Taylor “Marshalls” Evidence for the Catholic Paul

The wait is over for book two in Taylor Marshall‘s three-volume Origins of Catholicism series! You may recall my review of book one, The Crucified Rabbi, which focused on the organic links between Judaism and the Catholic Church. Christmas came early for me this year when volume two, The Catholic Perspective on Paul, arrived in my mailbox recently. Since a particular interpretation of Paul’s writings by Luther touched off the Protestant revolution in the first place, it’s crucial to understand Paul correctly to ascertain (to borrow a phrase from N.T. Wright) what Saint Paul really said.

Look for my full review in Catholic Insight magazine in early 2011, but let me give you a sneak peek at Paul from Taylor’s Perspective:

It has been said that Paul’s entire theology is an expansion upon the particular words of Christ pronounced to him on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 26:14). With these words, Christ revealed that to persecute any of His disciples is to persecute Him. When Saul approved of the murder of Stephen, he had approved of the murder of Christ. When Saul imprisoned Christians, he had imprisoned Christ. From this intimate union between Christ and his disciples, Saint Paul extrapolated his entire theological system. Accordingly, Paul’s doctrine of the believer’s union with the person of Christ is the bedrock of Catholic theology because it presents salvation in terms of participation. Christ’s statement to Saul reveals that the Christian believer participates in the life of Christ. This is the center of Paul’s message. “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:5). The epistles of Paul constantly and consistently resound with the phrase “in Christ” and “in him”. This phrase is more common than any other topic in the letters of Paul combined. This means that Paul discusses the believer’s participation in Christ more than justification, faith, works, law, or predestination. Union with Christ is the ubiquitous theme of Paul’s theology.

When we understand Christianity as a participation in Christ, we begin to read Paul’s epistles in a new light, or rather under the ancient light of the Church Fathers who lived before us. We find that the “old perspective on Paul” articulated by the Catholic Church had it correct all along. Saint Paul presents the Church, baptism, the Eucharist, marriage, faith, works, justification, sanctification, and regeneration as participations in the person and work of Christ…this interpretation confirms that Paul’s teachings are in fact the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Paul’s paradigm of “union with Christ” can be contrasted with what I call “zero-sum theology”. Let me boldly suggest that all theological misunderstandings regarding the Catholic faith can be attributed to the adoption of “zero-sum theology”. By “zero-sum theology”, I mean that theological framework that views salvation, grace, life, and love as a pie with only so many pieces. Christ either gets all pieces or loses the remaining pieces to Mary, saints, sacraments, priests, popes, etc. Naturally, Christ as God should receive all the pieces – not merely some of the pieces. He is the whole of salvation, right?

Of course, Christ is the whole. He is “all in all” as Saint Paul beautifully teaches (Eph 1:23). However, Catholics do not subscribe to a “zero-sum” approach to Christ. Rather than using a “zero-sum” model, Catholics use Saint Paul’s paradigm of participation. Christ is “all in all”, but this means that all other aspects of redemption participate in and through Christ – not apart from Christ. Catholics thus believe that the sacraments, Mary, saints, and priests participate in and through Christ, and thereby lead the Christian to embrace Christ more deeply.

This difference between Catholicism and Protestantism accounts for almost every doctrinal difference between Catholic theology and Protestant theology. Catholicism is framed by a doctrine of participation – Protestantism is generally framed by the zero-sum paradigm.

– Taylor Marshall, The Catholic Perspective on Paul, pp. 26-28



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The Joy of Gaudete Sunday

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday. The name comes from the first word of the introit at Mass: Gaudete – Latin for “Rejoice”. It is represented by the pink (officially “rose”) color of the candle on the Advent wreath, as opposed to the purple of the other weeks, and the corresponding pink vestments worn in the liturgy. Actually, I remember a priest saying on one Gaudete Sunday (perhaps slightly embarrassed at having to don vestments of this shade) “It’s not pink, people, it’s salmon. Salmon are strong, manly fish!”

The joy we feel on Gaudete Sunday stems from the fact that we are moving ever closer to celebrating the Nativity of the Lord – and we can’t contain this joy! It simply must overflow into the lives of others. Partaking in the apostolate of Confession can help that become a reality.

