Book On Converting-Anyone Familiar With This One?

[dailey]

I am looking for a book for my husband to read regarding stories of people converting to the Catholic religion. I found so many on the web but this one stood out…

Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic

Does anyone know about this book and whether its inspiring? Or is there a book that one can recommend?

By the way, I don’t plan on shoving the book down his throat. I will simply leave it laying around and knowing my husband, he will pick it up and browse through it. However, I need a book that is so intriguing that he will not want to put it down. Thanks

 

[floresco]

This isn’t exactly what you asked for, but I think your husband might benefit from: How to Survive Being Married to a Catholic by Rosemary Gallagher and Michael Henesy. It is a light and engaging book to explain Catholic beliefs to spouses of Catholics. It could make a good overview for you too. You can see some reviews at: amazon.com/How-Survive-Being-Married-Catholic/dp/089243452X

I’m not sure about a book inspiring him to become Catholic. He is much more likely to be inspired to be a Catholic it he sees your faith making you a better person and a better wife. But a book like this could help him to understand Catholicism better and perhaps be more sympathetic to it.

 

[Joe_5859]

I am looking for a book for my husband to read regarding stories of people converting to the Catholic religion. I found so many on the web but this one stood out…

Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic

Does anyone know about this book and whether its inspiring? Or is there a book that one can recommend?

By the way, I don’t plan on shoving the book down his throat. I will simply leave it laying around and knowing my husband, he will pick it up and browse through it. However, I need a book that is so intriguing that he will not want to put it down. Thanks

Surprised by Truth is a great book (as is Surprised by Truth 2 and Surprised by Truth 3 ). It’s very much an apologetics via conversion stories. Each convert grapples with different issues (Mary, the Saints, the Eucharist, etc.) and they give cogent arguments as the explain their story. I know that I couldn’t put it down. Personal stories are almost always interesting.

You could also consider the Hahns’ conversion story: Rome Sweet Home. It is also great. The nice thing about the Surprised by Truth books are that each chapter is a different person’s story, so shen you sit down with it initially, you don’t feel over-committed.

Here is the list of Conversion Story books I compiled a while ago:

Apologetics Conversion Stories

• Currie, David. Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1996.
• Hahn, Scott, and Kimberly Hahn. Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1993.
• Howard, Thomas. Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1988.
• Howard, Thomas. Lead, Kindly Light: My Journey to Rome. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2004.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. San Diego, CA: Basilica Press, 1994.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth 2: 15 Men and Women Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2000.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth 3: 10 More Converts Explain the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2002.
• Ray, Steve. Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historic Church. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1997.
• Schoeman, Roy, Ed. Honey From the Rock: Sixteen Jews Find the Sweetness of Christ. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2007.
• Shea, Mark. By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1996

 

[dailey]

@Floresco-Thanks for the link! Looks like a fun book, it never occured to me to go at it from that angle.

@Joe-I’m glad to hear you recommend the book. There are so many out there that It can get quite expensive trying to find the ones that you can connect with.

 

[pamnbam]

I have a book called “No Price Too High,” by Alex Jones. He was a Pentecostal minister who wanted to learn to worship the way the early Christians did, and he eventually found the Catholic Church. Not only did he and his wife convert, but much of his Pentecostal parish joined him to come home to Rome at the Easter Vigil. It is an inspiring, true story that any Catholic could appreciate!

 

[dailey]

@Pamnbam- Thank you for the suggestion! I just took a look on amazon and found it for really cheap.

@Joe- I was going through your list and “Rome Sweet Rome” caught my eye. It seems to have a lot of good reviews. In your opinion, is it one of the more “moving” books on your list?

 

[Joe_5859]

@Joe- I was going through your list and “Rome Sweet Rome” caught my eye. It seems to have a lot of good reviews. In your opinion, is it one of the more “moving” books on your list?

I would say so. It’s neat to see a conversion story of a couple. His conversion came first and hers came later, so it is interesting to see how they experienced that “interim” where one was Catholic and one wasn’t.

 

[Joe_5859]

I just thought of another option that you might consider.

The Faith Database is a phenomenal Catholic resource for many reasons, but one of the features is an Apologetics section. Under the Apologetics tab, is a “Why These Folks Became Catholic” area. You can search for conversion stories by what the person converted from. It goes from “Adventist” all the way down to “Welseyan” and pretty much everything in between. Then it links to places online for you to either read or listen to those people’s conversion stories. There are literally hundreds of conversion stories. That’s worth the price of the CD-Rom right there.

 

[dailey]

thanks joe!