The ONE book you would suggest to a Protestant friend

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I would suggest **Surprised by Truth–by Patrick Madrid. **It was an excellent read and helped me greatly in my faith journey.

God Bless
Giannawannabe
 
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WanderAimlessly:
There are many books that are good. However, if I were to select one book, it would have to be Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians” by Karl Keating.

The information in the book is clear and to the point. It not only counters many of the claims, it goes into where those claims originated. I have used it many time on various BB’s to counter the claims made against the Catholic Church.

PF
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I second Wander’s selection

God bless.
 
Hey again. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I notice that the majority of the books listed are recent publications (second half of the 20th century). Are there are “classic” books from maybe the 16th to the early 20th century that you can think of???
 
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Madaglan:
I read that book, and I didn’t see any major problems in it. However, the author did offer a disclaimer stating that not everything is his book is necessarily error-free, since he is just a beginning Catholic and is still learning. I do not believe the book even has a imp. or a nihil obstat.

Which errors are you referring to?
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Currie’s book played a major role in the conversion of myself and three people I know, so I don’t like to say bad things about it, but there are 3 things that I recall, though they probably aren’t proper “errors”:
  1. He says that Protestants accept the Catholic tradition of Sunday Sabbath, but the Sunday Sabbath is referred to in Acts, so it’s not what most Protestants would call a “Catholic tradition”, although it may not exactly be an “error”
  2. He says if you were a Jew living in OT times, you couldn’t “get to first base” with re-constructing a sin offering. This isn’t necessarily an error, but there are certain places in the OT (like Numbers 28) where details are provided on how to offer sacrifices, so the term “get to first base” is vague at best
  3. He says that there is only one Aramaic word for “rock”, Kepha. However, evna means little rock. Again, this might not be an “error”, because evna could be thought of as a “stone”, and thus Kepha would be the only proper word for “rock”, but again, it’s a little vague
As for what someone said about the Douay-Rheims Bible… it is not going to really prove Catholicism any better than what Protestants are reading. Even if it does in some places, they will accuse of it of being a distorted Catholic translation, so I don’t think it’s the best choice.
 
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Madaglan:
Hey again. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I notice that the majority of the books listed are recent publications (second half of the 20th century). Are there are “classic” books from maybe the 16th to the early 20th century that you can think of???
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“Faith of Our Fathers” by James Cardinal Gibbons and “An Essay On The Development of Christian Doctrine” are both from the mid-19th century, if I am not mistaken. And I’m not : )

Besides that… it’s a little before the 16th century, but the Church Fathers are way Catholic dudes.
 
I would highly, mightily, and very strongly recommend Surprised By Truth, or Rome Sweet Home second. One of the best Catholics I’ve known was converted by Surprised By Truth - he’d seen an ad for the book in a magazine or newspaper, and it caught his eye because he thought it was so silly that adults were converting to Catholicism. As a lifelong Protestant, he had previously assumed that adults were Catholic only if they’d been born into or married into the faith. It is easy to read even if a little at a time, and is very compelling.

Rome Sweet Home is the Scott Hahn conversion tape in a book. I actually recommend that tape first, second, and third, but since we’re talking about books - Surprised By Truth, then Rome Sweet Home.
 
I would suggest something by G.K. Chesterton. My first choice: The Everlasting Man. It really places the Church in the heart of history as the fulfillment of God’s olan for history.
 
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Madaglan:
Hey again. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I notice that the majority of the books listed are recent publications (second half of the 20th century). Are there are “classic” books from maybe the 16th to the early 20th century that you can think of???
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The Newman books mentioned are 19th Century, so I guess they’d be considered “classic”. However, if you want a truly “classic” book on defending the Catholic Faith, you can’t go wrong with St. Francis de Sales’ “The Catholic Controversy”. It is a collection of the tracts he wrote, which led over 70,000 Calvinists back to mother Church. It was also “written” in the 16th century. Here’s the description from Amazon:

After being repeatedly rebuffed in his attempts to re-evangelize Calvinist Protestants who would not listen to Catholic preaching for fear of reprisals, St. Francis resorted to writing leaflets and inserting them into copies of his sermons, then posting them on walls, slipping them under doors and handing them to anyone he could. Four years later almost 72,000 had returned to the ancient Catholic Faith! These tracts have been gathered together and entitled The Catholic Controversy. The works are still as fresh and powerful today and give some of the most cogent arguments against Protestantism ever penned, presenting a defense of the Catholic Faith that in some respects has never been equalled.

I think this might be exaclty what you’re looking for…
 
Originally Quoted by mtr01:
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The Newman books mentioned are 19th Century, so I guess they’d be considered “classic”. However, if you want a truly “classic” book on defending the Catholic Faith, you can’t go wrong with St. Francis de Sales’ “The Catholic Controversy”. It is a collection of the tracts he wrote, which led over 70,000 Calvinists back to mother Church.
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Yeah, that’s an excellent book. I’ve probably read 3/4 of the book, and just from reading it you know that St. Francis de Sales is an intelligent guy. The only turn-off is that he writes at times in a polemical style, as did many of the Reformers. Besides the few polemic attacks, however, his book is rock-solid.
 
