Confessions of an Unclenched Catholic
As many of you know, I was on EWTN’s The Journey Home this past week, and I promised to post the video when it became available. Here you go: I would like to thank you all for the positive feedback you’ve sent my way (this site has had no fewer than 1,000 and as many as 3,500 unique visitors per day since last Monday). One of the best things I heard (it struck me most coming from an old Calvary pastor friend, although others have echoed the sentiment) was that while many people who leave one expression of the faith for another...
read moreAn Unexpected Journey
Probably the hardest thing about being a Catholic — other than trying to do enough good deeds to earn my way to heaven without grace — is having to refer to my spiritual life as a “journey” (what can I say, I still suffer from that Calvinist thing of when you throw up in your mouth a little at all things smacking of evangelicalism). With that caveat, I will be appearing on EWTN’s program “The Journey Home” on Monday (today) at 5pm. I’ll be discussing my, ahem, journey from broad evangelicalism...
read moreTrinity, Incarnation, and Participation
In my last post on advent and the Incarnation, I mentioned that the entire Catholic gospel is focused on the ontological participation that the believer enjoys with the holy Trinity, by means of the Eucharistic flesh of Christ, alluding to the oft-quoted idea found in so many of the church fathers that God became man so that man could become God. An objection was raised to this idea due to its alleged inconsistency with monotheism: If there is only one God, how can human beings become gods as well? This question really gets to the heart the...
read more“What, to the Indian, is Your Thanksgiving?”
I don’t want to overly confuse the two kingdoms (ahem), so I would direct you over to Heavy for the Vintage where you’ll find an article I published containing some personal reflections on the celebration of Thanksgiving. Click at your own risk. . ....
read moreAdvent, Incarnation, and Visibility
Since the season of advent is right around the corner, I thought I’d offer a personal reflection on the Incarnation from a newly Catholic perspective, as well as suggest areas where I think Catholicism exhibits the dynamic of the Incarnation more faithfully than Protestantism does. Consider first the realm of ecclesiology (which is related to Christology most obviously because the Church is the Body of Christ). In Protestantism, there is no single visible church, there is no single visible entity that can serve as an analogue to the...
read moreRaise Your Hand… If You’re Sure!
One of the biggest purported “selling points” of Reformed theology has always been the doctrine of assurance. It is not uncommon to hear things like, “In Rome you’re stuck on a never-ending sacramental treadmill, but what you get in Geneva is the peace that comes from the full assurance of faith. Why would anyone trade assurance for fear and uncertainty?” I would respectfully demure at this point. While it is true that Reformed theology offers the elect absolute assurance of final salvation (since they have been...
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Jason J. Stellman
I was born and raised in Orange County, CA (also known as "The OC" by people not from there), and served as a missionary with Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa in Uganda (’91-’92) and in Hungary (’94-’00). After becoming Reformed and being subsequently “dismissed” from ministry with Calvary, I went to Westminster Seminary California where I received my M.Div. in 2004. After graduation I was ordained by the Pacific Northwest Presbytery of the PCA and called to plant Exile Presbyterian Church in the Seattle area, where I served from 2004 - 2012. On September 23, 2012, I was received into the Catholic Church. I am the author of Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and the Not Yet (Reformation Trust, 2009), The Destiny of the Species (Wipf & Stock, 2013), and Here I Fall (forthcoming from Random House).
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