Protestantism and Non-Christian Religions

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. To most Christians, Mohammedanism is only a vague religious movement that somehow gave rise to the Crusades and that presently affects the culture and political aspirations of certain people in North Africa, the Near East and Pakistan. Actually Mohammedanism is the most powerful force among the living religions outside […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Before entering on the formal presentation, I think it will be useful to first clarify some possible sources of misunderstanding. The immediate focus of this study is Pentecostalism. It is not directly concerned with the persons who call themselves Pentecostals or, as some prefer, Charismatics. Moreover, the purpose here […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Roman Catholicism and the Baptist Free Church tradition are looking for a theological confrontation that will not compromise either estimate of Christianity and yet profit both for the up-building of the Mystical Body of Christ. Few areas of belief and practice are more crucial to this dialogue than the […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The year 1960 promises to begin a new era in national thought on the subject of Church and State relations in America. Stimulated by their hopes or fears, writers in every religious tradition have undertaken to show why it would be good, or bad, for a Catholic to be […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. A federation of conservative Protestant denominations, the American Council of Christian Churches was founded in 1941 by Carl McIntire, a former Presbyterian minister. Its avowed aim is to preserve the basic tenets of what the member bodies consider the essentials of Reformation Protestantism. McIntire and his followers organized the […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. A recent addition to the family of Lutheran denominations, the American Lutheran Church was born in 1960 as a result of the merger of three separate churches: the American Lutheran, whose name was perpetuated in the new church, Evangelical Lutheran, and United Evangelical Lutheran, each with a history of […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The purpose of this course is manifoId. As the title indicates there is a conflict between what we call Catholicism and Protestantism. It is over four hundred years old. But much has happened since October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door at […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. A religious system developed by Rudolf *Steiner (l86l-1925) from *Theosophy as a means of arriving at true knowledge and of final liberation from enslavement to the material world. Anthroposophy, as a theory of knowledge, claims that man originally shared in the spiritual consciousness of the cosmos and that his […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. In 1962 the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (Swedish background) merged with the United Lutheran Church (German background), the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish background) and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church to form the Lutheran Church in America. Although Swedish Lutherans had settled along the Delaware River in early colonial […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. The Disciples of Christ, together with the Churches of Christ that derive from them, form the largest religious body of purely American origin (1964, about 1,780,000 members; Churches of Christ, 2,250,000). They are also the recognized leaders in promoting a noncreedal form of Christianity. Although the term Christians, as […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. At least 10 denominations in America are called Churches of God and, though juridically distinct, they reflect a common reaction against denominationalism in all its forms. The very name implies a profession of faith in God as the only founder of the Church and a protest against other “man-made” […]

By Father John A. Hardon, S.J. A body of churches that separated from the Disciples of Christ in 1906 and ever since have distinguished themselves as rigid constructionists in “restoring primitive Christianity.” See CHRISTIAN CHURCHES (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST). The name Churches of Christ is loosely applied also to many of the older New England churches […]