A few weeks back, I wrote “Translations of Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 66.” There we identified a common Catholic proof-text and analyzed the different translations. Another common proof text comes from Ignatius’ Letter to the Smyrnaeans (see: “The Eucharist, Part 4: Ignatius of Antioch“). The flaw in using this passage …

The Greek word for thanksgiving occurs in scripture in three primary forms: εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteó), verb: give thanks εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), noun: thanksgiving; gratitude εὐχάριστος (eucharistos), adjective: thankful It’s fairly common. You can see all of the references here. In the early writings of the church, the word is often left untranslated and transliterated as …

In this short, two-part series, we are demonstrating how meaningless it can be to have a PhD in Theology, to have numerous publications, to be a Professor at a prestigious university, and to be an expert. This will serve as a practical example of why formal appeals to authority in religion …

In this short, two-part series, we are going to demonstrate how meaningless it can be to have a PhD in Theology or to have numerous academic publications. This will serve as a practical example of why formal appeals to authority in religion are close to meaningless. Introduction Ryan Haecker graduated from Cambridge …

During my research on J.N.D. Kelly for “Eucharist, Redux #10: AI Misquotations,” I came across an especially egregious example of misquotation. But, before we talk about that, I highly suggest reading that article first, or else you’re likely to be confused by this one or frustrated by the lack of …

This is part of a series on Roman Catholicism and the eucharist. See this index. Conversations with Catholics will invariably result in a defense of what they call “the Eucharist” (also called “the Sacrifice of the Mass”). Catholics will insist that the “Real Presence” and “Transubstantiated” Eucharist can be found …

This is part of a series on Roman Catholicism and the eucharist. See this index. I recently had someone ask Grok AI a question about the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence. Here is the response: For readers who read last week’s post, this will sound extremely familiar: You know it’s …

This is part of a series on Roman Catholicism and the eucharist. See this index. In “Eucharist, Redux #2” we defined the eucharist of the early church and provided a 10-item list of things that the church offered in its sacrificial thanks-offering. Inspired by the interaction in the screenshot above, let’s …

This is part of a series on Roman Catholicism and the eucharist. See this index. Since I wrote my (now 48-part) series on the Eucharist, I’ve since interacted with dozens of Roman Catholics and read many Catholic apologists defending the Eucharist of the Roman Catholic Church. While there are a …