Apologetics has taken over

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Lillith

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Hello…

I’ve always loved my Catholic faith, and I lived in a town surrounded by fellow believers…never thought about apologetics much, the churches teachings were because the magisterium says so…and I felt I was right for that reason alone.

Until…my husband moved me to a protestant area. Now I have to travel 30 min. to get to church, I am my childrens sole teacher, and my neighbors question practices (I was embarrassed a few times not to know the answers) and the magesterium was no longer a good enough answer.

This has been a blessing that God obviously bestowed on me very purposely! I studied and learned and am amazed at how TRUE the church is…I have alot more to learn, but I can now defend, and I love my church more than ever!

The problem is I am having trouble tearing myself away long enough to pray the way I used to…Warning…Apologetics are addictive

Anyone else have this happen…or am I just obsessive?
Thanks, Lillith
 
Yes! when you lived in a Catholic area as you and I did, it was easy to take things for granted because everyone held the same faith. When moving to less Catholic area, the need to defend my faith has increased my learning curve. The more I learn, the more I want to learn.

Love,
Bob
 
Yes, apologetics is addictive, because there’s is so much to be learned from it. I am very glad to see that there are on this forum so many knowledgable and well-informed Catholics who can explain and defend the Faith exceptionally well.
 
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Lillith:
The problem is I am having trouble tearing myself away long enough to pray the way I used to…Warning…Apologetics are addictive

Anyone else have this happen…or am I just obsessive?
Thanks, Lillith
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I am obsessive with apologetics. Once you go vatican you can’t go back, as Bart Simpson has said.
 
I think I understand what you mean… when I repeatedly encountered anti-Catholic Protestants, and then found some apologetics materials like “Catholicism and Fundamentalism”, I got really into it. But for me it lead to understanding the faith in terms of a series of propositions to be supported and defended against attack - very intellectual - rather than taking it to heart and living it. So while useful for certain purposes, focusing only on apologietics can ultimately be limiting to spiritual growth. Our faith is to be lived, not debated.
 
Books, tracts, TV shows, etc. about appologetics were never meant to be a spiritual resource. They are intended to provide information.

Catholics need to know what the Church teaches and why, so they are less likely to fall away or be led away, and so they can give honest, informed answers to others who need them.

It can be easy to only be concerned about appologetics, and neglect spiritual growth, however- just as it can be easy to only be concerned about social justice, and not spirituality or reverence or orthodoxy- and vice versa. Balance is essential.
 
I had a similar experience when I left my Catholic school after 12 years and went to a large state university, instead of a Catholic college near my home. Suddenly forced to defend and live up to what I professed, I think I learned as much about my faith that fresheman year as I had the previous 18. I am quite sure, had I gone to the Catholic school (which during that time period changed from an orthodox Jesuit institution to one of the most outrageous of the new age cafeteria Catholic, thumb your nose at the magesterium universities in the country) I would not be Catholic today.
 
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m134e5:
It can be easy to only be concerned about appologetics, and neglect spiritual growth, however- just as it can be easy to only be concerned about social justice, and not spirituality or reverence or orthodoxy- and vice versa. Balance is essential.
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This is one of my very biggest worries. It describes how I have lived much of my life. Worse yet, I’m not at all sure of how to change things, without becoming a hermit in the desert.

It isn’t just that I “collect” both quick apologetics answers and more lengthy explanations, but that I am always alert to the possibility of “something coming up” where I will be challenged. I really do think that it is an apologetics addiction.

As a result, I believe that my spiritual growth is a big zero, even tho I say countless daily prayers, usually get to daily Mass, “put in” some weekly hours of “social justice,” and really do study the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Council documents, etc., as well as other people’s reviews of “the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Council documents, etc.”

Should add: any external show of piety tends to turn me really off, and sometimes I am afraid that is what is holding me back. I believe I would rather take my chances than appear to be “that pious lady!”

Any advice? :confused: Anyone else like this? :confused:

Anna
 
Any chance of being able to do adoration of the Blessed Sacrament?
 
Something which is very subtle, and easily skipped over in reeading the Gospels is how often Jesus went off to pray.

Apologetics is important, but only in perspective. Keep in mind that we are not saved by knowledge, but by faith; don’t let the books get in the way.

If you put prayer first, the rest iwll generally fall into place. Put prayer second, and the rest will also fall into place, but not the place it should.

It seems to me somewhere on the forum, I saw a post about spiritual gluttony. You might search for it.
 
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Lillith:
The problem is I am having trouble tearing myself away long enough to pray the way I used to
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I have a problem with tearing away from this forum, (which is often apologetics in nature) to pray the way I used to. Some books warns of the danger of apologetics without prayer, reminding of the importance of prayer. If our apologetics work is really going to be effective, prayer needs to acompany it. I think the devil would love to see a bunch of us running around, arguing about faith while we fall further and further away from a life of prayer.
 
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JordanFernandez:
Any chance of being able to do adoration of the Blessed Sacrament?
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Thanks, Jordan, but I forgot to mention that I do that, too. I spend an hour each Friday, but if I just “listen to God” I get so tired I almost fall asleep (really, each tme), and if I say the Rosary (which I do), or read Scripture or something else appropriate, it’s interesting but doesn’t seem at all like spiritual growth.

Next year I’m going to sign up for an earlier Adoration hour, such as 10:00 a.m. Right now, I’m scheduled for 1:00 P.M. That should help.

