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What Is Catholicism?: Hard Questions-Straight Answers
What is Catholicism? Questions ... Answers ... Truth Can you defend your Faith without becoming tongue-tied or vacillating? Do you feel adequately prepared to explain Church teaching to anyone who asks? Now you can. Using language and terms all of us can understand, Father John Redford gives straight answers to more than fifty of the hardest questions about Catholicism. From the Bible and Church authority to sexuality and ecumenism, this work grapples with the basic tenets of Catholic teaching and provides straightforward responses to such pointed questions as How can apologetics (the defense of one's own Faith) be reconciled with ecumenism (the search for visible unity among all Christians)? and Has the Roman Catholic Church, in its doctrines of the Virgin Mary, confused doctrine and Tradition with legend? With respect and insight into other Christian traditions as well as a keen grasp of the philosophical perspectives from which most hard questions about the Faith arise, Father Redford addresses even the most complex issues with simplicity, clarity, and vision. If you want to know exactly what the Church teaches and be able to share that knowledge with others, What Is Catholicism? with its easy-to-use index and bibliography, is an essential reference guide to Catholic thought and teaching. What Is Catholicism? is a defense of normative Christianity against modern infidelity... .Father Redford does not shrink from giving solid reasons for holding that God is real, that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and that he remains in his Church, which subsists in the Roman Catholic communion.... -Avery Dulles, S.J. John Redford, a former Anglican deacon, was received into the Catholic Church and ordained to the priesthood in 1967. He is the former editor of Faith Alive, an adult catechetical program, and Director of the first Distance Learning theology degree in Britain. He is currently a parish priest of Hersden, C
- GenresTheology
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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September 21, 2024
A FORMER ANGLICAN PRIEST TURNED CATHOLIC ANSWERS SOME "DIFFICULT" QUESTIONS
John Redford is "a former Anglican deacon, [who] was received into the Catholic Church and ordained to the priesthood in 1967. He is the former editor of Faith Alive, an adult catechetical program, and Director of the first Distance Learning theology degree in Britain. He is currently [as of 1999] a parish priest in Hersden, Canterbury, and a lecturer at the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury." He is also the coauthor of 'Faith Alive: A New Presentation of Catholic Belief and Practice.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1999 book, "This book is written in the belief that the Catholic Church can give satisfactory answers to the following Hard Questions, in fact to some of the most important questions about God, about life and its meaning... This does not mean that a Roman Catholic claims to know all the answers to every question under the sun... Although written as a Roman Catholic reply to a book written by an Anglican scholar, the following Questions raised are particularly relevant to any dialogue between Roman Catholics and Christians of the Protestant and Reformed tradition; and... to all those asking questions today concerning the authority and basis of Christian faith and practice." (Pg. 15)
He points out that "after the encyclical on biblical studies issued by Pope Pius XII in 1943, Divino Afflante Spiritu... [it] acknowledged the presence of different literary forms in Scripture. By this the Church formally abandoned any suggestion of univocity in the interpretation of Scripture, and was from now on explicitly committed to the present of different literary types, as well as the factual and historical, in Scripture." (Pg. 54)
He admits, "What has confused the whole question of Tradition (capital 'T') is that it has become bound up with the controversy as to whether there are doctrines not contained IN ANY WAY in Scripture. But that is not a necessary part of the Catholic doctrine of Tradition... This becomes a live issue when we consider doctrines such as the assumption of the Virgin Mary, which does not appear to be in Scripture... essentially Tradition with a capital 'T' is first and foremost the handling of the word of God in Jesus Christ in an unwritten form, parallel rather than in addition to, the word of God in written form that we call Scripture." (Pg. 65)
He explains, "the Church, in wrestling with the problem of the eternal destiny of infants who dies without baptism, proposed the possibility of 'limbo,' a place between heaven and hell where they remain in a state of 'natural happiness,' but denied the final vision of God that is the destiny of the blessed... All of us as human beings are made for final blessedness, and there is no 'halfway house' of natural happiness. But what happens to babies who die unbaptized? The Church is torn between emphasizing the necessity of baptism on the one hand, and an insistence that no one will go to hell apart from that person's own fault, a fault that infants that die would not possibly have." (Pg. 75-76)
He argues, "Popes are often faced by such complex forces, and have to provide immediate solutions that effect a policy within the Church quickly and effectively; not legislating generally for geniuses or saints, but for the broad mass of people. Popes are also placed in agonies of decision, as was Pius XII regarding the condemnation of Hitler's mass extermination of the Jews. There was a genuine fear on the Pope's part that Hitler would only unleash further horrors on both Jews and Catholics if he condemned what was happening at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. The Pope might have been wrong in his decision; but the sincerity of his decision must be acknowledged." (Pg. 114)
This book---written by a former Anglican---contains some “fresh” responses to such questions, than come from long-time Catholic apologists. It will interest anyone (but particularly non-Catholics) wondering, “What is the position of the Catholic Church on…?”
