Has Rome’s doctrine really changed? Have the differences between confessional Protestants and Rome really evaporated? Is the cultural crisis so great that Protestants should set aside their objections and unite with the one entity that seems able to resist the apparent wave of immorality? Is there anything more than prejudice driving a continued protest by Protestants? In his latest book, Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Still Matters (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018), in 10 brief chapters (the book is 224 pages) D. G. Hart answers seeks to answer these questions.

A decade ago Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom published Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism. The book was measured in its answer, but in an interview at the time of publication, Noll said, yes, the Reformation is over. I responded to some of Noll’s arguments in 2009. That book came after more than a decade of dialogue between what are now called “Evangelical thought leaders” and a representative of the Roman communion, Idris Cardinal Cassidy, during  which more than a few evangelical leaders signed the “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” documents claiming to have mitigated at least some of the major differences between Rome and the Reformation. The years since the publication of the book have seen a number of Protestants leave churches in the Reformation tradition to unite with Rome.

After all, the lure of Romanism seems stronger than ever. For those concerned about the late-modern cultural crisis, Rome seems to offer not only stability in the midst of chaos but Romanists are now the leading edge of cultural resistance to the sexual revolution represented by Roe v Wade (and Doe v Bolton; 1973) and by Obergefell v Hodges (2015), which revolutionized the definition of marriage in the US. Romanists now dominate the U.S. Supreme Court. The intellectual leadership of the conservative counter culture is led by Romanists. The mainline Protestant institutions long ago gave up their confessional theological heritage and with it, ironically, their influence in the culture. It is ironic because they gave up their confession in a misguided attempt to retain influence in the culture. Further, Rome claims to offer a profound connection to the past, beginning with a their claim of an unbroken line of succession from Pope Francis to the Apostle Peter. For Americans, who are historically challenged, the obvious potency of Romanist cultural influence combined with their claims to antiquity are persuasive.

Has Rome’s doctrine really changed? Have the differences between confessional Protestants and Rome really evaporated? Is the cultural crisis so great that Protestants should set aside their objections and unite with the one entity that seems able to resist the apparent wave of immorality? Is there anything more than prejudice driving a continued protest by Protestants? In his latest book, Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Still Matters (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018), in 10 brief chapters (the book is 224 pages) D. G. Hart answers seeks to answer these questions.

He begins with a survey of some of the most compelling reasons given by some high-profile converts to Rome, e.g., Christian Smith and Richard John Neuhaus and responds by re-asserting the material cause of the Reformation: “Despite dramatic changes with the ecclesiastical landscape over the last fifty years, the status of human beings before a holy and righteous God and the message of the gospel as explained by the Reformers remain the same” (p. 8). The changes that Neuhaus, Noll, Nystrom et al. see, the drift of Rome and evangelicals toward each other, “has more to do with forgetfulness and confusion about the claims of Rome and Protestants at the time of the Reformation than it does with doctrinal or ecumenical breakthrough” (p. 11). After all, he writes, “the Reformers were not confused or unclear; nor was the Council of Trent, even if subsequent popes and councils have sought to soften Rome’s sixteenth-century teachings” (p.11).

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