Gregg R. Allison - Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment

Comically speaking, the genesis of this book occurred when I, as a five-year-old, was told by a similarly young (pre-Vatican Council II) Catholic neighbor girl that I was headed straight to hell because I wasnt Catholic. Greatly upset and fearing for my eternal destiny, I asked my parents if we could go to church, and they promptly responded by taking me to the local United Methodist church. Though that choice did nothing to change the neighbor girls assessment of and warning about my future condemnation, it at least started me down the Protestant pathway. After nurturing me on the works of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, John Wesley, and many others, this road has brought me to the place where I am today: an evangelical systematic theologian of the Reformed Baptist variety.

Seriously, however, the origin of this book began in May 1976, when my fiance (now wife, Nora) and I were visiting a businessman in Chesterton, Indiana, near South Bend. We had received permission from Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) to begin raising support for our future campus ministry with that parachurch organization. During our conversation, in which Nora and I presented our upcoming work, the businessman jokingly exclaimed, Wouldnt it be interesting if the two of you were assigned to be Cru staff at the University of Notre Dame. After a hearty laughSure, a Protestant missionary movement on the campus of the premier Catholic university in the United States!we concluded our presentation and said our thanks and good-byes. Getting into our car to return home, Nora (from the passenger side) and I (from the drivers side) looked at each other and, together, with a strong, divinely given conviction, said, God is calling us to the University of Notre Dame.

After our wedding, honeymoon, and the commencement of our preparation as Cru staff, we received a Placement Request Form as part of our training. One of the questions on this form had to do with where we hoped to be placed. We promptly wrote in our assignment preference: the University of Notre Dame. Soon after receiving our response, Cru leaders responsible for staff placement called us in for a little chat. They were quite intrigued that we wanted to go to Notre Dame (ND), as the Cru ministry was just beginning on that campus, and they were looking to assign more staff to join the small initial team. Nora and I, however, failed to meet their three qualifications: we did not come from a Catholic background, we were not veteran staff (who usually are responsible for starting new campus ministries), and we did not have children (so as to be in a similar season of life as the Cru staff couple already working at ND). Strike one. Strike two. Strike three. The Allisons were not going to be Cru staff at Notre Dame.

A bit later, to the same question on the second Placement Request Form, we wrote, the University of Notre Dame. Somewhat perturbed, our placement leaders called us in for another conversation, wondering what about the initial No, you are not going to be assigned to Notre Dame we didnt understand. They tried to comfort us with the possibility that we would end up at Notre Dame after we had been on Cru staff for a number of years, but they assured us ND was not in our immediate future. Of course, we assured them that we were willing to go anywhere they assigned us. But deep down inside lingered the firm conviction that God was calling us to Notre Dame.

Accordingly, when the third Placement Request Form was distributed a week or so later, our reply to the now infamous question was the University of Notre Dame. The placement leaders flustered and emphatic response to what seemed like an intractable stance on our part was, Perhaps God is calling you to Villanova or some other Catholic university, but you are not going to the University of Notre Dame!