Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Some thoughts on my coming conversion

So, I have been a fairly staunch Calvinist over the last couple years (and a Protestant from birth), but I have recently decided to embrace the Roman Catholic Faith. I have come to the conclusion that Roman Catholicism is what many have called the '"fullness of the Christian faith". Thus, I thought I'd give a brief explanation of my decision to convert for any of my friends and family who are interested. There are, I think, four main reasons. They are as follows:

1. Philosophical:

My philosophical reasons for considering Roman Catholicism were manifold, but there was one that was more decisive than any other: The issue of authority. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't believe that God would not take every possible precaution to protect the truths of His Gospel. Sure, it's possible that God could have vested His authority purely in Scripture, and then have left it up to us to interpret properly. But the real question is, is it likely. Or, more concisely, is the Protestant view of authority more likely, or the Catholic view? I think it's obvious that God would have provided the sort of institutional, apostolic, interpretive, and living authority that we see in the magesterial structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Chesterton called it the "guardian of truth". I think this is a very true picture. If God cares to the upmost about our salvation, and about truth itself, then I can believe in nothing less than Catholicism.

2. Theological:

As Peter Kreeft and others have pointed out, there really isn't a significant difference between the substance of salvation in Protestantism and in Catholicism. It's true that justification is concieved of as progressive in Catholicism, and revelatory (of salvific stance) in Protestantism, but in both the term 'salvation' refers to an entire process leading to glorification. I found it rang more true that God really makes us just, and doesn't just declare us as just. Afterall, even Protestants believe He will be able to say, truly, that we are 'just' at glorification. Catholics just believe that what Protestants refer to as glorification (in the instantaneous sense) begins during this lifetime through charity and the sacramental life of the Church (and completely by grace, mind you). Of course, all of this also depends on varying interpretations of the atonement, but that's another discussion altogether.

3. Mystic Intuition:

What I mean by 'mystic intuition' is something along the lines of what C.S. Lewis called "Joy". It's a deep, near inexplicable, sense of the story-like nature of life, and the heart of reality. The sort of thing you feel while watching The Lord of the Rings, reading Paradise Lost, or viewing the sunrise over the ocean. It's a sense of longing for a world full of magic, wonder, and mystery (a world very much like an ancient myth). This mystical intuition I have found is most fully captured in the mystery and wonder of the Catholic Church. There is something immense, something so transcendent, something so mythic about it. The experience of Joy compels me to accept it as a true representation of the way things are. Thus, I must follow this 'scent from another land' (again, as Lewis put it) and follow it right into the gates of God's True Church.

4. History:

This was the most vital component in my decision to convert to Roman Catholicism. Just a skim through the Early Church Fathers provides, I think, reason enough for any Christian to accept Catholic Christianity. It became clear to me, in the most unambiguous and obvious way, that the early Church resembled the modern Catholic Church vastly more than any Protestant Church. Things like Baptismal Regeneration, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, an oral tradition passed on from the Apostles, and essential oneness of the visible Church are almost taken for granted in these writings. Because they are the closest to the historical events themselves, Jesus, and the Apostles, I must accept their view of such doctrines as being more pure and reliable than any modern interpretation (as I am no historical revisionist). It is more likely that they recieved these doctrines in the form in which they understood them from the Apostles than that such doctrines were so immediately, and drastically, corrupted.

The reasons I have come to accept Catholicism go far beyond this brief explanation. But it, in essence, captures the core and key reasons. There were also several authors who influenced me in the decision (including the likes of G.K. Chesterton and Peter Kreeft). The life of John Paul II was also a great inspiration to me when I began my study. Suffice it to say, I am converting to Roman Catholicism, and am as excited as ever to enter into the fullness of the Church of my Lord.

-Ben C.