The kids are back in school, and now it’s time for their parents to do a little homework.
You can’t have any success in apologetics if you don’t know the faith, its history, and the proper techniques for promoting it. Over the years I’ve come across lots of books that have been especially helpful to me. Here are some of my favorites. From each I have learned much, and from each I borrow regularly. I recommend that you do the same.
One of the few apologetics works that’s actually fun to read. I rather wish I had written it. The nineteen short articles are interspersed with numerous sidebars and clever illustrations. Printed in magazine format, the book covers such questions as: Was Peter really in Rome? Is the Bible the principal rule of faith? Were there vernacular translations of the Bible before the Reformation? Why is Fundamentalism so attractive? Was Vicarius Filii Dei ever a title of the pope? Is the Archangel Michael really Jesus, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses say? Because of its format, this book is an inviting introduction to apologetics and, especially, to the techniques of dealing with Fundamentalists, yet it’s not featherbrained: The writing is terse, the facts are plentiful, and the advice is sound.
Catholic Answers to “Bible” Christians
By Paul Stenhouse, M.S.C.
Chevalier
56 pages
$5.95
In Catholicism and Fundamentalism I wrote, “If one were to select a single book as a guide to the art of apologetics, it would be Frank Sheed’s Catholic Evidence Training Outlines.” I still stand by that judgment. Perhaps no book was more important in my formation as an apologist. I also wrote, “The book began as a collection of short lesson plans used in the weekly courses [Catholic Evidence] Guild members had to take (and pass, after rigorous tests) before being allowed to speak publicly.” Anyone who finishes this book with attention will be able to handle almost any question in almost any circumstance. Perhaps my favorite chapter is on “How to Handle a Crowd.” Its lessons have extricated me from what could have been unpleasant confrontations.
Catholic Evidence Training Outlines
By Frank Sheed & Maisie Ward
Catholic Evidence Guild
363 pages
$9.95
Most folks are either historically minded or not. Either you’re interested in history or, like Henry Ford, you think “history is bunk.” Those in each group would profit from this short work—and the “bunkers” need it desperately. It contains primary documents, including the first letter of Clement, the fourth pope, to the Corinthians; the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, written while he was being taken to Rome to be executed; the letter of Polycarp to the Philippians, plus an account of Polycarp’s martyrdom; the epistles of Diognetus and Barnabas; and the Didache, the earliest “liturgical directive” we have. Frankly, I don’t see how anyone can grasp the faith well if he doesn’t understand how the earliest Christians grasped it.
Early Christian Writings
By Maxwell Staniforth, trans.
Penguin
199 pages
$9.95
I never tire of telling people—though I supposed some are tired of hearing me say it—that there is no more sobering discipline than history, especially Church history. No one who understands what happened to the Church in the fourth and tenth centuries has any right to despair of the Church in the twentieth. (If you think things are bad now, turn back a few centuries.) No one who believes that today’s “Bible Christianity” existed from the first will hold that opinion after learning what Christians actually believed in pre-Reformation times. On innumerable occasions I’ve been told by non-Catholics that their eyes lit up (perhaps more with astonishment than with delight) when they discovered what Christianity really has been like through the years.
The History of the Church
By Eusebius
Penguin
435 pages
$12.95
Never have I owed two men so much. I wish I had had a chance to meet and thank Frs. Rumble and Carty. Their three-volume set has provided me with more answers than has any other work—not surprising, given that they gathered together about four thousand questions covered on their long-running radio program. I recall lying on the couch, intending to read only a few short questions, but finding myself reading a hundred pages. This happened repeatedly, and soon I had absorbed thousands of facts and arguments. It was an eminently useful and easy crash course. Granted, much remains unaddressed: These volumes appeared in the 1940s, and some of today’s concerns were not concerns when Rumble and Carty wrote. But I realized quickly that most of the questions sent my way were questions sent their way. Confusion is perennial, and the passing years add new confusions while not eliminating old ones.
Radio Replies
By Leslie Rumble and Charles M. Carty
TAN Books
1,046 pages
$36.00
It may seem strange, but I want to recommend in particular the appendices of this book. The main text consists of ten essays on such things as the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the authenticity of the New Testament. Each of the ten is solid and useful. But my favorite part of the book is the back matter. Warren Carroll—arguably the best Church historian now writing—contributes an essay on the Inquisition and one on the Crusades, two episodes that most Catholics shy away from speaking about—needlessly. William Marshner contributes two essays on justification by faith (one of the few lucid treatments I’ve seen) and liberation theology (now passé, but still worth kicking while it’s down). Jeffrey A. Mirus writes about the Galileo case, about which nearly everyone has a (wrong) opinion, though not Mirus.
Reasons for Hope
By Jeffrey A. Mirus, ed.
Christendom
254 pages
$6.95
From a Hare Krishna I would expect questions on reincarnation, but not from a Catholic—yet I’ve received such questions from many Catholics but never from a Hare Krishna. These Catholics manage, to their own satisfaction, to work reincarnation into their personalized faith. Of course, reincarnation is entirely incompatible with Christianity, but these uncatechized Catholics g.asp their faith so imprecisely that they are unable to judge what is proper to it and what is antithetical to it. To them reincarnation sounds “nice,” so they slip it into their private creed, just after the resurrection of the body. They tend to be people who give partial credence to horoscopes and who, unembarrassed, purchase checkout-line tabloids. Yet even they have souls and need to have their idea of the faith straightened out. This book will help.
Reincarnation: Illusion or Reality?
By Edmond Robillard, O.P.
Alba House
191 pages
$9.95
In the old days (say, thirty years ago), you didn’t have to worry about the validity of the sacraments you received, and you didn’t have to worry about proper reverence being shown during their administration. But now we live in modern times, and sometimes you have to worry. On more than one occasion I’ve answered a question by quoting this passage concerning valid matter for the Eucharist: “Bread made from any other grain [other than wheat] is invalid material. Bread made with milk, wine, oil, etc., either entirely or in a notable part, is invalid material. . . . The addition of a condiment, such as salt or sugar, is unlawful but valid, unless added in a notable quantity.” (If you can notice the condiment, there’s too much of it.) For each of the sacraments the reader is given the liturgical norms, the role of the minister and the recipients, and the proper matter and form. Many Catholics have questions about their marital status, so the author devotes 145 pages to matrimony and what it takes to have a sacramentally valid marriage.
The Sacraments and Their Celebration
By Nicholas Halligan, O.P.
Alba House
284 pages
$14.95
Of Sheed’s many books, this is my favorite. I recommend it be read after his Theology for Beginners. In Theology and Sanity he demonstrates that the key to understanding reality is to g.asp both its parts, the natural and the supernatural. To reject the latter is to be, in a way, less than sane—something like a physician who disbelieves in microbes. Especially to be noted is Sheed’s section on the Trinity, the most lucid explanation I’ve ever seen.
Theology and Sanity
By Frank Sheed
Ignatius
471 pages
$17.95