classics digests, reflections and reviews
The Question of Infallibility In a previous post, I asked the question, “How do we know that (the magisterium of) the Church is infallible?” Nothing in my Catholic interlocutor’s response addresses my question. In fact, I get the impression time and time again that he is not aiming at dialogue, but using my posts as a launchpad of canned responses of the Catholic Church.[1] However, we agree on one thing: […]
Read more
Background and Disclaimer Catholic blogger Eamonn Clark wrote that I was “intellectually lazy”, because I didn’t address his arguments made in response to my defense of sola sriptura. Although his criticism of my laziness is valid in general, it is invalid, not to mention uncharitable, in this particular case. I would be more than happy to engage further, as long and hard as necessary, if I believed that this type […]
Read more
Last week, a Catholic blogger Eamonn Clark responded to my blogpost titled “In Defense of Sola Scriptura”, which I wrote five years ago to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. At the end of his post, Clark wrote, “I remain unconvinced”. I can only smile and say that the feeling is mutual. Clark quoted my arguments at length and responded to them point by point. For that I’m grateful. […]
Read moreBackground and Disclaimer Almost three years ago, I wrote a series of posts on John Calvin’s “Institutes of Christian Religion“, one of which critiqued the principle of sola scriptura. A recent debate with a few Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians helped me appreciate Calvin’s position better than before. In the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, it is fitting to write in defense of sola scriptura, the formal principle […]
Read morePreface Institutes of the Christian Religion is a foundational work of Protestant systematic theology, and included in the Great Books of the Western World series, which I’ve been reading and blogging in the past few years. Ironically, I was called a Calvinist once, at a time when I had no idea who Calvin was. Now, twenty years later, I’m reading John Calvin’s magnum opus for the first time. One interesting […]
Read more