With One Accord: Affirming Catholic Teaching Using Protestant Principles

by Douglas. M. Beaumont

The apostles and early Christians believed and worshiped in unity—in doctrine and practice following Jesus’ wish that “they may be one” (John 17:21).

But today, Christianity is splintered by the Reformation and its 500-year legacy of division, with Protestant groups divided among themselves and separated from Catholicism by a set of seemingly non-negotiable differences. Traditionally, Catholic apologetics has tried to bridge that separation by using Scripture, history, and logic to help Protestants see the truth of Church teaching.

In With One Accord, former Evangelical professor Douglas Beaumont takes another approach: working for accord with Protestants by reasoning from the things they already believe and do. Using principles that orthodox, Bible-believing Protestants broadly affirm, he arrives at particulars of Catholic belief—showing that in many cases the division isn’t as wide or deep as we thought.

Splitting the difference between ecumenism and apologetics, With One Accord is a sign of hope for Christian unity and a great resource for Catholics looking to have friendly and productive conversations with their Protestant friend

173 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Leslie Moellering · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does a good job bridging the gaps between Catholic teaching and general protestant thinking. This book might not be useful to hand to a protestant, but more so to give a Catholic tools for dialogue. As the author states, "When we're able to look more closely at Catholic teachings that Protestants reject, when we look at the why behind the what, we can see that many of them are in accord with sound principles that Protestants generally hold even if they haven't acknowledged or fully explored them." I'm just not sure this book is going to help get past the problem that most protestants don't want to explore them.

[Leah Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very education book on catholic belief and protest belief. Breakdown and references Were very helpful for someone who does not understand

[Toby Brennen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Apostles and early Christians were instructed by Jesus in 'be of one accord' - and they were, in doctrine and practice. Then in the early sixteenth century things significantly swerved. Several influencers came up with new and different ways of looking at Scripture. The result - today there are dozens, some say hundreds if not thousands of Protestant belief systems. It seems like the world is getting further from Jesus' desire. How can there be 'one accord' if every time an individual or group of individuals disagree, or dont understand something, they start their own church. These beliefs are all over the faith spectrum yet one mantra they typcially have in common is 'anything but the Catholic Church'.
"With One Accord" by Douglas Beaumont explains the Catholic belief system using Protestant principals. Taking one concept at a time that is important to typcial Protestants and illustrating how the underlying principle and Catholic practice are often more closely aligned than most people realize. In fact, many Protestant beliefs are closer to Catholicism than other Protestants.
Highly recommend this book for anyone involved in cross-faith dialog. It will help Catholics under Protestant perspectives [at least the major ones] and help Protestants realize that their positions often aren't very different. "With One Accord" touchs on the issue that many misunderstandings are semantic and defination of terms. Beaumont does a great job at balancing the theological depth without going into a full blown treatise on each subject - retaining the readability and length without sacrificing his original intent. The book does not address non-Christian or atheist topics. [4/5]

[Mark P · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I read before joining the Catholic faith. Interesting enough, it's not about the differences between Catholic and protestant faiths but rather what they agree upon. It's well written and I would definitely recommend for anyone considering the Catholic faith or any protestant really wanting to understand what Catholics believe.

[Christopher Moellering · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to bridging theological differences between Catholics and Protestants.