Reviews for Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences

The average rating for Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-07 00:00:00 Houston Moore Re-Read. This is an excellent, careful work that serves not only to bring understanding to the topic at hand, but also serves as a good survey of essential christian doctrine and church history. The authors present the agreements and differences between Catholics and Evangelicals in a without the usual straw men and mischaracterizations, winning the approval of Catholic voices for an accurate presentation of their doctrine. The structure of the book is in three parts; things both traditions hold in common, things that both groups are irreconcilably divided on (including the weight of such differences), and areas that both groups can cooperate together without compromising either of their systems of belief. The tone is charitable and respectful, yet direct in what the authors consider to be the biblical and logical errors of Catholicism. Though not the ultimate purpose of the book, the authors conclude in the appendix that though catholics present a significantly incomplete gospel (lacking the "alone" portion of grace and faith), they nonetheless proclaim a saving gospel - disagreeing with the Reformers that the Catholic Church is an apostate one after the Counsel of Trent. A revelation to me was the great breadth of disagreement there is within the Catholic Church both in categories of traditionalist, conservative, liberal, radical, charismatic, and cultural as well as in the various orders of the Catholic Church such as Benedictine, Augustine, Dominican, Carmelite, Jesuit, and Franciscan. Many of the concerns Evangelicals would raise about Catholicism have voices within Catholicism that raise those same concerns. Even the official positions of the Catholic Church are variously interpreted within the different camps. As a result, one cannot easily say "Catholics believe..." just as one cannot fairly critique Mainline Presbyterian theology to chastise Southern Baptists simply because they are both Protestant. I can't imagine there are many Catholics or Evangelicals who would not benefit from reading this book and learn something not only of the other's belief, but also something of their own. The book will be challenging for those unaccustomed to reading nuanced theology with a more philosophic approach and I would love to see a simplified book written at the more popular level - yet it would be hard to do so without loosing the greatest strengths of this book which are its precision, thorough expositions, and extensive quotes and citations.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-21 00:00:00 Robert Craft This seems to be a very thoroughgoing book exhaustively detailing agreements and differences in theology and practice between Evangelicals and Catholics. The appendixes are invaluable going through the history of the Catholic and Protestant divide, the teaching on baptismal regeneration, and the Colson-Neuhaus Declaration. Since this book was published in 1995, here's hoping there will soon be an updated version.