I don’t see what you are describing–quite the opposite. But granted, I’ve moved from largely fundamentalist circles growing up to mostly mainline/moderate evangelical circles these days, so maybe this is my own perspective.
I don’t think it’s that fundamentalists/evangelicals are becoming more hostile to Catholicism, but that they are becoming more vocal and confident.
If you look at such a mainstream evangelical publication as
Christianity Today and track its references to Catholicism over the past 50 years (I don’t claim to have done this systematically, but I’ve browsed around in it a lot), you’ll see that it has taken a much friendlier tone toward Catholicism as time has gone on. You might be interested in looking at Mark Noll’s article “Is the Reformation Over?” in a recent issue of Books and Culture (an affiliate of CT). Noll discusses the spate of conversions to Catholicism and other changes in evangelical attitudes to Catholicism, and he does it in a very respectful, sympathetic way.
I simply see no evidence whatever that evangelicals are becoming more hostile to Catholicism, and I see a lot of evidence to the contrary, to the point that those evangelicals who are hostile to Catholicism are obviously scared. If you read fundamentalist tracts, they’re continually ranting about how most “Christians” (i.e., evangelicals) are blind to the evils of Rome, etc.
Take the case of Norman Geisler. He wrote a book on Catholicism (Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences) that repeats many of the traditional criticisms of Catholicism but was nonetheless praised by James Akin for its fairness. He wrote an article in Christian History (another CT affiliate) claiming that Aquinas’s teachings are more or less compatible with evangelicalism. (This is nonsense, of course, and I wrote a rather angry letter to Christian History protesting Geisler’s claims; but it shows a willingness to look sympathetically on a key part of the Catholic theological heritage.) The fundamentalists and other real anti-Catholics like James White are mad at him precisely because he doesn’t take a traditional hard line. Yet this guy is fairly representative of conservative Protestant evangelicalism.
Protestants who are not necessarily anti-Catholic in a vicious way are also worried about pro-Catholic trends among evangelicals. Roger Olson, a Baptist, wrote a
CT article warning against giving too much weight to tradition, since as he rightly notes this would lead to questioning many Baptist teachings! But note how relatively moderate his tone is. This is a guy who is speaking out against what he rightly perceives as a major trend among evangelicals. But he’s still not taking the harshly anti-Catholic approach that just about any Baptist would have taken 50-100 years ago.
Finally, I recommend an
article by a Catholic theology professor, Fr. Thomas Rausch, S.J., discussing the ways in which evangelicals and Catholics can find common ground. I’m sure many of you will think Rausch is a liberal, but bear with him. I think he makes some good points!
Edwin
