Why Evangelicals Should Discover Early Christian and Catholic Authors

Image by @ChulHYoo posted in Twitter. Caption:
"The times they are a changin!! #SBC18 #SBCAM18"

I've seen a dramatic change in book tastes in the last four years of attending Southern Baptist Conventions.

Two year sago, the first messenger I met—upon hearing that I was representing the Catholic Church—asked me for a good Thomas Merton book recommendation. He had just finished The Seven Storey Mountain, loved it and wanted to know where to go next.

The Lifeway book selection in the exhibit hall is often a good barometer of the interests of the people and what is currently politically acceptable in the culture. After all, Lifeway is an official body of the SBC and subject to the rigors of orthodoxy and the demands of voting and tithing member churches.

In the Christian classics section this year, in between the predictable sellections of Jonathan Edwards and C. S. lewis, I was surprised to find works by St Augustine, church historian Eusebius, St Athanasius and Thomas a Kempis. I also found G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, with an introduction by Charles Colson which never mentions Chesterton's Catholicism.

It goes without saying that only a few short years ago this never would have happened. In fact, I remember Lifeway selling either a Merton or Augustine book (I can't remember which) years ago and receiving formal complaints on the convention floor as a result.

I applaud Southern Baptists for finding value in these authors. They are not just Catholic authors—they are part of your heritage, too.

Growing up a Catholic, I was always disappointed when my evangelical friends would go to great lengths to avoid learning anything about the first 1,500 years of Christianity. Some of the more scholarly-inclined would apply themselves rigorously to study of Ancient Jewish tradition and culture in order to better understand Scripture. However, most of them refused to learn much of anything about the first 1,500 years of their own religion—Christianity. I guess the fear of  Catholicism was strong.

A key word here is "refused." It wasn't that they simply weren't interested—many outright resisted any suggestion that they would benefit from putting attention there.

I'll be honest and say I took it personally when I was younger.  They were not just rejecting some detached aspect of Church history—I felt they were also rejecting me as a Catholic. But even more so, in order to reject me as a Catholic it seemed like they were willing to reject their own history and a part of themselves—to cut their nose to spite their face, as the saying goes.

I would argue that whether you like or dislike Catholicism, a Christian is mostly shooting him or herself in the foot to stubbornly cut themselves off from their own family tree in this way.

As one Christian brother to another, I would advise that this may not be the best decision. I say this not to gloat or try to "push Catholicism" at all. But modern Christianity came out of this period in no small way. The Biblical canon was finalized and theological understandings such as the Trinity and the dual natures of Christ were hashed out in no shortage of very open and passionate debates. Many of those debates have been preserved in writings and are a treasure trove to read. Good and holy people walked the earth and bore witness to Christ. No, their understandings of their faith are often markedly different from modern day evangelicalss—but they are also markedly different from some modern day Roman Catholics. Things change over time.

It seemed there has been a refusal among evangelicals to believe that anything good has come out of this thing called the pre-Reformation Catholic Church. If there were any doubt, it was important to close the door to make sure never to find out otherwise.

Thankfully, many evangelicals today are rejecting this isolationist position and coming to many of the same conclusions here. They want to reconnect to this part of Christian tradition. They want to connect to a part of themselves.

I was glad to read this blog post by a Baptist scholar.

And while Merton is a post-Reformation Catholic, his faith is so deep and his mind so sharp that he belongs to the universal Church. Heck, why limit our curiosity just to the pre-Reformation era when Christians of all denominations are giving a witness worthy of our attention today. Again, why cut our nose to spite our face and turn way from all the wisdom we can find, regardless of which denomination it comes from?

Last but certainly not least, I was glad to see prominent displays of women authors and works about racism. Two works by Dietrich Bonhoeffer were conspicuously displayed. In these disturbing political times, it may be worth listening again to the lessons of this Lutheran pastor martyred by Nazi Germany.