Challenging Catholics: A Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue

by Dwight Longenecker, John Martin

A Protestant and a Catholic take long-debated issues between the two denominations and challenge the preconceptions of each about the faith of the other.

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Dwight Longenecker was brought up an Evangelical, studied at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, and later was ordained an Anglican priest in England. After ten years in the Anglican ministry as a curate, a chaplain at Cambridge, and a country parson, in 1995 Dwight was received into full communion with the Catholic Church. He has published in numerous religious magazines and papers in the UK, Ireland, and the USA, writing on film and theology, apologetics, Biblical commentary and Catholic culture.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A CATHOLIC CONVERT AND AN EVANGELICAL EXCHANGE VIEWS IN A RADIO SERIES

Dwight Longenecker was brought up as an evangelical but converted to Catholicism; he works as a freelance writer and broadcaster. He also cowrote Mary: A Catholic-Evangelical Debate. John Martin is a former editor of the Church of England newsletter, and works as a writer, broadcaster and consultant. The Preface to this 2001 book explains, "Challenging Catholics is based on a twelve part radio conversation conducted by John Martin and Dwight Longenecker... The original idea was to produce a punchy dialogue between to informed Christian laymen---and Evangelical and a Catholic."

DL says, "Although we both venerate the Scriptures and recognise their great authority, you want them to be the final authority and I say whoever interprets the Scriptures is the final authority. The fact remains, John, that while it's fine to read the Scriptures, we always need someone to interpret the Scriptures for us." (Pg. 16)

JM admits, "as a life-long student of the Bible there are very few passages that I remain entirely fazed by. There's the stuff in early Genesis about heavenly marriages. There's an obscure passage in the early part of Exodus that seems to say that God tries to kill Moses on his way to Egypt. But I don't see that such passages carry any substantial doctrinal import." (Pg. 27-28) Later, he says, "Honest exegesis of the Matthew [16:19] passage compels me to conclude that the words of Jesus are quite straightforward. They are meant to leave us in no doubt: Peter is the rock and he was given the keys to the kingdom." (Pg. 43)

DL concedes, "I agree with you one hundred percent that there have been wicked popes, and that their shocking example has done terrible harm to the body of Christ. I also agree with you that when popes clutched temporal power they were far from the gospel teaching that the greatest is the one who serves... the old catchphrase about absolute power corrupting absolutely was first applied to the popes." (Pg. 64)

JM observes, "the historical record doesn't point to 1,500 years of uniform interpretation leaving the position [of the Lord's Supper] you offer unmodified throughout. Yes, the early church fathers spoke of the bread and wine as Christ's body and blood... But they understood instinctively the place of metaphor and there is no crude literalism... it is only later with Thomas Aquinas' syntheses of Western Christian theology and the philosophical method of Aristotle that we come to something like what you are saying." (Pg. 95)

DL reveals, "I must admit that while I understand indulgences, I don't find them particularly exciting. There's something too pat about it all---too legalistic. But you don't have to love everything Catholic to be a Catholic. I'm happy to accept them and leave it at that." (Pg. 136) He adds, "There is always the suspicion that Catholics are praying to the saints' images instead of to God. Indeed, it looks very like that sometimes. When you go into a Catholic Church, you may see an old lady light a candle in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then stand there praying while gazing up at the statue. It looks like she is praying to the statue. But if you were to ask her who she was praying to, even the most humble of Catholics would say they are praying to God." (Pg. 151)

This is an excellent interchange of views, that will be of great value to anyone interested in Catholic/Protestant dialogue.

[Natalie Print · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful book exploring the differences, and similarities, between Roman Catholic and Evangelical beliefs. Worth reading.

[Mike Print · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Well worth reading to understood what Catholics/Evangelicals actually believe and remove the myths once and for all