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Encouragingly, the catechism is unequivocal in its endorsement of the leading themes of traditional orthodox Christian doctrine. Indeed, there are excellent reasons for thinking that this document reflects the public defeat of more liberal trends within Roman Catholicism. For example, Holy Scripture is unequivocally recognized as the inspired Word of God:

In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them. … For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.

The extensive use of Scripture, especially in the sections of the catechism dealing with the profession of baptismal faith, reinforces this impression of a church that takes Scripture seriously.

Similarly, the catechism vigorously defends the divinity of Jesus Christ, the uniqueness of his person, and the reality of his resurrection and future judgment. Salvation is only possible through the cross of Christ. The doctrine of the Trinity is forcefully defended against its Unitarian critics.

The Pelagian heresy - the view that we are justified on the basis of our works rather than by the grace of God - is dismissed: Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.

This is a particularly important point in view of the persistent tendency of some Protestant critics of the Roman Catholic Church, who charge it with teaching justification by works. Roman Catholicism, from the Council of Trent in 1547 onwards, has unequivocally rejected this doctrine.

The catechism's robust and committed defense of orthodoxy will be a major consideration for evangelicals as they reconsider their attitude to Roman Catholicism. It indicates that an important ally could be at hand in the struggle for the restoration of doctrinal orthodoxy to the mainline denominations.

The document's insistence on the importance of the missionary role of the church also suggests that evangelicals and Roman Catholics will find a degree of convergence on the vital role of evangelism in the modern world, in the face of criticisms from the vociferous fundamentalists of the Left who dismiss evangelism as cultural genocide or destruction of personal integrity. The catechism here reflects the broad commitment to evangelism that has been typical of Roman Catholicism of late, and distinguished it from the outdated and limpid liberalism of mainline Protestantism.

It is no accident that some evangelicals, especially those within mainline churches, have chosen to become Roman Catholics, sensing that there is an institutionalized orthodoxy over a series of vital issues that mainline Protestantism has betrayed. Maybe, they reason, it is easier to be an evangelical inside the Catholic church, which defends all the vital Christian doctrines yet adds on a few more, than to remain inside some mainline Protestant denominations, which seem bent on denying or deforming the basic tenets of Christianity itself.

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December 12 1994, Vol. 38, No. 14