M
Madaglan
Guest
I know that during the later years of the Reformation that the Jesuits were strong defenders of the Church and its faith. However, nowadays it’s a lot more difficult to determine who are the scholarly defenders of the Church. Do the Jesuits still heavily engage themselves in apologetic activity? If so, why are there seemingly so few books by modern Jesuits written in defense of the Catholic faith?
Maybe I’m just over-reacting; but it does seem that most of the modern Catholic apologists are lay people–and in most cases, converts. While this is all right, sometimes I become concerned because these individuals are not necessarily “scholarly” experts on what they defend. Many say so in their own introductions. I have recently purchased St. Francis de Sales’ collection of essays which defend the Catholic faith (gathered together in a book called The Catholic Controversy.) St. Francis, I feel, has a very concrete knowledge the Old and New Testament, as well as Church history. Does anyone know of other apologetic works which rank with St. Francis’ works? Perhaps any by Jesuits or Dominicans–the two “scholarly” orders of the Church?
Maybe I’m just over-reacting; but it does seem that most of the modern Catholic apologists are lay people–and in most cases, converts. While this is all right, sometimes I become concerned because these individuals are not necessarily “scholarly” experts on what they defend. Many say so in their own introductions. I have recently purchased St. Francis de Sales’ collection of essays which defend the Catholic faith (gathered together in a book called The Catholic Controversy.) St. Francis, I feel, has a very concrete knowledge the Old and New Testament, as well as Church history. Does anyone know of other apologetic works which rank with St. Francis’ works? Perhaps any by Jesuits or Dominicans–the two “scholarly” orders of the Church?
