I was brought up as an Evangelical fundamentalist Christian and when we read the verses in the Bible that spoke of Jesus' "brothers and sisters" we concluded that they were the other children of Joseph and Mary. What I didn't know is that this idea was unheard of in the early church, and that even the [...]
Calling Mary the "Queen of Heaven" seems to most non-Catholics a title too far. How can the simple girl from Nazareth be "Queen of Heaven"? Isn't that a pagan term? In fact, isn't the "Queen of Heaven" actually condemned in the Bible? In Jeremiah 44 the Hebrews are blamed for turning back to false gods and [...]
Having a sandwich with my buddy--a former Baptist--when we were discussing the Mother of God. "Mary is the defender of Christian orthodoxy" I explained. "If you have the wrong view of Mary you will almost certainly have the wrong view of Christ. If you have the right view of Mary you will almost certainly have the [...]
It is often said that the longest journey is from the head to the heart. In other words, we can sometimes understand something intellectually, but until it gets into the heart--the seat of emotion and the seat of our will--it will only ever be a good idea. This is what happened to me with the dogma [...]
In the combox a reader asks, Father, regarding your reference to the “personal relationship with Jesus” that evangelicals emphasize … what is that? I hear that a lot in Catholic circles now also … but I have never seen it explained. How does one recognize that experience or how does it feel? The evangelicals seem to [...]
One of the basic assumptions of Protestantism is Primitivism. This is the idea that the Catholic Church became corrupt at some point and that the Reformers need to 'restore' the simple, primitive faith of the early Christians. Primitivist movements have been around since the beginning of the church, the Protestant Reformation threw up a good number [...]
Now that the geeks at Patheos have give us such a snazzy new re-fit, I am going through and moving a good number of my archived articles from my website to my blog. I hope readers will explore the 'Archived Articles' tab to see what's there. I'll be updating it regularly with old articles and with [...]
My godly Evangelical mother used to "witness" when we were out shopping. She'd ask the store keeper, "Have you been born again?" If the conversation got going she'd relate the story of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in the third chapter of John's gospel. I don't know if she ever succeeded in making convert, but [...]
The Catholic faith has been around for a long time, and believe it or not, these questions have been asked before.