Apologetics

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. --Psalm 119:105

Scripture is your guide to what matters most in life. If you're not familiar with it, Patrick Madrid's choice of 150 key verses can ease you in. If you regularly read and pray with Scripture, these verses will provide you rich food for thought. No matter what your situation, the Bible will help you evaluate the choices and make the decisions that confront you every day. Either explicitly or implicitly, Scripture addresses all of life's problems, worries, dangers, questions and uncertainties.

150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know offers you a window into Scripture revealing how God's eternal wisdom relates to your life.

Welcome to the new tyranny "If it feels good, do it." "That's your opinion, and this is mine."

"I don't want to impose my beliefs on others."

And thus the Dictator of Relativism speaks as he has always spoken to seduce humanity into a false sense of freedom.

Pope Benedict XVI, Christ's personally chosen defender of the Truth is fighting back. He recognized this in his homily on April 18, 2005, "We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires."

Through a down-to-earth, easily accessible Question-and-Answer format, Stefanick's book shows:

Why relativism inherently contradicts its own claims.

What makes it one of the worst ideas in the history of ideas.

How relativism has a direct influence on the morals and virtues of a nation.

Why relativism doesn't even work "in real life."

How relativism is counterproductive to the true practice of tolerance

Why religion which makes claims to absolute truth is finally more tolerant than relativism.

What Christianity has almost singlehandedly done to foster true tolerance in the world.

How all laws legislate morality

What the true meaning of "open-minded" means it's not what you think!

Does science discredit the Bible, God, religious faith?

Absolutely not, says Dr. Michael Guillen, former Harvard physics instructor and Emmy-winning ABC News Science Editor. In Amazing Truths, he uses his entertaining, down-to-earth storytelling skills to reveal ten astonishing truths affirmed by both ancient Scripture and modern science that answer some of our biggest questions:

Can faith really move mountains?

Does absolute truth exist?

Are humans truly unique?

Is it possible to communicate with God?

How much about the universe do we actually know?

How could Jesus have been fully man and fully God?

In Amazing Truths, Dr. Guillen explains that faith is not some outdated way of thinking. Faith is a necessary part of science, Christianity, and any intelligent, comprehensive, coherent worldview--vastly more powerful than even logic.

Amazing Truths will expand your mind and bolster your faith. You will see for yourself what Dr. Guillen, a theoretical physicist and devout Christian, has discovered in a lifetime of serious exploration--that science and faith are not at odds. In fact, they're the ultimate power couple.

Angels and saints. Catholics tend to think of them as different from the rest of us. They're cast in plaster or simpering on a holy card, performing miracles with superhero strength, or playing a harp in highest heaven.

Yet they are very near to us in every way. In this lively book, Scott Hahn dispels the false notions and urban legends people use to keep the saints at a safe distance. The truth is that Jesus Christ has united heaven and earth in a close communion. Drawing deeply from Scripture, Dr. Hahn shows that the hosts of heaven surround the earthly Church as a great cloud of witnesses. The martyrs cry out from heaven's altar begging for justice on the earth. The prayers of the saints and angels rise to God, in the Book of Revelation, like the sweet aroma of incense.

Dr. Hahn tells the stories of several saints (and several angels too) in a way that's fresh and new. The saints are spiritual giants but with flesh-and-blood reality. They have strong, holy ambitions--and powerful temptations and opposition that must be overcome. Their stories are amazing and yet familiar enough to motivate us to live more beautiful lives. In this telling of their story, the saints are neither otherworldly nor this-worldly. They exemplify the integrated life that every Christian is called to live.

Still, their lives are as different from one another as human lives can be. Dr. Hahn shows the heavenly Church in all its kaleidoscopic diversity--from Moses to Mary, Augustine to Therese, and the first century to the last century.

Only saints will live in heaven. We need to be more like the saints if we want to live in heaven someday. Dr. Hahn shows us that our heavenly life can begin now.

It must.

Answering Jehovah's Witnesses walks you through the doctrines of the JWs, revealing where and why they're wrong--giving special attention to favorite verses and standard topics that a JW will use in rejecting the Catholic faith. The book provides helpful and practical suggestions for sharing your faith with Jehovah's Witnesses and planting seeds of truth. Planting seeds is easier than you might think. While most JWs appear to be well-informed Scripture scholars, they're just reading from a script with canned answers to your objections. For the most part they're surprisingly unfamiliar with the Bible. It doesn't take much to throw a monkey wrench into their belief system. Answering Jehovah's Witnesses will show you how.

Many good people reject the Catholic Church for what they consider to be its absurd teachings. In these pages, Archbishop Patrick John Ryan shows that these souls are mistaken not in condemning absurd teachings, but in believing those teachings to be Catholic.

Archbishop Ryan considers the most common charges levied against Catholicism, showing that not only are those scorned doctrines not Catholic, they're condemned by the Church! Here are just a few of the common misconceptions that are corrected in this book:

That the Church claims to endow its priests with the power of forgiveness a power reserved to God alone

That Catholics believe inanimate objects (such as relics and holy water) can perform miracles

That Catholics pray as well to statues, images, and relics, offering them worship that belongs to God alone

And a many more surprising charges!

