There is certainly a need for such a book, which I can attest to as a Seventh-Day Adventist convert to Catholicism with Seventh-Day Adventist family. However, I am only aware of one book-length Catholic treatment and it is not widely available. It is
An Adventist and a Catholic by Fr. Paul Eirene, C.Ss.R. I have not read the book myself, unfortunately. If you’re interested in tracking it down, I suggest consulting with a research librarian who may be able to find it through interlibrary loan. Otherwise, you might try used-book dealers, such as
BookFinder.com and
Loome Books.
In the interim until such a book is written, I can suggest a few things: Seventh-Day Adventists are, generally speaking, Fundamentalist Protestant Christians who do not believe in the eternal security doctrine common in some strains of Fundamentalist Protestantism (i.e., the idea that one is “once saved, always saved”). What works with most Evangelicals will be helpful for dealing with Adventists also. Adventism is also an eschatology (i.e., “Last Days”) sect. A good deal of the material Catholics use with Fundamentalist Protestant eschatologists is helpful with Adventists as well. As for Adventism’s somewhat unique position on the Sabbath (although they are not the only Sabbatarian sect), I recommend
Sabbath or Sunday? I also recommend
Seventh-Day Adventism.
As a final note, please be careful about Evangelical treatments of Seventh-Day Adventism. Some Protestants do not recognize Seventh-Day Adventists as Christians and some consider Adventism a “cult.” If the particular Evangelical treatment you find takes these positions, you might want to look for more sources to balance out the picture.
**Update (4/18/05): **Here is order information for Fr. Eirene’s book:
Ave Maria Press
P. O. Box 489
Station U
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
416-251-4245
800-663-MARY
fax: 416-253-0480
ISBN# 0-9684895-6-7