John Redford is "a former Anglican deacon, [who] was received into the Catholic Church and ordained to the priesthood in 1967. He is the former editor of Faith Alive, an adult catechetical program, and Director of the first Distance Learning theology degree in Britain. He is currently [as of 1999] a parish priest in Hersden, Canterbury, and a lecturer at the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury." He is also the coauthor of 'Faith Alive: A New Presentation of Catholic Belief and Practice.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1999 book, "This book is written in the belief that the Catholic Church can give satisfactory answers to the following Hard Questions, in fact to some of the most important questions about God, about life and its meaning... This does not mean that a Roman Catholic claims to know all the answers to every question under the sun... Although written as a Roman Catholic reply to a book written by an Anglican scholar, the following Questions raised are particularly relevant to any dialogue between Roman Catholics and Christians of the Protestant and Reformed tradition; and... to all those asking questions today concerning the authority and basis of Christian faith and practice." (Pg. 15)
He points out that "after the encyclical on biblical studies issued by Pope Pius XII in 1943, Divino Afflante Spiritu... [it] acknowledged the presence of different literary forms in Scripture. By this the Church formally abandoned any suggestion of univocity in the interpretation of Scripture, and was from now on explicitly committed to the present of different literary types, as well as the factual and historical, in Scripture." (Pg. 54)
He admits, "What has confused the whole question of Tradition (capital 'T') is that it has become bound up with the controversy as to whether there are doctrines not contained IN ANY WAY in Scripture. But that is not a necessary part of the Catholic doctrine of Tradition... This becomes a live issue when we consider doctrines such as the assumption of the Virgin Mary, which does not appear to be in Scripture... essentially Tradition with a capital 'T' is first and foremost the handling of the word of God in Jesus Christ in an unwritten form, parallel rather than in addition to, the word of God in written form that we call Scripture." (Pg. 65)
He explains, "the Church, in wrestling with the problem of the eternal destiny of infants who dies without baptism, proposed the possibility of 'limbo,' a place between heaven and hell where they remain in a state of 'natural happiness,' but denied the final vision of God that is the destiny of the blessed... All of us as human beings are made for final blessedness, and there is no 'halfway house' of natural happiness. But what happens to babies who die unbaptized? The Church is torn between emphasizing the necessity of baptism on the one hand, and an insistence that no one will go to hell apart from that person's own fault, a fault that infants that die would not possibly have." (Pg. 75-76)
He argues, "Popes are often faced by such complex forces, and have to provide immediate solutions that effect a policy within the Church quickly and effectively; not legislating generally for geniuses or saints, but for the broad mass of people. Popes are also placed in agonies of decision, as was Pius XII regarding the condemnation of Hitler's mass extermination of the Jews. There was a genuine fear on the Pope's part that Hitler would only unleash further horrors on both Jews and Catholics if he condemned what was happening at Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. The Pope might have been wrong in his decision; but the sincerity of his decision must be acknowledged." (Pg. 114)
This book---written by a former Anglican---contains some “fresh” responses to such questions, than come from long-time Catholic apologists. It will interest anyone (but particularly non-Catholics) wondering, “What is the position of the Catholic Church on…?”
Displaying 1 of 1 review