Allison Roman Catholic Theology and Practice

An Evangelical Assessment
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4335-4541-2
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 496 Seiten

In this balanced volume, Gregg Allison-an evangelical theologian and church historian-helps readers understand the nuances of Roman Catholic teaching. Walking through the official  Catechism of the Catholic Church , Allison summarizes and assesses Catholic doctrine from the perspective of both Scripture and evangelical theology.    Noting prominent similarities without glossing over key differences, this book will equip Christians on both sides of the ecclesiastical divide to fruitfully engage in honest dialogue with one another. 

Gregg R. Allison (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of Christian theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is secretary of the Evangelical Theological Society, a book review editor for the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, an elder at Sojourn Community Church, and a theological strategist for Harbor Network. Allison has taught at several colleges and seminaries, including Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and is the author of numerous books, including Historical Theology; Sojourners and Strangers; and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Allison, Gregg R.

Leseproben

2

Scripture, Evangelical Theology,
and Catholic Theology

My assessment of Roman Catholic theology and practice will be on the basis of both Scripture and evangelical theology, so this chapter will begin with a brief explanation of Scripture and its interpretation and will then concentrate on a presentation of evangelical doctrine. Additionally, it will propose for the purpose of understanding and assessment an approach that considers Catholic theology as a coherent, all-encompassing system with two major features: the nature-grace interdependence, that is, a strong continuity between nature and grace; and the Christ-Church interconnection, that is, an ecclesiology (a doctrine of the church) that views the Catholic Church as the ongoing incarnation of Jesus Christ. These axioms will also be assessed.

Scripture and Its Interpretation

According to evangelical theology, Scripture consists of sixty-six books—thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament—and is interpreted according to a grammatical–(redemptive) historical–typological method.1 This hermeneutic, or interpretive approach, focuses on the grammar of biblical passages, noting the meaning and function of words, the relation of words and phrases in sentences, the genre in which the text is written, the development of arguments, the flow of narratives, the imagery of poems and figurative expressions, allusions to earlier passages, and the like.2 This hermeneutic also focuses on the historical context in which the biblical passages were written, seeking to understand the socio-politico-economic-cultural background of texts, their authors and audiences, and the purposes for which the texts were written, all with the aim of interpreting them in that context and with those purposes.3 Specific attention to the redemptive-historical context of the biblical passages is important for understanding their place in the progressive revelation of God, their connection to earlier passages, their anticipation of later passages, their connection to the biblical covenants, and the point they seek to drive home about Jesus Christ.4 This interpretive approach focuses additionally on typology, or intentional relationships between an earlier person/place/institution/thing (the type) and a later person/place/institution/thing (the antitype), a structure that emphasizes the unity of Scripture and its promise-fulfillment or anticipation-consummation theme.5 Evangelical interpretation does not follow the Roman Catholic “four-sense” approach to understanding Scripture, which seeks to discern four meanings—literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical—in most if not all biblical passages.6 This view of Scripture and its interpretation stands as the base of the first element by which Catholic theology and practice will be assessed. The second element will be evangelical theology, to which we will now turn our attention.

An Evangelical Vision of Life with God and Human Flourishing

As for evangelical theology, one must understand first of all that evangelicalism is not a church or a denomination but a massive broad-tent movement that encompasses thousands of churches and ministries from many different theological persuasions: Reformed, Lutheran, and Arminian; covenantal and dispensational; Pentecostal/charismatic and non-Pentecostal/non-charismatic; proponents of infant baptism and supporters of believer’s baptism; complementarians and egalitarians; and much more. Given this amazing theological spectrum, it is not possible to define and present one evangelical theology; evangelical theologies—plural—are the reality. However, so as to avoid confusion in my evaluation of Catholic theology and practice, I will set forth and focus on a typical expression of evangelical theology—the one outlined below—while noting, where appropriate, important divergences within evangelical theology. To ward off an anticipated criticism by Catholics, this theological diversity is not a “problem” just for evangelicalism. Catholic theology itself “suffers” from the same reality as it embraces Augustinianism and semi-Augustinianism; progressive, liberation theology and conservative, Opus Dei theology; male-only priesthood proponents and supporters of women priests; inerrancy and non-inerrancy; inclusivism and exclusivism; and the like. The “problem” of theological diversity is not inherent in evangelicalism, nor is it confined therein, for it is encountered within Catholicism, despite claims to the contrary.

