The Protestant argument

Growing up as a Separatist Baptist, I knew we were Protestant, but didn’t always know why, except to say that we weren’t Catholic. It wasn’t until my college and seminary years where, after studying Church history and immersing myself in Reformation theology, I came to appreciate and love the Protestant tradition.

It’s that word “tradition” that is so often seen as antithetical to Protestantism, especially to our Catholic friends who see our movement as more of an ahistorical aberration than a continuation of the apostolic faith. It is this myth—and it is a myth—that pastor and apologist Gavin Ortlund seeks to dispel in a characteristically thorough yet irenic book, What It Means to Be Protestant (Zondervan).

Ortlund, who says he “accidentally” became an apologist for Protestantism while answering viewer questions on his increasingly popular YouTube channel, Truth Unites, shares his desire for the book: “My heart aches for Protestants to understand their own tradition—especially before they consider leaving it.”

Ortlund’s approach is threefold. In the first section he ably defends Protestantism as the more “catholic” of traditions against the “one true church” claims that have characterized Roman Catholic theology for much of its history. He also refutes the narrative that Protestantism was only interested in tearing down the Church rather than reforming it.

The second section makes a strong case for the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura, explaining it as a recovery of the early Church’s view of the Bible as the supreme authority. It is here he winsomely reminds readers that sola scriptura is not a Biblicist approach that ignores tradition. Rather, it sees Church tradition as a guide to the Bible instead of an authority equal to it. He also pokes holes in the Roman Catholic view of apostolic succession, even drawing from Roman Catholic scholars.

The last section argues that Protestantism retrieves original Christian practice. Ortlund refutes John Henry Newman’s quip, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Yet Ortlund notes that ad fontes, Latin for “back to the sources,” was a rallying cry of the Reformers. He then makes the case that some Catholic distinctives, such as Mary veneration, are actually departures from Church tradition.

Overall, What It Means to Be Protestant is a helpful guide in the ongoing conversations between Protestants and Catholics. While forcefully making the case for his own tradition, Ortlund remains charitable and fair toward his Catholic interlocutors and is a model for this kind of apologetic.