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Summary: Great theology woven into personal testimonies
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Surprised by Truth. Each of the 11 contributors tells a personal story of search and enlightenment. This would be my book of choice to give to fallen away Catholics or those who are lukewarm about their faith. Many people who were born Catholic lack conviction and "fire" for their religion. This book is also a great starting point for those of other Christian groups who have little knowledge about the Catholic Church's real teachings. I don't fall into any of these categories. I read the book because I do missionary work with people of mostly Protestant persuasion, and I wanted to understand them better. So....for many reasons, I heartily recommend Surprised by Truth to anyone who wants to learn how people think about religion. Did I mention that the book is also a delight to read? The people come alive through their stories, and this makes the reading much more enjoyable than struggling through a scholarly work.
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Summary: This book started it all for me. I'm Catholic now!
Review: I saw the reviews on this book and knew I needed to read it. I only saw one negative review; someone who said that the converts presented in the book were not "fully" immersed in true protestantism. As a former Protestant who was raised in the faith, studies apologetics, studies scripture, and studied the reformers, I had (and still have) a dynamic and lasting relationship with our Lord. I also know that the questions that are asked in this book helped propell me to a fuller understanding of Christianity. These converts (and now me) asked the hard questions, and answered them honestly. They ended up "in Rome" because they have the honesty to look into our comon history and recognize that the Lord did not wait 1500 years to provide us with the truth. He provided it in a Church, a Rock, an apostolic tradition, that continues today. This book brought me to true Christianity....Catholic Christianity!
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Summary: soup kitchen
Review: Entering the Catholic Church in my early teens, I remember our youth group volunteering at the soup kitchen, collecting baby supplies for the local crisis pregnancy center, and raking leaves for the elderly. I never waived my hands in the air at a church service, attended a conference or listed to an audio tract-nothing wrong with that, I guess. When I got to college, some students informed me that I needed to find Jesus in my life. One student even accused me of praying to dead saints, and worshiping statues. Super! I hear that she is now home schooling. Those kids should be great. Well, thanks to this book, if some co-ed accuses me of leaving Jesus nailed to the cross, I can now answer them at their own high level, and I guess that there is something earthly appealing about that. Honestly, though, I learned a lot about the Catholic faith from books like this-things that I probably should have known. But, in the larger picture, I think that I was way ahead in my faith journey back when I was a silly kid in youth group, then at any period during my time spent studying apologetics.
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Summary: Perfect for those who seach for the truth with an open heart
Review: I found this book to be especially relevant to my own religious journey; coming from the protestan/Presbyterian faith to become a Catholic. This book does not take aim at unduly criticizing and undermining the protestant faiths, but rather uses examples of real people who have come to know what the Catholic church REALLY is about through in depth personal struggles and objective analysis of church history. A must read for any open minded christian who is researching the Catholic faith. I recommed this book highly!
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Summary: Evidence that Rome is the foundation of Christianity.
Review: Surprised by Truth was a very exciting book to read. The authors give honest, intelligent, and compelling reasons for Catholicism. This book covers subjects from the primacy of Peter, biblical interpretation, the Mother of our Lord, justification by faith working in love, and much more. I believe this book will give many Christians a stronger faith and a greater zeal for sharing their Catholic faith with others. It's good to know that the Catholic Church is receiving such wonderful people into the family of God.
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Summary: EXCELLENT TITLE FOR AN EXCELLENT BOOK!
Review: This book is EXCELLENT! I'm so thankful there's a book out there that explains everything that I've known and felt, but could not put into words to defend. So many good 'bible christian Protestants' think that their way is the true way, but how can one honestly believe this when so many Protestant religions totally disagree on scripture passages?How can one think it acceptable to interpret the bible however they want to??! Gee, what an awesome thing if it were actually true that we could do anything we wanted on earth, commit any sin we like, and that when we die, we'll just automatically go to heaven! It's sad that so many people are deceived by this (by the devil, no doubt...the Master of Deception!) Boy, are they in for a surprise on Judgement Day! If one would just be open and pray for GUIDANCE, one would most definitely come Home to the One, True Church...the church Jesus HIMSELF started...The Catholic Church...not some church started by a human in the 1500s!!!!
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Summary: Renergizing and Refreshing
Review: Before heading to Mass today at St Jude Parish, I read a few reviews and then at Mass right before the receiving the flesh and divinity of the "Word Made Flesh", I prayed for the health and intentions of Dr Scott Hahn and that the Holy Spirit continue to renew his evangelization efforts. I read SBT and SBTII a few years ago and went into an explosion in reading other testimonies. It has convicted me to study more and intensify my efforts in spreading the truth, as someone said earlier, "of a visible and structured Church", to family and friends.
