Help! Recommended books for those curious about Catholicism?

Oh how wonderful . I personally suggest something like The Lamb's Supper. I think an explanation of the Mass. For an overall overview, then most probably Catholicism for Dummies (just make sure that they know it's not intended as an insult, it's just a really great book )

Along with the "dummies" book I also have:

Catholicism and Fundamentalism (Keating)
Surprised by Truth (Madrid)
Born Fundamentalist-Born Again Catholic (Currie)
Rome Sweet Home (Hahn)
Biblical Defense of Catholicism (Armstrong)
Music of Creation (Talbot)

Keating is apologetic in nature but good because it answers questions based on topic-and that's what "we protestants" obviously want to look at.

The next three are conversion stories from various points of view.

Armstrong in more in depth.

Talbot is a gentler approach-easily readable-and is what got me started on my journey into examining the ancient churches. I found it for $2 at Ollie's Discount store.

Keating can be a little on the "harsh" side since that book was particularly addressed to Catholics to answer Protestants though I found no offense with it (but some might not like his approach). Hahn's story reads like a novel with both a man and woman writing it. And Currie's book is written by a typical evangelical-background kind of guy.

I would recommend any of these-wish I had read them years ago. As an anabaptist I had (here we go again) just assumed Catholics were robots on command from priests, bishops, cardinals, and pope. No thought went into their faith-they just followed orders. Your apologists are very very good and their answers to our questions makes us take notice-they are generally well thought out and approached from angles that we either had never thought of or dismissed as not practical.

Be patient with your family. I had once dismissed Catholics and Orthodox as superstitous-ritual religion people with no faith. I have changed my mind after reading the above and learning from OBOB and TAW. I have been very wrong. But it wasn't getting slammed by arguements but their example of Christ-like attitudes that cannot be faked and their gentle (by most) approach to seekers, answered questions that the Bible cannnot disprove and obvious care for others that convinced me.

Wow, praise God that your family has shown an interest in Catholicism stray bullet! I'm not really sure what kind of books to recommend but it might help if you could tell us what sort of level of knowledge they have about Catholicism. Anyway, congratulations on this! I long for the day when my family begins showing more interest in the Holy Mother Church.

Catholicicsm for Dummies- is really, really great!

As a convert, I highly recommend this one: Born Fundamentalist-Born Again Catholic (Currie)

-Michael

Also...We Believe...A Survey of the Catholic Faith (although I haven't read all of it yet so I can't vouch for the second half yet.)

ShannonMcCatholic said:

Catholicicsm for Dummies- is really, really great!

Click to expand...

It's extremely vexing that this book isn't translated in Dutch, while Islam for Dummies and Christianity for Dummies is!

I too vote for Surprised by Truth by Patrick Madrid, but Stephen Ray's Crossing the Tiber (started out as a letter to his father explaining why he converted) is also really good (and is documented with over 400 footnotes.) Then there is, what I have found to be fantastic, and funny (lots of comics and so is fast reading), but even includes a glossary and Catholic beliefs (and their brief explanations) as well as some proofs of the existence of God--How to Survive Marriage to a Catholic. It's copyright is 1997 so I think it's out of print now but "used" copies can still be gotten. Got a recent copy from Amazon.com. Think it cost from 10-13 dollars. Haven't read Catholicism for Dummies, but have heard that it is good too (Not the Idiot one).

There is a series of books called "catholic for a reason" that I'm sure are all very well written. I think there are three so far but I have only read the first one which is called "scripture and the mystery of the family of god". These can all be found on scott hahn sites. Each chapter in these books are written by different great catholic theologians like scott hahn, Fr. Pablo Gadenz, Richard A White, Edward P. Sri, TImothy GRay, Leon J. Supernant,jr. These are just a few of the theologians in the first book of the series which I Have read. It's an amazing book that addresses amny issues which are generally misunderstood by catholics and non catholics alike.
I think probably the best book for your family would probably be Scott hahn's book "the Lambs Supper" which has already been mentioned. however I am still new to catholic theology in comparison to many on this site so you should probably listen to others more than me. I think that it would probably be best if you read whatever book you have them read. They are sure to follow up with questions and they may try to distort what the authors are actually saying to try and draw you out of the catholic church. Conversions generally take more than reading just one book. Catholicism is very deep and can be hard to understand in its fullness.My prayers go out to your situation.
In Christ,
MAtthew

South Coast sugested "Born Fundamentalist-Born Again Catholic" (Currie) -Michael. I read the first few pages on amazon.com and it seems like it would also be a great book.
In Christ,
Matthew

I think that Biblical Defense of Catholicism (Armstrong) is the best one. Keating is great, but when I read him he seemed a little harsh on Protestants. I guess it depends how thin or thick your skin is.

I would like those books in spanish.

MParedon said:

For an overall overview, then most probably Catholicism for Dummies (just make sure that they know it's not intended as an insult, it's just a really great book )

Click to expand...

Catholicism for Dummies is a good book. After studying the RCC for 10+ years I still learned something new.

You might want to check the subforum The Catholic Bookshelf.

Diane

faerieeva said:

It's extremely vexing that this book isn't translated in Dutch, while Islam for Dummies and Christianity for Dummies is!

Click to expand...

...well you'll know what not to believe....