Monergism Books

Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Evangelical Press
ISBN#: 0852342691

Availability: Usually Ships the Same Business Day

Description: In recent years, front page headlines have proclaimed, 'John Paul Superstar'. David Sanford, wrote in Harper's Magazine: 'The pope is more popular than the Beatles who, according to John Lennon, were more popular than Jesus Christ; where this leaves Jesus Christ is not clear.'

Morris West, in his television documentary, The Paradox of the Papacy, repeatedly made reference to the contrast between the lives and ministry of the New Testament apostles and the lives and ministry of the men who claim to sit on the 'throne' of St Peter. How can the contrast be explained? How does one begin to account for the popularity and the power of the Roman pontiff? A 'trajectory' which begins with Simon Peter and reaches to a man who today can lay claim to possessing primacy over the who world, and to the personal prerogative of ex-cathedral infallibility, is a paradox indeed. This well-documented book will help the reader to answer these questions and to explain the paradox.

In Papal Power, Dr. Henry T. Hudson, a Reformed apologist, historian and resident of Italy for many years, documents the origin and growth of the papacy.  In an easy to read style, he clearly documents the evolution of an apostolic tradition that began in humility and faithful stewardship of the Word of God and became an institution that has assumed to itself all manner of political, ecclesiastical, and economic power, often with profoundly un-Christ-like results.   Even Catholic Answers, a pro-papist group, acknowledged the book’s power to persuade when it called Papal Power “…perhaps the most exhaustive recent attack on the papacy.”

Contents: Introduction; The Origins of Papal Power; The Development Before the Reformation; Luther’s Revolt Against Papal Power; The Development After the Reformation; Holy Scripture and Papal Claims; Appendix: The First Vatican Council: Papal Infallibility.