Catholic Review of: The Spirit And Forms Of Protestantism

Protestants often get a bad rap by Catholics.  We frequently talk about the once-saved-always-saved Protestant dogma and assume they believe that gives them license to sin.  But we don't try to reconcile that doctrine with the fact that Protestants live moral lives and often adhere to a stricter code than Catholics. Louis Bouyer begins his book by trying to explain this anomaly.  He says:

    "No religion, or religious movement, is to be judged on the basis of its theoretical expositions.  It is  
     something living and has to be looked for in the communities where it has life.  Any discussion of 
     Protestantism that does not start from this point risks ending up in spinning logical webs that bear no 
     relation to reality." 

Starting with this basis he shows how similar the chief tenets of Luther and Calvin were to Catholic theology.  The doctrine of Sola Gratia is so similar that one Calvinist theologian, upon learning the Catholic viewpoint, remarked that he didn't know what the Protestant Reformation had been for.

Louis Bouyer is quick to point out our shared beliefs but he does not gloss over the very real differences that made the schism almost unavoidable.  He devotes a long chapter to the negative aspects of the Reformation and to the decay of the positive aspects of Protestantism.

Many of today's well-known apologists and authors are converts from Protestantism and speak of their heritage with pride.  But The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism is the most well-rounded book on the topic.  It is not helpful for Catholics to speak about Protestants and Evangelicals as if they are all the same and Bouyer does an excellent job describing the true nature of classical Protestant thought.

I have given this title a reading level of advanced because it is primarily a theological discussion and may require notes and a highlighter to properly appreciate.