Best books to give a fundamentalist to read?

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Hello all,

I have made a bit of a breakthrough with my mother, an ardent fundamentalist and anti-Catholic - she has a greed to read a book of my choosing. (She gave me one to read, called “God Wrote a Book”, about Sola Scriptura -unfortunately filled with anti Catholic lies 😦

I would truly appreciate any advice / sharing of experiences like this! Also - any experience with whether I should start out with one topic (e.g. a book debunking Sola Scriptura), or go for one that touches on many of her misconceptions (like Cathlolicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating).

Many thanks,
Greg
 
Definitely, if you have only one book to give her, it’s gotta be Karl’s book. Good luck.
 
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Fidelis:
Definitely, if you have only one book to give her, it’s gotta be Karl’s book. Good luck.
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I don’t think I would give her Catholicism and Fundamentalism as a first choice. It my be perceived as too confrontational to her at this point in her journey.

There are plenty of good choices, but without knowing her I might suggest Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II. I think it might continue to put her in a frame of mind that is open to continuing to learn about our faith.

Congratulations, by the way! I’ll say a prayer for both you and your mom.
 
I would recommend her to explore

catholic.com/

I am a former Southern Baptist who desires to be a Catholic, and that site shattered many presuppositions I had about the Catholic faith. But reguardless of what you give her to read it will need to be one that not only answers tough questions about all the myths of the Catholic faith but something that makes her clearly understand how Scripture and Tradition makes much more sense than sola scriptura. Unfortunately many fundamentalists think that the KJV is the only inspired version of the Bible, and their openess to accept anything beyond KJV fundamentalist theology is a chance that is often slim to none.

But her being a fundamentalist means that she believes in absolutes and not relativism. So make her see that sola scriptura is a form of theological relativism(be your own authority). If one just looks at all the denominations that have developed from sola scriptura then that ought to tell them something. I love the absoluteness of the Catholic Church!!!
 
Either Karl keating’s Catholicism and Fundamentalism or

David Currie’s Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic.
 
“This is My Body, an Evangelical Discovers the Real Presence” by Mark Shea is a great book. It helped me to fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist. Also, Scott Hahn’s “The Lamb’s Supper.”

Peace in Christ +
 
  1. Surprised by Truth by Patrick Madrid- The first one
  2. Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic by David Currie
  3. Theology for Beginners by Frank J. Sheed
 
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345397266/qid=1091158858/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7558449-3123238?v=glance&s=books&n=507846:bible1: “Why do Catholics Do That?” Is a great book for those with misconceptions to read. It never comes across as being confrontational yet answers all of the most common questions, and backs those answers up with plenty of resources. I very highly reccomend this book, as it helped me a lot when I first started to consider conversion, and coming from a very prejudiced fundamentalist background I had plenty of misconceptions… this was the book to make me realize that they were in fact misconceptions. If she wants to read another after that then I would reccomend Karl Keating’s “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” as it does a good job following up the information in “Why do Catholics do That?” and takes it to the next level.

My heart and prayers :gopray: are with you on this one since I am also praying for the conversion of my own parents and am up against the very prejudice that they tried to ingrain in me. :gopray2:

:blessyou:
 
Howard Thomas: “Evangelical Is Not Enough”, if it’s still in print. “On Being Catholic”, as a follow-up. Howard is one of the few converts who can still expound accurately on Protestantism after converting to Catholicism. Most converts experience a paradigm shift and apparently forget almost entirely anything they ever knew about their old paradigm.
 
I was born and raised Southern Baptist. One of the books I found very enlightening was Mark Shea’s By What Authority: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition. This touches upon the fact that some protestant beliefs, such as marriage is only between one man and one woman, are not found in scripture. It’s a short book that’s very easy to read.
 
I would have to say “Catholic and christian” by Alan Schreck. It is an explanation of commonly misunderstood catholic believes. I bought mine at Barns and Noble, it was $11. Has anyone else read it?
 
I too was raised Baptist, pretty close to the far edge of the fundamentalist Baptist spectrum. Many people like me were raised memorizing quite a bit of scripture. As a child, I was aware of holes in the theory that makes Protestantism viable. They were explained away with “You just have to be convicted of …”

With that in mind, those like me are at least secretly interested in a fair comparison of sola scriptura and the true Faith. I read Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating’s spectacular work, and that was all I needed. A few months later, I was sitting in the confessional getting ready to receive Our Lord.
 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Let her read what the Church believes and teaches, not what some writer projects.

Be kind and only ask her to read the sections that “interest” her. With the grace of God, she may one day read it all - something we all should do.

MrShttp://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon14.gif
 
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Georgia:
I too was raised Baptist, pretty close to the far edge of the fundamentalist Baptist spectrum. Many people like me were raised memorizing quite a bit of scripture. As a child, I was aware of holes in the theory that makes Protestantism viable. They were explained away with “You just have to be convicted of …”

With that in mind, those like me are at least secretly interested in a fair comparison of sola scriptura and the true Faith. I read Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating’s spectacular work, and that was all I needed. A few months later, I was sitting in the confessional getting ready to receive Our Lord.[/QUO

I have a similar background as Georgia. If a person is always taught to believe only the Bible, they have to look over some of the holes. When I read A Biblical Defense of Catholicism
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by Dave Armstrong, many of those holes got filled in. At that point, I realized the picture was slightly different than I had always believed. This book is packed with tons of scriptural basis for Catholic beliefs. People who are not raised “Bible Christians” do not understand how difficult it is to to believe something that is not pretty explicitly in scripture. That’s why I found this book very good. It defends Catholicism strictly on scriptural grounds. Once I saw the beliefs have some Biblical support, it was easier to accept the other thing, such as the teaching authority of the Church.
 
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