c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) A respected Baylor University scholar and president of the Evangelical Theological Society has shocked colleagues by returning to the Catholic faith of his youth.

Francis Beckwith, an associate professor at Baylor, announced Saturday (May 5) on his blog that he was resigning as president of the 4,300-member Evangelical Theological Society. He resigned as an ETS member on Monday.

“… My work in philosophy, ethics and theology has always been Catholic friendly, but I would have never predicted that I would return to the Church, for there seemed to me too many theological and ecclesiastical issues that appeared insurmountable,” Beckwith wrote in the May 5 posting on his “Right Reason” blog.

In his announcement, Beckwith said he had recently read the writings of the early church fathers and found Christianity’s roots to be “more Catholic than Protestant.” He became convinced that he should reunite with the Catholic faith, where he had been baptized and confirmed and received Communion as a youth.

The choice made by Beckwith, 46, shocked his ETS colleagues.

“The conversion was certainly a surprise,” said Darrell Bock, a New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and a former ETS president. “It was not at all anticipated or expected. That he would resign (as president) is not necessarily a surprise, because the ETS has been fundamentally a Protestant organization.”

Bock and another former ETS president, Craig Blaising, said they consider Beckwith to be a friend but said it no longer makes theological sense for him to be a member of the scholarly organization.

“I think it became very clear, once he made the decision, that really as a Roman Catholic he’s not traditionally where the Evangelical Theological Society is,” said Blaising, the provost at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. “And I think it’s clear that our doctrinal basis, by which we work, is not where he’s now working.”

The society’s “doctrinal basis” is a two-sentence statement that declares that the Bible is the sole “Word of God written and is therefore inerrant,” or without error. Catholics, ETS officials say, have a broader view of Scripture, and therefore would not generally be able to agree to that statement.

Beckwith could not be immediately reached for comment.

Beckwith explained in his blog that both he and his wife, Frankie, decided in late March to join the Catholic Church. He had grappled with when to return to the church and “asked the Lord to provide to me clear direction.” In mid-April, his teenage nephew called and asked him to be his sponsor at his confirmation in mid-May. That prompted Beckwith to take the steps necessary for a public rejoining of the Catholic Church on April 28.

Prior to his work in evangelical circles, Beckwith had attended Catholic elementary and high schools and received two degrees from Fordham University, a Jesuit school in New York.

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James A. Borland, the secretary-treasurer of the society since 1992, said he can think of only two instances when Catholics were either removed as members or denied membership.

“As far as we know, there are no Catholic members today,” he said.

On Tuesday, the group’s Executive Committee issued a statement on Beckwith’s resignation that noted both the cooperation of evangelicals and Catholics on social and moral issues and their theological differences relating to the authority of the pope, and doctrines related to the Virgin Mary.

Hassell Bullock, an Old Testament professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, will serve as acting president for the rest of 2007 in addition to president-elect in 2008.

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Scholars of conversion to Catholicism said the step Beckwith has taken, while unusual, is one that is not done lightly.

Patrick Allitt, a history professor at Emory University in Atlanta and author of the 1997 book, “Catholic Converts,” called the decision “a supreme act of religious seriousness.”

“You wouldn’t bother to do it unless you really cared about the details and about the doctrines,” he said.

Deal Hudson, director of the Washington-based Morley Institute for Church and Culture, who converted 23 years ago after being a Southern Baptist minister, cites commentator Robert Novak and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., as more recent examples.

He said that people still ask him about his conversion.

“You go from Methodist to Presbyterian … Nobody thinks of that as a conversion,” said Hudson, the former publisher of Crisis, a Catholic magazine. “It’s more like changing your address or changing your car. But when you change from Protestant to Catholic, you’re changing paradigms.”

KRE/CM END BANKS Photo of Beckwith is available via https://religionnews.com.