From the day Jorge Bergoglio stepped out on the loggia of St. Peter's down to the present, Catholics have been confused and dismayed by many of the words and actions of Pope Francis. Not content to allow errors to be spread (whatever their source or putative justification), international groups of pastors and scholars composed documents of inquiry, appeal, critique, and, finally, accusation: the Dubia of the Four Cardinals, the Theological Censures of Amoris Laetitia, the Filial Correction Concerning the Propagation of Heresies, the Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, the Appeal to the Cardinals, and the Protest against Pope Francis's Sacrilegious Acts. These historic interventions, which made news around the world at the time of their first appearance and garnered the support of hundreds of thousands of concerned Catholics, are gathered here in a definitive edition for the benefit of all who seek to adhere to "the faith delivered once for all to the saints" (Jude 3). The six documents are accompanied by a selection of important articles and interviews prompted by them, which criticize, defend, or develop their evaluation of Pope Francis.

From the day Jorge Bergoglio stepped out on the loggia of St. Peter's down to the present, Catholics have been confused and dismayed by many of the words and actions of Pope Francis. Not content to allow errors to be spread (whatever their source or putative justification), international groups of pastors and scholars composed documents of inquiry, appeal, critique, and, finally, accusation: the Dubia of the Four Cardinals, the Theological Censures of Amoris Laetitia, the Filial Correction Concerning the Propagation of Heresies, the Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, the Appeal to the Cardinals, and the Protest against Pope Francis's Sacrilegious Acts. These historic interventions, which made news around the world at the time of their first appearance and garnered the support of hundreds of thousands of concerned Catholics, are gathered here in a definitive edition for the benefit of all who seek to adhere to "the faith delivered once for all to the saints" (Jude 3). The six documents are accompanied by a selection of important articles and interviews prompted by them, which criticize, defend, or develop their evaluation of Pope Francis.

Why the Church must defend the truth. Our ongoing fascination with alternative Christianities is on display every time a never-before-seen gospel text is revealed, an archaeological discovery about Jesus makes front-page news, or a new work of fiction challenges the very foundations of the church. Now, in a timely corrective to this trend, renowned church historian Alister McGrath examines the history of subversive ideas, overturning common misconceptions that heresy is somehow more spiritual or liberating than traditional dogma. In so doing, he presents a powerful, compassionate orthodoxy that will equip the church to meet the challenge from renewed forms of heresy today.

This volume brings together a diverse group of Reformation scholars to examine the life, work, and enduring significance of John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury from 1560 to 1571. A theologian and scholar who worked with early reformers in England such as Peter Martyr Vermigli, Martin Bucer, and Thomas Cranmer, Jewel had a long-lasting influence over religious culture and identity. The essays included in this book shed light on often-neglected aspects of Jewel’s work, as well as his standing in Elizabethan culture not only as a priest but as a leader whose work as a polemicist and apologist played an important role in establishing the authority and legitimacy of the Elizabethan Church of England. The contributors also place Jewel in the wider context of gender studies, material culture, and social history. With its inclusion of a short biography of Jewel’s early life and a complete list of his works published between 1560 and 1640, Defending the Faith is a fresh and robust look at an important Reformation figure who was recognized as a champion of the English Church, both by his enemies and by his fellow reformers. In addition to the editors, contributors to this volume are Andrew Atherstone, Ian Atherton, Paul Dominiak, Alice Ferron, Paul A. Hartog, Torrance Kirby, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Aislinn Muller, Joshua Rodda, and Lucy Wooding.

Inasmuch as certain men have set the truth aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the apostle says, “minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith,” and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and take them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations.] These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretence of [superior] knowledge, from Him who rounded and adorned the universe; as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal, than that God who created the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein. By means of specious and plausible words, they cunningly allure the simple-minded to inquire into their system; but they nevertheless clumsily destroy them, while they initiate them into their blasphemous and impious opinions respecting the Demiurge; and these simple ones are unable, even in such a matter, to distinguish falsehood from truth.

When the Christian church was first forming in the time of the apostles, a heresy that still threatens the church today called Gnosticism started to form. This heresy was battled by the writings of Irenæus to correct theological thinking about God, Jesus and the Bible at large. This early church father was instrumental in fighting false teaching in the early centuries when there were a lot of questions about the legitimacy of Christianity in the face of the persecutions of the Roman Empire. Note: This is a revised edition of the original Devoted Publishing edition. The text hasn't changed just some formatting and footnote layouts have been altered.