By Patrick Madrid
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
Wonderful Series,
To see and hear many of these converts in person, you can check them out on the Journey Home program from EWTN. Wonderful and impressive given all they had to go through to find the truth. Phil Porvaznik  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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34 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting but not particularly convincing,
This book contains testimonials from ten Protestants who converted to Catholicism. The stories are very interesting to read, so from that perspective, I would rate this book as a 4. But when dealing with a topic as major as changing one's faith, it needs to go beyond just interesting to be convincing. I am a Protestant who is not considering the Catholic faith but just read the book out of curiosity. While the stories were emotionally compelling, after reading them all, I ended up feeling, "Okay, but nothing in here convinces me that the Catholic Church is the only true church." Sure, the people in these testimonials made it clear that they spent years thinking, praying, and studying about the issue before making the decision, and I believe them when they say that God was the one who was leading them to Catholicism. But there are also people I know who have come out of the Catholic Church to a fresh faith in God, and I think that is where God led them too. Of course, the book is not meant to be a point-by-point proof of why the Catholic Church is the one true church; it's a testimonial. But still, a good portion of it contains these persons' descriptions of the struggles of their theological beliefs in their journey to Catholicism. The most interesting stories to me were: 1) The couple who believed only two groups could be the true church--the Anabaptists or the Catholics. They left their professional, wealthy careers and went into an Anabaptist community (it sounded nearly Amish, though they didn't use that word), but got disillusioned from the experience and determined that it was then the Catholic Church that was the true one. 2) A woman whose brother is well-known for his forceful writings condemning the Catholic Church...what she had to suffer by becoming a Catholic! 3) A Baptist man who became interested in Catholicism by dating a Catholic woman. (Most of the people were fundamentalists or evangelicals in their Protestant years.) The common theme I saw in all these stories was that they began to struggle with the ways the various Protestant denominations all said they believed solely in the Bible, yet they didn't agree. If the Bible is true and the Church is one under Jesus, then how can they read the same things and disagree with each other? It was at this realization that most of these people began to search and finally settled on the authority of the one historical church, the Catholic Church. One of the authors said of such a discussion among twelve learned evangelicals, where there ended up being nine different interpretations of the scripture regarding divorce and remarriage, "This diversity [of viewpoints] bothered me, but what bothered me more was that no one but me found it to be a problem." And I'd have to agree with the twelve--I don't find it to be a problem either. And that's the main reason why this book is unconvincing to me. Time and again, this is the crucial breakdown point that begins their search which ends in conversion to Catholicism, but as a reader who doesn't see a problem with that, I fail to be convinced by the other theological arguments for the Catholic Church being the one true church. Something important I did get out of the book was how many of the authors pointed out that once they began studying the early church fathers, they were surprised at how CATHOLIC they were! Protestant churches imagine the early church being quite fluid and informal--most Protestant churches say their goal is to imitate the church found in the Acts Of The Apostles--so this is very intriguing indeed. So now I want to read things from the early church fathers to find out what the scoop is on this. I suppose Patrick Madrid would consider that a purpose achieved from his book. P.S. The book contains an annotated bibliography of 26 books for further research, plus a list of addresses & e-mail addresses of the contributing authors. Very helpful! Comments (5) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
It Converted Me All Over Again,
This is a compilation of conversion stories of folks who converted to Catholicism. They tell their personal stories, in detail, through the doubts and inconsistencies they faced in their former traditions, and sometimes, providential introduction to Catholicism. They describe their journey in search for truth, and finally the joyous steps through the doors of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The individuals include: 1. A former soldier of a nation and present soldier of Christ and priest of God 2. A former Anglican 3. A former "a la carte" contracepting Catholic couple and present defenders of Life 4. A former "Left Behind"-ing Rapturist and present Catholic apologist 5. A former Commune-er and present Communion receiver 6. A seeker of Truth 7. A former Anglican priest 8. A former radical traditionalist (SSPX) adherent, present Canon lawyer 9. A former Baptist lawyer, present Catholic defender 10. A former Anti-Catholic and sister to Catholicism's most formidable anti-Catholic apologist, Dr. James White- now in the most ironic of twists, she and the grace of God are our best hope for Mr. White's conversion. This book has changed my views of many things. Indeed, it has opened my eyes to the difficulties most Protestants have in accepting the Catholic faith, especially considering the traditions from which they came. It has also humbled my approach to this process. It can never be a black and white process of truth and heresy, submission or rejection- in matters of the heart and faith, these things take times; for some, years. There was numerous times when negative approaches were demonstrated which reflected my past as well as some lingering habits I still have. This book was a "mirror" to my conscience at times. Although it is right to strive for Christian perfection, as the Catechism and the Bible inspire us towards, we cannot give way to Pride, EVER! A chilling quote which still haunts my conscience, even though I have evolved and improved, it is not totally gone, was said by a Saint to the Jansenists: "Your piety is that of the angels, but your pride is that of the devils!" Wow! What a saying. There's just to many good things about this book to mention just a few; to choose one over the other is injustice to the consistent priceless value each of these stories hold. It converted me all over again!!!! Highly recommended! Dominus Vobiscum, Laurence A. Gonzaga Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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