Customer Reviews

Surprised by Truth 3: 10 More Converts Explain the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic (v. 3)

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All three books in the Surprised by Truth series highly recommended. These are personal stories of conversion, and these converts describe the struggles they had with the claims of the Catholic Church. Various backgrounds here: Anglican, former Catholic "reverts", Baptist, Reformed, etc. The apologetics was a little stronger in the first book of the series, but all three are great books. For books with stronger apologetics content get A Biblical Defense of Catholicism by Dave Armstrong, or Steve Ray's book of conversion Crossing the Tiber.

To see and hear many of these converts in person, you can check them out on the Journey Home program from EWTN. Wonderful and impressive given all they had to go through to find the truth.

Phil Porvaznik

I received this book about 6 days ago in the mail. I would have finished it in less time (I read half of it on the first day), but I didn't pick it up for a few days. What an awesome and moving book!

This is a compilation of conversion stories of folks who converted to Catholicism. They tell their personal stories, in detail, through the doubts and inconsistencies they faced in their former traditions, and sometimes, providential introduction to Catholicism. They describe their journey in search for truth, and finally the joyous steps through the doors of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

The individuals include:

1. A former soldier of a nation and present soldier of Christ and priest of God
2. A former Anglican
3. A former "a la carte" contracepting Catholic couple and present defenders of Life
4. A former "Left Behind"-ing Rapturist and present Catholic apologist
5. A former Commune-er and present Communion receiver
6. A seeker of Truth
7. A former Anglican priest
8. A former radical traditionalist (SSPX) adherent, present Canon lawyer
9. A former Baptist lawyer, present Catholic defender
10. A former Anti-Catholic and sister to Catholicism's most formidable anti-Catholic apologist, Dr. James White- now in the most ironic of twists, she and the grace of God are our best hope for Mr. White's conversion.

This book has changed my views of many things. Indeed, it has opened my eyes to the difficulties most Protestants have in accepting the Catholic faith, especially considering the traditions from which they came.

It has also humbled my approach to this process. It can never be a black and white process of truth and heresy, submission or rejection- in matters of the heart and faith, these things take times; for some, years.

There was numerous times when negative approaches were demonstrated which reflected my past as well as some lingering habits I still have. This book was a "mirror" to my conscience at times. Although it is right to strive for Christian perfection, as the Catechism and the Bible inspire us towards, we cannot give way to Pride, EVER!

A chilling quote which still haunts my conscience, even though I have evolved and improved, it is not totally gone, was said by a Saint to the Jansenists: "Your piety is that of the angels, but your pride is that of the devils!"

Wow! What a saying. There's just to many good things about this book to mention just a few; to choose one over the other is injustice to the consistent priceless value each of these stories hold. It converted me all over again!!!!

Highly recommended!

Dominus Vobiscum,
Laurence A. Gonzaga

Of the ten wonderful and insightful testimonies of Catholic converts, I discovered two to be particularyly moving. (coincidently, the only two written by women)"Lookin for Truth in all the Wrong Places" above all and Patty Bond's "Freed from Anti-Catholic Bonds"It is stories like these that remind me of the incredible gift I've been blessed with--The Catholic Faith!These women went from zealous Protestants to zealous Catholics! Fantastic and uplifting!

What a wonderful, positive format, in which converts to Catholicism speak for themselves! This entire series is such a great resource for any person who is searching for the truth, who is considering coming into the Catholic Church, or even someone who is just "curious." Their testimony helps me to cherish my faith all the more. Thank you, Patrick Madrid, for giving these people a forum to tell their story!

Surprised by Truth 3 is the third in series of books edited by Patrick Madrid compiling the stories of former Protestants (and others) who converted to the Roman Catholic Church. The original of the series was a sensation in the Catholic publishing world and stands as one of the most influential books leading new converts to Rome. The second book, while not as much of the attention getter as the original, still built upon its success with solid testimonies.

