Considering Catholicism

What does the Catholic Church teach about the meaning and interpretation of dreams? And how has the Catholic Church both changed and yet remained the same over two millennia? Greg and Cory answer listener questions. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? In Part 2 of this series, Greg and Ed discuss the most basic reason: "attachments," things that we love more than we love God. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? How do we understand their lack of interest or their motivations? And more importantly, how do we respond? In this first episode of an occasional series, Greg and Ed explore how there is no single reason explanation, and so there is no single solution for evangelization. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website:...

Greg and Cory continue their discussion of Catholic eschatology and how it differs with much of American evangelicalism. Will there be a "rapture" of Christians, with everyone who didn't accept Christ "left behind?" Will there be a thousand-year reign of Christ in the city of Jerusalem? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/...

When will Jesus return? How will the world end? These are the sort of questions addressed by the branch of theology known as "eschatology." But Catholic eschatology differs in focus and emphasis from that of many American evangelicals. Greg and Cory discuss how the Catholic Church approaches the "end times." Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consid...

The Lord can comfort and bless us in times of pain and suffering. But can our suffering be redemptive for others? Greg shares the Catholic practice of "offering up" our pain as a participation in the Cross of Christ, asking him to use it for the salvation and sanctification of people we care about. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatho...

Greg responds to listener questions and comments. Does this podcast set up Protestant "straw men" to knock down? What do Protestants believe? And what is "Oneness Pentecostalism?" Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Greg and Cory continue their discussion of the legendary musical stage play "Les Mis," an adaptation of the classic novel by Victor Hugo. In Part 2, they share the Catholicism that shines through their favorite scenes. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Greg and Cory are bringing back the popular feature "Book Club." But this time with a twist, as they reflect on the Catholicism that shines through the legendary musical stage play "Les Mis," an adaptation of the classic novel by Victor Hugo. Part 1 shares the themes that make it an explicitly Catholic story. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consi...

In the final episode of this Deep Dive series, Greg reflects honestly on how well many Catholics hear and know the scriptures. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Greg takes Ed into the woods to have "the sex talk." Why does the Catholic Church care so much about sex and sexuality? In our secular postmodern culture, and increasingly in the Protestant evangelical world, who, what, when, where, you have sex with is irrelevant. Most people today can't understand why Catholicism makes a big deal out of it. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catho...

Ed the Protestant shares how exploring Catholicism has opened his eyes to the bigger, unseen world around us. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

In this "Deep Dives" episode, Greg responds to the Protestant charge that the Catholic Church kept the Bible in Latin so the ordinary people couldn't read it for themselves (and discover that Catholicism is unbiblical). Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Greg answers your questions. How is Mary the Mother of God? Is it pagan to pray to dead people? And why are sacramental records so important to the Catholic Church? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

If you're considering Catholicism, at some point someone is going to say to you, "But the Catholic Church is corrupt! How could you think of joining it?!" In the second of two conversations responding to this criticism, Greg and Cory discuss the more exotic charges of corruption in the Church: sedition, magic, and weird conspiracies. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! W...

In this "Deep Dives" episode, Greg explains Catholic "hermeneutics," the rules and guidelines for properly interpreting the Bible. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

If you're considering Catholicism, at some point someone is going to say to you, "But the Catholic Church is corrupt! How could you think of joining it?!" In the first of two conversations responding to this criticism, Greg and Cory discuss "garden variety" corruption in the Church: money, sex, abuses of power. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.con...

Greg often hears from listeners whose friends and family cannot understand their interest in Catholicism, or who react negatively to their desire to become Catholic. He and Ed the Protestant talk about why and how to respond. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Few things drive Protestants more crazy than the Catholic Church calling Mary the "Queen of Heaven" and our "advocate." Greg and Ed explore why and how she has earned those titles. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

Greg answers your questions. Did Mary have free will when she agreed to bear Jesus? Did the Church just make up its objections to artificial birth control? And why are the Southern Baptists debating whether to affirm the Nicene Creed? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com

What "lens" should we the Bible through? History? Moral lessons? Spiritual insights? The Catholic Church teaches that scripture speaks to us in four "senses" or "modes." Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com  

The Roman Catholic Church is the only Christian denomination that has held the line, maintaining a total ban on artificial contraception, even within marriage. Why? Greg explains the philosophical and theological ethics that underlie the Catholic position. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@g...

We talk a lot about the oral tradition of the apostles and how it formed (and still forms) the foundations of Catholic doctrine. But several listeners have written in asking how those oral traditions were transmitted and preserved in the generations immediately after the apostles. In this episode, Greg dodges a bear attack while doing his best to answer. Support this ministry so more people can co...

In this "Deep Dives" episode, Greg asks why Catholics and Protestants have different Old Testaments. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: consideringcatholicism@gmail.com  

The most fundamental difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is Protestant rejection of the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist. Jesus said, "This is my body, and this is my blood," and from the beginning the Catholic Church has taken him at his word. Protestants consider the doctrine of "transubstantiation," that the bread and wine are transformed into Christ's body and blood ridi...