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A new book by Brad Littlejohn and Chris Castaldo, Why Do Protestants Convert?, adroitly tackles a sensitive topic among American Christians.
Why Do Protestants Convert? should be read by many, even though it may please few. Coauthored by Brad Littlejohn (a colleague of mine at the Ethics and Public Policy Center) and Chris Castaldo, this slim volume regards conversion holistically, as a process involving the whole person, rather than only a matter of dueling theological propositions.
The basic problem is, as Carl Trueman observed in a brief forward, that “the idiom of the rock concert with added TED talk is scarcely adequate to convey the holiness of God, the beauty of worship and the seriousness of the Christian faith.” Generations of evangelical leaders have embraced the idea that casual, entertaining, “seeker-sensitive” church services are the key to a growing congregation. Some succeed, but they leave a lot behind in the attempt. This is why it often seems that nearly every intellectually or aesthetically sensitive American evangelical will at some point feel the allure of Catholicism — the road to Rome often begins with a sense that one’s Protestant church is missing something important, if not several things.
For the sake of analysis, Littlejohn and Castaldo try to separate the motives for conversion, even while recognizing that they will inevitably be intermingled in the psyche and conversion process. They group these factors into triads and begin with the “psychology of conversion,” observing that Catholicism offers paternal authority “in an age that has all but blacklisted the very word” and that “precious few of our Protestant churches give their worshippers a sense of being in the presence of the holy.”
Continued below.
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Why Do Protestants Convert? should be read by many, even though it may please few. Coauthored by Brad Littlejohn (a colleague of mine at the Ethics and Public Policy Center) and Chris Castaldo, this slim volume regards conversion holistically, as a process involving the whole person, rather than only a matter of dueling theological propositions.
The basic problem is, as Carl Trueman observed in a brief forward, that “the idiom of the rock concert with added TED talk is scarcely adequate to convey the holiness of God, the beauty of worship and the seriousness of the Christian faith.” Generations of evangelical leaders have embraced the idea that casual, entertaining, “seeker-sensitive” church services are the key to a growing congregation. Some succeed, but they leave a lot behind in the attempt. This is why it often seems that nearly every intellectually or aesthetically sensitive American evangelical will at some point feel the allure of Catholicism — the road to Rome often begins with a sense that one’s Protestant church is missing something important, if not several things.
For the sake of analysis, Littlejohn and Castaldo try to separate the motives for conversion, even while recognizing that they will inevitably be intermingled in the psyche and conversion process. They group these factors into triads and begin with the “psychology of conversion,” observing that Catholicism offers paternal authority “in an age that has all but blacklisted the very word” and that “precious few of our Protestant churches give their worshippers a sense of being in the presence of the holy.”
Continued below.
Why Protestants Convert To Catholicism
A new book by Brad Littlejohn and Chris Castaldo — 'Why Do Protestants Convert?' — tackles a sensitive topic among American Christians.
www.printfriendly.com
