We Must Stop Approval Structures of Violence

Last updated on: April 27, 2026 at 7:42 pm By Dennis Knapp

Here we go again. Another act of violence targets political conservatives—this time at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. For Donald Trump, this marks a third attempt. Witnesses watched the aftermath unfold in real time. Scared and heartbroken, Erica Kirk—the widow of a previous victim of leftist political violence—left the event sobbing, “I just want to go home.” The Secret Service stopped the attacker before he could carry out his plan. One agent suffered injuries but is expected to recover. Authorities... Read more

The Limits of Dissent: Pentin’s Interview with Kwasniewski

Last updated on: April 23, 2026 at 3:17 pm By Dennis Knapp

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Guest writer: Pilgrim. Introduction One year after the death of Pope Francis, Edward Pentin’s interview with Peter Kwasniewski presents The Disastrous Pontificate: Pope Francis’ Rupture from the Magisterium as a sober reckoning with a troubled papacy. What it offers, in fact, is something more consequential: a nearly thousand-page forensic account of a pontificate its author regards as a catastrophe. This is, in recent Catholic publishing, a competitive category. The book is presented as a pastoral resource, a handbook for priests,... Read more

Binding Authority or Private Judgment? Luther Reconsidered

Last updated on: April 18, 2026 at 4:20 pm By Dennis Knapp

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I am currently engaging multiple Protestant friends—all well-educated and informed—on the nature of binding authority within the Christian context. These friends affirm the foundational Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura and therefore recognize Scripture alone as the ultimate infallible authority in a Christian’s life. They do offer some nuance. They reject the more extreme version—nuda scriptura—which claims that the Christian needs only “me and my Bible.” Instead, they acknowledge the role of “lesser,” fallible authorities such as creeds, confessions, and local... Read more

Ecclesia Sola, Not Sola Ecclesia (What Jesus Left Us)

Last updated on: April 10, 2026 at 9:32 am By Dennis Knapp

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Recently, I engaged two well-read Protestants on my Discord server devoted solely (sola) to the topic of sola scriptura. In my critique of sola scriptura, I often highlight the challenges inherent in scriptural interpretation. Here, I agree with Keith Mathison, who observes in The Shape of Sola Scriptura that “any appeal to Scripture is an appeal to an interpretation of Scripture. The only question is: whose interpretation?” In response, I usually hear appeals to “experts” and the “magisterial Reformers” as... Read more

Nietzsche, Orwell, Modern Grievance Politics & “No Kings”

Last updated on: March 30, 2026 at 8:29 pm By Dennis Knapp

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Do you hate rich people? Do you smile at protest signs that read, “Eat the Rich”? Recently, demonstrators displayed such signs—and others like them—at “No Kings” protests in cities across the United States. Participants gathered to express outrage at Donald Trump and his policies. Yet consider the irony. In a country supposedly ruled by a “king” or “dictator,” these protesters exercised their constitutional rights freely. They spoke, assembled, and protested what they perceived as abuses of power, oppression, and identity.... Read more

If Scripture Alone, Then Who Decides?

Last updated on: March 28, 2026 at 4:02 pm By Dennis Knapp

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Once upon a time, two committed Christians opened the Bible to answer the same question that troubled them both: Does baptism merely symbolize salvation, or does it bring about new birth? This question did not arise from idle curiosity. It reached far beyond academic speculation. It concerned salvation itself. With such high stakes, both men wanted more than a formed opinion—they wanted the truth. God’s truth. Yet truth has a fixed nature. If these two men reached contradictory conclusions, both... Read more

Non Serviam: The Mystery of the First Refusal

Last updated on: March 24, 2026 at 7:17 pm By Dennis Knapp

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Guest writer: Pilgrim. Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n (Satan, Milton’s Paradise Lost) Introduction Before the serpent, before any human being drew breath, or any garden was planted, something turned. That’s the question this essay sits with. Not why evil exists in some abstract philosophical sense, but how the very first act of rebellion was even possible. Lucifer, the tradition tells us, had no excuses. No tempter whispering in his ear, no passion clouding his judgment, no ignorance... Read more

Sola or Nuda? Testing the Reformation’s Claim of Authority

Last updated on: March 23, 2026 at 6:49 am By Dennis Knapp

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Recently, a Protestant friend introduced me to the conversion story of Chris Castaldo. Castaldo, who grew up Catholic, left the Church in his twenties and became a Reformed Evangelical Protestant. He now pastors New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois. My friend and I often discuss conversion. He sees me as an anomaly—an exception—while he views converts like Castaldo as the rule. To better understand Castaldo’s journey, I read Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism. In this book,... Read more

Iran and Just War: A Catholic Assessment

Last updated on: March 19, 2026 at 3:49 pm By Dennis Knapp

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Guest writer: Pilgrim. For the record, I think Pilgrim gives a fair Catholic assessment of the situation. Introduction There’s something disorienting about trying to apply a medieval moral framework to footage of hypersonic missiles and F-35 sorties, not least because the scale and speed of it all seems designed to outrun moral reasoning. Yet that’s exactly what the Catholic just war tradition asks us to do and why it matters more now than it might seem. When the United States... Read more

Who was cast into a fiery furnace but was unharmed?