DugSpot

Having been asked for Catholic reading suggestions — from the casually curious, the skeptical, and those mid-stream in their own ecclesial discernment — I figured it might be helpful to put some suggestions online, rather than trying to reconstitute my (scattered) thinking in response to new queries (though, of course, I’m always glad to try to help, and am not meaning to discourage new or more specific questions).

Where possible, I’ve included links to free, online sources, as well as links to book listings on Amazon (for informational purposes — descriptions, reviews, etc. — not commercial endorsement, though you often can find good deals on used copies listed there).

THE MAGISTERIUM

- For Catholic doctrine, there’s no better single source than the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), a beautiful, authoritative synthesis of Church teaching, and comprehensive overview of the Catholic faith, grounded in Scripture, and the Fathers and Councils of the Church.  For any serious study of Catholicism, it is indispensible.  I strongly prefer the second Libreria Editrice Vaticana edition w/ the green cover, which has a readable layout, a helpful glossary in the back, and a better index than the prior edition.  (For some reason, I find the cramped layout of the Image/Doubleday mass-market edition off-putting and nearly unreadable.)  The Catechism text is also available online in searchable format at sites like http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm and http://www.kofc.org/un/publications/cis/catechism/index.cfm

- If you want a more compact — but fully authoritative — place to start, the Church more recently issued the  Compendium of the Catechism, a far shorter condensation of Catholic teaching in Q&A format. As a summary, it omits a lot of the scriptural and patristic substance of the Catechism. But its concise answers include cross references to CCC paragraphs if you want to look more deeply into any of the questions it addresses. The Compendium text is also available online at the Vatican website.

ANOTHER OVERVIEW

- Catholic Christianity, by Peter Kreeft, is subtitled “A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church” and fulfills that purpose admirably.  Penned by a formerly-Protestant professor of philosophy, its more explanatory tone makes it a helpful introduction for non-Catholic Christians.  The contents (which carry an Imprimatur) are also available for free online, divided into a series of free booklets produced by the Knights of Columbus.

GREAT, IRENIC READS

- I highly recommend George Weigel’s Letters to a Young Catholic, an enjoyable book that reads easily, like a travelogue, but is also a deep, beautiful explanation of the sacramentality of Catholic Christianity.

- Thomas Howard’s book Evangelical is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament made a big impression on me during my inquiring days all those years ago, and is a good introductory book for Christians unfamiliar with liturgy and sacrament (Howard himself was not yet Catholic when he wrote it).

- Death on a Friday Afternoon, by Richard John Neuhaus, is a thought-provoking, faith-expanding meditation on the seven last utterances of Jesus from the cross. I’ve read it twice before, and intend to revisit it again. It’s perfect reading for Lent.

- Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic is a popular book written by David P. Currie, a grateful Baptist preacher’s kid (PK) and Trinity graduate, that addresses most of the major Catholic distinctives in a loving way, for his friends and family.

EARLY CHURCH FATHERS

- The early Fathers of the Church, some of whom were disciples of the Apostles, bore heroic witness to their faith in Jesus Christ (often at the cost of their lives) during a period of breathtaking missionary expansion, and their writings are an indispensible window into the teaching and worship of the earliest Christians. There are various free versions online, most of which are derived from the same archaic 19th century English translations now in the public domain.  If (like me) you cannot afford to buy the individual volumes in the excellent, newly translated Ancient Christian Writers series, I highly recommend the William Jurgens compendium, Faith of the Early Fathers because of the scholarly, modern translations, the handy doctrinal index, and the very helpful (and sometimes humorous) biographical introductions for each section.

AUTHORS TO LOOK FOR

- Scott Hahn is a prolific Presbyterian-pastor-turned-Catholic theologian whose covenant-based approach to salvation history has produced a powerful and illuminating series of very approachable books.  I have read, and can entusiastically recommend (so long as you can abide the puns in his chapter titles), A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God’s Covenant Love in Scripture (on covenant history), The Lamb’s Supper (on the Mass as participation in the heavenly liturgy), First Comes Love (on the Trinity, the Church, and the family), Reasons to Believe (an apologia for Catholic Christianity), Hail, Holy Queen (on the role of Mary in the Faith), and Rome Sweet Home (a personal account of his journey into the Church).  Although it’s not cheap, I highly recommend Understanding the Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study, a beautifully illustrated, comprehensive textbook suitable for high school, college, or adult education classes.  Dr. Hahn also has some free online courses and resources at http://www.salvationhistory.com/ that I haven’t used, but I expect are good.

- If you haven’t read any G.K. Chesterton, you should.  He has a whimsical facility for turning unexamined assumptions on their heads, if only to get more blood to the brains. Orthodoxy recently celebrated its centenary, and remains my favorite of his books (you also can find it online various places for free).  I also put a couple of his Catholic-specific pieces into PDF format several years ago, if you’re interested: The Catholic Church and Conversion (28 pages), and Upon this Rock (4 pages).

REFERENCE MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

- While sometimes archaic and technical in its expression, the online version of the 1918 Catholic Encyclopedia is a tremendous, comprehensive resource on just about any subject you can think of.

- The Holy See is the official Vatican website that, while a bit tough to navigate, contains a growing wealth of authoritative information.  Some of the more helpful links include the Resource Library (which, in addition to the Bible and Catechism, includes the documents of Vatican II, the Code of Canon Law, and other books) and the Papal Archive.  If you haven’t read anything from the Second Vatican Council, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation and the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church are both important resources.

- EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) maintains a useful website with loads of devotional resources, a document and audio library, news links, and other materials.

- Some years back, following another BBS-poster’s lead, I put together a handy scripture reference sheet that may or may not be of use to someone other than me.

- If disputes about justification loom large in your thinking, you should carefully read the Catechism on “Grace and Justification,” the 1997 Lutheran-Catholic “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,” the brief, clarifying “Response of the Catholic Church,” and the statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) on “The Gift of Salvation.”  Areas of commonality and difference are frequently misunderstood, sometimes obscured by terminology, and are helpfully addressed in various articles by Catholic Answers apologist James Akin, some of which were combined and expanded in his book The Salvation Controversy.  It is also worth reading through the Canons and Decrees of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent themselves.

- Although they’re not official documents of the Catholic Church, I highly recommend the various statements by Evangelicals and Catholics together (ECT) as charitable, even-handed descriptions of commonality, difference, and shared mission on certain significant issues: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium (May 1994), The Gift of Salvation (January 1998), Your Word Is Truth (August 2002),  The Communion of Saints (March 2003), The Call to Holiness (March 2005), and That They May Have Life (October 2006).

This list is (of course) not exhaustive, but may point you to some helpful resources for your own inquiry and study.