DENOMINATIONALISM OF GOD...OR...OF MAN

Lugger presents a theological case against the Roman Catholic Church in this nonfiction work.

This book begins with a central question that has dogged Christianity for more than two millennia: If Jesus came to save the lost, “who among us may be considered lost?” According to the author, a former Lutheran who began studying Christian history following his marriage to a woman of a different denomination, the definition of lost may very well extend to any “member of Christ’s body who continually worships in a denomination.” Anticipating a five-volume series that explores the “non-Christian beliefs” of some of the world’s largest Christian denominations, this first volume focuses on the Roman Catholic Church. Drawing on the “authority of Scripture,” the book’s case against Catholicism argues that many of its central tenets, from the veneration of Mary to priestly authority in the confessional booth, are largely absent from the Bible. Lugger observes that many distinctive aspects of Catholicism, including its use of holy water, the doctrine of purgatory, the celibacy of the clergy, and infant baptism, were developed hundreds of years after Christ’s time on Earth. This is historically true, though Catholic readers may defer to their belief in tradition in addition to scriptural authority. The book’s central argument against Catholicism lies in interpretations of Scripture and theological approaches that conflict with the author’s perspective of sola Scriptura. As detailed and well-versed in Christian history and doctrine as the book may be (it boasts an impressive 19 pages of bibliographic and reference citations), it is ultimately a rehashing of the same arguments against Catholicism that have been around since the Protestant Revolution. Ultimately, while straightforward and detailed in its nearly 400 pages of critique, the book offers nothing that wasn’t already written in the 1500s by like-minded Protestants.

A well-researched, if not particularly revelatory, case against Roman Catholicism.