Roman Catholic Theology and Practice Quotes

“if divine revelation is a free act of the gracious God, how can the Church position itself in any way other than being a grateful beneficiary of that divine, inscripturated grace?”
― Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment

“The church’s position with respect to divine revelation must be that of recipient, not giver or determiner of it.”
― Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment

“Ringing in the ears of evangelical theology is Martin Luther’s call to distinguish between law and gospel.74 His distinction was not between the Old Testament (law) and the New Testament (gospel). Rather, law is anything in Scripture that expresses God’s demands while emphasizing the inability of sinful human beings to live up to those standards (e.g., Jesus’s command to be perfect as God himself is perfect; Matt. 5:48). Oppositely, gospel is anything in Scripture that expresses God’s promises by emphasizing that Jesus has met all of his demands. Gospel, then, brings grace to rescue sinners awakened to their need by law. Evangelical theology, following Luther’s trajectory, would profoundly disagree with Catholic theology’s view of the New Law”
― Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment

“With this framework of an evangelical theology of justification, grace, faith, and good works, key points of disagreement with Catholic theology’s developments of these topics can be outlined. Most importantly, its definition of justification is incorrect. Justification is a forensic or legal act, the declaration of the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of righteousness. Catholic theology errs when it mixes justification with two other mighty acts of God, sanctification and regeneration: “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.”109 This critique does not mean that evangelical theology minimizes or denies these other two divine acts. On the contrary, while affirming that justification is linked with regeneration and sanctification, evangelical theology distinguishes these three, as does Scripture (e.g., 1 Cor. 6:11). Tragically, conflating justification, regeneration, and sanctification results in Catholic theology’s false idea of justification.”
― Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment