"Thomas told me to do so": Another Young Protestant Crosses the Tiber
“many evangelicals do not have the faintest clue what Thomas wrote or taught, and Thomas’s views are in actuality markedly different than those of many born-again believers. Most of us believe that when Scripture teaches us that God is merciful, then we may understand God as such.” - Owen Strachan
...appears to be to downgrade Sola Scriptura. Once you've decided that Scripture doesn't have the final say, then the Magisterium--here in the form of Aquinas--comes in. The Tiber-crosser is there in a dangerous position, however, because I don't believe that Catholicism consistently holds to Aquinas' doctrines, and official doctrine is that Scripture is authoritative. So the new Catholic will quickly find himself less than Catholic, I think.
For my part, on a slightly different tack, a huge difficulty I'd have with Catholicism is the Pope, in particular the current Pope. Now granted, he wasn't claiming to be speaking ex cathedra (with infallibility), but it's still a rough spot for someone who's trying to reconcile, for example, the Biblical examples of God's martial heroes (Abraham, David, etc..) with the notion that God doesn't hear prayers of those who engage in war. We can, more or less, have the notion of a hierarchy that speaks with the authority of God's Word, or we can have God's Word, but not both.
And with that, I'm at the point of "when we try to improve on things, we generally end up making it worse". I love Rome, but I don't see myself crossing the Tiber any time soon.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion