The 1994 “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” statement now has a sequel, “The Gift of Salvation.” Like its predecessor, the new statement is subscribed by several dozen prominent Evangelicals and Catholics. They do not claim to speak on behalf of their respective churches—in their formulation, they speak “from and to, but not for,” their communities.
“The Gift of Salvation” demonstrates the considerable commonality between Evangelicals and Catholics, and it is nearly devoid of those vague formulations that have undercut so many other ecumenical efforts, such as the Anglican-Catholic statements that eventually had to be repudiated by the Vatican because they gave away too much of the store.
Unlike “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” which justly was criticized for its overbroad strictures against evangelizing other Christians, the new statement says that “Evangelicals must speak the gospel to Catholics and Catholics to Evangelicals.” In other words, it’s okay—even necessary—to attempt to bring what one understands as the fullness of Christian truth even to other Christians.
Also welcome is the frank acknowledgment of “interrelated questions that require further and urgent exploration. Among such questions are these: the meaning of baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and sacramental grace; . . . diverse understandings of merit, reward, purgatory, and indulgences; Marian devotion and the assistance of the saints in the life of salvation . . .” I like seeing words such as “purgatory” and “merit” in the list; their inclusion suggests that the Evangelical signers are not to be numbered among their co-religionists who refuse to consider Catholic claims in these areas.
Not all of the language in “The Gift of Salvation” is clear. I’m not sure what is meant when the signers say, “We may therefore have assured hope for the eternal life promised to us in Christ.” What is “assured hope”? The phrase is oxymoronic, since one hopes for something that one is not assured of getting. But there are few such awkward phrases, and for me there is only one truly troublesome sentence: “We understand that what we here affirm is in agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide).” It is this sentence that has received the most play in the press, and it is this sentence that would prevent me from being able to subscribe my name to “The Gift of Salvation.”
While it is quite true that initial justification comes through faith and through nothing else, what the “Reformation traditions” have meant by “justification by faith alone” goes considerably beyond that (which was affirmed by Trent) to include the idea that works play no role in maintaining one’s justification (which was condemned by Trent). The flavor of the sentence is all wrong, and it will leave readers and commentators with an incorrect sense of what the Catholic signatories meant when they signed on. Although it would demand too much mental reservation for me to be able to affirm that sentence, nearly everything else in “The Gift of Life” deserves a thumbs-up.