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Summary: Surprised by the Falsity? - No, not really
Review: The Scriptures tell us that there will be those who leave the Body of Christ for another religion. In 1 John 2:19, it reads: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us" (NIV). In Galatians 5:4, Paul tells the false believers in Galatia: "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace" (NIV). The reason why people depart from the truth is because they have never really been touched by God's grace. These eleven "conversion" stories demonstrate to the readers what happens when false Christians infiltrate the Body of Christ - they eventually leave. There are no biblical or historical reasons for jumping off the boat. Roman Catholicism has not produced the great systematic theologians, biblical scholars, and historians that many Protestant denominations have. Go to a Christian library and you'll see that most of the scholarly works are written by evangelical Protestants. The only things that the Romanists get their "doctrinal" training are from the Pope and their erroneous Cathechism. These people do no serious theologizing or exegeting. They ridicule Protestants for upholding sola scriptura, while they prefer to derive their doctrines from fallible sources. This book will mislead many. It is not an objective book on Roman Catholicism. No research or serious study of Scriptures. Hence, it is no surprise that they still hold to false doctrines - salvation by faith and works, the high reverance for Mary, the inclusion of non-inspired books into the canon, the literal substance of Christ in the bread and wine, and a very hierarchical ecclesial dictatorship. Roman Catholics and Protestants will never be able to reconcile their differences because the former hold to a false gospel that will not save even the most sincere soul. Absolutely no surprise in this book.
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Summary: Come On In - the Water's Fine!
Review: With the possible exceptions of Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism and Scott and Kimberly Hahn's Rome Sweet Home, no recent works of Catholic apologetics have been as instrumental in winning converts to Rome as the Surprised by Truth series edited by Patrick Madrid. Consisting of conversion stories by prominent Roman Catholics who originally were part of other Christian (or non-Christian) traditions, it takes as its theme the "surprise" (or shock) many Evangelical Protestants experience when they encounter the early Church and are faced with beliefs and practices that vary considerably from what they see regularly in their own Churches. This is the first in the series and caused a sensation (for a Roman Catholic book) when published. The fact that so many moving to Rome cite Surprised by Truth provides some evidence of Patrick Madrid's astuteness in selecting testimonials - a point further confirmed by reading it. The essays blend together remarkably well and Madrid adroitly avoids the danger of stifling uniformity by drawing upon those who approached Rome from across the ecclesial spectrum. Another plus in this regard is an intermingling of those who were initially drawn by different concerns so the approach is not completely one-dimensional. Protestants often criticize the essays as insufficient to prove the Roman case and highly emotional in character. Both these claims are quite true but this is not the detriment the critics make it to be. One could hardly expect a new convert to prove within twenty pages what the greatest theologians have employed years and many volumes to attempt. As for the emotional content, conversions always have an emotional aspect to them and a presentation that attempts to ignore this is built upon dishonesty. The essays contained here are more or less emotional depending upon the makeup of the individual, the amount of "surprise" experienced, and the sense of betrayal felt by discovering what you had been told what was of the Apostles is actually of recent origin. A positive sign by these converts is despite the emotional upheaval, they display no evidence of lasting anger at their former ecclesial homes. The one flaw in this book is shared by the genre - shallowness. New converts are not always the best ones to express the riches of the faith. Even if they have done much prior study, reading about the grace of God and receiving the grace of God are not equivalent experiences. While the "let's have the new guy go up and give his testimony" approach may suffice in the superficial environs of modern Evangelicalism, those more mature in their faith are probably better witnesses in richer traditions. Any expectations of an exhaustive defense for Roman Catholic beliefs in a book like this are remarkably wrongheaded. Madrid planned neither a work of systematic theology nor a catechism. Collections like this are usually read by those already on their way but unsure if things are quite what they seem. The message given is not "this is all you need to see we are right" but "come on in - the water's fine". Given that limitation, Surprised by Truth can only be viewed as a rousing success.
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Summary: To "a reader" (who might consider doing just that)
Review: No, Christ wasn't Catholic. He was Jewish. But he did found a church, and that church is visible and structured, and is the Catholic (meaning simply 'universal') Church. I would hope that those interested in learning about this book would be able to look beyond the childish polemics of "a reader" (nothing inspires confidence quite like anonymity) and see this book for what it is: a set of 11 conversion stories. Each author in this book presents a different story, each dealing with a different topic in his/her own words. Chances are, none of the stories will relate to your particular situation perfectly. But chances are also that each and every one of them will relate in some way or another. This is an excellent beginning apologetics book. It presents some clear and convincing arguments for the existence and primacy of Christ's Church, and likely will make you laugh and cry along the way. Most highly recommended. ...
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