The title is:How to Go From Being a Good Evangelical to a Committed Catholic in Ninety-Five Difficult Steps (Cascade Books, 2011) by Notre Dame sociologist, Christian Smith, PhD.
Here is the endorsement by the author of ON BEING CATHOLIC, Thomas Howard:
“I expect that this book may turn out to be the definitive text (short of the Fathers only!) for evangelicals who are prepared to address themselves courageously to the ecclesiological question. Smith’s writing is brisk, starkly clear, challenging, and exhaustive (not exhausting!); he leaves no stone unturned. This is the best book I’ve seen on the topic.”
-Thomas Howard
These books are so much better at putting into words what many of us" Evangelical Protestant to Catholic" have come to understand and have been given the grace and faith to believe. So many people have asked me over the last, not quite 2 years, "Why?" Not just "why?" but, more to the point, "Why on earth would you want to be Catholic, especially with all of those pedophile priests! Look at what the Catholic politicians vote for! How can you say they are even Christian, much less the "first Christians were Catholic??"
The most simple answer would be to say, "I definitely would not want to be called a Catholic in America in this day and time!" But, you see, no one asked me for my opinion. It was like being held by the hand through every book I read about The Church Fathers or by brilliant theologians, like Dr. Scott Hahn, Dr. Beckwith, etc, and a true opening of my eyes in light of what the first Jewish/Christians believed and wrote in their Gospels and Epistles. How they understood this truth about God, about the Messiah and how Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary was truly who He said He was and that He truly was crucified and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
Pull it away from it's Jewish roots and it does not fit. Pull the Sacred Scriptures of the New Testament apart from the Apostolic faith handed down by Christ to His Disciples and from them to others that hand on this "...faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" and it will seem to contradict itself no matter how much you try to pretend it doesn't. Without the Apostolic faith and tradition, it seems you have St. Paul clearly teaching contradictory to what Our Lord said in the Gospels. Even St. Peter seems to relax The Law (Torah), which Jesus in his Divinity and humanity said must be kept (even the "smallest jot would not pass away).
If anyone doubts this or even argues against it, let all of the thousands of "sola scriptura" (the Bible Alone) denominations be the proof. They have the same Sacred texts and they cannot agree how it should be interpretted with the others. Doctrines, creeds, and beliefs of varying degrees disagree with one another from this one "Bible Alone" belief. Would Our Lord really have left His Church in such confusion about what to believe? Would HE have really left the Disciples that He prays for to The Father that "they may be One as You and I are One" with such confusion over what to believe?
With nothing but St. Paul's inspired writings we can see how important it was that they all "agree" with one another in "the faith"...not "faiths". BUT, when you understand this Sacred Scripture with the eyes of The Church that was given the grace of The Holy Spirit to know which sacred texts should be read and taught to all in the faith - everything falls into place perfectly.
Am I sorry that I was given the grace to believe and come into full communion with The Catholic Church at this time? Absolutely not! Through over 2000 years this Church has seen the worst of times and the best of times over and over and still She prevails. It is not because everyone in the visible Church is or was perfect - hardly! No, it was Our Lord's promise that the very gates of Hades would not prevail against Her. He never said it wouldn't batter the doors until they looked almost ready to fall. Yet, His promise to His Church remains and the doors are sometimes very strong and other times they are very shaky.
I am glad to be on this Rock during times of trial and pruning. I can't imagine the real Church ever being loved by the world. Jesus said if "the world hated Him" it would hate His followers.
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