Was the Reformation a Mistake?: Why Catholic Doctrine Is Not Unbiblical
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Was the Reformation a mistake? What key problems did Luther identify in his critique of Catholic doctrine? Is Catholic doctrine unbiblical? What then were the key theological problems that led to the Reformation?
Theologian Matthew Levering helps readers see these questions and more from a Catholic perspective.
In its actual historical context, it hardly seems fair to call the Reformation a “mistake.” In 1517, the Church was in need of a spiritual and theological reform. The issues raised by Renaissance humanism - and by the profound corruption of the Church’s leaders, the Avignon papacy, and the Great Schism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries - lingered unresolved.
Surveying nine key themes - Scripture, Mary, the Eucharist, the Seven Sacraments, monasticism, justification and merit, purgatory, saints, and papacy - he examines the positions of Martin Luther and makes a case that the Catholic position is biblically defensible once one allows for the variety of biblically warranted modes of interpreting Scripture. At the same time, Levering makes clear that he cannot "prove" the Catholic case.
The book concludes with a spirited response by “mere Protestant” theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
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- Offers biblical reflections addressing a specific concern identified at the start of each chapter
- Surveys nine issues raised by Martin Luther at the outset of the Reformation
- Concludes with a spirited response by “mere Protestant” theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer
- Scripture
- Mary
- The Eucharist
- The Seven Sacraments
- Monasticism
- Justification and Merit
- Purgatory
- Saints
- Papacy
- A Mere Protestant Response - Kevin J. Vanhoozer
- Title: Was the Reformation a Mistake?: Why Catholic Doctrine Is Not Unbiblical
- Author: Matthew Levering
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Pages: 208
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- ISBNs: 9780310162544, 9780310530725, 0310530725, 0310162548
- Resource ID: LLS:WSRFRMTNNNBBLCL
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-17T20:54:54Z
Dr. Matthew Levering is James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, and Co-Director of the Chicago Theological Initiative. He holds a B.A. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; M.T.S. from Duke University; and a Ph.D. from Boston College. He is the author or co-author of over thirty-five books including such works as Scripture and Metaphysics, Participatory Biblical Exegesis, Biblical Natural Law, Proofs of God, Aquinas’s Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?, The Abuse of Conscience, and Reconfiguring Thomistic Christology. He is currently at work on a multi-volume dogmatics, whose first five volumes have appeared (most recently Engaging the Doctrine of Israel). He is the editor or co-editor of over twenty books including such works as The Oxford Handbook of Sacramental Theology, Aristotle in Aquinas’s Theology, and The Reception of Vatican II. He is the translator of Gilles Emery, O.P.’’s The Trinity. He co-edits two quarterly journals, Nova et Vetera and the International Journal of Systematic Theology. He is the past president (2021-22) of the Academy of Catholic Theology, and served as its founding Chair of the Board from 2007-2016. He has been a member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together since 2004. With Thomas Joseph White, O.P., he co-edits the Thomistic Ressourcement series for Catholic University of America Press. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the St. Paul Center, and he edits the Renewal within Tradition series for Emmaus Academic Press.