Is the Reformation Over?: An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism Paperback – April 1, 2008

This book was recommended to me by a friend with a great heart for ecumenism, and I thank him for the recommendation. The book is well researched and documented, showing the development of relations between Protestant/Evangelical and Catholic leaders - from mutual hostility to mutual good-will. It offers a unique, outside perspective on the modern Catholic Church. As a Catholic, I'm amazed at how respectful and dedicated Noll and Nystrom are to understanding Catholicism, but how they still get some basic ideas wrong.After introducing the book's road map in the first chapter, the authors start off with a balanced view of mutual Catholic and Protestant antagonism from Reformation-era Europe (and provides an excellent list of misconceptions from both sides on p. 42). But soon they narrow their view to North American anti-Catholic writings and actions, mostly in the 19th and early 20th century. They quote personal letters and magazine articles that show "the widespread evangelical concern about the Catholic civil threat as much as long-standing concerns about doctrinal errors." (p. 56-67) Chapters 2 and 3 left me with a number of concerns and questions, such as 'Is the entire book filled with anti-Catholic angst?', 'Are the authors endorsing these views?', 'Why is this book so one-sided?', and 'Who exactly do they mean by Evangelicals?' But my apprehension was quelled by the time I got to chapter 4, which is the best history of official Protestant and Catholic dialogues I have ever read. Since Noll was one of the original signers of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) documents, he gives an insightful account of that initiative as well. The book even recounts how those anti-Catholic sentiments mentioned so pointedly in Chapter 2 have been directed towards Evangelical leaders who signed ECT documents or otherwise friendly towards Catholicism.Still there are a number of points of Catholic doctrine that Noll and Nystrom get wrong, such as- "Catholics currently may read the Living Bible and the Good News Bible, both produced under Protestant auspices" (p. 25) implying Catholics may not read other versions. The truth is that Catholics can read any version of the Bible, and those two are not the most popular among Catholics.- The second Vatican Council had a "change of mind in matters ... as fundamental as revelation, the relation of the natural to the supernatural, salvation and doctrines of the Church and papal authority" (p. 60). Catholics claim that the council changed the Church's pastoral approach on a number of issues, but did not change any doctrines and did not formulate any new ones.- Because of ecumenical dialogues, "Catholics came to respect individual salvation and the priesthood of all believers" (p. 85) - implying that there was little Catholic teaching about these topics before the dialogues. The truth is that the Catholic Church has always believed in and taught both, even though she lives them out differently than other Christian groups.- "Humanae Vitae ... continued the Catholic prohibition against all forms of birth control except the rhythm method." (p. 223) In actuality, Humanae Vitae merely speaks of engaging "in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile" for "well-grounded reasons for spacing births" (HV 16). Also a number of forms of NFP had been developed at the time HV was published, which Pope Pius XII had encouraged in 1951, seventeen years earlier.It is evident to me that the authors are trying to accurately describe Catholicism; they just get parts of it wrong. I think that shows that Catholic teaching is a difficult thing to grasp, even for open-minded, well educated Protestants and Evangelicals.An unexpected contribution is the authors' chapter dedicated to the 1985 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). They describe "paragraph after paragraph leading to worship and prayer" (p.119). If nothing else, hearing a self-identified Evangelical Protestant's view of the CCC is worth reading by any one interested in Evangelical-Catholic dialogue. After reviewing many points of disagreement between Catholics and Evangelicals, the authors conclude that the Catholic notion that "Christ and his church are one" is the fundamental difference between the Catholic and Evangelical worldviews (pp. 146-147). I'm not certain if I agree with this analysis, but I do find it both fascinating and well thought-out. The book ends with a great outside (Evangelical) view of current trends in American Catholicism.In short this book offers an insightful view of how open-minded Evangelicals view Catholicism, but it is a very poor source for learning what the Catholic Church actually teaches.

How did it come about that Billy Graham would not have dreamed of having "converts" sent to a Roman Catholic church in the 1950s but by the 1980s those who were making a decision to follow Christ through his evangelistic efforts were being sent to RC parishes? How is it that Thomas Oden, the Evangelical editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary Series, was granted an audience with the pope in 2003 whereby Oden received the pope's blessing for the forthcoming translations of said commentaries into Spanish and Italian? How did Evangelicals, conservative Protestants by nature, go from denouncing the pope as some type of antichrist to embracing the notion that he might be the rightful bishop of Rome and that cooperation with Roman Catholics was not only desirable in the USA, but necessary?A radical shift took place in Protestant-Catholic relations beginning with the conclusion of Vatican II in 1965 and we are still experiencing the dramatic changes ushered in by that paradigm shift.One of the reasons since Vatican II that has brought RCs and Evangelicals together has been social issues on the political scene. The term for this is "co-belligerency" as Evangelicals and Catholics fight against abortion and a host of other socio-religious issues. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals in the USA have also begun to experience cross-pollination as RCs have begun to read the Bible more frequently and as Evangelicals have begun to read the church fathers.But a major part of the book focuses on the cooperation and theological dialogues that began to take place between the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations since Vatican II. Noll briefly discusses RC relations with Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists and even Pentecostals. Key sections of Vatican II documents are analyzed and then Noll embarks upon a detailed discussion of "Evangelicals and Catholics Together," a statement of faith that was signed in 1994 by Charles Colson, J.I. Packer and notable RCs such as Father Neuhaus. Many of the Evangelicals who signed ECT in 1994 took a great deal of heat and some were forced to retract. But the document was of great significance as Evangelicals and Catholics now seemed to agree on the key doctrine of justification by faith. R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur became ardent spokesmen against the document whereas J.I. Packer became its most notable Evangelical defendant. This document was further elaborated in 1998 as Evangelicals and Catholics produced a second statement of faith regarding justification, "The Gift of Salvation" (ECT II). Noll argues this two page document is a much clearer explication of justification by faith than found in many a Protestant statement of faith. (Noll happens to be one of the signers of Evangelicals and Catholics Together II "The Gift of Salvation," but one would not know this from the seemingly unbiased way he describes the events that led up to its signing in 1998.) The real challenge as Noll sees it is not that Roman Catholics do not truly believe in justification by faith as much as they do not teach it. Noll points out that justification, though conceded by Vatican II and later documents simply does not factor into many RC discussions at RC seminaries or in the devotional life of Roman Catholics. Their center of piety lies elsewhere. Part of the challenges according to Noll is that Protestants see justification as a one time event whereas RCs view it as a process. Of course this discussion could become quite technical, but this book does not delve into the complex issues of inherent versus imputed (forensic) righteousness. Historically RCs have followed Augustine by adhering to the former whereas Protestants following Martin Luther have believed in the latter.Noll and coauthor then discuss at length how the RC church and Evangelicals have addressed contentious issues such as the doctrine of the church (ecclesiology), the person and role of the Virgin Mary, prayers to the saints, the seven sacraments, tradition, and other issues that have divided Roman Catholics and Protestants since the Reformation.Is the Reformation over? Perhaps not, but - according to Noll - so much progress has been made that it is impossible not to recognize the commonalities and shared resources enjoyed by Roman Catholics and Evangelicals that have come about in the past two and a half decades.This a highly readable and well documented book. I suppose the real challenge would come from conservative Protestants who would argue that Roman Catholic concessions on such key Protestant issues as Justification by faith are mere window dressing that have not changed the core teachings or practices of Roman Catholicism.

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