To become a Catholic Christian after a decades as a biblically faithful evangelical (preparation for which I’m deeply grateful), was an unanticipated step in my lifelong Christian pilgrimage.
Certainly I could write about my conversion at greater length, but others have done it better. See Evangelical is Not Enough, by Thomas Howard, or Catholic Matters, by Richard John Neuhaus, as examples. But neither Howard’s Christian pilgrimage nor Father Neuhaus’ are mine. My journey into the Church involved five reasons: certainty, history, unity, authority, and liturgy.
September 2002, in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Scot McKnight published an article titled, “From Wheaton to Rome: Why Evangelicals Become Roman Catholic.” Dr. McKnight’s article was very perceptive. Although he would describe the reasons for my conversion in somewhat different terms, four of my five reasons were identified in his article, and the fifth (liturgy) was indirectly suggested. By this, of course, I do not mean to imply that Dr. McKnight would endorse my conversion to Catholic Christianity. Rather, I am simply saying that he sees some of the broad trends in Protestant and Catholic Christianity accurately.
Bible texts cited in Christianity Richly posts are most often from the New American Bible (NAB), along with the English Standard Version (ESV). Occasionally, I use the Jerusalem Bible (JB). At times, you may even find a verse rendered in some combination of those, including the King James Version (KJV) with which I grew up, or the New International Version (NIV). For those of us not well-studied in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, it is often advisable to read references cited in multiple English translations, to get the clearest possible sense of the original text.
Finally, soon after Christianity Richly was launched, I received a comment from a reader that helped me realize guidelines for comments would be helpful. Since this is a moderated blog, I want to be considerate of your time. Comments that emphasize the joys we share, rather than points that divide us, will have a greater chance of being published. Read my slightly longer post to the blog titled, On Posting Comments, if you have questions about this.
My daily prayer is that the richness of life in Christ will be manifest here on Christianity Richly, and be an ongoing encouragement to us all.
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Thank you for the encouragement! As Catholic Christians, we ARE called to evangelization, both inside (in a sense) and outside the Church. We have 40+ years of poor catechesis to overcome inside, as well as a world outside that has not yet seen the riches of The Church. Keep praying. May God richly bless you, your prayer group, and our Church.
Thanks! We were just talking last night at our couples prayer group the need for our Church to be set on fire by the Power of the Holy Spirit. God spoke to several of us while in prayer and asked for prayer and fasting between now and Pentacost, for the scales to be removed and for a baptizing of the Holy Spirit for all Catholics! We were also called to evangelization.
Our Church is hungry!