Posted on 07/29/2008 4:39:52 PM PDT by annalex
Evangelicals have been going through a major change of heart in their view of Catholicism over the past 15 years or so. In the 80’s when I was in college I lived in the Biblebelt and had plenty of experience with Evangelicals–much of it bad experience. The 80’s was the height of the “Are you saved?” question. In Virginia, the question often popped up in the first 10 minutes of getting to know someone. As I look back, Isurmise that this was coached from the pulpit or Sunday school as it was so well coordinated and almost universally applied. It was a good tactic for putting Catholics on the defensive even before it was known that they were Catholic—”ummmm, uhhh, well no, I’m not sure, I’m Catholic.” Then a conversation about works righteousness or saint statues would ensue. Yeah, nice to meet you, too.
Thankfully, those days are pretty much over. We now have formerly rabid anti-Catholics apologizing and even praising the pope. Catholics and Evangelicals have both learned that we have much in common and need each other to face the secular culture with a solid front. But, where did this detente come from? I think there is a real history to be told here and a book should be written. Let me give my perceptions of 7 major developments since 1993, which I regard as the the watershed year for the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States.
1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1993. When this document came out, it was uncertain that even Catholics would read it. We should have known that something was up when the French version hit the top of the bestsellers charts in France and stayed there for months. The English version did the same in the US. Catholics were reading the Catechism, forming study groups and challenging errant professors in the classroom.
2. World Youth Day, Denver 1993. Catholic youth and youth ministers woke up. Suddenly, Catholic youth ministers realized that the youth loved the pope. And they loved him all the more because he did not talk down to them or water down the faith. He challenged them. Gone now were the pizza and a video parish youth nights. Furthermore, youth and young adults took up the challenge to evangelize. One of those youth heard the message and started a website, New Advent. Catholic youth were now becoming zealous for the Catholic faith in its fullness and were not going to be swayed by an awkward conversation that began with “Are you saved?”
3. Scott Hahn. While the Catechism is great for expounding the Catholic faith, it is not a work of apologetics itself. It is not written to expose the flaws of Evangelical theology. It is not written to defend the Church against the attacks of Evangelicals per se. It just would not let them get away with misrepresenting the Catholic faith. But Scott Hahn hit the scene at about the same time with Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 1993). I first heard his testimony on cassette tape in 1996. It blew my mind. Suddenly, Catholic apologetics, which is as old as the Catholic Church itself, got a leg up and there was an explosion of books, magazines and websites that effectively undercut the arguments of the 5 Solas. For the first time, there was a cadre of Catholics well enough informed to defend their faith.
4. The Internet. The Net started exploding from 1993 to 1996. I had my first account in ‘94. Compuserve was horribly basic, but by ‘96 I had AOL and the religion debates raged instantly. Catholics who had just been given the most powerful weapon in the arsenal in the war against misinterpretation of their teaching were learning to type on a forum while balancing their catechisms on their laps. Of course, online versions came out, as well. But, no Evangelical bent on getting Catholics out of the arms of the Whore of Babylon could expect to do so without himself have a copy of the Catechism, knowing it inside out and pouring over it for the errors and horrors he would surely find. Evangelical apologists were confronted with a coherent and beautiful presentation of the Catholic faith that they were ill equipped to argue against. They learned that Catholics, too, loved Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The Catechism had arrived providentially just before the internet and had turned the tables in just a few short years. With the apologetic movement hitting at the same time, Evangelicals were also confronted with Catholics who could argue from the Bible defending their faith and demonstrating the weaknesses of Evangelical interpretations of scripture.
5. Early Church Fathers. One fruit of the Apologetics movement has been a flowering anew of Catholic interest in Patristics. This is happening at every level from armchair apologists to doctoral studies. It is suddenly all about Patristics, whereas in the 70’s-90’s the academic focus had been on Karl Rahner and Liberation Theology.
6. Evangelical Third World Experience. Evangelicals have had a field day in Latin America among the poor who are not part of the internet conversation and are distant from the study of apologetics. But, Evangelicals have learned from their experiences abroad an essential aspect of the Gospel they were missing: the Works of Mercy. Once haughty with their criticism of “works righteousness,” they have learned one cannot attend to the spiritual needs of the poor without attending to their bodily needs. Catholic have always understood this. Now, the Evangelicals are coming around. I haven’t heard an Evangelical Televangelist speak on works righteousness in many years.
