See the book:
You can find it at various sellers, including Amazon.
This book is very insightful. Especially the beginning that gives more background on John Henry Newman. His infamous statement and claim: ”To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant” was in the context of his disagreements and conflicts in his relationship with his brother Francis Newman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_William_Newman
Chris Castaldo says that Francis Newman was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren (& Dispensational Theology, and the slogan, “No Creed but Christ” was common for those churches, and also the Campbell movement of the “Church of Christ”.), while this wikipedia article says he was enamored with them for a while, so that is unclear to me.
Later, Francis Newman became a Deist. He attempted to become a missionary for a while.
It was interesting how long it took Newman to slowly convert, away from Sola Fide (Justification by Faith Alone) – Newman put the sacraments and baptismal regeneration over justification by faith; and eventually rejected the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and also was attracted to the discipline of clerical celibacy of the Roman Catholic Church. I am always amazed at the attraction of physical sacraments as means by which people think that they cause grace to come to us – like the bare ceremony of baptism and the Lord’s supper or staring at the consecrated host in the receptacles (a little tabernacle or the Monstrance) at a Roman Catholic church or praying to or touching or kissing an icon or statue of Mary.
Addendum: (January 17, 2023)
Here is an outline of the book and argumentation:
A. Psychological Reasons
- Authority Hunger
2. Holiness Deficit
3. The Inner Ring – this one was new to me, and explains how people want to be in on the intellectuals of movers and shakers in society, culture and politics – especially in morality and ethics. Roman Catholics are better at influencing in the media and political issues. Most of the Supreme Court Justices are Roman Catholics and this is an area that intersects with principles that conservative Evangelical Protestants agree with. This is probably a large part of what motivated Joshua Charles a lot, since he was a speech writer for VP Mike Pence, and rubbed shoulders with many conservative intellectuals in the Washington, D. C. area for years. The authors make a great point about the Supreme Court and Roman Catholics like Ryan Anderson and Robert George as conservative intellectuals in morality, ethics and cultural issues.
B. Theological Reasons:
- The Quest for Certainty – this one was very important for my friend Rod Bennett. Click on the side bar for more articles about his conversion to Roman Catholicism.
2. To Be in touch with History / Church History – this was also very important to Rod Bennett.
3. Tangible Grace – sacraments, icons, statues, beautiful architecture, relics, pilgrimages, etc.
C. Sociological Reasons:
- Tired of Division – this was also important to my friend Rod Bennett.
2. Tired of Shallowness
3. Tired of Irreverence
My friend Rod Bennett, whom I have written about before here on his conversion to Roman Catholicism, definitely expressed to me at least 4 of these 9 reasons. Especially the desire for 1. Assurance (on the canon and the right interpretation), 2. to be in touch with History and Church History, 3. tired of Division and 4. Shallowness. The 5th one that maybe part of Rod’s journey – The Tangible Grace – I don’t know if Rod was at first motivated by that; but I think Rod was more attracted to art and creativity (as in good movies with a good meaningful plot) – the good movies of old, like “It’s A Wonderful Life”, “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”, etc. and newer ones like Star Wars and the theme of the battle of good vs. evil; and the Lord of Rings Trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, based on J.R. R. Tolkien’s books. (those ghostly souls that helped Aragorn fight and be realeased from their curse seems to have parallels with Purgatory, Indulgences and the basis for ghost stories. We enjoyed Science Fiction, Fantasy, and good ghost stories that had a moral / ethical basis. 6. Hunger Authority, IMO was not Rod, but I think it became that because of his desire for Assurance and History and art and creativity. The issues of Irreverence and Holiness Deficit and the Inner Ring of Intellectuals in Society, did not seem to be the main issues with Rod, but maybe they grew for him as time went on and we lost touch as the years went by.
I will be writing about this helpful book more in the future when I have time.
Apologetics and Agape 