Customer Reviews

Radio Replies Vol. 3

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Radio Replies is a good series to purchase as a reference for apologetics, the art of defending the Catholic faith with rational arguments. My only gripe is that it is pre-Vatican II in its style. It is, after all, a 3-volume compilation of the questions and answers of radio shows before 1942 (date of publication). And it amounts to a staggering 1007 pages (not including prefaces and indices).

While the language could turn some people off, you have to give it this - it's very comprehensive. Any topic about the Faith, and all the nasty questions and opinions that could be thrown at it, the good fathers take them head on.

Personally, I like their style. It's argumentative, covering every angle in a terse way. i.e. how about this? and this? and this? Any question you want, there's an answer. Look up the index, you can probably find it there. Although it is unlikely that anybody has the patience to plough through it exhaustively, I recommend that every family get a copy as a reference and/or study manual.

I covered Volumes One and Two under those listings, so this is about Volume Three. As the series progresses, the questions get harder. Volume Three covers Church dogma and morals in great detail. In particular, the sixty year-old commentary on morals is eerily, sadly prophetic. The consequences of a drift toward complete moral relativism are described as a nightmare scenario, yet how much of it has come to pass--steadily rising divorce, abortion, alienation, violence, division into smaller and smaller groups dedicated only to the advancement of some self-proclaimed social imperative. Undoubtedly, to a non-believer, the prophetic quality of the arguments is the strongest point in their favor. It is not hard to see the moral quagmire we live in (if one only bothers to look), but to see it so clearly when it was just forming--that requires a true vision, a true perspective. For the believer, the truth of the Fathers' arguments is self-evident, for it is simply the Word of God.