Book Question

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rubinthe

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Would it be wrong to read a spiritual book by a non Catholic? I’ve seen the summary for Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and I’m interested in reading it. He is the Pastor @ a Baptist Church. Here’s a link to a summary of the book.
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purposedrivenlife.com/thebook.aspx
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I like what I see but I don’t want to do anything that would go against my faith.

Thoughts?
 
Many protestants write good religious books–just look at C.S. Lewis, who is read by many Catholics! I’d say as long as the message isn’t anti-Catholic, it would be fine.
 
As long as you know your faith, you will be able to see what to pick up, and what to leave behind. No problems.

I would have greater reservations about reading books that claim to be Catholic but are really a demonic attack. i.e. fr. McBrien, fr. Curran, fr. Heagle, and such dissenters.
 
Information that educates us or provides insight about the practices or beliefs of others is never intrinsically evil. It is rather the intent and means we choose to employ that information which endows it with a character that can be judged as virtuous or evil.
 
I work in a small Catholic library that is part of a Newman Foundation on a college campus. We try hard to have quality books in our collection and avoid those which would be spiritually harmful to our students. When a copy of “The Purpose Driven Life” was donated to us, the Msgr. who oversees the library looked through it and ok’d it for the library. On the basis of his judgement, I would have no worries about reading it.
 
I really enjoyed the book. Honestly, I found the advice a little shallow compared to the tools the Church offers for living a purpose-driven life, but the book helped me on the road back to the Church.
 
I found it to be on the theology-lite side.

a bokk that I found provocative and insightful was “The Jesus I never knew”. Sorry, I forget the author.
 
As long as you have a good understanding of your Catholic faith, it’s ok to read books by non-Catholics. It’s also interesting to see how others think and makes you more informed when you have to defend your own faith.
 
You may not believe this but please try to.
Two years ago my mother gave me that book on my birthday. I still haven’t read it.

It sits in my overstuffed bookcase among all really great Catholic books - some of which I have read some I haven’t some I hope to reread again. Whenever I bump into it I tell myself that I will read it when I finish all my other good books.
 
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Trelow:
As long as you know your faith, you will be able to see what to pick up, and what to leave behind. No problems.

I would have greater reservations about reading books that claim to be Catholic but are really a demonic attack. i.e. fr. McBrien, fr. Curran, fr. Heagle, and such dissenters.
Click to expand...
Makes sense to me!
~ Kathy ~
 
Just a follow up to this. I got to about day 15 and stopped. I was waiting for something I hadn’t heard yet. Not for the serious Catholic. Possibly for the Catholic looking for a reason to come back but I’m positive there are better resources out there. I think there’s a lot of good quotes out there from this book that make you think, “WOW”. But those quotes are just things we probably already think about on a daily basis but never write down.
 
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