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This DVD presents an engaging dialogue (Question and Answer format) between a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister. Produced by a Protestant Church, it primarily consists of common Protestant Questions/Objections about the Catholic Faith that are answered by the priest.

The priest's responses are succinct, respectful and quite insightful. Not only are they theologically solid, but they present creative and helpful ways of explaining authentic doctrine to others. The atmosphere of the dialogue is strikingly honest and open - including personal stories and anecdotes that helpfully connect ideas to reality.

I found that it took me a long time to get through this DVD not because it was boring, but because (given that I don't have enough time to watch it in one sitting), I kept finding myself starting a little earlier in the DVD than where I had previously finished, so that I could hear the explanations one more time. This is great stuff - a beautiful illustration of ecumenical dialogue AND a rather succint explanation of Catholic doctrine - particularly for anyone wanting to learn more about their faith.

Topics include: Salvation, the Eucharist, the Blessed Mother, the Saints, Confession, Religious Images, prayer and the importance of charitable dialogue.

Cogent, concise, and coherent, that is The Dawkins Delusion.

Written as a response to The God Delusion, Alister McGrath takes Richard Dawkins head on. A former atheist, Alister, along with his wife Joanna, convincingly demonstrate the errors of Richard Dawkins's atheism. Equal to the task, Alister received a doctorate in molecular biophysics and presently is a professor of historical theology at Oxford University (where Dawkins also teaches).

An admirer of Dawkins's earlier work, The Selfish Gene, McGrath clearly points out that Dawkins has diverged into new territory with his diatribe against God, resulting in erroneous conclusions.

McGrath considers himself an "evidence-based" thinker (like Dawkins), yet ultimately his conclusions are vastly different than Dawkins.

Ironically, although Dawkins considers himself an evidence-based thinker, The God Delusion is anything but. As McGrath states, . . ."Dawkins simply offers the atheist equivalent of slick hellfire preaching, substituting turbocharged rhetoric and highly selective manipulation of facts for careful, evidence-based thinking."

McGrath goes on to state, "The book [The God Delusion] is often little more than an aggregation of convenient factoids suitably overstated to achieve maximum impact and loosely arranged to suggest that they constitute an argument."

Because of this, McGrath says, "Every one of Dawkins's misrepresentations and overstatements can be challenged and corrected." Rather than correct him point for point, McGrath instead chooses to pick "representative points" to discuss.

Answering Dawkins's flawed argumentation, McGrath demonstrates that God is not a delusion created by a deluded people, science has not disproved God, that science need not be locked in a battle with religion unto death and that they can actually be compatible with one another, God is not based on superstitious beliefs, not all religions are the same, and that Christianity is not evil.

McGrath reminds Dawkins that in our modern times there have already existed societies which have sought to stamp out religion, resulting in great, evil atrocities.

Not a heavy handed treatise, but a highly accessible answer to Dawkins's ranting and raving, The Dawkins Delusion? makes for an enlightening, educating, and entertaining read.

The 2003 release of the novel The Da Vinci Code created one of the largest literary crazes in recent history. With sales of almost 6 million in its first year, the novel gained a cult-like following. Author Dan Brown's ability to blend fact and fiction left many readers questioning what they really knew of the origins of Christianity. News is now out that we can expect to see the story in theaters in about a year. Certainly viewers will come away with many of the same questions readers had as to how much, if any, of the story line is factual, and how much is fiction.

Fortunately for those who want to sort out the facts, Amy Welborn has written decoding Da Vinci: the Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code. Welborn covers everything from the marketing of the book to the sources of information presented, and ultimately reveals a "startling number of blatant, glaring errors on matter great and small that should send up red flags to anyone reading the novel as a source of facts, rather than just pure fiction" (decoding Da Vinci p. 10). She also helps explain why this confusion over fact versus fiction is occurring when she states:

Historical fiction is a very popular genre, but in writing historical fiction, the author makes an implicit deal with the reader. He ... promises that while the novel concerns fictional characters engaged in imagined activities, the basic historical framework is correct. [Readers] trust the author is telling the truth about history. In The Da Vinci Code, imaginative detail and false historical assertions are presented as facts and the fruit of serious historical research, which they simply are not. (p. 21 italics added)

decoding Da Vinci is handily divided into a preface, a section entitled "How to Use this Book", an introduction which provides a plot synopsis, ten chapters (each addressing one key issue of the book), and an epilogue. The plot synopsis is thorough enough that you need not have read the novel to make use of this book. Each chapter also ends with further reading suggestions and questions for review and discussion. Readers can thus study particular issues in more depth on their own, or even use the material for a group study. The book is a quick read from cover to cover, but also organized so that each chapter stands on its own for easy reference.

