Converts to the Church of Rome

The religious precincts of the blogosphere are abuzz these days with the name of Francis J. Beckwith, a new and surprising convert to Roman Catholicism.

Surprising because Beckwith was, until his conversion, president of the Evangelical Theological Society, an association of Protestant theologians.

(I should say that I don't feel any personal stake in Beckwith's move. I grew up as an observant Catholic, but that was decades ago, and feels as if it might have been in another galaxy. I comment only as a curious observer.)

Beckwith has become a prominent figure in church-state issues in recent years, taking predictable positions for an ETS head, arguing in favor of the teaching of "intelligent design" in public schools, for example.

Here's his blog, rightreason.ektopos.com

He has explained himself, and his new faith, there. Most of his account is absorbed in issues of timing and mechanics. Once a very visible Protestant philosopher makes such a decision, how should he best make the fact known publicly without doing damage to an institution, the ETS, for which he continues to have good will? That was his quandry. He didn't want to play into historical suspicions about "the Jesuitical secrecy of these papists," but he didn't want to make an open and dramatic break, either.

The issue of mechanics may well have been wrenching for him, but concerns me not at all. What I want to know is: what did the conversion feel like? Was it impelled by reason, or by a non-rational inner light, or something else?

I had to scroll down rather far in the piece before he addressed that at all.

"As you probably know," he says at last, "my work in philosophy, ethics, and theology has always been Catholic friendly, but I would have never predicted that I would return to the Church, for there seemed to me too many theological and ecclesiastical issues that appeared insurmountable. However, in January, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I began reading the Early Church Fathers as well as some of the more sophisticated works on justification by Catholic authors. I became convinced that the Early Church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible."

Justification. Ah, that's the crux. Roman 1:17. "The righteous shall live by faith." The idea, as Luther and others have expounded upon it, is that faith leads to good works, but that it is the faith, not the good works, that justifies one before the Lord, that makes righteous.

What was the Catholic view on justification? The scandals that enraged Luther (the implication especially that one could buy an "indulgence" and either free a deceased friend from Purgatory or limit one's own stay there) were genuinely outrageous and no one today defends that.

So Beckwith said that key to his own conversion was a look at the Patristic writings. It was a very intellectual/academic sort of conversion experience, I gather. Like Cardinal Newman.

There may be another, even higher-profile, conversion to the Church of Rome soon.
Tony Blair is said to have been waiting for the end of his tenure at Ten Downing Street before declaring himself a Catholic -- the faith of his wife, Cherie.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1801237.ece

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me....I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see. T'was Grace that taught...my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear...the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares...we have already come. T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...and Grace will lead us home. The Lord has promised good to me...His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be...as long as life endures. When we've been here ten thousand years...bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise...then when we've first begun. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me....I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see.

Those are the words to the famous hymn by John Newton. Newton appears (as played by Albert Finney) in a new movie that takes the name of the hymn, centered on the life of William Wilberforce (played by Ioan Gruffudd).

To me, Newton is the more fascinating character, and if I had aspirations as a screenwriter I'd be at work making him the protagonist. The only aspiring screenwriter with whom I'm acquainted dislikes historical fiction -- she's allergic to powdered wigs, I guess.

Newton's life, his conversion experience(s), and that song have all been wrapped up in mythology, and the urban myth busting website snopes does its usual good job of untangling the threads of truth and falsehood.
He didn't quit the slave trade because he found God. He appears to have converted to Christianity in 1748. If so, it had no immediate effect on his livelihood. He quit the trade in the mid 1750s, simply because he wanted a more settled life.

Newton composed Amazing Grace in the early 1770s, but still doesn't seem to have expressed any doubts about the morality of his former line of work until 1780.

The real lesson here might be that conversion doesn't mean re-birth, with the implication of that term that there is a specific moment when it all happens. Conversion means, as its etymology suggests, a turning. And the wheel of a life can be a heavy thing, the turning of which, by God and man together, requires years or decades. It is not the birth into a new life but the accomplishment which is a life.

Here's the snopes link. http://www.snopes.com/religion/amazing.asp