Considering Catholicism

Greg describes one of the most troublesome afflictions that a Christian can face, what it can do to you, and how to overcome it. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? In Part 5 of this series, Greg and Ed talk about how some people need an invitation, how hard it can be to do that, and what are expectations should be when we invite them. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

Catholics are talking about In Vitro Fertilization after the major political candidates in the US elections have indicated support for IVF. Why does the Church oppose it? And if it isn't going to be made illegal in the foreseeable future, what should Catholics do? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

Greg shares some news and updates about the podcast and this ministry. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? Greg and Ed revisit why we must offer a Christianity that wrestles with the ultimate questions. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

Greg and Dominican friar Father Nick Monco discuss why young Catholic women are drawn to traditional expressions of faith, the cultural and theological significance of chapel veils, and the generational divide in the church regarding tradition vs. modernity. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected] Greg on X/Twitter: https://x.com/ConsideringCath

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? In Part 4 of this series, Greg and Ed talk about how to talk to those around you about what the Catholic Church believes, and why those conversations matter. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

What keeps some people away from Christ and the Church? In Part 3 of this series, Greg and Ed talk about "vaccinating people against the Gospel" by offering a Christianity that isn't about the ultimate questions. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

What are “tabernacles” and where should they be placed in a Catholic Church? How are Episcopal or Anglican churches similar to or different from the Catholic Church? Greg and Cory answer listener questions. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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/ Email: [email protected]

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.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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 Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected] Humanae Vitae: online at the Vatican website

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 consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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 ridiculous. In this two-year old conversation from the podcast vault, Greg and Cory explain this most essential Christian mystery. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Yesterday was the Feast of "Corpus Christi," which is Latin for "Body of Christ." Catholics celebrated with processions, carrying the consecrated Eucharist through public spaces. But other than a few Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians, Protestants do not celebrate Corpus Christi. Why is the Eucharist such a big deal for Catholics? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

In this "Deep Dives" episode, we explore the formation of the New Testament and refute the Protestant doctrine of "sola scriptura." Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

In this "Deep Dives" series, we explore what the Catholic Church teaches about the Bible and the role the Bible plays in the Catholic faith. In this installment, we discover what the Church teaches about how the sacred scriptures and sacred tradition work together. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

A listener wrote in about the challenges of inviting non-catholic friends to mass for the first time. Greg and Ed talk about the process of evangelization and whether an invitation to mass should always be the first move in sharing the Catholic faith. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Ed the Protestant recently led worship at a contemporary evangelical church, and describes it like visiting an old girlfriend. It was comfortable, but not where he wants to be anymore. He and Greg talk about what they found missing in that world and why they considered (or are considering) Catholicism. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

In this "Deep Dives" series, we explore what the Catholic Church teaches about the Bible and the role the Bible plays in the Catholic faith. In this installment, Greg asks how the Church functioned before the Bible as we know it was completed. And did the completion of the Bible render the teachings and traditions of the apostles invalid? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

The Vatican, headquarters and home to the papacy, is its own sovereign nation. It's small (108 acres), but it has its own army (the Swiss Guard), embassies in 180 countries, status in the United Nations, and until 1999 printed its own currency. But why does the pope have his own country in the first place? In this second of two conversations, Greg and Cory explore the Vatican city-state since 1929. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

The Vatican, headquarters and home to the papacy, is its own sovereign nation. It's small (108 acres), but it has its own army (the Swiss Guard), embassies in 180 countries, status in the United Nations, and until 1999 printed its own currency. But why does the pope have his own country in the first place? In this first of two conversations, Greg and Cory explore the reason and history of the Papal States. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

In this new "Friday Deep Dives" series, we explore what the Catholic Church teaches about the Bible and the role the Bible plays in the Catholic faith. In this first installment, Greg asks what exactly is meant by the term "God's Word" or "Word of God." Is that the same thing as the Bible? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Greg answers questions listeners have sent in about the Traditional Latin Mass and why some younger priests are starting to wear cassocks again. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Greg answers questions listeners have sent in about joining the Catholic Church, what relatives can (and can't) do if the parents aren't baptizing their kids, and whether you have to attend your "geographic parish" or if you can shop around for one that suits you. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Last week, two things happened on this podcast: we passed 100,000 total downloads and we wrapped up a 10-week Bible study of Genesis on Fridays. So, to start our run at 200,000 downloads, we're launching a new feature: Friday Deep Dives. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

For 1600+ years, the Catholic Church took the gospel to the ends of the earth. But eventually, revolutionary changes in Europe and the Americas (the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, revolutionary ideologies, etc.) shattered the old Christian civilization and the Church's missionary efforts had to cope with hostile modern and post-modern cultures at home. Greg and Cory continue their conversation about the Church's missionary history. Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]

Christianity was born in a pagan world. At first, it was an oppressed sect but it came to overcome the religions of Greece and Rome, the Celtic and Germanic tribes, and carried the gospel to the ends of the earth. How and why were Catholic missionary efforts so successful? Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism! Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/ Email: [email protected]