Let the Reformation continue… yes, but let it continue in the gospel terms of Scripture alone and Faith alone.

The 2013 document, signed by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church in preparation for the 2017 Reformation anniversary, indicates the goal of an ecumenical trajectory for the two church bodies.

On the surface, the Pope’s comments on justification seem to be very biblical and indeed very Protestant.

A response by Leonardo De Chirico and Greg Pritchard to articles written by Thomas Schirrmacher and Thomas K. Johnson. 

Evangelical Reformed Baptist Churches gathered in Trent to express their commitment to Protestant values. Evangelicals celebrate Reformation in Rome’s Martin Luther Square.

Modern Catholicism is “a synthesis of medieval essentialism and modern existentialism”, the Dutch philosopher and theologian Cornelius Van Til said.

So far, Evangelicals and Pentecostals have been talking about unity among “born again” believers. If they commit to “greater oneness” with the Roman Catholic Church and WCC, they need to reflect on what they become committed to.

For the Catholic Church, “by grace alone” means that grace is intrinsically, constitutionally, and necessarily linked to the sacrament, and thus to the Church that administers it.

This request shows that when the Pope talked about all religious people being “children of God” he did not simply mean members of the human family.

The word rosary means “crown of roses”. The conviction behind this expression is that Mary has revealed that each time people say a “Hail Mary” they are giving her a rose.

The word “evangelization” is used across the spectrum of the Christian world. The question is: What is the meaning of it? How is it defined? What does it refer to?

Pope Francis focuses on the primacy of conscience rather than the prescriptive nature of law.

The traditional theological structure was geared to give Yes or No answers. The post-Vatican II structure is more inclined to suggest Both-And types of answer on all kinds of issues.

What the Pope has in mind is an altogether different kind of reformation, i.e. a reformation that will make his church more catholic and more Roman, doubtfully more evangelical.

Protestants find it difficult to come to terms with this Marian dogma. This is due to not finding even a hint of evidence for this belief in the Bible.

With Pope Francis the Roman Catholic Church is simply becoming more “catholic”, i.e. embracing and absorbing all, without losing its being “Roman”.

In assessing the ecumenical scene, the risk of looking at Lund without being aware of what happens in Rome is real. 

“The aim of the JDDJ is to find commonalities, not differences. But with that comes a lopsided methodology that obscures those differences”, says theologian Michael Reeves.

Where is the Roman church headed After Vatican II? An interview with Leonardo de Chirico.

The territorial dimension of the hierarchical church, centered on the authority of the bishop, has found it difficult to come to terms with the charismatic energy of the movements, more inclined to follow their own lay leaders than the local bishops.

The issue at stake is whether or not Luther is to be rescued from himself in order to be heard by the church and the world.

What does it mean to be Catholic? The question is simple but the answer is fraught with complexities.

Any accommodation to the idea that we are ultimately capable of saving ourselves, any accommodation to the fact that salvation is not God’s gift from beginning to end is a slippery slope towards a false gospel.

“Catholicism continues to add places to the table and extend the menu”. The talk Leonardo de Chirico gave at the 2016 AEI annual assembly in Rome.

The way in which Catholicism perceives time - the sense of definitiveness as well as that of a progression - is a solid indicator of its basic theological framework.