Protestant objections to the Catholic view: Michael Barber responds
A couple of weeks ago Dr Jim West posted some questions for Catholics, prompted in part by the beatification of John Paul II.
Here are the questions:
1- What biblical or theological justification is there to pray for the dead?
2- What biblical or theological justification is there for believing that the dead pray for us?
3- How is ‘praying to a saint’ different from idolatry?
4- Isn’t it idolatrous to place your faith in any for salvation other than Christ?
5- Isn’t the entire notion of the invocation of the saints idolatrous and blasphemous?
Today Jim notifes us that Michael Barber – The Sacred Page – has picked up the gauntlet and will be posting a series in response.
The first response clarifies the common Protestant misconception of the Catholic position relating to grace and works.
Being new to Catholicism – and coming from a Protestant tradition – I personally need these issues clarified and will link to this series for my own benefit, and hopefully for your interest also.
May 21st, 2011 at 4:10 pm
It will be interesting to read Michael Barber’s responses. What puzzles me about the Anglican end of Protestantism is why they have churches named after saints. There has never, to my knowledge, been a canonisation carried out by a non Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury – all of the saints are Catholic ones anyway……
May 21st, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Well, from the Anglican end which rejects the description of Protestantism, I did essay an answer in two parts a year or so back: on praying for the dead and on asking the saints to pray for us if you’re interested
May 22nd, 2011 at 3:29 am
I’d like to welcome you to the Catholic Blog Directory and invite you to join Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival, a weekly gathering of Catholic bloggers who share their best posts with each other. This week’s edition is at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-snippets-catholic-carnival_21.html
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:31 am
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