We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him. For the Christian, explains author Peter Kreeft, being virtuous is not a means to the end of pleasure, comfort and happiness. Virtue, he reminds us, is a word that means manly strength. But how do we know when we are being meek--or just cowardly? When is our anger righteous--and when is it a sin? What is the difference between being virtuous--and merely ethical? Back to Virtue clears up these and countless other questions that beset Christians today. Kreeft not only summarizes scriptural and theological wisdom on leading a holy life, he contrasts Christian virtue with other ethical systems. He applies traditional moral theology to present-day dilemmas such as abortion and nuclear armament. Kreeft restores to us what was once common knowledge: the Seven Deadly Sins have an antidote in the Beatitudes. By setting up a close contrast between the two sets of behaviors, Kreeft offers proven guidance in the often bewildering process of discerning right from wrong as we move into the questionable mores of the twenty-first century. He provides a road map of virtue, a map for our earthly pilgrimage synthesized from the accumulated wisdom of centuries of Christians, from Paul and the early Church Fathers through C.S. Lewis.

In the new, groundbreaking book Becoming a Parish of Intentional Disciples, author and Catherine of Siena Institute co-founder Sherry Weddell has gathered fellow Church workers whose years of service in parish ministry have yielded hard-earned wisdom and enthusiasm for the work of transforming Catholic parishes into lively, faithful centers of apostolic outreach.

From the cross Jesus gave us his mother to be our mother, too: a singularly holy model, consoler, and intercessor for our spiritual journey. Yet most Protestants, and too many Catholics don't understand the role that God wants her to play in our lives. In Behold Your Mother, Tim Staples takes you through the Church's teachings about the Blessed Virgin Mary, showing their firm Scriptural and historical roots and dismantling the objections of those who mistakenly believe that Mary competes for the attention due Christ alone. Combining the best recent scholarship with a convert's in-depth knowledge of the arguments, Staples has assembled the most thorough and useful Marian apologetic you'll find anywhere. Relevant and essential -- Mary matters. Read Behold Your Mother and find out just how much.

What are the best things in life? Questions like that may boggle your mind. But they don't boggle Socrates. The indomitable old Greek brings his unending questions to Desperate State University. With him come the same mind-opening and spirit-stretching challenge that disrupted ancient Athens.

What is the purpose of education?

Why do we make love?

What good is money?

Can computers think like people?

Is there a difference between Capitalism and Communism?

What is the greatest good?

Is belief in God like belief in Santa Claus?

In twelve short, Socratic dialogues Peter Kreeft explodes contemporary values like success, power and pleasure. And he bursts the modern bubbles of agnosticism and subjectivism. He leaves you richer, wiser and more able to discern what the best things in life actually are.

On November 22, 1963, three great men died within a few hours of each other: C. S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. All three believed, in different ways, that death is not the end of human life. Suppose they were right, and suppose they met after death. How might the conversation go? Peter Kreeft imagines their discussion as a part of The Great Conversation that has been going on for centuries. Does human life have meaning? Is it possible to know about life after death? What if one could prove that Jesus was God? With Kennedy taking the role of a modern humanist, Lewis representing Christian theism and Huxley advocating Eastern pantheism, the dialogue is lively and informative. This new edition of this classic work includes a postscript in which Kreeft describes why and how he wrote what has remained a standard of apologetic literature for a generation. He also adds an outline and index to the book as well as a never-before-published dialog in which he imagines "A World Without an Easter." Now more than ever this book offers an animated interaction that involves not only good thinking but good drama.

Many Protestants call themselves "Bible Christians"--in contrast with Catholics, who ignore the Bible because they have the Church instead. We should embrace Sacred Scripture--not just as the revealed written word of God but as a thoroughly Catholic work, intimately connected with the Church from the earliest centuries. In The Bible Is a Catholic Book, Jimmy shows how the Bible cannot exist apart from the Church. In its origins and its formulation, in the truths it contains, in its careful preservation over the centuries and in the prayerful study and elucidation of its mysteries, Scripture is inseparable from Catholicism. This is fitting, since both come from God for our salvation. If you're a Catholic who sometimes gets intimidated by the Bible (especially scriptural challenges from Protestants), The Bible Is a Catholic Book will help you better understand and take pride in this gift that God gave the world through the Church. We are the original "Bible Christians"! And even non-Catholics will appreciate the clear and charitable way that Jimmy explains how the early Church gave us the Bible--and how the Church to this day reveres and obeys it.

A Biblical defence of the Catholic Faith. With a mastery of Scripture equal to that of the most committed Protestants, author David Armstrong shows that the Catholic Church is the "Bible Church par excellence," and that many common Protestant doctrines are in fact not biblical.

David Currie was raised in a devout Christian family whose father was a fundamentalist preacher and both parents teachers at Moody Bible Institute. Currie's whole upbringing was immersed in the life of fundamentalist Protestantism - theology professors, seminary presidents and founders of evangelical mission agencies were frequent guests at his family dinner table. Currie received a degree from Trinity International University and studied in the Masters of Divinity program. This book was written as an explanation to his fundamentalist and evangelical friends and family about why he became a Roman Catholic. Currie presents a very lucid, systematic and intelligible account of the reasons for his conversion to the ancient Church that Christ founded. He gives a detailed discussion of the important theological and doctrinal beliefs Catholic and evangelicals hold in common, as well as the key doctrines that separate us, particularly the Eucharist, the Pope, and Mary.