Throughout her book, Welborn uses a tone readers will be familiar with from her Prove It series and other writings. Straightforward and to-the-point, she is never condescending or preachy. The book thus becomes a powerful tool to help counter the myths Brown has presented in his original work.

The up-coming movie release makes this book an important and timely choice for adults and older teens to read.

1-800-55-ENVOY
Website: http://www.envoymagazine.com
A beautiful full-color glossy magazine on Catholic apologetics. The magazine is trendy in format (meant to appeal to teens and "Generation Xers") but orthodox in content. Although we don't subscribe to this magazine, I've seen a few issues and have been very impressed. Some articles I read included sample scenarios of how to explain Catholic teachings in particular situations. I thought this was a very helpful way of preparing people for apologetics. This magazine also includes Scott Hahn's newsletter Scripture Matters.

This is a really nifty overview of the faith organized into 16 segments over 6 pages:

The Transmission of Divine Revelation
The Blessed Trinity
God the Father
God the Son, Jesus Christ
God the Holy Spirit
Creation and the Fall, Redemption
The Holy Catholic Church
The Four Marks of the Church
The Blessed Virgin and the Saints
The Seven Sacraments
Grace, Justification and Virtue
Catholic Moral Teaching
Sin
The Commandments
The Last Things

Each segment gives a brief, but surprisingly complete, overview of Catholic teaching with references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Bible as well as details on when and where major dogmas of the Church were defined.

This seems like a great overview for parents and teachers wishing to get a better handle on Church teaching or for high school students in the midst of Catechism and Apologetics studies. Handy for general reference as well.

Here's a small sample, a segment from The Commandments section which explains the 5th Commandment:

5. You shall not kill (CCC 2318-30)

- Commands us to respect the lives of others and our own, honoring our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit.

- Prohibits murder, abortion, suicide, euthanasia, sterilization, mutilations and non-therapeutic amputations, kidnapping, gluttony, drug use, drunkenness, seeking revenge, anger, hatred, and illegitimate war.

Nicely illustrated with images of stained glass windows.

Here are two great resources for Catholic bookshelves everywhere. Written by a homeschooling dad named Paul E. Nowak, Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics and Guerilla Apologetics for Life Issues are wonderful resources for educated debates on Catholicism and pro-life concerns.

I first heard about these books because my brother, Paul A. Nowak, did the cartoons in the Life Issues book. So, I do have a bit of bias on these books. But I really like the clean, direct apologetics contained in both of these slim volumes.

The slim paperback, Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics, is packed with fabulous information that is easy to read and important for all Catholics to understand.Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics starts with the Bible -- refutes that the Bible is the only source of revelation and that it doesn't say faith or personal acceptance of Jesus is enough -- then goes on to talk about who founded the Church, teachings with the authority of Christ, leadership traceable back to Christ, uses certain individuals as examples of how we should live, forgiveness of sins, Purgatory, sanctity and inviolability of marriage, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. All of these are discussed within a three-four page analysis that is direct and irrefutable.

The conclusion of the book includes recommendations for further reading and almost a dozen lined pages for notes.

The Guerilla Apologetics for Life Issues is much the same in format except that it states each argument in the form of a question rather than a statement. When does life begin, can choices be wrong, and does legality mean right-ness are just the first three questions. The safety and life issues for the mom are the next concerns. The book continues with asking questions about the veracity of population control statistics, benefits of embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia. The final question is the traditional ultimate apologetics question -- "what if you're wrong" -- attributed to Pascal's famous "wager".

As with Nowak's earlier volume, Life Issues does not have many wasted words or pages. And, "ya gotta" love the cartoons done by my brother (although I do wish the prints had been a bit clearer)!

Thomas Woods, Jr. wrote a book to amend the erroneous attitude prevalent in society today – the Catholic Church has had only a negative impact on Western Civilization. Titled, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, Dr. Woods, a history professor at a community college in New York, details the many contributions of the Catholic Church throughout history, primarily during the “Dark Ages” and “Middle Ages”.

From science to natural law, from the university system to the system of architecture, from the theories of free-market economies to the theories of morality, Dr. Woods details the influence and innovations of the Catholic Church.

This is not an unbiased, unemotional textbook. Dr. Woods states from the beginning that he is trying to show his students, and his readers, that the Church was in the forefront as the Western World began to civilize, began to make laws to protect the innocent, began to build and trade and participate in the world. Woods’ love of his Church and desire to set the record straight are prevalent throughout the text.

