Ahem. It's safe to look again. What I really wanted to do was highlight some very interesting theoretical engagements of evangelicalism with Catholic thought. Especially this, from professed Lutheran Allan Carlson, about Protestantism & Contraception, which begins provocatively:
It is a reckless analyst who risks reopening sixteenth-century disputes between Roman Catholics and the Protestant Reformers. I do so in the interest of a greater good, but my purpose is not to say who was right or who was wrong. I would simply like to explore why the Protestant churches maintained unity with the Catholic Church on the contraception question for four centuries, only to abandon this unity during the first half of the twentieth century.
And this fellow thinks there's an evangelical "oxford movement" underway, citing these articles as evidence:
- Evangelical scholar says we need a pope.
- Christianity Today calls for re-opening the "sola fide" debate.
- Also from Christianity Today, an argument that all Christians should make the sign of the cross. (And from a Calvinist, no less!)
- Evangelical Outpost writes about "the debt we owe to Catholics."
- Evangelicals learning to pray the daily office says the Chicago Tribune.
And let's not forget Dr. Mark Noll's question, "Has the Reformation Ended?" And Dr. Timothy George's Evangelicals & the Mother of God. And then there's last year's conversation between Carl Olson of Ignatius Press and Brad Harper of Multnomah Bible College: Part I. Part II. This excerpt from Part II was especially interesting to me, in which Prof. Harper describes incoming Protestant students:
As a rule, I find most students neither interested in nor opposed to the Catholic Church. As I mentioned in part one of this interview, I find that they are not even all that interested in their own denominations. They don't think about what it means to be Baptist, Presbyterian, or Assembly of God. They are much more generically interested in thinking about what authentic, biblical Christianity looks like, and they don't much care where they find it. In recent years, we have had a number of students here pursue more of a connection with Catholic and Orthodox churches. Most of those students are primarily drawn to the notion of the historic institution of the church and not so much the liturgy. If students are looking for more traditional liturgy now, they just find an "emerging" church.
It's not obvious to me why anyone interested in liturgy would go the "emerging Church" route; I wish he'd explained why, but nevermind. In its own way the attitude he describes is a reflection of Benedict's definition of ecumenism as a mutual discipleship in the truth --with unity being God's to make if we are all simply faithful to him. Right? Unity is to be achieved --or at least approached-- not through sticking points, but through discipleship.
