Evangelical is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament

by Thomas Howard

Book Overview

A deeply moving narrative that unfolds the conversion to Catholicism of two Protestant Evangelical Christians This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898702216
• ISBN13: 9780898702217
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Length: 162 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

looking deeper

Howard sympathetically describes his journey from "let's praise God with this lil' guitar and knee slapping" to the riches of the historical Church with wit, insight and understanding. If it is true that the rule of prayer is the rule of faith (lex orandi lex credendi) then the Protestant communions, and much of American Roman Catholicism, have to ask themselves why they have tampered with the ancient liturgy to make it more "relevant" and "personal". We trust the Church's decision about the canon of scripture, but we don't trust the Church's prayer from which that canon emerged. This is not quite right. As an aside, I find the new cover of this edition somewhat paradoxical because it presents the reader with the idea that if you go to a Roman mass you will find the historic liturgy with all of its chant, incense, vestments and dignity. But sadly this is not the case. In fact, the cover is flat out false advertising. The vast majority or Roman parishes look just like the stripped down protestant prayer halls down the street, thanks to the efforts of ex-nuns post-Vatican Two and well-intentioned but misguided laity, priests and bishops who tried in vain to mimic the surrounding pop-culture in order to make the liturgy more relevant. Sad truth is, you can't compete with MTV and besides, no the mass isn't trapped in the 1500s, it is trapped in the 1960s with kitsch that Mike Brady designed! I would seriously ask you to consider Eastern Orthodoxy as the logical outcome of Howard's quest for the historic Church that doesn't change based upon opinion polls or trends or political correctness. Other books that will be of interest to you are this following mix of Protestant, Orthodox and Roman authors: Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future), Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants, A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future), Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church, Discovering the Rich Heritage of Orthodoxy, The Orthodox Way, Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith, Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian, Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on "Romanism" by "Bible Christians" and Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion. By What Authority? is also a penetrating study of the subject of sola scriptura. Enjoy!

A brief, but compelling, apologia for the liturgy

Recently, several Evangelical Christians have converted to more traditional and sacramentally oriented churches. The big headlines were that most of these converts were going over to Catholicism and to a lesser extent Eastern Orthodoxy and the Anglican Communion. But, few seemed to notice that one of the main threads through all of these conversions was a strong desire for more meaningful worship after a rush by many conservative Evangelicals to make their services more contemporary. Thomas Howard's book "Evangelical Is Not Enough" speaks perfectly to those longings and shows how the liturgy satisfies them.Growing up in a conservative Protestant background, Howard felt that more sensual and liturgical brands of worship weren't "spiritual" or were nothing but a "dead ritual." Through a journey that spanned several years, Howard explains how the liturgical worship he used to view as a "famine" became a feast to the eyes, ears and touch.Given the title, one would think that this is a fierce polemic on the inadequacy of Evangelicalism. Nothing could be further from the truth. While making sure to praise the Evangelicalism that nurtured him in the faith, he also critiques its deficiencies as someone who loves his fathers in faith so much that he must point them out because of that great love. Howard anticipates virtually every objection that people from his background can make against liturgical worship and answers them briefly, but in a cogent manner. While this is a topic that can be extremely dry, Howard packages his views and spiritual journey in such magnificent prose that the reader is awakened to the drama that takes place at the seemingly hum-drum Mass, Divine Liturgy or Anglican services. This book isn't a complete and thorough apologetic for liturgical worship that goes through every possible objection and answers them with copious footnotes and greek grammar. It does provide for a breezy read that is guaranteed to get you excited about worship, no matter what communion you hail from!

Wonderful, profound, warn, and gracious.

As an evangelical deeply interested in and sympathetic to Catholicism, I found Thomas Howard's "Evangelical is not Enough" to be one of the most moving religious books I've read in years. Howard was born into an evangelical family, moved into an Anglican communion as an adult, and subsequent to the first publishing of "Not Enough" became a Roman Catholic. This is NOT a Roman Catholic apologia. As noted, Howard's famous (and, within evangelical circles, highly controversial) conversion post-dates this book. Instead, is an apologia for all the apostolic liturgical starins of Christianity (including the Anglican and Orthodox traditions).Although the story is obviously colored by Howard's faith journey, this is not a biography or memoir. Instead, it is an exploration of the liturgical tradition written by someone deeply sympathetic to the evangelical tradition. Howard explores such controverted issues as Mary, the authority of scripture and church teaching (sola scriptura), justification (sola fide), and liturgy.I believe (with Howard) that the evangelical churches have gone too far in rejecting liturgy. A traditional High Church service touches my soul far more deeply than the modern praise worship so common in evangelical services. (I was recently in one of those mega-churches where they serve Starbucks coffee and everybody takes their latte into the pew. I'm glad there are churches like that for people who prefer that style of worship, but its not for me.) The hard questions for me are the touchstones of Reformation theology--sola scriptura and sola fide. Does the apostolic tradition have authority or is only scripture authoritative? Is salvation by faith alone or by faith and works? Howard has struggled with these issues too and has given us a fair, balanced, honest, and deeply scriptural set of answers. In sum, HIGHLY recommended.

A helpful and graciously written book

As an evangelical who is finding herself drawn towards the Catholic Church, I found this book wonderful. At no time does the author "bash" his Evangelical heritage, unlike other convertion stories, and I found it helpful that he does not tell of his convertion to the RC Church until the end of the book. If you are of an Evangelical tradition, and feel that something is missing from your spiritual life - this book is well worth reading. I discovered a wealth of resources in a liturgy I didn't even know existed.

Not just for Catholics!

Tom Howard has written an excellent book here. It does not have to be read by a Catholic in order to gain great meaning from the work. As an evangelical, I can identify with what he discusses as lacking in the Church. He does a good job at identifying exactly the issues he sets out to work with: worshipping God in liturgy and sacrament. It is not a This-Is-Why-You-Should-Be-Catholic book, or at least does not necessarily have to be taken as a work of Catholic apologetics. He is aiming at the need in ANY church to identify its roots and appreciate 2,000 years of history in the communion of saints.It was valuable to learn about the reason behind many traditions. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who sees the traditional liturgy as rote memorization, boring and irrelevant to their life. Tom Howard breaths life into doctrines and practices of the Church, both traditional evangelical and Catholic, that many people can lose sight of.What I liked, though, is that he took it to the next step, claiming that worshipping God is not entirely subjective, i.e. it is objectively GOOD to have roots in tradition. So often Christians are comfortable with "whatever size fits" in worship, and don't consider that WHAT they do may be as important as how they FEEL when doing it.