Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic

by Jerry L Walls

Overview

Anyone in the Christian church today who is paying attention knows that Roman Catholics are on the march to win converts. But what may be surprising is that many of the persons targeted for conversion are not unbelievers and secularists but rather Christians in other traditions, particularly evangelical Protestants. Those involved in this mission are themselves often converts from evangelical churches, and they are zealous to welcome other believers "home" to the Church of Rome. This book provides a variety of reasons to think twice before taking the plunge and swimming the Tiber. Among them are some historical considerations that are often ignored or even suppressed by the zealous evangelists for Rome. There are also dubious claims by John Henry Newman, the famous nineteenth-century convert, that are often advanced without sufficient critical scrutiny. Moreover, converts not infrequently take on the role of amateur theologians and advance highly simplistic claims about a variety of theological matters in popular books that are remarkably successful in terms of sales and publicity. This volume examines these and other similar claims and subjects them to the critical analysis they demand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798385223756
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	03/18/2025
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Jerry L. Walls is professor of philosophy and scholar in residence at Houston Christian University. He has degrees from Houghton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Notre Dame. His years at Notre Dame as a graduate student were a major source of his interest in Roman Catholicism. He has written or edited some twenty books, among them a trilogy on the afterlife and a popular version of that material entitled Heaven, Hell and Purgatory: A Protestant View of the Cosmic Drama.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The subtitle is spot on: Jerry Walls here extends the right hand of fellowship to Roman Catholics at the dinner table while he explains why he is more truly catholic than they are at the Lord’s table. Anyone thinking about converting to Rome needs to grapple seriously with Walls’s critiques of papal infallibility, Marian dogma, and the authority structure of the Roman church—and to do so for the sake of the greater catholic church.”

—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School



“Jerry Walls has devoted many years to thinking about Roman Catholicism. In this well-researched and enjoyable book, he discusses a wide range of topics (e.g., apostolic succession, papal infallibility, the authentication of the canon, Mary) that inform his explanation for why he is not a Roman Catholic. There is much to learn from Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic, regardless of one’s position about the nature of the true church.”

—Stewart Goetz, emeritus professor of philosophy, Ursinus College



“Any Protestant who is considering converting to the Roman Catholic Church ought to read Walls’s book first. Walls presents overwhelming evidence and conclusive reasons why the Catholic Church is not what it claims to be—the one true, visible, and institutional Christian church. And he demonstrates convincingly that some of its doctrines are simply false. At the same time, Walls’s posture toward Catholics is irenic; he clearly does not think their church is a ‘cult’ as some conservative Protestants continue to claim.”

—Roger E. Olson, emeritus professor of Christian theology, Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary



“Jerry Walls’s critical evaluation of distinctive Roman Catholic claims is ecumenical in spirit, eschews emotional appeals and character attacks, focuses on arguments, and acknowledges what evangelicals and Roman Catholics have in common. Walls makes a historical and moral case against papal primacy and infallibility, contends that the ‘ordinary magisterium’ is just as fallible as Protestant confessions, and deftly shows how popular Roman Catholic apologetics often ‘strawmans’ the Protestant conceptions of canon and sola scriptura.”

—Greg Welty, professor of philosophy, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina



“Wrestling with Catholicism? Jerry Walls shows from Scripture, history, and reason that key Roman Catholic claims are false or incoherent. Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic is a nice yet devastating critique of Catholicism. Nice because it charitably demonstrates that Protestantism is more cogent than Catholicism. Devastating because it shows that Protestants have a greater claim to catholicity than Roman Catholics. Highly recommended.”

—Matthew W. Bates, professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

Editorial Reviews

The subtitle is spot on: Jerry Walls here extends the right hand of fellowship to Roman Catholics at the dinner table while he explains why he is more truly catholic than they are at the Lord’s table. Anyone thinking about converting to Rome needs to grapple seriously with Walls’s critiques of papal infallibility, Marian dogma, and the authority structure of the Roman church—and to do so for the sake of the greater catholic church.”

—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School



“Jerry Walls has devoted many years to thinking about Roman Catholicism. In this well-researched and enjoyable book, he discusses a wide range of topics (e.g., apostolic succession, papal infallibility, the authentication of the canon, Mary) that inform his explanation for why he is not a Roman Catholic. There is much to learn from Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic, regardless of one’s position about the nature of the true church.”

—Stewart Goetz, emeritus professor of philosophy, Ursinus College



“Any Protestant who is considering converting to the Roman Catholic Church ought to read Walls’s book first. Walls presents overwhelming evidence and conclusive reasons why the Catholic Church is not what it claims to be—the one true, visible, and institutional Christian church. And he demonstrates convincingly that some of its doctrines are simply false. At the same time, Walls’s posture toward Catholics is irenic; he clearly does not think their church is a ‘cult’ as some conservative Protestants continue to claim.”

—Roger E. Olson, emeritus professor of Christian theology, Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary



“Jerry Walls’s critical evaluation of distinctive Roman Catholic claims is ecumenical in spirit, eschews emotional appeals and character attacks, focuses on arguments, and acknowledges what evangelicals and Roman Catholics have in common. Walls makes a historical and moral case against papal primacy and infallibility, contends that the ‘ordinary magisterium’ is just as fallible as Protestant confessions, and deftly shows how popular Roman Catholic apologetics often ‘strawmans’ the Protestant conceptions of canon and sola scriptura.”

—Greg Welty, professor of philosophy, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina



“Wrestling with Catholicism? Jerry Walls shows from Scripture, history, and reason that key Roman Catholic claims are false or incoherent. Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic is a nice yet devastating critique of Catholicism. Nice because it charitably demonstrates that Protestantism is more cogent than Catholicism. Devastating because it shows that Protestants have a greater claim to catholicity than Roman Catholics. Highly recommended.”

—Matthew W. Bates, professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary

From the Publisher