“The Attractions of Popery"- Some Things Never Change

One of my favorite Catholic Apologetics sites is Cor ad cor loquitur. David Armstrong is just a typical Cathlolic convert that really has a zeal of defending the faith. His Site is a goldmine of apologetic information and the first place I usually go if I have a question I can't answer. He also is in conversation with a lot of non Catholics and some big well known anti Catholics .

Today he has a excellent post called :Some Things Never Change: Reformed Theologian R.L. Dabney's 1894 Analysis of Protestant Defections to Catholicism and Protestant-Catholic Differences. Ok don't hit the back button on your browser. I know that title sounds "yawn" but it is really quite good and timely.

In the post, David states:
In 1894, . . . Robert Lewis Dabney, aimed his x-ray vision at a subject which troubled him deeply: the defection of large numbers of Protestants to Rome. His essay, “The Attractions of Popery,” which appeared in the April issue of The Presbyterian Quarterly, made it clear he was no friend of the trend. Dabney regarded “the popish system of ritual and doctrine” to be “the most skillful and pernicious system of error which the world has ever known.”

Yet in setting about to explain why Protestants were becoming Romanists—a trend he predicted would grow—Dabney at times sounded like an apologist for Rome. This is because his Presbyterian convictions were so firmly rooted, he enjoyed the luxury of giving full credit to all the advantages of his opponent. A review of Dabney’s insights concerning Rome’s allure to Protestants has become, if anything, more relevant as we witness in our own time what seems to be an increase in defections from truth to error.

It is a good read. This was a very interesting time period for American Protestanism. What was happening in America might have been happening worldwide. As the first comment to David's post notes , American Protestantism was sort of burnt out. There were not only a wave of converts to Catholicism in this period but also a explosion in the break up of non Catholic Christian communities into different "Churches".