Do you take the Bible "literally"? It is one of the great litmus tests of our day. The question is dangerously loaded. Answering "yes" or "no" puts you in an extreme position.
When Pentecostal minister Alex Jones came into the Church this past Easter he was not alone. He brought much of his congregation in with him.
One of the most alarming statistics reported recently in the Catholic Press was that approximately 70 percent of Catholics do not believe or do not know that by the action of the priest during Mass Jesus Christ becomes fully present in the Holy Eucharist. With Us Today argues that this widespread disbelief and misunderstanding is the outgrowth of misleading doctrines that have been circulating among certain theologians for a good part of the twentieth century.
The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that . . ."
If you're a Catholic who's faithful to the Church's teaching Magisterium, you've probably met up with followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's 1988 schism, known as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
An aid to understanding My Journey out of the Lefebvre Schism.
God is Love! This is the most glorious and welcomed notion in all of Christian theology. Man must die! This is the most vexing and most unwelcomed realization in the domain of human existence. How can a loving God allow his beloved creature, made in his own image, to die? This is the central paradox of existential theology and a philosophical riddle well worth considering during this month of the holy souls.
One need not accept the historicity of the Gospels on blind faith. It is eminently reasonable to believe that in Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, the deepest yearnings of mankind, expressed in so many various mythological modes, have been fulfilled.
In May of 1994 John Paul II promulgated Ordinatio Sacerdotalis which declared definitely that the Catholic priesthood is reserved for males. Hence, the question Why can there not be women priests? has now been answered in a definitive way. While Catholics are not to question the teaching of the Magisterium on this matter, the time is ripe for all interested to come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Churchs teaching.
"Yes and No" is Peter Kreeft's answer to so many religion texts which leave students thinking of religion as little more than a dull and boring rehash of things everyone already knows. Kreeft's book asks hard questions, great questions, and then answers them convincingly.