Should I throw away Protestant books?

[CatholicNick]

A while back I was given some books as gifts that are incompatible with the Catholic faith (Protestant books basically). Should I throw them away? Or keep them to “remind me” of these friends who gave them to me? Neither course of action is wrong is it?

These books will go into storage, as I am moving away soon… so they will be in a box, which will probably not be opened ever again. Of course I don’t read them… and I don’t want anyone else to possibly read them because of their incompatibility with the faith.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

What you do with the books is up to you. You can keep them, give them away to others, sell them, or throw them away. All that I recommend is that you don’t toss them, particularly without reading them, solely because they are Protestant books.

You are rarely going to find a book that you believe is perfectly compatible with the Catholic faith in every way – particularly since your own understanding of the faith may be incomplete and so you yourself may have misconceptions about the faith. What you will find though is that many books have valuable insights, some more than others, and that you must use prudential judgment and critical reading skills to glean the wheat while sifting out the chaff.

For more information on how to read books, Catholic and non-Catholic, with discernment, see the links below.

Recommended reading:

The Purity Tests by Michelle Arnold
Fear Of All Error? by Michelle Arnold
How To Judge A Book By Its Cover by Michelle Arnold