Michael Talbot and Patrick Madrid, editor of the Surprised by Truth books, which showcase conversion stories.
Would Saint Augustine Go to a Southern Baptist Church in Houston?
McKnight first identified these converts eight years ago, and the trend has continued to grow in the intervening years. It shows up in a variety of places, in the musings of the late Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk) about his wifes conversion and his decision not to follow, as well as at the Evangelical Theological Society where the former President and Baylor University professor Francis J. Beckwith made a well-documented return to Rome. Additionally, the conversion trend is once again picking up steam as the Millennial generation, the first to be born and raised in the contemporary brand of evangelicalism, comes of age. Though perhaps an unlikely setting, The Kings College, an evangelical Christian college in New York City, provides an excellent case study for the way this phenomenon is manifesting itself among young evangelicals.
The Kings College campus is comprised of two floors in the Empire State Building and some office space in a neighboring building on Fifth Avenue. The approximately 300 students who attend Kings are thoughtful, considerate and serious. They are also intellectually curious. This combination of traits, it turns out, makes the college a ripe breeding ground for interest in Roman Catholicism. Among the traits of the Catholic Church that attract TKC studentsand indeed many young evangelicals at largeare its history, emphasis on liturgy, and tradition of intellectualism.
Lucas Croslow was one such student to whom these and other attributes of Catholicism appealed. This past spring, graduating from The Kings College was not the only major change in Croslows life, he was also confirmed into the Catholic Church.
Croslows interest in Catholicism began over six years ago when he was a sophomore in high school. At the time, Croslows Midwestern evangelical church experienced a crisis that is all too common among evangelical churches: what he describes as a crisis of spiritual authority. As a result of experiencing disappointment in his pastor, Croslow began to question everything he had learned from him. This questioning led him to study the historical origins of scripture and then of the Christian church itself. Eventually he concluded that Catholicism in its current form is the closest iteration of the early church fathers intentions. He asks, If Saint Augustine showed up today, could we seriously think that hed attend a Southern Baptist church in Houston? The answer, to Croslow, is a resounding No.
. . .
You can read the rest
here.
TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; catholiclist; converts; evangelical; freformed
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To: smvoice
Those who seek small "a" authority seek freedom from God's Authority as found in God's One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
Sadly these join various "Evangelica;" or other groupings looking for mans authority, small "a" man's authority, so they can follow their pasters.
Those who desire freedom from "authority" and believe God's Word is the Final Authority, will flee doctrines of men and tradition, and seek God's Authority in His Word in His Church. And they will find it. It's there. It's been there all along. It is available for revelation to those who seek and believe.
Hallelujah and THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR GIVING US YOUR ONE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH!
It's a beautiful concept created by Our Lord Jesus Christ, a Church of His, looked after by the Holy Spirit, where we can experience a personal relationship with Christ in the Eucharist.
Have you experience the personal relationship with Christ in the Eucharist lately? it's wonderful
441
posted on
08/08/2010 2:37:16 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: Cronos
The title is the Roman Catholic Church...it is not universal, and it is not the only true church!
442
posted on
08/08/2010 2:37:39 PM PDT
by
LiteKeeper
("It's the peoples' seat!")
To: Cronos
You do realise that your statement is incorrect. Many non-intellectuals are also returning to The Church, maybe you can come back too!Any church that can't even speak to my mother because she supposedly is incapable of understanding loses the "universal religion" title by default.
Come to Christ's Church, be saved by the blood of the Lamb and return to the fullness of Christ. Reject the worship of the self and fake pastors and come to the worship of Christ.
I have rejected all "fake pastors," thank you very much, and am happy in my relationship with the Biblical G-d--a relationship no church, branch, or sect of chr*stianity can understand or give.
443
posted on
08/08/2010 2:38:12 PM PDT
by
Zionist Conspirator
(Som tasim `aleykha melekh 'asher yivchar HaShem 'Eloqeykha bo . . .)
To: Cronos
No, I experienced the wonderful salvation from death unto life, through the Finished Work of Christ. And Christ is always with me. He is in me, and I am in Him.
444
posted on
08/08/2010 2:41:11 PM PDT
by
smvoice
(smvoice- formally known as small voice in the wilderness. Easier on the typing!)
To: narses
Where did I say that? DON’T attribute to me - what someone else has said - when YOU KNOW THEY SAID IT. Got that?
Catholics sure do know how to demonstrate their fruit - deception! GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT!
To: smvoice
Well, Semiramis was an Assyrian Queen, Shammuramat, the wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 811 BC to 808 BC), the King of Assyria.
There is no mention of worship of her
The first heresy was Marcionism, a group of folks who read mostly the Paulician epistles to the neglect of the OT.
Then you had the gnostics and Montanists (who pretended to speak in tongues).
These early heresies DID die, but then some new heresies like the Evngelicals have taken some of these heretical beliefs
But, no worries, these Evanglical heresies will die out, just like the first generation Protestant heresies are dying out.
And, don't worry, Christ's ONE Holy Apostolic Catholic Church will survive and thrive, thanks to the grace of the Holy Spirit.
It's still Sunday, so you can go to experience a personal relationship with Christ in the Sunday Eucharist -- and you can also hear from the OT, Gospels, psalms and Epistles! God is great! He gave us His One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church and has protected it with His Grace for 2000 years! Hallelujah!
