> Because a billion Protestants would say that the verse tells you it is by faith alone, and a billion Catholics will quote James 2 20:24 in saying that faith without works is useless:

In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed a joint statement on justification which admitted they had agreed but had never sat down and done the difficult work of making the fine distinctions and assuming good faith until then! In my experience faith and works is like that with the two groups making different emphases but when one makes the fine distinctions there is essential agreement. There are genuine disagreements but fewer than even the faithful realize. Why the vehement opposition and recriminations? The proximate causes are legion but the efficient cause IMHO involves liberal portions of late medieval to Renaissance European politics that still curses us today.