Using contemporary and modern scholars’ work, Dr. Woods defends his thesis admirably. Often quoting even those who are known anti-Church voices – including Martin Luther -- the history professor gives his reader lessons on the Benedictines’ actions which helped spread the Gospel and keep the “light of civilization” burning during the reign of Barbarianism known as the “Dark Ages”. He also gives a detailed account of the spread of monasticism and the many examples of the spread of practical, technical, charitable and educational skills accomplished by these monks.
Today’s university system is also beholden to the Church for the ability to debate, discover and develop new theories of life. He explains that the creation of the university system, directed by the Church, was committed to reason and rational argument and that there was a spirit of inquiry that has amounted to “a gift from the Latin Middle Ages to the Modern World”. Further, the Church is responsible for retaining much of the valuable scholarship from the ancient times: “massive translation efforts brought forth many of the great works of the ancient world….including the geometry of Euclid; the logic, metaphysics, natural philosophy and ethics of Aristotle; and the medical work of Galen.”

Woods explains that science is another field where the Church has been unfairly disparaged in recent times. Astronomy (even with the problems with Galileo), optics, biology, geology, seismology are just a few of the subjects where Catholic religious and laymen delved and developed theories and understandings.

Law – natural, international and modern – can also be tracked to the influence and innovation of the Catholic Church. Economics and the free-market theories are a direct contribution of Jesuit scholars – long before the eighteenth century theorists who get the bulk of the credit for free-market theories.

Dr. Woods’ book can become a bit didactic in his vehemence to set the record straight. The reader must understand that this book has a stated bias and must further understand that Dr. Woods is championing a cause that negates much of the history all of us have learned. That said, this is a book that all Catholics should read – a book that will help us all to explain to others the great contributions of our Church over the past two centuries. Interestingly, Southern Catholic College, a newly formed Catholic school in Georgia uses this book for their Freshman History text book.

It's rather lovely, I think that the Pope uses in his own book a phrase (which he applies to the parables of Jesus) which aptly describes this fascinating book: "...it not only or even primarily adds to what we know, but it changes our lives."

In Jesus of Nazareth, Our Holy Father presents a vision of primary events of the Gospels (this volume covers significant stories chronologically from the Baptism of Our Lord through the Transfiguration - a second volume is expected in the future). He delves into these Gospel stories (many of which are commonly taken for granted - both because we've heard these stories since we were young and because we're missing some of the background details that add depth and additional significance to these stories) to help bring Our Lord to life for modern readers.

Here are the basic Gospel stories that are covered in the text:

The Baptism of Jesus
The Temptations of Jesus
The Kingdom of God
The Sermon on the Mount
The Lord's Prayer
The Disciples
The Parables (with an emphasis on The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Sun and the Rich Man and Lazarus)
Images from St. John's Gospel (Water, Vine and Wine, Bread, and the Shepherd)
Peter's Confession
The Transfiguration
Jesus Declares His Identity (The Son of Man, The Son, "I Am")

Here's a sampling of the style and content of the book, taken from the chapter on the Our Father in which the Pope discusses what we mean by "Hallowed be Thy Name".

God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He puts himself within reach of our invocation. He enters into relationship with us and enables us to be in relationship with him. Yet this means that in some sense he hands himself over to our human world. He has made himself accessible and, therefore, vulnerable as well. He assumes the risk of relationship, of communion, with us.

The process that was brought to completion in the Incarnation had begun with the giving of the divine name.... God has now truly made himself accessible in his incarnate Son. He has become a part of our world: he has, as it were, put himself into our hands.

This enables us to understand what the petition for the sanctification of the divine name means. The name of God can now be misused and so God himself can be sullied. The name of God can be co-opted for our purposes and so the image of God can also be distorted. The more he gives himself into our hands, the more we can obscure his light; the closer he is, the more our misuse can disfigure him. Martin Buber once said that when we consider all the ways in which God's name has been so shamefully misused, we almost despair of uttering it ourselves. But to keep it silent would be an outright refusal of the love with which God comes to us. Buber says that our only recourse is to try as reverently as possible to pick up and purify the polluted fragments of the divine name. But there is no way we can do that alone. All we can do is plead with him not to allow the light of his name to be destroyed in the world.