Anna
 
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otm:
Something which is very subtle, and easily skipped over in reading the Gospels is how often Jesus went off to pray.

Apologetics is important, but only in perspective. Keep in mind that we are not saved by knowledge, but by faith; don’t let the books get in the way.

If you put prayer first, the rest will generally fall into place. Put prayer second, and the rest will also fall into place, but not the place it should.
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I’d always thought that studying apologetics and meditating on what I learned, so as to enhance my faith and remove my obstacles to faith, was a prayerful thing to do. Did I miss something?

Side comment: During RCIA, when we were discussing priestly formation, our pastor commented that the priests who are most likely to leave the priesthood are those who let themselves become too busy to pray the Divine Offices daily.
 
Nan S:
I’d always thought that studying apologetics and meditating on what I learned, so as to enhance my faith and remove my obstacles to faith, was a prayerful thing to do. Did I miss something?

Side comment: During RCIA, when we were discussing priestly formation, our pastor commented that the priests who are most likely to leave the priesthood are those who let themselves become too busy to pray the Divine Offices daily.
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It can be a prayerful thing, and it should be. But it can also just become an accumulation of knowledge. The side note you wrote is a good example of this. A priest’s life is saying the Mass, administering the sacraments, preaching the Gospel, and performing spiritual and corporal works of mercy–so they are certainly surrounded by things of God. But if they don’t continue with their personal prayer lives, they may fall away or be less effective. So it is for the rest of us; we need personal time spent in prayer. And with that said, I should get off the computer and practice what I preach.
 
Today, I did pray the rosary. All day I say little prayers to God…constantly

It probably is time to get off the apologetics, though, because I think I’ve read everything twice now. I’m not really learning anything new. I am using the forums to fine tune my answers…but it is addictive.
 
Learning more is always good.

Looking down on another because they don’t profess the “complete” truth like we do is always bad.

As two or three posters have said, apologetics has its place. Actually I’d never heard of it until my kids took it in high school.

Until then I didn’t know the Catholic Faith needed defending, nor against whom. I knew there were academics who as far as I know had documented whatever the Church believes, and never did I think the Church of God would bend her knee to other truths.

Then all of a sudden we have intellectual arguments over esoteric details of the events and shades of meaning of exact words from 2000 years ago, and all that is fascinating, but both unneccesary for a good life and even counter to spiritual development when we figure that after 2000 years we’ve succeeding in “re-codifying Jesus” to the extent we’re in as bad a situation with our mental expectations on members as the Jews were about behavioral expectations.

I am an expert of sorts at mathematics and physics, partly due to my engineering training. I do not have a math major or physics major but I do enjoy discussing esoteric things involving both fields. Now,there are carpenters who have ordered lumber to fix my house, and I have not checked into whether they know the Pythagorean formula and therefore know how to order the right amount of wood for the roof. Nor do I question whether they know how power, precisely, is being consumed in the extension cord for their saw. Some of them have even confided in me that they are poor in math. That doesn’t make me a bit nervous about letting them build my house. I don’t want them as a math teacher, maybe, but I have confidence they know what they need to fulfill the promise they made to me to fix the house.

Some people actually do good things because they have love in their hearts, without knowing what the council of XX said about such things. It’s kind of like people who play piano from music (like me) against those who play by improvisation. It takes all kinds in the Body of Christ, not just a bunch of heads and head-wannabees.

Alan
 
I think I’m guilty of spending more time in apologetics than I do praying - I sometimes ask G-d to help me to spend more time talking TO Him and less time talking ABOUT Him!! 😃

But don’t forget that apologetics is a great way to strengthen your faith and stay close to it. So, in that way, it’s a service and a way of praying…

Mother Angelica once said something that stuck with me (she wasn’t referring to apologetics, but it fits)… …“there are some people you can talk about Jesus to, and then there are some people you should just be Jesus to…”

Food for thought.
 
Little Mary:
I think I’m guilty of spending more time in apologetics than I do praying - I sometimes ask G-d to help me to spend more time talking TO Him and less time talking ABOUT Him!! 😃

But don’t forget that apologetics is a great way to strengthen your faith and stay close to it. So, in that way, it’s a service and a way of praying…

Mother Angelica once said something that stuck with me (she wasn’t referring to apologetics, but it fits)… …“there are some people you can talk about Jesus to, and then there are some people you should just be Jesus to…”

Food for thought.
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It is great to develop your mind this way, as long as the heart develops the proper way and one keeps it in perspective that a greater knowledge of one’s faith does not necessarily imply a greater degree of faith and certainly does not give one license to become prideful and condescending.

I really like the quote you cited by Mother Angelica.

Alan
 
Nan S:
I’d always thought that studying apologetics and meditating on what I learned, so as to enhance my faith and remove my obstacles to faith, was a prayerful thing to do. Did I miss something?

Side comment: During RCIA, when we were discussing priestly formation, our pastor commented that the priests who are most likely to leave the priesthood are those who let themselves become too busy to pray the Divine Offices daily.
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I think it is the Benedictines who have the motto Ora et Labora; they certainly see work as a form of prayer. However, a good prayer regime - be it the Rosary, the Office, or some other format - needs to be indulged in regularly; preferrably daily.

I haven’t re-read the thread, but my recollection is that apologetics was feeling like it was taking over. That would be a not-so-subtle indicator that prayer might have less that a preeminent place?
 
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