C.S. Lewis, the famous Anglican writer, once wrote: "The very possibility of progress demands that there should be an unchanging element . . . the positive historical statements made by Christianity have the power . . . of receiving, without intrinsic change, the increasing complexity of meaning which increasing knowledge puts into them" ("God in the Dock," Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1970, 44-47). Doctrine clearly develops within Scripture ("progressive revelation"). Examples: doctrines of the afterlife, the Trinity, the Messiah (eventually revealed as God the Son), the Holy Spirit (Divine...

This volume consists entirely of materials posted on my website / blog: "Biblical Evidence for Catholicism" written between 1997 and 2011: several in direct response to Protestant queries or challenges. I've revised them in order to clarify the thoughts and to "tighten" up the arguments. My goal is to defend and clarify what Catholics believe with regard to ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the Church (including the papacy), why we do, and to demonstrate that Catholic beliefs are in harmony with Holy Scripture and the doctrines held by the early Church. Protestants deny the infallibility of...

Protestants (especially Reformed Protestants, or Calvinists) often assert that St. Augustine's views were closer to theirs than to the present-day Catholic Church. My aim is to systematically document St. Augustine's advocacy of positions that historic Protestantism has expressly rejected, and (conversely) detail his opposition to some doctrines or beliefs that it has (generally speaking) espoused. Quotations are drawn from 44 separate works of St. Augustine, arranged under 157 topics, and also arranged chronologically within topics, insofar as that can be determined. This helps to clarify...

In this volume I reply to biblical arguments from John Calvin in Books I-III of his "Institutes of the Christian Religion," in instances where he takes a position that is contrary to Catholic theology. Taking on John Calvin's exegetical arguments in this fashion will, it is hoped, demonstrate the persistent fallacies and falsehoods (from the Catholic perspective) that are frequently found in his writing, and illustrate at least some ways to refute and overcome them. Catholics regard Calvinists and other Protestants as brethren in Christ, and rejoice over the many important beliefs that we...

The doctrine of God remains as important as ever. The Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians in the first century for accepting "another Jesus" and "a different gospel" (2 Cor 11:4). Denial of the deity of Christ and the Holy Trinity were no doubt among the falsehoods condemned by Paul as "doctrines of demons" (1 Tim 4:1). Christians need to know the biblical basis for these beliefs, in view of the many historic heresies and recent fashionable nonsense such as open theism and process theology. My emphasis is on a listing of many scores of relevant Bible passages (systematic theology)....

This volume consists of essays on 1) the distinction between the extreme radical Catholic reactionaries and mainstream "traditionalists," 2) the New (Pauline, Novus Ordo) Mass and its liturgical abuses, and 3) genuine, orthodox (not silly liberal) ecumenism. Radical Catholic reactionaries have been misled by various errors of the nature of what is called "rigorism." This recurring problem throughout Church history is seen in groups such as the Donatists, Montanists, Jansenists, and the Old Catholics who left the Church after Vatican I (1870): an error of thinking and out-of-whack perspective;...

The last 25 years have been a very exciting time in the Catholic world, in terms of an increasing flow of converts. Dr. Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister, was received into the Church at Easter 1986, and immediately started making a splash with his exciting conversion testimony. Meanwhile, Karl Keating began publishing "The Catholic Answers Newsletter" in August 1986. Thus, that year may be regarded as the starting-date of the current "Catholic apologetics / influx of converts revival" -- with Hahn and Keating as the two founding fathers. I tell my own conversion story in Part II of...

This collection documents examples of "distinctively Catholic" theological beliefs or doctrines in the Eastern Church fathers; that is, ones in harmony with historic Catholic teaching but differing in some way from one or more strains of Protestant theology or Eastern Orthodox views. Quotations will be drawn from the "Three Holy Hierarchs" of Eastern Christian Tradition: St. Basil the Great (c. 330-379), St. John Chrysostom (c. 345-407), and St. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 330-c. 390). St. Athanasius (c. 297-373) is usually added to this list, and these are the Four Great Eastern Doctors of the...

I have sought to analyze (minus proper names, a la Trent) the premises, presuppositions, logical and ecclesiological "bottom lines" and (in a word), the spirit of a false and divisive radical Catholic reactionary strain of thought held by a distinctive and tiny sub-group of Catholics. The term "traditionalism" has been co-opted by groups and schools of thought within Catholicism that vary quite widely. It's similar to the love and adoption of the word "Christian" by many sects that are not Christian at all (since they deny the Holy Trinity or the divinity of Jesus Christ). Apologists and...

Protestants and Catholics both claim that the early Church heritage of theology and broad consensus of the Church fathers favors their own view. Protestants, from the beginning, claimed to be "reformers" of the Catholic Church; that is, they felt themselves to be hearkening back to the more pure doctrines of the early Church and the Church fathers, rather than overturning historic Catholic doctrine. I shall contend in this book, by means of massive documentation, that the "historical case" for Catholicism becomes stronger as the accumulation of patristic evidence piles up. Catholics need not...