He elucidates the various Gospel stories from many angles, though certain patterns emerge. In many places, he discusses and refutes modern theories about the Life of Christ (many of which have the common thread of doubting the historical validity of the Gospels). These are usually the most difficult portions of the book to follow. I found it helpful to underline principal portions in order to keep a particular thread fresh in my memory. Brief notes on the various threads might also be helpful.

He also references Eastern imagery from traditional icons and what we have learned from Tradition (from the teachings of the Church Fathers) about the various Gospel passages.

This is a life-changing book. There are many stories, like the Transfiguration, that I had little understanding of to begin with and will never hear or think about in the same way again. I studied this over the course of a school year with a group of high school students. We studied approximately 10 to 15 pages at a time and discussed everything in depth. I don't think it's a book that most high schoolers could read on their own. Reading it in chunks together allowed us to delve into it more deeply (I'm certain that I got more out of it than I would have if I had read it on my own.) The discussions provided an opportunity to clarify confusing parts of the text (many times I was able to provide some helpful background info such as an explanation of a philosophical idea). The students really enjoyed the book and got a lot out of it. Besides the obvious benefits of the content of the book itself, they're now less intimidated by an "intellectual" book and understand that it's okay to just make a beginning in reading such a book and that it's perfectly normal to get more out of such a book every time they read it.

For those who might be interested, I wrote a number of blog posts on this book while I was studying it. You can read them here.

This is a really beautiful little book about morality and the Catholic Faith. It would make a great supplement for high school age or excellent reading for an adult. It's not too difficult to understand, but also interesting and really makes you think.

The author has this to say about the purpose of this book:

A traveler through life gets vivid – sometimes extremely vivid impressions of things near at hand: confused impressions of things seen at a distance or only heard of: but of the whole plan of life, no idea at all. In his mind will be a jumble of facts, tossed about in any order – God, sin, church-going, disease, sacraments, suffering, the treason of friends, hostilities, death and the fear of death, money and the loss of it, God-made-man – and so on without end. But which of these things are big things and which of them are little, he will not know with certainty: the things that have come nearest to himself will seem big things: the remoter things will seem small.

And of the relations of these things one to another – how one thing agrees with, or conflicts with, another – of all this, merely by dint of living, he will have only the most confused and uncertain impression. In fact it may easily happen that a man who merely lives, and neither reflects nor is taught, does not even suspect relationships, but thinks of all things as accidents with no reason in themselves save that they happened, and no connection with each other save that one cam earlier and one came later. Because of this confusion, I propose to try to make what may roughly be called a map of life.

This is a great book to use for a group teen discussion. When I was being homeschooled for high school, a friend of the family guided us in discussions of one chapter every month. We found it very engaging and helpful.

Are you malnourished? Many Catholics feel that they don’t know the faith, they are spiritually malnourished. To satisfy your hunger for the faith, Fr. Classen wants to feed you the fundamentals of your faith in Meat & Potatoes Catholicism.

Determined to write a book that makes sense to those who sit in the pews, Fr. Classen has set out to educate you in the essentials of the faith. As he says, “We need to nourish ourselves and feed voraciously on the basic fundamentals of our Catholic faith and redefine the way we live our lives.”

Broken down into nine chapters, he addresses the real questions of our faith. In chapter one, he tackles the question of why people quit the Church and why they should stay. Chapter two deals with how God leaves signs in our lives. One of the most important ways is through his sacraments. The subsequent chapters in the book each cover a sacrament.

What makes this book different is his friendly conversational style and his real life examples. Given a choice between reading a catechism, which can be dry at times, or sitting down with someone and discussing the faith, most people will take the latter. That is what he offers the reader, a friendly conversation about the faith, with real life examples.

Imitating Christ’s example of drawing on real life analogies, he uses vivid examples to answer the usual questions about our faith. “What is the Church?,” “Why can’t I just confess my sins directly to God?” He doesn’t shy away from the tough questions like, “What’s wrong with a homosexual marriage?”

Each chapter follows a similar format. He introduces the chapter with an interesting story, explains the important information about the topic and follows up by answering the typical questions people have about that subject, all in a lively conversational tone. Woven throughout are quotes from both scripture and the CCC to help define the topic at hand.

The highlights of the book include his clever analogies and interesting stories. My favorite analogy is his comparison of a priest during confession to a spiritual garbage man. His vocation story is particularly inspiring. It demonstrates how the example of others can dramatically influence our own personal decisions.

If you know someone who has questions about the faith or could use a refresher course in the sacraments, Meat & Potatoes Catholicism sets out the truth in a friendly readable manner. Entertaining and informative, Meat & Potatoes Catholicism may be just what they are looking for.