Faith seeking reason

There’s a compelling interview in the current NCRegister with Francis Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, with some outstanding wisdom revealed in it. Beckwith details his journey from Protestant Evangelicalism back to the Catholic Church, and he has a lot of insight for both.

Register correspondent Tim Drake asked Beckwith what he learned in 32 years as an evangelical, and what Catholics can learn from them.

I learned plenty, and for that reason I do not believe I ceased to be an evangelical when I returned to the Church. What I ceased to be was a Protestant. For I believe, as Pope Benedict has preached, that the Church itself needs to nurture within it an evangelical spirit. There are, as we know, too many Catholics whose faith needs to be renewed and emboldened.

True, true. And too many Protestants whose anti-Catholicism needs to be reviewed and examined. Beckwith’s journey beautifully illustrates the discoveries of an intellectual pursuit of truth when faith seeks reason. It always seemed to me that most Christians agree at least on the early Church fathers, and beliefs diverge sometime later. So going back to what they wrote is not only beneficial, but necessary. Especially in the sticky argument over ‘justification by faith’. What are the origins?

Then when I read the Fathers, those closest to the Apostles, the Reformation doctrine was just not there.

To be sure, salvation by grace was there. To be sure, the necessity of faith was there. And to be sure, our works apart from God’s grace was decried. But what was present was a profound understanding of how saving faith was not a singular event that took place “on a Wednesday,” to quote a famous Gospel song, but that it was the grace of God working through me as I acquiesced to God’s spirit to allow his grace to shape and mold my character so that I may be conformed to the image of Christ. I also found it in the Catechism.

There was an aesthetic aspect to this well: The Catholic view of justification elegantly tied together James and Paul and the teachings of Jesus that put a premium on a believer’s faithful practice of Christian charity.

This is clarity that’s missing in a lot of preaching.

Then I read the Council of Trent, which some Protestant friends had suggested I do. What I found was shocking. I found a document that had been nearly universally misrepresented by many Protestants, including some friends.

I do not believe, however, that the misrepresentation is the result of purposeful deception. But rather, it is the result of reading Trent with Protestant assumptions and without a charitable disposition…

I am convinced that the typical “Council of Trent” rant found on anti-Catholic websites is the Protestant equivalent of the secular urban legend that everyone prior to Columbus believed in a flat earth.

When one hears these misconceptions, so easily and readily believed, you just want to say ‘let’s be honest…’ about things that are perfectly traceable. Beckwith did that.

I returned again to the Fathers and found in them, very early on, [confirming] the Real Presence, infant baptism and apostolic succession, as well as other “Catholic” doctrines.

Even in the cases where these doctrines were not articulated in their contemporary formulations, their primitive versions were surely there.

But what was shocking to me is that one never finds in the Fathers’ claims that these doctrines are “unbiblical” or “apostate” or “not Christian,” as one finds in contemporary anti-Catholic fundamentalist literature. So, at worst, I thought, the Catholic doctrines were considered legitimate options early on in Church history by the men who were discipled by the apostles and/or the apostles’ disciples.

At best, the Catholic doctrines are part of the deposit of faith passed on to the successors of the apostles and preserved by the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.

That’s an intellectually honest equation.

At this point, I thought, if I reject the Catholic Church, there is good reason for one to believe I am rejecting the Church that Christ himself established.

That’s not a risk I was willing to take.

After all, if I return to the Church and participate in the sacraments, I lose nothing, since I would still be a follower of Jesus and believe everything that the catholic creeds teach, as I have always believed. But if the Church is right about itself and the sacraments, I acquire graces I would have not otherwise received.

The Register interview is full of this clear thinking, and it’s inspiring. It’s also a good source for some of the best authors and writing on both sides of the Catholic/Evangelical divide. Which seems bridged pretty solidly in Beckwith’s journey.