A Look at Roman Catholic Ecclesiology

Over the coming weeks, Lord willing, I hope to discuss a topic that’s come up in response to a work by Leonardo de Chirico, who argues that Evangelicals need “to engage with Roman Catholicism in a more theologically-integrative way”. Here is his contention:

The author suggests that evangelicalism’s appraisal of Roman Catholicism has lacked systematic awareness, tending instead towards more episodic aphoristic criticism of Roman doctrine, which for all its truth lacks integrated analysis. With this in mind, Dr. de Chirico proposes a critique which (i) applies the category of ‘system’ or ‘worldview’ to Roman Catholicism, and (ii) perceives two foundational theological foci in Roman theology – the relationship between nature and grace, and the self-understanding of the Church.

“Nature and Grace” is a huge topic all its own. I’ve written on the topic of “the self-understanding of the Roman Catholic Church” in the past, and my hope in this upcoming series is to respond more systematically to the issue of “the self-understanding of the [Roman Catholic] Church”.

Meanwhile, here are some links that can serve as a place to review some of the issues for anyone who’s hoping to look more closely at this topic:

The Roman Church Thinks Highly of Itself

The Pillar and Ground of the Truth

The Real Body of Christ

The Church that Roman Catholics Believe In Today

Rome is all about aggrandizing Rome

Newman, “The Roman Catholic Hermeneutic”, and Rome’s Foundational Assumption

Whatever else the “definition of the word church” contains, it must be purged of Roman conceptions of Rome

I’ve created a new category, “Roman Catholic Ecclesiology”. If you click on that link at the bottom of any of these blog posts, it will bring up all the blog posts in this current series.