A Reader has a Question about the Compatibility of Evangelical and Catholic Theology

He writes:

Mr. Shea,

Good morning! I have a question regarding a view I’ve read on what exactly the gospel is by some Protestant thinkers and I’m wondering what the Catholic perspective is.

The Catholic perspective is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Scot McKnight (author of The Jesus Creed) has argued that most Christians are getting the gospel wrong and that their error underlies a shallow understanding of what it means to live like a Christian (I think he relies heavily on N.T. Wright). To be specific, McKnight argues that the gospel is not about personal salvation, but rather the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus is our king and lord – the fulfillment of Israel’s story. Personal salvation is the effect of the gospel and maybe part of it, but not the entirety of the gospel.

I can buy that. The Catholic conception of salvation is profoundly corporate. We are saved as the body of Christ and that body has deep roots in the Old Covenant and its fulfillment in the New. We are not at the center and we individuals, though we are saved as unique human persons, are also called to recognize that we belong to Christ and to one another. The American hyper emphasis on an a purely individualistic gospel in which the Church is, at best, a convenient source for companionship until somebody says something we don’t like–at which point we just move on for a new set of casual acquaintances we can “fellowship” with–is radically defective. You can pick your friends, but you are stuck with your family. 🙂

McKnight feels this is important because, in his view, belief in the personal salvation version of gospel leads too many Christians (especially Evangelicals) to sit back in the pew and relax knowing their intellectual assent to the proposition that Jesus died for our sins saves them and requires nothing more of them.

Yes and no. It’s true that sometimes Evangelicals can have a theoretical faith teaching rubbish like “once save, always saved” and false theories to the effect that you can sin as much as you please once you’ve inked the deal with the Divine Legal Firm on the Fire Insurance Contract. But the flip side of it is that Evangelicals very often live in ways that are far better accounted for by Catholic theology than by their own.

The Jesus is king version of gospel, on the other hand, compels Christians to pursue the mission that our lord has given us and it’s important that when we share the gospel we know what it is. At least that’s what I think McKnight is getting at.

Yep. And not just McKnight. (And, by the way, Catholics have their own version of this in an easy presumption that everybody is in a state of grace and God will not, surely, judge me harshly for following my bliss or living in accord with my terror and brutal will to defend myself no matter what. I’ve seen people destroy their marriages and the lives of the people around them, all while telling themselves that God approves their glorious “authenticity” as “I did what I needed to do for me”. Any suggestion that there might be a problem is dismissed as “judgmental” and “pre-Vatican II” or “Ivory Tower liberalism that doesn’t understand the real world” in exactly the tones that a lazy Evangelical brandishes the words “legalistic” or “airy fairy”. Nobody has a corner on rationalization.)

What’s the Catholic view on gospel? It’s clear to me that Catholic teaching calls for discipleship and more than assenting to a series of propositions. But is the argument McKnight is presenting consistent with Church teaching?

Yes. Catholic teaching about the Christian life is profoundly incarnational. The word has to be made flesh in our life, not just given abstract mental assent or lip service. If McKnight keeps going in this vein, he may wind up a Catholic. 🙂 I’m honored that he wrote a kind blurb for Mary, Mother of the Son.

You’ve been great about responding to my emails in the past, but please know I don’t expect a personal response every time I ask you a question. If it’s a topic you feel your readers and/or listeners would find to be interesting, then I look forward to reading and/or hearing your perspective.

God bless you!