Categories
Eschatology Roman Catholicism

Pope Francis on the nature of Hell

Pope Francis has a friend, Eugenio Scalfari, who is founder of the liberal newspaper Repubblica, and who professes to be an atheist. Periodically, the two of them meet for conversation and, later, Scalfari, without having taken notes at the meeting, publishes what he understood Francis to have said. Reading about the report on what Francis […]

Categories
Ecclesiology Evangelicalism Roman Catholicism

Will Pope Francis’s tenure see the end of the Reformation?

Division in the church is a great scandal and a hindrance to our witness (Jn 17:20-23), but can the breaches possibly be healed, even between the truly believing portions of the church in its major branches? Pope Francis hopes so and plans to move it along. This is something that will bear watching, as we […]

Categories
Evangelicalism Roman Catholicism

An evangelical reflects on lunch with Pope Francis

Brian Stiller is the Global Ambassador of the World Evangelical Alliance. Together with Geoff Tunnicliffe, the Secretary General of WEA, he had the opportunity recently to spend a few hours at lunch for an informal meeting with Pope Francis, at the Pope’s request. Yesterday, Brian posted his reflections on Facebook, so I take that to […]

Categories
Ecclesiology Roman Catholicism Spirituality Worship

The conundrum of Roman Catholicism

Reasons for encouragement about God’s work in the Roman Catholic Church I listened to an mp3 conversion of the video from the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast recently, and I enjoyed it very much. You can watch it here: This year’s guest speakers were his Eminence Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Robert P. George of […]

Categories
Roman Catholicism Soteriology

Peter Kreeft’s accessibilist perspective re: the unevangelized

In Tough Questions Christians Ask, published by Christianity Today in 1989 and then reprinted as a web only article in 2003, Peter Kreeft answers 35 questions about eternity, mostly with regard to heaven. (The few questions about hell are answered interestingly, but it is difficult to tell from those answers alone whether or not Kreeft affirms […]

Categories
Evangelicalism Roman Catholicism

Weigel on Evangelical Catholicism

How big is the evangelical tent? That is a hotly disputed question these days, informed by different definitions of “evangelicalism” itself. Considering the historical roots of the contemporary evangelical movement within Protestantism, I am reluctant to speak of segments of the Roman Catholic Church as “evangelical.” But I welcome the renewal that has been occurring […]

Categories
Evangelicalism Roman Catholicism

Evangelical reflections on Post-Vatican II Catholicism

Fifty years ago, Vatican II was convened by John XXIII, and it has marked the shape of life and thought in the Roman Catholic Church very significantly. Recently, I enjoyed Glen Scorgie’s assessment of the Council’s impact, and his thoughts about the effects of that Council on the relationship between Roman Catholics and evangelicals. I […]