Accordingly, I proceed with a typical expression of evangelical theology, which I’ll call “a vision of life with God and human flourishing.”

God eternally exists as three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—each of whom is fully God, yet there is only one God. Eternally existing, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are characterized by dynamic, loving relationships (John 17:24–26), mutual glory giving (John 17:4–5), and purposing (e.g., 1 Pet. 1:20–21), part of which included the decision to bring into existence our visible, tangible universe. This plan was actualized as the triune God created the world and everything in it ex nihilo, or “out of nothing” (Gen. 1:1; Heb. 11:3). Light and darkness, the dry land and the seas, the sun, moon, and stars, trees and plants, the fish, birds, land animals—everything was formed (Gen. 1:2–25), seemingly in preparation for a final, special, climactic creature; indeed, this being would be more like God than any other created being. God created human beings in his image and according to his likeness (Gen. 1:26–31), which means we both reflect God and represent him in the world in which we live. As for the reflective element, we human beings display God in whose image we are created, mirroring his love, justice, truth-telling, faithfulness, mercy, power, wisdom, and the like—always imperfectly, partially, and intermixed with sin because of our fallen reality. The representational aspect consists of two functions (Gen. 1:28): procreation (“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”), which means that most of us are or will be married and have children; and vocation (“subdue [the earth] and have dominion”) or civilization building, which means that we work in such professions as education, politics, business, health care, construction and manufacturing, the arts, and so forth (e.g., Gen. 4:17–22).7 We contribute to human flourishing by using our God-given human abilities. Through reflecting God (displaying glimmers of his character) and representing him (establishing a family and building civilization) we engage in the ultimate of purposes: glorifying God.

As divine image-bearers, we are hardwired with an innate sense of God (Acts 17:22–34), witness his eternal power and divine nature through what we observe in the created order (Rom. 1:18–25), experience further testimony of his goodness as he providentially cares and provides for us (Acts 14:8–18), and possess an intuitive sense of right and wrong through our conscience (Rom. 2:12–16). Through these modes of general revelation, we know that God exists, we know something about his attributes, and we know some basic moral principles that render us accountable before him. Because of this universal revelation of God, we should worship and honor him as God, give him thanks and depend on him for our very existence, and obey the moral sense in our heart.

Tragically, all image-bearers of God have fallen into sin and live in a world that is not the way it is supposed to be. Personally, we fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23); that is, we do not worship and honor God as we should, we do not give him thanks and depend on him as we should, and we (often, not always) do not obey our moral sense of right and avoid doing what our moral sense indicates is wrong, as we should. All of this is evidence of our alienation from God. Still, our fallenness does not end here: We are also alienated from other human beings, consumed with ourselves rather than concerned about others, in competition with them, experiencing relational brokenness. Furthermore, we are alienated from ourselves, being darkened in our understanding, chasing after things that will never satisfy, even being self-deceived.

Indeed, we may not even be aware of our present condition of sinfulness: Our conscience may be calloused; we may judge ourselves morally upright by comparing ourselves to others who are worse than us; we may even engage in doing good works (this element does not necessarily mean that we are religious, but often being religious and being part of a faith community that emphasizes doing good contributes to this element), leading us to conclude that we have gained God’s favor. Deep down inside, however, we know we are not fine: we have a disturbing sense of our own hypocrisy, and though we may hope that God will look favorably on us and our good works, we suspect—rightly—that a perfectly holy and just God does not grade on the curve, and that even the most momentous of human achievements, let alone the meager efforts of most human beings, cannot avail before a perfect God. So, we are not in a good state, nor are we merely in a neutral position; rather, we are in dire straits. We come into this world weighed down with original sin, and we manifest that reality throughout life: guilty before God, pervasively corrupt in nature (our mind, emotions, will, body, motivations, purposing—everything is marred), and incapable of rectifying our guilt and reorienting our sinful nature from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, from the life of self to...