I began to think about writing this book
during discussions about the implications of the visit of the Pope to
My thinking on various difficult areas
has been helpfully clarified through discussion with several Roman Catholic
theologians. I sincerely hope that I
have faithfully recorded what the Roman Catholic Church teaches, but in order
to give an authoritative summary I have included as an appendix the profession
of faith made by Pope Paul VI on 30 June 1968, on the nineteenth centenary of
the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul.
The readership I have had in mind while writing is the whole
English-speaking world, and in particular those whom I may call orthodox,
evangelical or traditional Protestants. I have included as an appendix the statement
of faith known as the Lausanne Covenant
(1974), one of the few exciting professions of faith to be produced by
Protestants in modern times. It must be
remembered that this statement of faith is not that of any single
Two further appendices
contain the three ‘Catholic’ creeds, and a remarkable Letter to a Roman Catholic written by John Wesley to Irish Roman
Catholic laity in 1739.
For the official texts I quote, I have
used a variety of sources and translations. These are listed in the bibliography.
The book was written during my summer
vacation, as I moved from a house on the campus of
I have found, through working on this
book, a greater understanding both of Roman Catholicism, and of Protestantism. I sincerely hope that its readers will have a
similar experience.
Peter Toon
The Rectory, Boxford,
This book is mainly written for orthodox
Protestants who see themselves as maintaining the basic insights and doctrines
of the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – though
often expressing them in the language and terminology of the twentieth century.
It is a book written from within the
Protestant tradition, a tradition which includes faithfulness to the gospel as
it is presented in the Bible and a genuine concern for catholicity and
continuity with the past. Liberal
Protestants, if they recognise the presuppositions
with which I am working, will possibly find the book helpful or interesting;
Roman Catholics may also find it useful as an attempt to present the doctrinal
differences between their communion and Protestantism in an objective and just
way. I hope that they will feel I have
treated their position sensitively and fairly.
I must emphasise
that this is not a book about religious personalities. It contains no critical comments about any
Pope, Jesuit or Irish priest. Neither is
it concerned with the way human relationships work at the local and personal
level – most of us have friends or acquaintances who are Roman Catholics and we
value their friendship and support. We
know that Roman Catholic neighbours are no better or
worse neighbours than Protestant ones.
It is so easy to typecast. Here is an American version of one way in
which Roman Catholics sometimes ‘stereotype’ Protestants:
Protestants are responsible for disrupting the unity of the
church founded by Jesus Christ. In refusing
to give their allegiance to the vicar of Christ,
sixteenth-century Protestants created new sects founded by man rather than God.
Protestants continue to do the same
thing, whether the founder in question is Luther or Calvin or Henry VIII or
Joseph Smith or Aimée Semple
Macpherson. As
a result, it is difficult to know what Protestants believe, because they have
always disagreed among themselves, and start new churches if the disagreements
get too violent. About all they really
believe in common is that the extension of Roman Catholicism must be stopped by
whatever means are necessary.
Protestants talk a great deal about tolerance, but they are
intolerant of Roman Catholics who run for public office, and of Roman Catholic
parents who want to give their children a Christian education by sending them
to parochial schools.
And here, from the same continent, is a
Protestant stereotype of Roman Catholicism:
Roman Catholicism is a rigid, authoritarian system, much
like Communism. Everything is decided by
the Pope. All other Roman Catholics have
to believe what they are told. They
believe that the sacraments are magic and that all non-Catholics are going to
hell. They perpetuate this kind of
brainwashing through parochial schools, whose purpose is to keep Roman
Catholics ignorant of the truth so that they will believe whatever the priest
tells them.
Roman Catholics want to dominate the world. When they get enough power they will force
everybody to believe as they believe. Since
they don’t have a democratic church, Roman Catholics don’t believe in
democracy, and Roman Catholics who say they do will be tolerated only so long
as they are in a minority.
If you live in the
This book is about the teaching (or ‘doctrine’)
within the Roman Catholic and the Protestant communities. I shall not be dealing with the personal views
of any archbishop, politician or professor, however well-known. I do not doubt that such opinions are
interesting, but I will leave them for other books and the media, and concern
myself with comparing what may be called the ‘official and traditional’
teaching of each community.
One thing that is immediately obvious is
that it is much easier to state Roman Catholic teaching than it is to state
Protestant teaching. The reason is that
we are comparing, not two communities, but one large community and a collection
of related, but not united, communities – Protestantism, which includes
Presbyterians, Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists and so
on. My task is to compare what the Roman
Church teaches with what the Protestant churches, insofar as they are in
general agreement, teach. And what each
side teaches is not to be found in the views of prominent groups and
individuals, but in their authoritative, fundamental statements of belief – the
creeds, confessions of faith, synodical declarations
and so on.
Some people today might disagree, arguing
that these statements are in general out of date and believed only by a minority.
If that is so then it is high time that
what is officially declared as true should be made to match what is generally
believed to be true. But until that
happens, we have to work from what officially exists and what has not been
officially denied. And that we find in
the doctrinal statements.
I have no desire whatsoever to increase
bigotry and intolerance. At the same
time, I do not want to pretend that major differences do not exist, or that
such differences should not be taken seriously. What I want to do is to point out where the
differences lie, so that they can be taken seriously in the relationship
between Roman Catholic and
At the same time, however, I want to
insist that to take our differences seriously does not mean to reject each
other’s fundamental personhood and rights. In the final analysis, what is much more
important than our differences is the fact that we are human beings who look to
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour.