Dante and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Faith and Reason

The topic of the relatedness between reason and faith is important. As people leave the faith in high numbers, one of the reasons given is that faith and reason — more specifically, scientific reason — are viewed as incompatible. The Cath … [Read more...]

God Is Not Ineffective Against Evil

The problem of evil is a profound enigma. Even for people who believe in God, the presence of evil can be overwhelming. Many ask, “How could God be so silent or inactive?” A look at history reveals countless evils, including wars and gen … [Read more...]

Questions Answered – April 2021

Evils and Euphemisms Question: In public statements and debate with the promoters of the killing of unborn human beings, shouldn’t the euphemisms “abort, abortion” be avoided? It understates the horror of elective child murder. It sanit … [Read more...]

Outgrowing Jesus?

How Atheist Richard Dawkins' Recent Book Misleads Young Adults

Outgrowing God, the most recent book by famed evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins, caught my eye when being prominently displayed in a local bookstore following its release in late 2019.[1. R. Dawkins, Outgrowing … [Read more...]

Book Reviews – October 2019

The Smoke of Satan By Philip F. Lawler. Reviewed by Sean J. Donnelly. (skip to review) Mind, Heart & Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome By R.J. Snell and Robert P. George. Reviewed by K.E. Colombini. (skip to … [Read more...]

Book Reviews for Late Autumn 2018

The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order By Scott Hahn. Reviewed by Matthew Rose. (skip to review) In Praise of the Useless Life: A Monk’s Memoir By Paul Quenon. Reviewed by Matthew K. M … [Read more...]

Law and Freedom—“Do I Have to Go to Church Today, Mom!?”

I don’t do apologetics. I can do apologetics, I have a background in theology, from seminary formation, as well as Catholic graduate education. I do catechesis, I teach and do theology, my understanding of the New Evangelization is what the … [Read more...]

How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian

The Problem of Divine Violence as Considered in Recent Curial Documents

Introduction If God exists, he is not the God of the Christian Bible. At least this is the conclusion drawn by many prominent authors and cultural commentators in our society today. The rise of agnosticism and atheism in contemporary … [Read more...]

Catechetical and Pastoral Emphasis in the Apologetics of Frank Sheed

Vatican II calls the laity to take a more active role in not just the worshipping life of the Church, but the teaching life, too. While Sheed agrees  ... we evangelize best principally through a pastorally oriented and properly formed … [Read more...]

The Latest Book Reviews

Late Summer Reading For August 2013   Reviews for the following books: A MYSTICISM OF KINDNESS: The Biography of “Marie Christine.”  By Astrid M. O’Brien. (Scranton: Scranton University Press, 2010). (Reviewed by Rev. John J. Conley, S. … [Read more...]

Should homilies offer systematic instruction?

June 2013 Editorial

...there has been, in my view, a serious neglect of instruction of the faithful in the fundamentals of the Catholic faith in a systematic way in most of our parishes. Recently a priest friend asked me, “How can we teach the faith during S … [Read more...]

Apologetics for highschoolers

A PHILADELPHIA CATHOLIC IN KING JAMES'S COURT. By Martin de Porres Kennedy (Littlefield Press, W. 5180 Jefferson St., Necedah, Wis. 54646, 1999), 316 pp. PB $12.95.

I have always been Catholic; born and raised in the heavily Catholic community in San Francisco, I attended Catholic schools from Kindergarten through undergraduate. I never needed apologetics because everyone I knew was Catholic. My … [Read more...]

Frontier Convert and Apologist for the Church

THE TRUE CHURCH: THE PATH WHICH LED A PROTESTANT LAWYER TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. By Peter H. Burnett (Solas Press, P.O. Box 4066, Antioch, CA 94531, [2004]), xxx + 298 + viii + 420 pp. HB $39.95. (Available online through www.solaspress.com).

This weighty tome (two volumes in one), originally published in 1860, is a frontier Apologia pro vita sua written by a lawyer who converted from a protestant movement, known as the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, to Catholicism while … [Read more...]

Catholic Apologetics

The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants. By Dave Armstrong (Sophia Institute Press, Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108, 1-800-888-9344, www.sophiainstitute.com, 2004), xviii + 233 pp. PB $19.95.

Sixty or seventy years ago the casual stroller through Hyde Park in London might find a crowd gathered around a man standing on a soapbox and defending the Catholic faith. Frank Sheed, the greatest lay apologist of the twentieth century, … [Read more...]