What is the apostolate of Confession? Many of us have friends and family members who have been away from God, the Church, and the sacraments for years. There is no better time than Advent for them to return to the Father’s house, as did the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In the Gospel account of Jesus healing a paralytic, we are told that his friends carried him to Jesus, lying on a mat. But because of the dense crowds surrounding the Master, they were unable to reach him. They resorted to digging a hole through the roof and lowering him down to Jesus! Not sure the homeowner was thrilled with the new skylight (it may have been Peter’s or even Jesus’ own house), but the text says: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5, emphasis mine). It took some ingenuity and effort for these men to get their friend to Jesus. Many of our friends are paralyzed in their interior life because of sin. We must find ways to bring them to Christ this Advent, so they can hear his word of forgiveness in the sacrament of Confession, and be set free to rejoice in the Lord.

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McEvangelism and Coffeenerdness

On this feast of the great evangelist St Francis Xavier, I thought I’d share this story with you. The other day I met up with my friend Kevin Walker, erstwhile soccer blogger (and the man behind such famous sites as the Own Goal Network) for a coffee. We decided to hit Mickey D’s as opposed to, say, Starbucks, for a pretty darn good reason – McDonald’s was in the midst of their free coffee promotion! Now, no one loves Starbucks more than yours truly, but having to take out a second mortgage for that grande vanilla latte isn’t always the best play. Especially when McCoffee (it isn’t really called that, but it should be) is gratis.

You know what? I’ve got to tell you that McDonald’s coffee, these days, is pretty darn good! And, no, I am not getting paid to say that! It’s waaay more consistent of a brew than Tim Hortons (the ubiquitous Canadian coffee named after a hockey player – and, yes, it is spelled without an apostrophe – don’t ask) is these days. I swear, almost like New Coke, Tim Hortons has “changed the formula” of their product over the last four years. It’s wildly inconsistent, depending on which location you go to and the time of day you go there – but I don’t think anyone’s noticed because we’ve been so pavlonianly trained to keep coming back regardless. Okay, end of rant – and rabbit trail. File this one under what Peter King of Sports Illustrated calls “coffeenerdness”.

Now, a funny thing happened while we were having said coffee: the place was jam-packed with students from our local Catholic high school, St Augustine’s, who, apparently, had also heard about the free elixir and thought it worthwhile to skip class to line up for it. While I’m ordering mine, Kevin sits down and somehow gets into a discussion on the Church with a student named Matthew. I returned to find them discussing the Bible. It seems Matthew is a devout Evangelical (even though he attends a Catholic high school) who finds Catholic teaching “unbiblical”, and was also appalled by the irreligious lifestyles led by many of his ostensibly Catholic classmates. To the latter point: don’t judge a religion by those who clearly don’t practice it. Rather, judge it by the strength of the lives of those who clearly do – the saints. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

As for the first point, that Catholicism is “unbiblical”: Considering that the New Testament was written, and canonized by the Catholic Church, that can hardly be the case. Any discrepancies are only apparent, not real, and can be easily explained. Matthew had a ton of questions about these supposed problems, but, sadly, we didn’t have time to discuss them all. In a situation like this, its probably better, before dealing with less foundational issues, that we should seek to help people grasp a far more fundamental principle: Why do we believe the books that make up the Bible, especially the 27 books of the New Testament, are the infallible Word of God in the first place? The short answer is, “Because the Catholic Church says so”. It is she who collected and canonized those works, deeming them infallible. And we know from basic logic that an effect cannot be greater than its cause. For the Catholic Church to make such an infallible pronouncement, she herself must also be infallible.

I had hoped to discuss these things with Matthew at greater length. I gave him my contact info and he said that he would message me. So far he hasn’t. Matthew, if you happen to be reading this, let me say that I know that you really believe in Christ, and that you are sincere. I think that if you sincerely tale a look at the evidence, you will see that there is more than enough to show us that the Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded. It’s where he wants us to be, so we can get the “full meal deal” of the faith. If you ever want to talk about it some more, maybe we can grab another coffee at Mickey D’s. This one’s on me. The free coffee campaign may be over, but hopefully your investigation of things Catholic is not.

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