Ragamuffin Gospel?

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Has anyone heard of a book entitled The Ragamuffin Gospel? I’ve seen it in the bookstores and one of my friends was reading it . . . it’s published by an evangelical publisher and the author, Brenden Manning, is a “former Franciscan priest.” What is this book about and how does it contradict Catholic teaching?
 
i actually loved this book. brendan manning is a former priest. he is a tad bit liberal, but he makes some great points in this book. i would recommend it to anyone who knows how to separate the good from the bad.
 
Anima Christi:
Has anyone heard of a book entitled The Ragamuffin Gospel? I’ve seen it in the bookstores and one of my friends was reading it . . . it’s published by an evangelical publisher and the author, Brenden Manning, is a “former Franciscan priest.” What is this book about and how does it contradict Catholic teaching?
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Read it…or tried to. Hated it, tossed it out.
 
Brennan Manning is a recovering alcoholic. The book deals with his conversion, drinking and recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous and his Catholic faith.

If I remember correctly, his first conversion happened while making the Stations of the Cross. When he came to the station where Jesus dies, he was struck with remorse and cried for a couple of hours.

I don’t know how he came to leave the priesthood but I remember a chapter that talked about how his preaching on grace was coming into conflict with the Church.

I seem to remember a story, not from the book, about a contemporary Christian music artist who Manning helped bring into the Church, and how the artist’s Evangelical friends were perplexed, as were his fans.

Gene
 
Rich Mullins, IMO the only “Contemporary Christian” musician worth listening to, was listening to a sermon by brennan manning, and was so moved he pulled the car over to the side of the road because he was too teary-eyed to drive.

He then named his band after the book, “Rich Mullins and the Ragamuffin Band.”

It has the best parody of mortal sin v venial sin I’ve ever seen, and the fact that it was that silly and confusing was absolutely the case in my mothers’ generation.

The gist of the Ragamuffin Gospel, as I read (part of) it, was that Jesus came for all of us, no matter what we think of our lowly positions in the world. He came for sinners, not for saints.

Alan
 
Rich Mullins, IMO the only “Contemporary Christian” musician worth listening to

Ditto to Alan.
Not to highjack thread, but Rich Mullins was an incredible example as a musician and as a man, not to mention the depth of his lyrics and talent of his instrumentation.
k
 
Anima Christi:
Has anyone heard of a book entitled The Ragamuffin Gospel? I’ve seen it in the bookstores and one of my friends was reading it . . . it’s published by an evangelical publisher and the author, Brenden Manning, is a “former Franciscan priest.” What is this book about and how does it contradict Catholic teaching?
Click to expand...
I read the book and was a big fan of all Manning’s books before becoming Catholic. As a Protestant, and, consequently, without the infallible teaching of the Church, one searches here and there for what might be the real gospel. It was good news for me at the time, but ultimately my faith rests on the word of Jesus Christ coming to me through His Church, not Brennan Manning. I now look with suspicion on anybody who leaves the priesthood and writes books, such as Ragamuffin Gospel, devoted to sola fide, a doctrine officially condemned by the Church. Instead I would suggest solid Catholic books which teach about God’s Father heart. Check out Call Him Father (Scepter Publishers) and Scott Hahn’s books along that line. I’m sure there are more.
 
This is a quote from Ragamuffin Gospel that is itself taken from a writer named Jaroslav Pelikan:

Luther suddenly broke through to the insight that the “righteousness of God” that Paul spoke of in this passage was not the righteousness by which God was righteous in himself (that would be passive righteousness) but the righteousness by which, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God made sinners righteous (that is, active righteousness) through the forgiveness of sins in justification. When he discovered that, Luther said it was as though the very gates of Paradise had been opened to him.

Manning’s comment is: “What a stunning truth!” (p.20)

And he continues on page 20. “Justification by grace through faith” is the theologian’s learned phrase for what Chesterton once called “the furious love of God.”

I believe the orthodox Catholic position would actually be “justification by grace through faith plus works.” (Read Salvation Controversy by Jimmy Akin for a discussion on Faith plus Works versus Faith alone.)

Also here’s a quote from a man named Robert Capon on page 21 of Ragamuffin Gospel:

The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace–of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfections of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started. . .

Here’s a quote from Brennan himself on page 20, “False gods—the gods of human manufacturing—despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do.”

Of course God loves all people, no matter what. . .but that doesn’t answer the question of how we must live to end up with God in heaven. Brennan makes it sound like salvation is automatic.

He NEVER addresses the problem of sin in his books.

HOW can that be orthodox Christianity?

I don’t think it is, but you can judge for yourself.
 
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