Reviews for Not by Faith Alone: A Biblical Study of the Catholic Doctrine of Justification

The average rating for Not by Faith Alone: A Biblical Study of the Catholic Doctrine of Justification based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-30 00:00:00 Kit Ping Ling This book argues for the Roman Catholic view of justification. I would say that the author is very tenacious in his arguing for the RC view. However, I found his hermeneutics to be a bit defective overall. For example he argues that the "obedience of faith" in Romans 1:5 must mean that Paul thinks the instrument of justification is faith and obedience. This seems really simplistic. He also argues better for some aspects of the Roman Catholic view than others. For example, on infused righteousness vs. imputed righteousness he has very little evidence that justification means infusion in Greek. He also tends to make arguments from silence, such as when he says that Paul never uses the word "alone" in reference to justification by faith and yet he uses the word alone in many other places. He also parodies the Reformed view at some places. He tries to get the reader the think that protestants do not have a general view of justification but that they mostly disagree, which is false. However, if you are looking for a good book to understand the RC view, look no further. Update: I would just like to say that I probably read this book a little too fast and injudiciously on my first review. I have come to see that the Catholic view of justification does make more sense of the Biblical data. This book made me think about some of the exceptions to Luther's ideas taught in several other texts in the New Testament, such as Romans 2 and James 2. If you want to understand a Roman Catholic view of justification, the best book to read is probably the Salvation Controversy by James Akin.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-12 00:00:00 Mark Davis Not for the faint-hearted, this comprehensive work details, somewhat painstakingly, the reasons why Catholics do not believe in Sola fide.