Justification by Faith Alone: Affirming the Doctrine by Which the Church and the Individual Stands or Falls (Reformation Theology Series)

Rating:
Summary: INTERESTING INSIGHT
Review: While an informative read and a potentially valuable insight into just what the majority of the protestant church(es) believe as regards their faith, the primary failing with this volume is it's insistance that most of the concepts it is discussing can be traced back to the earliest christian traditions. Virtually all of the main points it maintains were part of the embryonic christian tradition are actually christianity as filtered through Luther. Credibilty suffers as a result ( one may insist a thing is true, and even believe a thing is true, however, the level and depth of your insistance does not make that thing objectively true if it is not supported by historical fact ). While pleasantly surprised that it rose above the level of typical protestant polemic, I came away with the distinct impression that we are still a great deal away from anything even approaching mutual protestant/catholic understanding and unity so long as the protestant church(es) continue to live in denial. The facts are that the tenets of the Faith as received and understood down through the ages have come from the catholic church, it's truths, concepts and teachings, and that the catholic church, for all it's perceived failings, is the one, true wellspring of christian truth and the original source of the christian faith. Sequels are rarely as well executed and function primarily as watered-down, degraded versions of the original, and often tend to suffer by comparison.