The Catholic Verses
It took me a while, but I finally finished this reading “The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants” by Dave Armstrong. The book is broken up into 16 chapters and is about 225 pages. The book is down in an interesting format. It presents a topic like The Church is the “Pillar of the Truth”. It then provides a bible passage or passages to support the statement. Then it provides what I would describe as a miniature debate on the validity of the assertion. It presents many opposing opinions and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each opinion. It includes quotes from some very influential Christians including Martin Luther, John Calvin and many other Christian writers and apologists. The author is clearly very knowledgeable and a good debater. I learned a tremendous amount about Luther and Calvin. Much more than I have learned in similar books that I have read. The book covers a wide range of very controversial topics that divide Christianity. I am very glad I read this book. However, I have some reservations about this book. In my opinion, it often has an attitude that sounds like the author is gloating about the impenetrability of his defense of Catholicism and making fun of opposing views. I certainly would not recommend this book to my non Catholic Christian friends without first warning them about this attitude. However, his arguments are sound and easy to follow. I was just not thrilled with the presentation at times.
posted by CatholicFatherOf2 @ 7:59 PM
1 Comments:
Calvinism makes me cringe. Someone who was trying to convince me that Calvinism was the truth kept saying things like "It's ok--I didn't like the idea that God was in control either when I wasn't a Calvinist" and "Don't worry--not everyone can be as enlightened as Calvinists."
The attitude of people who think they know everything--regardless of whether they do or not--often is lost in the condescending presentation of their arguments. It seems like everything these days is about winning the debate. People rarely express a true concern for others' hearts, rather, it appears they just want to be right and prove that they are right.
It's very sad, but it's kind of the nature of America these days. It isn't about the issue, but rather, attacking the opposing argument and belittling them.
Hopefully this won't be the case forever. =(
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