7. Secularism. With the collapse of the Mainline churches as the backbone of American religion over the past thirty years (since about 1975), Catholics and Evangelicals are the only ones left standing in this country to present the Gospel. Secularism is on the rise and is ruthless. Evangelicals are now learning that only Catholicism has the intellectual resources to combat the present secular age. And, with the pope, we have a pretty effective means for communicating the faith and representing it to the world. There is nothing an Evangelical can do that will match the power of one World Youth Day.
With such an array of Providential developments, Evangelicals as well as Catholics have come to appreciate the depth and the breadth of the Catholic faith. It is far more difficult for them to honestly dismiss Catholicism as the work of Satan as once they did without qualm. There have been apologies and there have been calls for a new partnership. Let us hope these developments will bring about a new moment of understanding for the Glory of the Lord.
So's mine.
Speak for your own "Church/church" there, chester.
The Catholic Church--as founded by Christ circa AD 32--has made no errors on the Gospel message...just as He promised.
Felt a little pin prick?
Why do you ask? Were you trying to prick me?
No , just don’t be so defensive. There’s no reason , is there ?
I’m not presuming to speak for Harley D here, but, if I read his comment correctly he was referring more to the bane of the “social gospel” than anything else. redgolum made a similar comment and annalex agreed, that the fear is there aren’t enough Orthodox Catholics and too many “purpose driven” evangelicals out there that the Gospel message is being missed.
Your defenses are often snappy, well thought out, and often funny. I think you jumped the gun this time, though.
I’ll tell you quite frankly and bluntly, regardless what other Catholics might have said (or been understood to have said) that the gulf between the Catholic Church and the Red Cross is measured not so much in distance—for it is too far—but rather more in time, for light only travels at ~186,282 miles per second...
Don’t be so defensive?
It was you who implied I had been pricked.
I hadn’t noticed, and still cannot tell, what you mean.
What a wonderful, encouraging article!
Thank you for posting it!
As a renegade Episcopalian turned Catholic, Newman spoke to me where I lived.
Also, since I was a history major, his statement "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant" really hit home with me. I read 16th-17th English history, which had landed me right in the middle of the Counter-Reformation. It only took me 30 years to get the message . . . one of God's stubborn wayward sheep.
Another good book for Episcopalians/Anglicans thinking about taking the plunge into the Tiber is This is The Faith by Canon Francis Ripley.
He was the head of the Catholic Missionary Society in London, so he naturally gauged his argument and reasoning towards Anglicans!
There is a faithful remnant.
Here's a quote that summarizes ECT:
The simple fact is that any honest Protestant or Roman Catholic can see that this document, for all its assiduous claims otherwise, compromises both the Roman Catholic and Protestant positions. Both sides have to admit that one can not firmly believe that the message he preaches from his pulpit is true and believe that the message preached by the other is equally true. The contradictions are too large to be hidden by the language of a document such as this.
I am a Christian whose vehicle is Catholicism. To put aside internal bickering would be a godsend.
It would be a real blessing if both Catholics and Protestants did stop fighting on this site and realized that we must stand together in a increasing secular and dark world.
I agree with the quote. There are too many differences. And chief among them is the teaching about Mary.
Uh, no. John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Gary Habermas, Alvin Plantinga...to name just a few, are some of the best minds in America, perhaps in the world...and they are all Evangelicals.
Stunning article!
I heard of one or two of them, but the question is not that the Evangelicals are not smart but that their theology, by definition anti-clerical, is not a sufficient resource to combat secularism.
It was the politicized clergy and hostility to Republicanism by the Catholic Church that caused said Church to be hated by many American citizens for years. It was only through assimilation (and adaptation of American Republicanism) that Catholics became accepted.
Clerical-influenced governments and quasi-theocracies are as hostile toward our Republic as communism and Mohammadism. Some of us prefer Washington and Jefferson's America over Salazar's Portugal and Franco's Spain.
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