Welcome.
We invite Christians from all denominations into a meaningful exchange - we have a lot to learn from each other as we work together to bring the Good News to our world!
We invite Christians from all denominations into a meaningful exchange - we have a lot to learn from each other as we work together to bring the Good News to our world!
Language is fluid, and over time words can take on different overtones or meanings. We are using the following words in these ways.
We rely on the definition proposed by historian David Bebbington in 1989 which states that authentic Evangelicals share the same four qualities: 1) a high regard for the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, 2) a focus on the Cross of Jesus and its saving effects, 3) the importance of adult conversion in the process of salvation, and 4) the belief that faith should influence and guide one's public life.
Evangelicals usually insist that the Bible, as the supreme and normative expression of divine revelation given to us from Christ through his apostles, should guide every aspect of the life of the believer, and that nothing should be required of anyone to believe or practice save what can be clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures. And by "adult conversion," Evangelicals usually mean the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior, resulting, by divine grace, in a deep, personal, saving relationship with him.As such, "Evangelical" does not refer primarily to a particular church or group of churches; rather, it is a trans-denominational movement, so that there can be Evangelical Baptists, Evangelical Lutherans, Evangelical Catholics, etc.
We rely on the definitions proposed in the classic work by Fr. Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism (1929): "The structure of the Catholic Faith may be summarized in a single sentence: I find God, through Christ, in His Church. I experience the living God through Christ realising Himself through His Church." Thus, Catholics find the living Jesus Christ primarily in and through His Body on earth, the Church.
Moreover, the Greek word "catholikos" means not only "universal" (a faith for everyone) but '"whole": the whole truth as revealed through Christ, for all people for all time (cf. Mt 28:18-20). As such, when Catholics commonly say they find the "fullness" of the living Christ in His Body on earth, the Catholic Church, they mean the fullness of his presence and grace in the sacraments of the Church, the fullness of sanctity exemplified in the saints of the Church, and the fullness of divine revelation through Christ taught by the Church, in all the dimensions of its unfolding down through history.
Although the word "Catholic" refers primarily to Roman Catholics (Christians in communion with the Pope in Rome), other ecclesial bodies have preserved many of the elements of Catholicism in their life and doctrine, especially the Orthodox Christians of the East, and "Anglo-Catholic" Christians.
