Justification by Faith Alone Condemned by Rome

According to the charismatic Roman Catholic scholar, Father Kilian McDonnell, the canons of the Council of Trent never condemned the doctrine of justification by faith alone but rather the Reformers' view of it. There's a newer view of justification by faith alone around and it's spelled out in a document published out of the Lutheran/Roman Catholic dialogue. Here's Fr. McDonnell's comment to me via e-mail:

• The Council of Trent did condemn some Reformation doctrines, but not justification by faith alone, which is in the Pauline letters. What Trent condemned was a certain understanding of justification. If you look at the volumes on justification that came out of the Lutheran/Catholic dialogue, either the dialogues in the USA or international, will find a much more nuanced view.

This is the most blatant form of doublespeak. It pretends that Rome did not condemn the view espoused by the Protestant Reformers while at the same time acknowledging that it DID condemn that particular view. What Fr. McDonnell is saying is that essentially the Lutherans have moved closer to the Roman view. Rome is not and will not move toward the view that sparked off the Protestant Reformation in the first place. If there is to be any compromise, it will be on the part of Protestants. Furthermore, the Lutherans involved in the dialogue McDonnell mentions were not conservative, evangelical Lutherans from the Missouri or Wisconsin synods but from the more mainline denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and European Lutherans who are also theologically liberal.

It's sad that evangelical churches in the United States are selling out to theological liberalism in droves. The term "evangelical" doesn't mean that much anymore.

For the complete text of Fr. McDonnell's remarks to me, see the post previous to this one.