Catholics Come Home

Regarding a video encouraging lapsed Catholics to return to the Church (on YouTube), baptist evangelical Michael Spencer remarks:

If you can watch that ad and not be moved, you’re better than me. The fact that there’s no mention of purgatory, Marian dogma, infallibility, indulgences, other Christians, transubstantiation, annulments, relics or a dozen other relevant parts of the discussion doesn’t stop me from being impressed, and frankly, saddened that my team is mostly known these days for Joel Osteen, R-rated expositions of the Song of Solomon and gay bishops.

Those secondary matters which give Mr Spencer pause are, though certainly secondary, also certainly part of our Catholic faith and, if considered irenically, also pointers to primary matters.

By the way, the Catholics Come Home website is a good example of modern website design.

Here’s as good a place as any for three related questions/topics on ecclesiology:

  1. What is the ecclesiological significance of religious orders, etc within a larger ecclesial body?
  2. What is the relationship between “the invisible Church” (however understood) and the visible Church or, to be more precise (narrow?), the Catholic Church?
  3. Given the consistent position of Scripture against ideological definitions and towards incarnational definitions, what must a scriptural ecclesiology look like to be consistent?

Of course, the very definition of Evangelical is fraught with difficulties as, for example, Francis Beckwith points out.

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