Now we come to the third in the series and while the "surprise" value may not be as high a factor (most informed Protestants have probably now heard of the number of converts Romeward), this book should please the fans of the other two volumes. As with the earlier books, Madrid has adeptly selected converts coming to Rome from across the ecclesial spectrum and so largely avoids the numbing repetition often hampering works of this kind.

The response of those Christians not familiar with the faith and practice of the historic Church and their struggles dealing with its growing allure is always an interesting read. Particularly riveting in this book are Carl Olsen's move from "rapture" theology to a more historic view of eschatology eventually leading to his conversion to Rome. Also very interesting, but more because of her personal struggle with family biases, is the account of Patty Patrick Bonds (sister of prominent Protestant apologist James R. White). In both these stories, one gets a good sense of the shock and bewilderment felt as they came to believe the early Church had more in common with Rome than their own ecclesial traditions.

With any series of this type, there is bound to be a lot left out as generalizations are needed to fit all into the twenty-odd pages allotted to each author. Thus a complete demonstration of Catholic beliefs and refutation of rivals should not be expected. The goal is to confirm the inclinations of those heading to Rome and make others not considering such a move to be curious to know more. By such a standard, Surprised by Truth 3 has succeeded in its purpose.

Conversion stories are always a fun read, when one is reading the stories of those who convert to their own faith.

Of course, when the conversion is one away from one's own tradition, that is another thing entirely.

However, fair is fair, and evangelicals have been publishing and telling conversion stories about how people were "saved" from the Catholic Church since the beginning of their movement some 400 years ago. It is remarkable therefore that some would criticize these humble and powerful stories of people who "swam the Tiber" in the other direction as "triumphalist" (whatever that word means) or inappropriate. Yet that is exactly what many evangelicals have done regarding the renaissance in Catholic apologetics that has occurred over the last 20 years.

However, in my opinion, this renaissance is neither "triumphalist" in a negative sense, nor inappropriate. For, in theology, the only way to get at the truth is to use the time honored tool of philosophical reasoning when discussing Divine Revelation. That means making arguments from Sacred Scripture. Arguments invite counterarguments. Reformationists reject the authority of the Church to settle arguments when they get out of hand, or threaten unity. Therefore, we will continue to argue with each other, even while we often work side by side in the trenches fighting things like abortion and so called "gay marriage."

This book clearly shows that ideas have consequences, especially when those ideas are religious ones. Every person whose story is in this book is someone who had the courage to not only challenge received "dogma" but also live their life in a way in conformity with their ideas, regardless of the consequences.

Luckily, these brave individuals were not building their houses on the sand of their own understanding, but rather on the rock of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church.

This book and its companion volumes are a great tool when one needs the support they provide. They are also useful for explaining to reasonable non-Catholics why people would find the Catholic Church a place to call home.

I struggled with whether to give this book series 4 or 5 stars. As collections of conversion stories go, these are excellent. However, conversion stories are monologues, not dialogues, and are therefore less interesting to me than a good discussion of various theological issues. I feel good editing and inclusion of other ideas (perhaps a commentary?) could have addressed this weakness to some degree. However, fair is fair, and most other faith traditions (especially Fundamentalist Protestantism) don't extend the same intellectual courtesy when discussing the conversion stories of those who chose to leave the Catholic Church.

At the very least, these books prove that the Catholic faith is compelling, and reasonable. I, of course, believe it to be true. However, until He comes again, I fear that debate will continue. When we are Christian it will be a good discussion. When we fail, it will be shouting match. (See the review below for an example of the worst Christians can be... that is if it is not removed by a moderator) Such is the Christian experience post the reformation.

This is a great book to read if you want to further understand why it is you are catholic. It's also a great book for anyone wanting to understand why they might want to convert. I bought this book for someone who is considering becoming Catholic and she loves it.

Before I begin, let me state that I have not read the first two books in this series, so I cannot compare this one to those.

