PIC No. 13:
• Title: Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome
• Author: Douglas M. Beaumont (Editor) and Francis J. Beckwith (Foreword)
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (April 15, 2016, 286 pages)
• Management Bucket #13 of 20: The Crisis Bucket
Welcome to Issue No. 13 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—short reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system."
"Baptists Are Learning to Love Mary!"
In the very intriguing book, Evangelical Exodus, the author of the chapter, “Moved and Sustained by the Blessed Virgin,” quotes from Peter Kreeft’s lecture on ecumenism. Kraft says, “Baptists are learning to love Mary and pray the Rosary, and Catholics are asking, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?’”
I was raised in a Baptist church in Seattle, graduated from a Free Methodist-affiliated college (SPU), and received a master’s degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), part of the Evangelical Free Church denomination. I served five years in the Midwest district office and camp of the Baptist General Conference (now called Converge). I have been a tithing member of an Evangelical Covenant Church and a non-denominational megachurch, so I thought I was somewhat ecumenical.
But I had never prayed the Rosary! Until this year! In February 2022, I was the only Protestant among 80 Catholic men at an all-day retreat—and (honest!) we prayed the Rosary together 250 times (over a four-hour teaching session)! We enjoyed three meals together and many informal conversations with my brothers in Christ. I still treasure that day and yearn for more.
Coincidently, over the last few months, I have read, reflected, and chewed on Evangelical Exodus and the personal and thoughtful narratives of nine evangelical seminarians (among dozens) who converted to Catholicism over a decade. Even more striking is that the seminary, Southern Evangelical Seminary, was led by Dr. Norman Geisler (1932-2019), “the seminary's founder, long-time president, and popular professor,” who had “written two full-length books and several scholarly articles criticizing Catholicism from an Evangelical point of view.” (I was a seminarian at TEDS when Geisler was on the TEDS faculty, before he launched SES.)
Subtitled, “Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome,” Evangelical Exodus is edited by Douglas M. Beaumont (he shares his own story) and the book begins with a helpful and thoughtful foreword by Francis J. Beckwith. My neighborhood is religiously diverse, so when a Catholic neighbor and I were sharing our stories, he loaned me his copy of Evangelical Exodus. (He has a similar story and resonates with the narratives in the book.)
I’m reviewing this book because I urge my clients and colleagues to be lifelong learners. I’m embarrassed that—at my age—I’ve never dipped into Catholic theology or practice, even though my evangelical theology aligns far more with Catholic faith and practice than with the more liberal and mainstream brands of Protestantism. (And I should mention, during COVID I was privileged to attend mass on dozens of Sunday mornings— invited by the tech team, and sitting alone near them in the balcony, while the priest and musicians were the only in-person congregants to facilitate the online streaming of the mass.)
For the record, I don’t plan to convert—but I do appreciate much from my Catholic brothers and sisters. The book was helpful. Often, I longed for a conversation with the editor and the nine contributors. I wanted to go deeper—to push back a bit (“Was that decision out of personal preference or theologically-based?”). But also to affirm truths. I will think more about Christian unity, Christian history, and the massive disunity among Christian churches—at least in the U.S. (Does this really honor God? But…then maybe the Lord is OK with the disparate expression of His church on earth?)
The concluding chapter, “Why Evangelicals (Really) Become Catholic,” quotes Thomistic philosopher Gerald B. Phelan, who notes that believers convert for many reasons and enter through a variety of gates, including ancient tradition, truth, beauty, family, good, intellectual tradition, and other portals. One size/one story doesn’t fit all, of course.
The appendix includes four issues: the Biblical canon, Christian orthodoxy, Sola Scripture, and Sola Fide. Well-researched with an abundance of footnotes, the book also includes helpful short bios about the contributors. Evangelicals will also recognize footnotes citing (for a variety of reasons) many leading evangelicals including John MacArthur, Hank Hanegraaff, Gary Habermas, and others.
Note: I was especially pleased to see a footnote citing Bernard Ramm (1916-1992), the noted evangelical theologian and prolific author. For six years in the 1970s, I had the privilege of serving as executive director of Lake Sammamish Bible Camp (now SAMBICA) in Bellevue, Wash. It was reported that when Bernard Ramm attended the camp as a student, he happened to be on second base on the baseball field when he invited Jesus Christ to be his personal Savior. (I wish I knew “the rest of the story!”)
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Crisis Bucket (and other buckets/core competencies):
• 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God (Full Color Edition), by Father Darrin Merlino, CMF (read my review)
• Wisdom from Lyle E. Schaller: The Elder Statesman of Church Leadership, edited by Warren Bird (read my review)
• Next Sunday: An Honest Dialogue About the Future of the Church, by Nancy Beach and Samantha Beach Kiley (order from Amazon)
• The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, by Andreas Widmer (read my review)
• Barna Trends 2018: What's New and What's Next at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (read my review)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Evangelical Exodus: Evangelical Seminarians and Their Paths to Rome, by Douglas M. Beaumont (Editor). For more book reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.
© 2022 John Pearson Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.
Comments