On Cameron Bertuzzi of "Capturing Christianity" Switching from Evangelicalism to Catholicism.
Evangelical Christians have been bailing ship in the last few decades. They have been moving to "mainstream" versions", "liberal" versions, and Catholic versions. The young ones are a growing group of the "nones" who don't embrace any organized religion at all.
There have been a few intellectual evangelical Christians who became Catholics in recent decades, most notably Francis Beckwith (b. 1960): A philosopher and theologian, he was elected president of the Evangelical Theological Society but converted to Catholicism in 2007.
I did a quick search and found conflicting accounts of the numbers of evangelicals who switched to Catholicism, as opposed to the numbers of Catholics who switched to Evangelicalism, without arriving at a firm conclusion.
Which brings me to Cameron Bertuzzi of the highly popular "Capturing Christianity" apologetics ministry. Ten days ago he announced that he's switching from evangelicalism to Catholicism. It's getting noticed with 76k hits so far.
One factor of the Evangelical to Catholic conversions might be the recent rise of Natural Theology, a staple of Aquinas's five arguments to God, embraced by evangelical Norman Geisler (with his own specific version) and his student William Lane Craig, who went on to defend the Kalam Argument first introduced to him by Stuart Hackett, another professor of his (and mine as well). But Natural Theology has some severe problems, which I highlighted in two chapters for my books, "How to Defend the Christian Faith" and in "God and Horrendous Suffering." [For a primer see here.]
For my part, I ask Christian theologians to choose their best scholars in the various fields of study. I would include every scholar of every denomination and sect within the Christian religion that claims to be Christian (Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and so forth), since I refuse to tell Christians which Christianity is the true Christianity, and because we will be testing to see which one is the true one. These scholars should be put in a large room and asked to come to a consensus. As we listen to them we'll see quite clearly they make our arguments for us. In fact, much of what I do is simply use their own arguments against the others. I agree with the criticisms of each other against one another. The only thing they basically agree on is some vague notion of Jesus, and the existence of some kind of god, or spiritual power, what I call the true mere Christianity.
If they could ever come to a consensus I would debunk it! But we all know they will not change their minds, so a wide diversity of Christian theologies will continue on afterward. The reason they won't come to a consensus is because there isn't enough evidence from their alleged revelation in their sectarian scriptures, or from the world of nature (i.e., creation), contrary to what Cameron Bertuzzi claims convinced him to become a Catholic. In other words, they make things up as they go, so they don't have an evidential anchor keeping them from floating most any view in a sea of theological opinions.
Cameron Bertuzzi says he's going to focus on arguments supposedly beyond intra-Christian ones, known as "Mere Christianity." This was the theological position embraced as a direct result of the Thirty Years War by Richard Baxter. That war was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648, where up to 8 million Christians slaughtered each other over doctrinal differences. The doctrines that were included in "mere Christianity" have evolved over time, then solidified by C.S. Lewis's book, "Mere Christianity." For criticisms of Lewis's book I recommend the book by the same title, written by Robert M. Price, found cheaply on Amazon, plus the one written by John Beversluis, right here. For this apologetical point of view, I have criticized it in several posts right here.
At this point my criticisms revolve around five major issues.
Dr. David Madison repeatedly challenges Christian believers to show where we can gain verified theological truth. What revelation can they verify? The implicit answer is that they cannot do it. The reason is because they don't know what they pretend to know. Peter Boghossian argues there is no way anyone can know, with near 100% certainty, what they claim know. So faith is best defined as pretending to know what you don't know. It truly is the case.
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John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. As an Amazon Associate John earns a small amount of money from purchases made from Amazon. Buying anything through them helps fund my work here, and is greatly appreciated!
There have been a few intellectual evangelical Christians who became Catholics in recent decades, most notably Francis Beckwith (b. 1960): A philosopher and theologian, he was elected president of the Evangelical Theological Society but converted to Catholicism in 2007.
I did a quick search and found conflicting accounts of the numbers of evangelicals who switched to Catholicism, as opposed to the numbers of Catholics who switched to Evangelicalism, without arriving at a firm conclusion.
Which brings me to Cameron Bertuzzi of the highly popular "Capturing Christianity" apologetics ministry. Ten days ago he announced that he's switching from evangelicalism to Catholicism. It's getting noticed with 76k hits so far.
One factor of the Evangelical to Catholic conversions might be the recent rise of Natural Theology, a staple of Aquinas's five arguments to God, embraced by evangelical Norman Geisler (with his own specific version) and his student William Lane Craig, who went on to defend the Kalam Argument first introduced to him by Stuart Hackett, another professor of his (and mine as well). But Natural Theology has some severe problems, which I highlighted in two chapters for my books, "How to Defend the Christian Faith" and in "God and Horrendous Suffering." [For a primer see here.]
For my part, I ask Christian theologians to choose their best scholars in the various fields of study. I would include every scholar of every denomination and sect within the Christian religion that claims to be Christian (Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and so forth), since I refuse to tell Christians which Christianity is the true Christianity, and because we will be testing to see which one is the true one. These scholars should be put in a large room and asked to come to a consensus. As we listen to them we'll see quite clearly they make our arguments for us. In fact, much of what I do is simply use their own arguments against the others. I agree with the criticisms of each other against one another. The only thing they basically agree on is some vague notion of Jesus, and the existence of some kind of god, or spiritual power, what I call the true mere Christianity.
If they could ever come to a consensus I would debunk it! But we all know they will not change their minds, so a wide diversity of Christian theologies will continue on afterward. The reason they won't come to a consensus is because there isn't enough evidence from their alleged revelation in their sectarian scriptures, or from the world of nature (i.e., creation), contrary to what Cameron Bertuzzi claims convinced him to become a Catholic. In other words, they make things up as they go, so they don't have an evidential anchor keeping them from floating most any view in a sea of theological opinions.
Cameron Bertuzzi says he's going to focus on arguments supposedly beyond intra-Christian ones, known as "Mere Christianity." This was the theological position embraced as a direct result of the Thirty Years War by Richard Baxter. That war was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648, where up to 8 million Christians slaughtered each other over doctrinal differences. The doctrines that were included in "mere Christianity" have evolved over time, then solidified by C.S. Lewis's book, "Mere Christianity." For criticisms of Lewis's book I recommend the book by the same title, written by Robert M. Price, found cheaply on Amazon, plus the one written by John Beversluis, right here. For this apologetical point of view, I have criticized it in several posts right here.
At this point my criticisms revolve around five major issues.
Dr. David Madison repeatedly challenges Christian believers to show where we can gain verified theological truth. What revelation can they verify? The implicit answer is that they cannot do it. The reason is because they don't know what they pretend to know. Peter Boghossian argues there is no way anyone can know, with near 100% certainty, what they claim know. So faith is best defined as pretending to know what you don't know. It truly is the case.
--------------
John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. As an Amazon Associate John earns a small amount of money from purchases made from Amazon. Buying anything through them helps fund my work here, and is greatly appreciated!
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