Need suggestions on book!

  • Thread starter Thread starter jaralenio
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jaralenio

Guest
My brother left the Catholic faith for an Evangelical church ten years ago and I have had discussions with him, given him tapes such as Scott Hahn’s conversion storey and I pray for his conversion every day of course. But I would like to give him a book for his birthday to help lead him back to the church, something that doesn’t have Catholic written all over it and would raise red flags as soon as he got it. I was thinking of one of CS Lewis books, I have yet to read any of his works but I would like some suggestions as to a good CS Lewis book or something similar.

Thanks 🙂
 
I would suggest “Born Fundamentalist - Born Again Catholic” by David Currie
 
i’ve read most of lewis’s stuff. he’s my fav author. some great ones by him are:

mere christianity
the great divorce
til we have faces
surprised by joy
the four loves

there are so many other great books he wrote, but those are some of my favs.

mere christianity is a basic apologetic about the faith. it’s not particularly catholic (none of them are, since lewis was anglican), but it’s a great work on christianity in general.

the great divorce is a treatment of heaven vs hell. it’s fantastic, and i’ve read it many times.

til we have faces - this is fiction, a retelling of a greek myth - psyche and aphrodite - and probably the best book i ever read a second time.

the four loves - eros is romantic love, phileo is friendship, storge is affectionate love, like in a family, and of course agape is the love God has for us. lewis takes each one apart and says some of the most profound and life changing things i’ve read about them.

here are some to get started. like i say, lewis wasn’t catholic, but he was one of the main reasons i became catholic. so he’s definitely pointed in a romeward direction.

besides that, a biography on a saint would be a nice book to read. most of my prot friends read them. chesterton has two excellent ones on francis of assisi and thomas aquinas. i’d recommend both.
 
If you’re wanting to lead your brother back to the Church, I’m not sure Lewis is the best path. He was a Protestant after all and many Evangelicals are quite comfortable reading him and remaining Protestant.

I would suggest instead Peter Kreeft. He is a professor at Catholic University who tries to write specifically for both Catholics and Protestants. He is well regarded by Evangelicals and I see his work positively quoted in many of their journals and books. His thinking and world-view, however, are squarely Catholic, and I think part of his appeal is that he gives them something to think about that they had not considered. I think this makes them more open to other Catholic thinkers and writers. Maybe I’d start with “Back To Virtue,” but he has tons of other books.

After this, I would introduce him to Thomas Howard, another convert, and brother to famous Evangelical speaker and writer Elizabeth Elliot. My evangelical friends were very impressed by his book “Evangelical Is Not Enough,” where he contrasts the liturgical and theological spareness of evangelicalism to the rich traditions. Good luck!
 
Many Catholics who have come into the Church from Protestantism credit CS Lewis with setting them on the path to Rome. Since he was Anglican his beliefs were closer to Catholic than fundamentalist beliefs so he makes many Catholic Beliefs sound reasonable.

Screwtape Letters is a fun but insightful book also; about an archdemon’s advice to his nephew, a beginning demon, on how to bring his human to Hell.

A real low key book, Protestant publisher, is Letters Between a Catholic and a Protestant The Protestant is ex-Catholic James McCarthy, author of The Gospel According to Rome and Opus Dei priest John Waiss. Fr. John was very kind and polite ( not as hard hitting as suits my taste), and a person not open to the Holy Spirit could read it and cling to the Protestant points and ignore the Catholic points. But…if your brother is open…and you are praying:gopray2:…it could plant a seed…God is Able…❤️
 
Well, these probably have “catholic” written all over them, but I like the “Surprised by truth” books. I have the first two, there is a third one out that I want to get eventually. They are the conversion stories of people from different backgrounds. They explain their journey very clearly and biblically.
 
Well, you’re asking for a lot! The titles that would be most effective, such as some of the ones mentioned, do in fact have Catholic written all over them. I liked Fidelis’ suggestion of Peter Kreeft followed by Thomas Howard.

I would also suggest Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy”. It was written before Chesterton was converted, so cannot be passed off as having Catholic written all over it, but it is nevertheless a great defense of orthodoxy—Catholic orthodoxy. Plus, no person ought to be unfamiliar with Chesterton, period.

It’s true that C.S. Lewis brought many the the Catholic Church but not himself (Joseph Pearce’s book, "C.S. Lewis and the Catholic Church is an interesting and well-written examination of why, by the way). “Surprised by Truth” and “Mere Christianity” are both good. Lewis even gives a good defense of Purgatory.
 
Give some thought to Karl Adam’s “The Spirit of Catholicism.”
Perhaps even read it first yourself, if you haven’t. OK, it has “Catholicism” right on the cover. But your brother is going to understand what you are up to, whether the book is by Lewis, Chesterton (both great suggestions!), or whomever. So, why not lay your cards on the table? I recommend “The Spirit of Catholicism”, because it sounds like your brother ran into a “manifestation” of Catholicism that turned him off. But Adam makes a wonderful distinction between Catholicism as we often find it, and its “spirit” or essence, which is in certain respects trans-historical.
 
Marcus Grodi has a novel entitled How Firm a Foundation that is pretty good. It’s about a protestant minister who over the course of his career begins to question what his authority is to preach the gospel given that so many other “bible believers” hold views contradictory to his own.

It’s certainly a pro-Catholic book given that Grodi is a former protestant minister and convert, but maybe the fact that it’s fiction might make it more palatable?

I’d also echo the previous suggestion of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, but his style is not for everyone. It depends on what your brother likes to read.
 
**Salvation is from the Jews ** by Roy Schoeman (Ignatius, 2003)
**Fundamentals of the Faith ** by Peter Kreeft (Ignatius, 198?)
 
I recommend this book for ALL Christians.

It’s a look at the Early Christian Church through the short stories (including historical quotations) by 4 famous Christians:
Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Ireneaus of Lyons.

Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words by Rod Bennett
amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898708478/qid=1093564613/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-4936864-8639864

It reads like a novel divided into four sections.

And the Appendix after the “story” along WITH the story opens eyes that the Early Church… was Catholic. What we teach, these guys taught.
 
just a quick correction - sherlock posted that ‘surprised by truth’ was good by lewis. i believe he meant ‘surprised by joy’. lewis, to my knowledge, has no book called surprised by truth. there IS a collection of stories about converts to RCC called that, but lewis’s autobio was called surprised by joy.

you might also point your friend to a book called ‘arrow pointing to the sky’. it’s a biography of rich mullins, which would also not have ‘catholic’ written all over it, but might, as in my case, help point your friend in the romeward direction.
 
Jeffreedy,

Thanks, I’m glad you spotted that. Yes, I meant to say “Surprised by Joy”.
 
Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions, I never did mention as to why I did not want to send him a book that had “Catholic written all over it”. When he first left Catholicism for an Evangelical church I made an apologetics boo boo— we got into an argument about our faiths and I was fairly green at apologetics at the time so I failed at a great opportunity to begin dialogue with him. Through the years I made attempts to get dialogue going over the faith but all have come up short due mainly to his hesitations in getting into a heated argument again which now I would never do. At this point in time I think the honeymoon with his church is over and I feel it would be a perfect time to get him to read a book which would begin a solid path back to the Truth. He definitely has prejudices and as most ex-catholic’s say “I was a catholic so I know what the catholic faith is about” (which they don’t) is why any catholic book would raise a red flag and probably would not get read. Lewis - Mere Christianity and Chesterton’s – Orthodoxy are probably the books I will send him. Any other suggestions would be appreciated! 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top