This book contains testimonials from ten Protestants who converted to Catholicism. The stories are very interesting to read, so from that perspective, I would rate this book as a 4.

But when dealing with a topic as major as changing one's faith, it needs to go beyond just interesting to be convincing. I am a Protestant who is not considering the Catholic faith but just read the book out of curiosity. While the stories were emotionally compelling, after reading them all, I ended up feeling, "Okay, but nothing in here convinces me that the Catholic Church is the only true church." Sure, the people in these testimonials made it clear that they spent years thinking, praying, and studying about the issue before making the decision, and I believe them when they say that God was the one who was leading them to Catholicism. But there are also people I know who have come out of the Catholic Church to a fresh faith in God, and I think that is where God led them too.

Of course, the book is not meant to be a point-by-point proof of why the Catholic Church is the one true church; it's a testimonial. But still, a good portion of it contains these persons' descriptions of the struggles of their theological beliefs in their journey to Catholicism.

The most interesting stories to me were: 1) The couple who believed only two groups could be the true church--the Anabaptists or the Catholics. They left their professional, wealthy careers and went into an Anabaptist community (it sounded nearly Amish, though they didn't use that word), but got disillusioned from the experience and determined that it was then the Catholic Church that was the true one. 2) A woman whose brother is well-known for his forceful writings condemning the Catholic Church...what she had to suffer by becoming a Catholic! 3) A Baptist man who became interested in Catholicism by dating a Catholic woman. (Most of the people were fundamentalists or evangelicals in their Protestant years.)

The common theme I saw in all these stories was that they began to struggle with the ways the various Protestant denominations all said they believed solely in the Bible, yet they didn't agree. If the Bible is true and the Church is one under Jesus, then how can they read the same things and disagree with each other? It was at this realization that most of these people began to search and finally settled on the authority of the one historical church, the Catholic Church.

One of the authors said of such a discussion among twelve learned evangelicals, where there ended up being nine different interpretations of the scripture regarding divorce and remarriage, "This diversity [of viewpoints] bothered me, but what bothered me more was that no one but me found it to be a problem." And I'd have to agree with the twelve--I don't find it to be a problem either. And that's the main reason why this book is unconvincing to me. Time and again, this is the crucial breakdown point that begins their search which ends in conversion to Catholicism, but as a reader who doesn't see a problem with that, I fail to be convinced by the other theological arguments for the Catholic Church being the one true church.

Something important I did get out of the book was how many of the authors pointed out that once they began studying the early church fathers, they were surprised at how CATHOLIC they were! Protestant churches imagine the early church being quite fluid and informal--most Protestant churches say their goal is to imitate the church found in the Acts Of The Apostles--so this is very intriguing indeed. So now I want to read things from the early church fathers to find out what the scoop is on this.

I suppose Patrick Madrid would consider that a purpose achieved from his book.

P.S. The book contains an annotated bibliography of 26 books for further research, plus a list of addresses & e-mail addresses of the contributing authors. Very helpful!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Patrick Madrid for this SEQUEL. The Bible, as well as many great movies and other books. has had sequels. The review by Schumaker shows disdain for sequels, owing no doubt to his lack of any more pungent criticism, making his blank, basal, ad nauseam.

As a former "watered-down Protestant, then proselytized Mormon," my moment near Nirvana occurred with these books and another ("My Spirit Rejoices...") plus a scholar on a radio broadcast who replied to the question, "What, in your opinion, is the most metaphysical of all churches?", that it was, yes, the Catholic Church.

Reject that opinion if you wish, but read "My Spirit Rejoices", then read "Surprised by Truth 3", which will further illuminate what Elisabeth LeSeuer felt that later converted her husband from strict atheist to Catholic priest.

Assuming that you are moving toward Rome already and not a protagonist like Schumaker, I guarantee that you'll find solace in Madrid's books (all three so far - and I hope for more.)

Like the first two - this is a very moving book. Born Catholics will be amazed at how difficult it is to make the final step. Moving and inspiriational.