Part III in a three-part conversion story

I was able to graduate from the Master's program in good conscience knowing that I would not be working over the entire summer after graduation, and this would give me time enough to finish the investigation, at least in the sense of knowing what the outcome would probably be. The first issue, in order of time and importance, with which I dealt strongly was that of authority. It is of course the most primal question that a believer has. Namely, "Where do I go to find out more about this God in whom I have just come to believe?" Unfortunately, in the hullabaloo of most conversions to the Evangelical faith this question, which is so primal and natural, is fairly well glossed over. New Evangelical converts usually just take any authority's word for it (like the authority of the one who leads us to Christ). Or they just figure out on their own rather quickly from the sermons and Bible studies they attend that Christianity is, at its essence, a “Religion of the Book,” as Yves Congar aptly dubbed Protestantism. I came to understand that this was not what any Christian ever believed prior to the Protestant Reformation. And, what is worse, it is an implausible position for a Christian believer to maintain.

Since the time of the apostles, the people of God have always rested in the comfort of "holy mother Church" being an ever present guide and safety, preserving the faithful from errors which naturally arose in the course of history, and keeping the flock in the one Faith "delivered to the saints." For my part I came to agree with St. Thomas Aquinas when he argued that without one Sovereign Pontiff as a visible head of the church on Earth who could have a final say in important matters of dispute (especially when they arise from the Bible itself), there would be no way of maintaining unity, or even of knowing with any level of assurance what the one Faith is to which a Christian is to give assent.

Secondarily, a Religion of the Book has always been a little unattractive to me. Its gross lack of fulfillment in the normal Christian life of a believer has always been a moderate repulsion. And as anyone who has studied the matter would know, the Catholic Church abounds with aids in fulfillment of a religious life lived out well and seriously. I came to believe that the Catholic Church possesses, protects, and promulgates the fullness of theology, philosophy, apologetics, morality, and religious practice. In fact, the only other churches that even approximate the grandeur of the Catholic Church do so by way of just how much they are like the One Church (e.g., Eastern Orthodox, some Anglican, some Lutheran, etc.).

It is important to point out that this amounts to an addition to my religious beliefs as a Christian, not a subtraction. Being a Catholic amounts to disagreeing with the “Reformers” when they denied the authority of the Church and effectively made themselves the final seats of authority. So, going from Evangelicalism to the Catholic Church is not a repudiation of Evangelicalism, except insofar as Evangelical Christianity denies fundamental tenets of the Faith which were well received before they came along. It is the non-Catholic who denies some amount of received truth, not the other way around. This isn't offensive to Evangelical ears, I hope. I only mean to communicate that the various "solas" (sola fide, sola scriptura, etc.) were denials of things already taught and universally believed by the one historic Church. "Faith alone is the truth concerning justification," says Martin Luther et al., "rather than the already received teaching of faith formed by charity." "The Bible alone is our authority," says Luther et al., "rather than the ancient belief of Sacred Tradition and the Bible."

So, becoming Catholic, I can only imagine, felt a little bit like a Jew becoming an Evangelical Christian. Many more important things are added to the core beliefs and practices you already have as a Jew. You don’t repudiate where you were; you fulfill it. So too with me, I haven’t repudiated all the many good things about Evangelicalism. I’ve fulfilled them. I’ve brought them into a world much larger and much greater than themselves.

This was my story as of two years ago. Much of the content of these three installments has been drawn from a letter I sent to former pastors of mine during Advent of 2003. Since that time, of course, my reflections on Catholicism vs. Protestantism have only grown deeper and my insights (I hope) have grown more various. I intend to make much of the content of this website a series of some of the reflections I have had in the interim 2 years between today and originally making the decision to become Catholic.