is the reformation over?

Scot McKnight writes in response to a book by Noll and Nystrom with the same title.......

The problem I see with the book is that it focuses on what ecumenical dialogues contribute to reality, and I’m not sure — however much I like such things — ecumenical dialogues accomplish all that much except for (1) those involved and (2) those who are close to the minds of those involved. What happens at a local church when some ecumenically-minded theologians get together and come to some agreement?

Here’s what I mean in this case: I don’t see that typical, lay-level (and ordinary priests I bump into) Roman Catholics understand justification the way Protestants do, at least in any meaningful sense. I study conversion stories, and right now I’m doing some research on why Catholics become Evangelicals. What I see is that, while the theologians might be able to articulate at a profound level the subtle differences that mean the differences are not as substantial as once thought, the lay folks are not hearing that. Hundreds of former Catholics are baptized each year at Willow Creek. In fact, if you study the fast-growing churches in the USA you would find that many of the “converts” are former Catholics. Evangelical conversions to Catholicism are noisy, but the number is nowhere near as high as the other direction.

As I read Noll and Nystrom, I kept asking myself this: If there is a growing rapprochement between Catholics and Protestants why are we not seeing it at the grass-roots level more than we are? Is it still in the ivory tower that this is happening?

There’s another issue: it is well and good to see Evangelicals and RCs discussing justification and to point out that there are more similarities than we really believed. That’s not the issue: the issue is the place of justification in Protestantism and in Roman Catholicism. For RCs it is not as central as it is to Evangelicals. One ought to compare Prot views of soteriology/justification to RC views of Church to get the real tension point.