Customer Reviews

Catholic Answers to Fundamentalists' Questions: Revised, Expanded, and Referenced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Seems every Catholic knows someone, a close friend, a relative, possibly even a spouse, who has been "evangelized" by one of our well intentioned protestant brethryn with the question "Are you born again?" or "Is your salvation assured?" It's the rare Catholic brought up through the doctrinally confusing post-Vatican II 60's and 70's who can answer those questions confidently and in keeping with scripture and traditional Church teaching. But, answers there are - sound, Scripture based answers at that! And this booklet has them, and more.

Based on the author's foreward, "A Note to the Reader," I would assume that this booklet is intended not to convert or proslytize protestant fundamentalists to the Catholic faith, but to equip Catholics with basic understanding of the Scripture and Tradition associated with all of the fundamentalist "hard spots," i.e. papal authority, salvation, the mass and Holy Communion, devotion to Mary (Did you know Martin Luther continued his devotion to the Holy Rosary after his defection from the Catholic church?), and even Creationism. There is an appendix that discusses the origins of the bible, in particular the role of the Catholic church in developing the Canon of Sacred Scripture.

In essence, this booklet provides "overview" level information on everything you need to know to defend the fullness of the Catholic faith from "bible-only" christians. And it does it in less than 100 pages. For five bucks, you will not find a better deal on the Catholic Apologetics bookshelves.

For those who would like to delve a little deeper into the subject, I would recommend "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating (the benchmark book for defending Catholicism against "anti-Romanist" zealots) and perhaps some of the more scholarly materials written by Scott Hahn. Of course, besides a good Catholic bible, every Catholic should own a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the new accompanying Compendium. You will find them intellectually and spiritually enlightening, reader-friendly, and reasonably priced.

Disclosure: My review includes only the original 1984 edition (64 pages). The latest version, in keeping with the times, encompasses new material based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church published in 2003 and delves briefly into Islamic Fundamentalism. I look forward to reading the new version.

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This is an excellent summary of some recurring questions Catholics are faced with. References to the Bible and the Catechism are provided, for further reading.