EVANGELICAL PRESIDENT BECOMES RC

May 05, 2007

Evangelical Theological Society President Converts to Catholicism

Francis Beckwith, associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University and current president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has been received into the Roman Catholic Church, according to reports today.

The Evangelical Theological Society was founded as an academic professional organization for conservative Protestant scholars. The ETS doctrinal statement is, in its entirety: "The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory."

This confessional minimalism has been a subject of much discussion over the years, occasioned by heterodox teachings within the Society on, among other things, claims to non-historical saga used in biblical texts and denials of the exhaustive foreknowledge of God. Some Society members have pointed to the fact that the ETS guidelines are so minimal they do not even stipulate the Society's Protestant identity, as seen by the fact that Catholic scholar Scott Hahn is, last time I checked, an ETS member, able and willing to sign the doctrinal basis.

This development will no doubt intensify the discussion over evangelical identity and the ETS.

UPDATE: Dr. Beckwith has resigned as president of the ETS, and discusses his path back to Rome at the Right Reasons weblog.

Posted by Russell D. Moore

Source: http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2007/05/evangelical_the.html