Customer Reviews

Roman Catholicism

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Lorriane Boettner has no clue as to what he is talking about. I was on the verge of leaving the Church and then I read his book. Looked up the facts and realized how off-base he is. If you want inaccuracy, distortion, illogic, and straw man arguments read this book. But if you want the Truth then ignore this books and read "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" by Karl Keating, "Fundamentals of the Faith" by Peter Kreeft, and "Rome Sweet Home" by Scott and Kimberly Hahn. I would give this no stars, but I can't.

This book is based totally on prejudice. How could anyone take it seriously? I nearly laughed out loud when I saw people recommending it as a book to learn more about Catholicism, but they were serious. I hope they are seriosly misinformed about Catholic teaching, so it's not totally their fault. If that's the case, then I suggest they read the Catechism (so they can know what the Catholic Church actually teaches). However, if they do know what Catholics believe, then I want to know why they feel it necessary to instead look to a book filled with straw-man arguements, misquotations, misrepresentations, lies, deceit, etc. such as this one? The only reason I can think of is if they're afraid of the truth. Now don't get me wrong. I have no problem with people simply disagreeing with Catholicism; that's one thing. Many Protestants have sincere questions about Catholicism. But this book is more than simply disagreement; this is plain trash. It relies on people's total ignorance and prejudice. If anyone thinks this book is an "excellent book", then I think they need to do a little more research. Because either they are very ignorant of Catholic teaching, or they just like Catholic-bashing (as opposed to honest disagreement, which many good Protestants have).

If you're curious about the real history of Christianity and the development of Christian doctrine, start with "Early Christian Writings" published by Penguin Books. This book contains the writings of the immediate disciples of the Apostles, including Ignatius of Antioch. From there, branch out into the other Ante-Nicene Church Fathers, like Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, and continue into the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers like Athanasius, Jerome, Augustine, and John of Damascus. Check out Eusebius' "History of the Church (Ecclesiatical History)" also available from Penguin, and Jurgens' "Faith of the Early Fathers vols. 1-3." Why read a modern Prebyterian like L. Boettner when there are so many ancient Christian writings available (through Amazon.com)?

The title misrepresents this book. One thinks they are getting a better knowledge of Catholicism. This book is untrue. The author is an uniformed person who for some reason wants to lash out at the Catholic Church.

If you enjoy fiction, this book is for you. I don't know what's scarier - the outright demagoguery and utter falsehoods this author attempts to foist upon the ignorant or some of those in his Protestant cheering section who have written reviews below, but are as clueless as Boettner. Has intellectual honesty gone out of style? It seems that Boettner's hatred of the Catholic Church lead this pitiful man to throw truth and accuracy out the window when he wrote this forgettable work of lies and distortions. In fact, the reader can visualize Boettner with clinched fists and gnashed teeth as he swerves recklessly from one mistaken conclusion to another. WHY IS THE TRUTH SO SCARY TO SOME? Disagree with the Catholic Church all you care to. But for goodness sake - disagree with what the Church REALLY believes and REALLY teaches. Even some scholarly sounding types who attempt to quote from Church documents in these reviews reach completely erroneous conclusions because of the same anti-intellectual approach that Boettner takes. Instead of this baloney, try some real food for the brain - Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Born Fundamentalist;Born again Catholic by David Currie, Surprised By Truth by Patrick Madrid, Answering a Fundamentalist by Albert Nevins, By What Authority? by Mark Shea, or try the Catechism of the Catholic Church. All of these titles are available right here on Amazon.com. Get the facts and judge for yourself. The only thing this book is good for is lining the bottom of my bird cage.

This is an ill researched and prejudiced account of the Catholic faith. Many accusations, lies, and half-truths are jumbled together to try to shine a negative light on Catholicism.

I can understand that a book written by a person who is not objective can be a bit slanted. This book, however, is terribly inaccurate in its representation of Catholicism. Whatever your reason, If you are trying to get information on the Roman Catholic Church, I suggest you look somewhere else. There are too many inaccuracies and complete "nontruths" for this book to be taken seriously.

A book that has become famous (or infamous) for the way in which it misrepresents the faith of Catholics, particularly by making false and misleading claims without support or references. Boettner presents Catholicism as HE understands it, without any real effort to ask real Catholics why they believe what they do, and cites as sources many ex-Catholics, ex-priests and ex-nuns. Sadly, many people have taken this book at face value, without bothering to look any further, and have grown up with a vision of Roman Catholicism which is hideously wrong. A book which has been refuted over and over again for its bias, and which should have gone out of print a generation ago.

I'm a catholic apologist and even though there are holes in this book "big enough to drive trucks through", the fact remains that, in my experience, many of our protestant bretheren still use the stuff in this book. I don't know why but they do. And so, you need to to know all the "bad" arguments that they will come up with and this book has them all. Some of it is pretty funny. Anyone who wants to defend the faith should get this book.

If you need answers to this book, you can check out, "Catholicism and Fundamentalism..." by Karl Keating. He goes through "Roman Catholicism" piece by piece. I gave this book one star because of all the reasons listed in the other reviews above. He does quote pretty accurately (assuming he has a source at all), but he quotes all of it out of context. So be prepared.

Boettner is good at explaining modern Calvinist perspectives on double predestination, but his presentation of Catholicism, past and present, has no basis in history or reality.The best sources on Catholic doctrine are Catholic sources like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council, the Council of Trent, the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification, and so forth.