Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Alister McGrath on the Bible Answer Man


Here a quick audio snippet of Alister McGrath on the Bible Answer Man show discussing his view of justification:

Alister McGrath on the Bible Answer Man show
Why I care :
Alister McGrath on Augustine and Justification- McGrath documents that Augustine misunderstood the biblical term “justification” and thus set the tone for the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church.
Response on McGrath’s Book Iustitia Dei- A look at Catholic usage of McGrath’s book on Justification. A response to the Catholic attempt to show that that the protestant understanding of justification was unknown in church history previous to the Reformation.
The Alleged Roman Catholic Tradition of Justification- An entry showing that there was not “one” tradition of justification before the Council of Trent made its declaration. Also included is a review of Catholic layman Apolonio Latar’s use of Alister McGrath’s book on Justification.
Fr Alvin Kimel "The Pontificator" Misses The Point- Fr Alvin Kimel shows he did not grasp my presentation of McGrath’s material.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi James,

I've been reading your blog for a little while now and appreciate some of the stuff you do. This probably doesn't go in this comment box, but I'm not sure where else to put. I know that you are associated with Mr. James White, and I just have a quick question about something he is doing. While I completely agree with his position regarding the tomb controversy, what is the deal with his new book. He is supposedly publishing a scholarly, well-research book of 160 pages after writing for a grand total of 15 days. I appreciate a lot of the stuff that he does, but how can anyone take him seriously when his book is written in such a ridiculously short time. Anyone who has written a scholarly book knows that these things take months, if not years to fully research and write. Can you possibly explain why he would do something so silly as write a "scholarly" work in 16 days. This book will only serve to make non-Christians view Christians as even more ridiculous than they already do. It kind of makes me wonder how long he spent researching and writing those other books. Anyway, thanks for what you do and for the input.

Mark

James Swan said...

Mark-

Get the book, check the facts and research, and then voice an opinion. The idea was to hit this head on, as quick as possible. The time is now to deal with this- not next year.

You can go over to Dr. White's blog and check out the category "Tomb Issues". (http://aomin.org/index.php?catid=21) The material found in these entries will be the same material found in the book.

I grant that most people cannot write a worthy book in a few weeks. However, Dr. White has done the job- positive reviews are already coming in from those who have reviewed the manuscript.

LPC said...

James,

McGrath's answer to the caller is not as explicit.

Jaroslav Pelikan's evaluation that JBFA is catholic is way stronger than what McGrath wrote in Ieustitia Dei.

I recommend your's truly's blog item
http://extranos.blogspot.com/2007/03/real-caths.html

LPC

James Swan said...

LPC-

The point I want to stress by the Mcgrath call is that Roman Catholics do not have Alister McGrath on their side. They attempt to use McGrath to show that JBFA is a theological novum, but forget that Mcgrath is a protestant, and views JBFA as the recovery by the reformers of something that was lost.

Thanks for your link- I have blogged Pelikan's The Riddle of Roman Catholicism on JBFA before-

Anonymous said...

I just this morning found out about this blog-site. Seems that I have a lot of catching-up to do. Very busy today, but tomorrow, I should have the time to read through the blog entries concerning McGrath, justification and tradition.

In the meantime, I would briefly like to comment that Newman's theory of development addresses the need to distinguish true developments from false ones. Virtually all doctrines develop; so the question for me is: did the visible church that the Holy Spirit assisted in getting the Trinity, Christology, atonement, etc. 'right' get justification wrong?

Grace and peace,

David

James Swan said...

David-

Catholics and Protestants agree doctrine develops- we disagree on how it develops.

Thanks for stopping by.

JS