Catholic apologetics is back. It's everywhere. As a professional apologist, Mark Brumley sees this renaissance as an immensely good thing-an essential part of the Church's evangelical mission. Even so, grave dangers attend the apologetics renaissance. Some of them are so serious that, left unaddressed, they threaten to undermine the good apologetics can accomplish. Brumley calls these dangers the Seven Deadly Sins of Catholic Apologetics and Evangelization. Like the seven deadly sins of the moral life, they are "deadly" not merely as isolated, individual acts but as vices or evil habits-habitual tendencies to act in a certain way. In this volume, Brumley exposes them for you.
"In writing about the seven deadly sins of apologetics, Brumley is not rejecting apologetics but rather defending it from itself. He shows how an apologetics that seeks to prove too much can undermine the very faith it is intended to support. He also shows how an apologetics that builds on reason alone, instead of deferring to the word of God, can impoverish the faith of Christians, as did liberal Protestantism.
"There is no need for me to summarize the contents of this brief, lively, and eminently readable book. At a moment when apologetics is gaining new vitality in English-speaking Catholicism, Brumley's book could serve as a valuable handbook for all of the new apologists. It could save them from the vocational hazards that are almost inseparable from their calling." -Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Religion and Society, Fordham University
"Our mission is to advance God's work of redeeming and sanctifying the world, to bring all people to salvation in Jesus Christ. The value of Mark Brumley's book is that he helps us see that. He also gives us the tools to act on it. He is articulate, persuasive, balanced, and sensible, and the spirit he brings to this marvelously readable, useful work demonstrates Catholic apologetics at its best: zeal for the truth, informed by patience, respect and love. I can offer no higher praise. -Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver
"This book should be required reading for all amateur and professional Catholic apologists. It is genuinely useful and totally trustworthy, faithful both to the Catholic faith and to human reason and good sense, for it has obviously been tested under 'battlefield conditions' and verified." -Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
Raised without a specific faith or religious exposure, Mark Brumley began a long spiritual journey that led him through several Protestant denominations to arrive finally at the Catholic Church in 1980. Since then he has taught and lectured about the faith in a wide range of forums, including as an adjunct professor for the Institute for Pastoral Theology of Ave Maria University. He is an editor at Ignatius Press, and serves as general editor of the Ignatius Catholic Encyclopedia of Apologetics. He lives with his wife, Debbie, and their five children in Napa, California.
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