How about the Church Fathers themselves.

The Faith of the Eary Fathers by Jergens which is basically tons of quotes supporting catholic teaching by all the early church fathers would blow many anti-catholics away.
 
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pnewton:
Agreed. This book helped me tremendously (I am a former Baptist). The one book that “sealed the deal” for me was “By What Authority” by Mark Shea. It goes to the heart of the Fundementalism.
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I’ll second this one. I too am a former Baptist, and this was one of the final things I read in my conversion journey. Keep in mind that the only issue that really matters is that of authority. If Jesus established a teaching Church, then virtually all of the protestant doctrines collapse under the fact that they need more than just the scripture. If the Catholic Church is the true Church, then whatever they teach is basically going to be correct. If you start looking to try to find books to debunk individual arguments, you’re going to have your hands full. Look for something, like Shae’s book, that knocks the foundation of sola scriptura down. If you do that, it will make the rest of your job much easier.
 
If one is looking for a good book that defends the Catholic faith from a purely biblical standpoint, I would recommend A Biblical Defense of Catholicism by Dave Armstrong. I think most bible Christians who rely so heavily on bible passages to prove their points will be surprised to read the indepth analysis that this talented apologist offers. He addresses just about every major topic that Protestants and Catholics disagree on. Like many good apologists, Armstrong used to be Protestant and knows the basis of where they get all their arguments.
 
Unabridged Christianity by Father Mario Romero answers tons of questions to common objections of the Catholic faith. The Faith of our Fathers by Cardinal Gibbons written in the 1800’s in response to anti-Catholicism. This book swayed Tim Staples.
 
Hesychios said:
*Theology and Sanity *by Frank Sheed.

For a taste of Catholic spirituality one would not go wrong with *The Lord *by Romano Guardini.

+T+
Michael
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Theology and Sanity is one of the best books on the Catholic Faith that I ever read. His Map of Life is also very good.

Cheers

Alvamir Pinto
 
For someone who is anti-Catholic, I would start with Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain. It’s a non-stop page-turner and isn’t an apologetics course. For some people apologetics will be a turn-off but a good story will capture the imagination.
 
the Catechism of the CAtholic Church…

has biblical citation as well as the Church fathers. plus, numerous references to the saints.
 
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teajay:
A point to note is that intelligence doesn’t really determine who is correct. Supreme Court justices are some of the smartest people around yet they can come to diametrically opposed conclusions on something as simple as the meaning of a few words. If they can disagree while being so educated on the subject matter, clearly anyone can. Keep that in mind when dealing with someone who has a higher IQ than you.
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You are correct that intelligence doesn’t determine who is correct but you can’t convince the intelligent person of that. Sometimes intelligence = closed mind. This has been my experience with a protestant couple who are friends of ours. And it follows with every subject, not just religion.
 
“The ONE book you would suggest to a Protestant friend” that he wouldn’t turn away from (because it was a Catholic book): Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

I love Steven Ray’s Crossing the Tibre. That would be perfect for a Baptist because Steven is a converted baptist - if you could get the person to read it with an open heart. But that is tough to do.

But, C.S. Lewis was not Catholic and the Baptist would generally agree with everything in the Mere Chritianity - because it is directed at non-believers and is mainly Christian appologetics and not denominational. However, the beauty of Mere Christianity is that it also speaks positively about Catholic dogmas while not calling them Catholic. I am mainly thinking of the True Presence in the Eucharist and Precious Blood.

After a person were to read Mere Christianity (and like it), then the discussion of Catholicism would be in order.
 
THE FAITH OF MILLIONS by Rev. John O’Brien

This is one of the best apolgetic books I have ever come across.
 
I would use the book someone else used on me. THe bible, but not just any bible, the NIV and the NASB together - these are both very common Baptist translations. I would then show him how his literal view of some passages does not measure up to his metaphorical view of others. I would then show him how the NIV distorts the notion of apostolic tradition versus teaching.

But I would keep in mind that ironically, attitudes toward the Catholic Church are not necessarily rooted in a deep understanding of scripture, so I would stand back as the Baptist friend goes through the mental reconciliation of how his views really are based on other notions and just be ready for when he ultimately comes back to you with the real reason for his views. Then I would direct him to Catholic Answers’ bookstore that has all kinds of stuff addressing the ususal biases - papacy, inquisition, etc.

In case he still insists his views are based on scripture then I would insist he show you from the bible alone where apostolic authority ended and scriptural authority took over. As he begins melting down then you can finish off with a description of his acceptance of the tradition of the table of contents.
 
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