Customer Reviews

Catholic Doctrine in Scripture: A Guide to the Verses That Are Key to Affirming the Faith

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What a great way to find references in scripture regarding Catholic answers concerning specific topics such as papal infallibility, church authority, free will, divorce, sin, baptism, mass, and others.
Every Catholic should have this reference tool.

For those of us who have Bibles filled with cross-references and many colors of ink, this is a great, slim guide that can be carried or picked up any time you need to find a distinctively Catholic topic in Scripture in a jiffy. Greg Oatis has done a great service by compiling and publishing this!

This book is well intentioned but has some flaws that the reader must be aware of. There are quite a few minor errors which can be attributed to a bad editor. Here are two that are worth mentioning: a) the chapter on indulgences has to be ignored. The author confuses indulgence with forgiveness. b) In page 96 where it says "Jesus' place in the Godhead" is ambiguously phrased and seems to indicate that the Son is like a portion that fits in a "place" of the Most Holy Trinity.
Save for these minor flaws the book is very useful.

This kind of polemical writing does nothing to further the Faith but to destroy it.

Vatican II found that our separated Christian brothers and sisters are members of our one family of Faith; this book only serves to divide our family in Faith.

Throughout this book you may find the misapplication out of context and against reason and sense and Faith and orthodox theology any number of dogmatic points which the author twists to his own tastes and to oppose arrogantly what he perceives to error in our separated brethren.

Others religions and lack of religions do not need to trouble themselves with tearing apart the Church; we do an excellent job of it all by ourselves.

We find here much written about the authority of scripture on the one hand (a strong point of our separated brethren although they may so often read it to their own conveniences) and then on the other hand uses scripture to prove them wrong. We find here as well selections on diversity, women in the Church and family, and other hobgoblins which fascinate those of a certain obsessive yet self-proclaimed Catholic observance. Yet these points are not dogma nor doctrine of the Catholic Faith as expressed officially ex cathedra; they are mere prejudices held dearly by those of no theological preparation.

This book arrogantly bears a chip upon its shoulder daring any Protestant to knock it off; this book wears a certain superficial and erroneous expression of Catholicism upon its weary sleeve. This book does nothing to further the Faith in Jesus Christ, nor the fulfillment of Christian commandments. Where is the all-sacrificing, gentle, compassionate, all-forbearing and radical Love of Jesus Christ in this book? This book is only an invitation to a fist fight in the school yard; it does not represent any sort of official Catholic doctrine nor interpretation of the Scripture. This book is most kindly overlooked, as we turn to more authoritative sources of true and orthodox and Catholic interpretation of the Bible, such as, for instance: Whereon to Stand: The Acts of the Apostles and Ourselves or Praying With Jesus And Mary: Our Father, Hail Mary.

Meanwhile this author bears no formal training in "Catholic doctrine" and his book represents nothing of official "Catholic doctrine," which in fact for decades has sought and achieved an intimate and ecumenical relationship with our once separated brethren. Read in this regard, for example, anything at all by the late and great Robert MacAfee Brown, including his An American Dialogue: A Protestant Looks at Catholicism, and a Catholic Looks at Protestantism and his Observer in Rome;: A Protestant report on the Vatican Council. See also the recent actions by the papal commission for ecumenism.

In my Father's House there are many mansions.