Far from Rome, Near to God: Testimonies of Fifty Converted Roman Catholic Priests [Paperback]

Richard Bennett (Editor), Martin Buckingham (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

This book contains the moving testimonies of fifty priests who found their way, by the grace of God, out of the labyrinth of Roman Catholic theology and practice into the light of the gospel of Christ. But this is not a narrowly polemical work, nor is its relevance limited to the ongoing controversy between Rome and the churches of the Reformation. The love and concern felt by the former priests for those they left behind, and their fervent desire that they too should experience the joy and peace of salvation in Christ are seen throughout. The wider relevance of the experiences described will also be felt in many contexts remote from Roman Catholicism where human pride and presumption have erected rival sources of authority between people and the Word of God, so obscuring the way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Banner of Truth (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851517331
• ISBN-13: 978-0851517339
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #477,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book if you want to really get an unbiased view of the RCC, March 14, 2008

By 

MacLover (Missouri) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Far from Rome, Near to God: Testimonies of Fifty Converted Roman Catholic Priests (Paperback)

This book is probally the best I have yet to read regarding the RCC. I was looking for something that my brother would be able to read that was too loaded with all the technical RCC doctrines. This gives testimony's of priests who studied and studied and still did not find salvation. The more they seeked God, the more they turned away from the RCC and to the one and only Saviour Jesus Christ. The testimonies also provide scriptures which is wonderful. This is the perfect book to give a Catholic person in search for the truth. I have not given it to my brother yet because I can't put it down! What a great book. It really helps me because I was born and raised Catholic and it confirms that when you are far from Rome you are surely nearer to God.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not Evangelial Protestant but still value this book, October 30, 2007

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Hristos Voskrese "George" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Far from Rome, Near to God: Testimonies of Fifty Converted Roman Catholic Priests (Paperback)

As a way introduction, I have not yet completely read the entire book. I purchased the book from amazon several weeks ago, and when I am not reading any of the other 13 books I'm presently reading in addition to the material for my classes, I read the stories from this book.

Conversion stories have always interested me. Over the past several years, I have read several books on conversion from one Christian faith to another. _Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic_, was probably the first of many conversion stories/books that grabbed my attention. In the beginning, I read mostly stories of conversion to Catholicism (the Surprised by Truth series, Hahn's Home Sweet Rome, and so on). Eventually, as I struggled with my own faith, I began reading the Reformers. Their writings opened me up to new possibilities, and I became interested in to what they were "converting," if that's the best word. At one point I started watching the 700 Club and comparing the conversion stories on there with the conversion stories on The Journey Home (a Catholic program).

Needless to say, when I discovered that there existed a book that contains the stories of fifty former priests who converted to a certain kind of evangelical Protestantism, I was delighted. I already had read and heard of accounts of drug dealers, drug-addicts, pimps etc. becoming Christian; but this was something new, something that sounded as though it would reverberate with the original Protestant Reformers, many of whom were Catholic priests/monks.

Enough of the digressions. Thus far, from what I have read, I feel as though I have received my money's worth from the book. Many stories are uncannily repetetitive. Some may fault this in the book, but I find it interesting that so many priests converted for similar reasons. I find it especially interesting that, contrary to many stories of Protestants converting to Catholicism in which the conversion approached almost academically, noetically, the priests' stories suggest that it was something or someone beyond reason that moved them to the path on which they now walk.

I give the book four stars and not five for several reasons. Firstly, like many evangelical Protestant books written in challenge of Catholicism, the descriptions of Catholic beliefs are sometimes brief, abbreviated, and not too infrequently, unfair. Secondly, the books concerns mostly priests who converted to radical (anabaptist) forms of Protestant Christianity. I remember a story that mentions the Dutch Reformed Church, but overall it seems that conversions to confessional Protestantism might be under-represented. For example, numerous former priests in the book comment on their rejection of transubstantiation and wittingly or unwittingly tie this in with rejection of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist (something confessional Lutherans and to a lesser degree, Anglicans, would not approve).

42 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Far From Rome Near to God, March 23, 2006

By 

Arnold Urbonas "Bible connoisseur" (Edmonton, AB Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Far from Rome, Near to God: Testimonies of Fifty Converted Roman Catholic Priests (Paperback)

I ordered this book from Amazon. Even though I live in Canada, I had it within a week. Great service. Keep up the good work.

I am enjoying this book very much. This book provides a condensed version of life stories of former priests. Although I was never a priest, I did find that I could identify with many stories, having personally undergone a similiar spiritual transformation.

I am particularly moved by the courage and risk that these men took after studying for the priesthood for 10+ years, and found no other alternative than to leave all that they had come to know. They didn't know what they would do for a living, but God provided for them.

These men didn't just decide to leave the Roman church, but after honest soul searching were convicted even after growing up in the Roman church. But each and every testimony had this in common- these priests encountered True faith from witnesses who were not afraid to speak the Truth.