446
posted on
08/08/2010 2:51:27 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: ansel12
Ojnly bothered to read this far:
It is childish to play that kind of nonsense. The Numbers are against you, More prots many more Prots voted for OBOZO then Catholics, get your numbers in line then come talk to us. It was the prots and the prots alone that put him in office.
Heck even the African American vote couldn't do it, he needed White Prots and he got you folks.
447
posted on
08/08/2010 2:51:58 PM PDT
by
verga
(I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
To: LiteKeeper
The name "Catholic Church" appears in the title of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and is also the term that Paul VI used when signing the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
It is universal. The Greek word καθολικός (katholikos), from which Catholic is derived, means "universal", the Greek word derives from the earlier Greek phrase "kata holos" meaning "according to the whole. It stays true to orthodoxy.
The One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church consists of the Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental and Assyrian Churches, all preaching orthodoxy as taught by the Apostles with apostolic succession ensuring trueness to the One Faith.
448
posted on
08/08/2010 2:53:51 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: smvoice; Cronos
There seem to be two reasons for these. Those who want freedom from authority, and those who desire authority. Those two reasons lead to a completely different path in life and redemption, of course, but it remains that authority or freedom are the driving forces.Smvoice tell me; Is a train more free when it is on the authority of the tracks or when it is off?
449
posted on
08/08/2010 2:55:17 PM PDT
by
verga
(I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
To: LiteKeeper; Cronos
“The title is the Roman Catholic Church...”
Nope.
“...it is not universal...”
Wrong again.
“...and it is not the only true church!”
A trifecta! Wrong AGAIN!
450
posted on
08/08/2010 2:55:48 PM PDT
by
narses
( 'Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.')
To: RnMomof7
Sorry you have a problem with me being filled with joy from the Grace of Our Lord, Jesus Christ through the Sacraments of the Catholic Church & that you can’t understand what I thought I conveyed rather clearly.
I trust in God, Our Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Teachings of the Catholic Church which utilizes God’s Word and Sacred Tradition.
You can spin it anyway you want. I am thankful for finding the Catholic Church & all the joy God pours upon us.
To: presently no screen name
ROTFLMAO! Telling me what to do. What a hoot.
452
posted on
08/08/2010 2:57:02 PM PDT
by
narses
( 'Prefer nothing to the love of Christ.')
To: Zionist Conspirator
my mother because she supposedly is incapable of understanding
Why exactly is she incapable of understanding?
In any case, as I said, the Catholic Church is open to all, intellectuals, non-intellectuals etc. -- all you need is a belief in Christ and a desire to experience the Fullness of Christ
Bring your mother along and you and her can experience a personal relationship with Christ in Eucharist in His One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church. Bless you both! Whoever tells you your mother is incapable of understanding Christ and coming to Christ's One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church is lying -- your mother is under God's grace and she will grace any Catholic Church she enters to worship and experience Christ
453
posted on
08/08/2010 2:57:44 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: smvoice
” I experienced the wonderful salvation from death unto life, through the Finished Work of Christ. And Christ is always with me. He is in me, and I am in Him.” —> great!! You went to experience the personal relationship with Christ in the Eucharist! Beautiful isn’t it, being in communion with the Lord in the Lord’s One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church?
454
posted on
08/08/2010 2:58:50 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: Natural Law; ansel12
There are lies, damned lies, and anti-Catholics..... Naural law; you left out the statistics they throw out with out context
455
posted on
08/08/2010 2:59:22 PM PDT
by
verga
(I am not an apologist, I just play one on Television)
To: metmom; Religion Moderator
If you are going to talk about me behind my back....perhaps you aren’t aware of the FReeRepublic (Christian) thing to do — and that is to ping me to the post.
Shame...............
Now you knew that, didn’t you mm?
456
posted on
08/08/2010 3:00:47 PM PDT
by
Salvation
("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
To: presently no screen name; Iscool; narses
As we said whatever you and Iscool’s various non-Christian groups want to do, go ahead, it’s a free country. When you want to experience the fullness of Christ and to experience a personal relationship with Christ, come to mass and experience Christ during the Eucharist. You can still reject the fire-worshippers and come to Christ in His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
457
posted on
08/08/2010 3:01:01 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
To: verga
I wouldn’t compare the final Authority of God’s Word as a train being off the tracks. But I WOULD compare a train being on the track, using the engineer as the authority, being in grave peril. It’s the Authority on the switch that has control. Just because a man is in the front of the train doesn’t mean he’s in control of it at all. He may THINK he’s in control, and those on the train may THINK he’s in control, but the one at the switch KNOWS better.
458
posted on
08/08/2010 3:04:50 PM PDT
by
smvoice
(smvoice- formally known as small voice in the wilderness. Easier on the typing!)
To: Cronos
Now, would that be a daily death of Christ for you, or a weekly death of Christ?
459
posted on
08/08/2010 3:06:20 PM PDT
by
smvoice
(smvoice- formally known as small voice in the wilderness. Easier on the typing!)
To: smvoice
Christ died once and for all in space-time for our sins! Isn’t it glorious — the Sacrifice is done, once and for all, the Eucharist is where we experience this once and for all time sacrifice. It’s the Real Presence!
Where you experience the personal relationship with Christ in the Eucharist! Beautiful isnt it, being in communion with the Lord in the Lords One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church?
460
posted on
08/08/2010 3:11:19 PM PDT
by
Cronos
(Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "Allah": Satan's current status)
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