Learning to be Quick to Listen

Some Protestant critics claim that Catholics can't truly know what's in Sacred Tradition , arguing that it's a vague concept compared to the clear contents of Scripture. They believe that since we can no longer speak directly with the apostles, we can't be sure which traditions are truly apostolic . This line of reasoning, however, creates a problem for many Protestants, as they themselves rely on truths not explicitly found in the Bible. Many common Protestant beliefs, such as the cessation of public revelation or the specific books that make up the Bible, are accepted based on historical consensus and tradition, not solely on Scripture. This reveals a shared reliance on tradition, whether it's acknowledged or not. The Catholic Church, however, is not only able to identify these apostolic traditions, but it also has a clear, God-given method for doing so: the Magisterium. The Bible itself gives us a model for this process in Acts 15 , where the apostles gathered fo...

Many of us have heard the common Protestant critique against the Catholic use of images and statues. It’s a critique that often draws on early Christian sources to argue that venerating images is a practice not rooted in ancient Christianity. But when we examine these sources more closely, we see that the arguments against images are often rooted in a very different context. For example, some early Christian arguments against images are based on a Platonic worldview that saw physical art as a deceptive imitation of reality. This is a philosophical position, not a biblical one. In fact, this type of reasoning would even condemn the magnificent art of the Solomonic Temple , which was explicitly commanded by God. Therefore, when we encounter these arguments, we must remember their philosophical origins and not assume they reflect a timeless, divinely inspired condemnation of all religious art. Furthermore, some critics will point to sources where early Christian apologists argue that ...