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Bishop Angaelos and Archbishop McDonald with the book (Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk) Two weeks ago the Roman Catholic and Oriental Orthodox Churches released a landmark book focusing on the areas of theological agreement between themselves. The book, which can be downloaded for free, is simply entitled “Joint Statements” and addresses various issues under four main areas: [...] As 2010 drew to a close, I found myself bogged down within a philosophical book about the nature and praxis of the church. I was so bogged downed that I decided to take a hiatus from that book and to return to my first literary love – that of church history. Specifically, I chose [...]
Well, I’m glad you asked. The reason is that for a few hundred – no, make that a thousand or so – years a lot of believes believed that there was one, universal visible “church.” Like a lot of things, this visible church started out united, but became fragmented over the years leading to the development of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Coptic Church, the Nestorian Church and, eventually, the Protestant Church (or, should I say, churches). Unfortunately, this fragmentation did little to change the view that there was one ‘visible church’. Instead, folks simply assumed that THEIR church was the ONE, and everyone else was not. (sigh) Sometime during the 1500’s this view (thankfully) began to change – as noted in the Westminster Confession of 1646 which states:
However, this was not to be the end of the debate (double sigh).
Some folks say, “Cheese is cheese; they are all the same.” Others disagree claiming that the flavor of a two year-old aged sharp white Cheddar is all the rage. Those holding wine glasses yell, “Don’t forget the Brie and Triscuits!” Don’t forget the people holding their nose and running from the sight of cured milk. Very few people enjoy the breadth of them all. Yet, each cheese is made with for certain purpose. A fine Brie is not struggling to be a Peperjack; Nor is the sliced Monterey Jack trying to be a Mozzaralla cheese stick. Why then do we try to paint all Christian movements as the same?
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me summary the book real quick. Rome Sweet Home is the story of Scott and Kimberly Hahn‘s journey to Catholicism from their Presbyterian roots. The odd thing about their journey was that they were hard-core Protestant theologians schooled at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Scott – M.Div.; Kimberly – MA in Theology). Their journey towards Catholicism started when they came to the realization that the Catholic Church had some good teachings on the issue of contraception. This knowledge shook up Scott as he had assumed that everything the Catholic Church taught was false. Being a scholar, he then spend several years researching and reading Catholic theology books before joining the church in 1986 (four years after the was ordained into the Presbyterian Church). At first, Kimberly refused to follow him as she did not agree with a lot of the Catholic teachers. However in 1990, she officially joined the Catholic Church after a lot of prayer and studying. All in all, Rome Sweet Home is a good book…yet there were a few things that…um….didn’t seem to fit right…or at least sit well with me. Continue reading Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn I’ve been confused lately… why, after 1,500 years, did we all of a sudden decided to drop the inter-testamental books from the Bible? It doesn’t make sense… at least not to me… I’m confused. Here’s what I know so far: The Christian Bible included the inter-testamental books up until the Protestant Reformation in [...] Did these get your attention? Well, it got mine as I was browsing the church history forums on The Puritan Board. The thread was started after a forum member read a similarly titled paper posted on the “Bibel Baptisten Gemeinde” (Bible Baptist Church) website in Darmstadt, Germany. It is from this German paper that [...] |
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This was an interesting book to read right after
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