Rating: 
Summary: An excellent reference
Review: Keating's writing style is wonderful for any one to grasp. This book allows for ready answers to questions that often come up, and allows the reader to offer answers to others in words that my not be so handy to those that are not as gifted verbally as Keating.
Rating: 
Summary: A book for sincere Catholics who wonder about their faith.
Review: This book does not purport to explain all Catholic beliefs, and it is not a defense of the faith against attacks by, for example, Fundamentalists. (For such a defense, see my "Catholicism and Fundamentalism.")"What Catholics Really Believes" is intended to help existing Catholics understand their religion more fully. It discusses misconceptions they may have about it. Even good Catholics can find themselves taking on beliefs or practices that are incompatible with Church teachings. Some Catholics discover they were not well instructed in the faith when they were younger and so have some "stray baggage" that should be taken care of today. I deal with 52 distinct issues, choosing ones that come up again and again in conversations. Of course, I could have dealt with many more, but 52 seemed like a good number--one misconception for each week of the year!
Rating: 
Summary: awesome book describing the TRUTH of Catholicism.
Review: This book explains what Catholics REALLY believe and WHY. A wonderful book on Catholic apologetics writeen by a well-known author on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too serious...
Review: This book is much more about WHAT Catholics believe than WHY. I am a Catholic, but I have, like probably all or most Catholics, plenty of misconceptions about our faith. I hoped for a good clarification, and I got some, O'K, a lot. That's the part that I liked. However, in too many chapters Keating is just stating the position of the Church without any justification. To make things worse, when he tries to justify the position of the Church, he does that in a way that is condescending to other religions. Just one example: writing about the rosary he says first that the Protestants think that the rosary is un-biblical, while he claims it is. He goes on to look at all the prayers of the rosary sentence by sentence. He points out parts that came straight from the Bible, and then... parts that are NOT from the Bible, and that CANNOT be justified based on the Bible. His comment is that the Protestants "read too much into it." This just did not sound right to me. There are too many statements like that one in the book to really enjoy it. The book is not too bad as the first contact with apologetics, but for serious answers look somewhere else...
Rating: 
Summary: Soundbite Heavy/SubstanceLite
Review: This book is very easy to read and does outline the basic misconceptions about the Catholic church. Unfortunately, it offers little in the way of substance -- of the "why" the misconception is wrong based on biblical and/or Church documents. In short, it's great if what you want is a list of misconceptions. But -- if you're looking for real meat -- the real reason (and source of the reason) for the true Catholic belief to respond to the misconceptions, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Soundbite Heavy/SubstanceLite
Review: This book is very easy to read and does outline the basic misconceptions about the Catholic church. Unfortunately, it offers little in the way of substance -- of the "why" the misconception is wrong based on biblical and/or Church documents. In short, it's great if what you want is a list of misconceptions. But -- if you're looking for real meat -- the real reason (and source of the reason) for the true Catholic belief to respond to the misconceptions, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Soundbite Heavy/SubstanceLite
Review: This book is very easy to read and does outline the basic misconceptions about the Catholic church. Unfortunately, it offers little in the way of substance -- of the "why" the misconception is wrong based on biblical and/or Church documents. In short, it's great if what you want is a list of misconceptions. But -- if you're looking for real meat -- the real reason (and source of the reason) for the true Catholic belief to respond to the misconceptions, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Many good explanations
Review: This book offered many explanations that helped me understand some of the things Catholics believe. However some of the points did not offer much back-up, which makes it difficult when talking to non-Catholics about it. This book has still been a great help and has helped me to answer many questions of non-Catholic friends. I recommend this book for anyone, but for non-Catholics, keep an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: They Certainly do NOT believe in the Bible
Review: This book tries to set the record straight on what Romanists really believe. Unfortunately, like all other books by Romanists, the book contains deception and play on words that no reader will get an accurate understanding of this religion. The plain fact is that Romanists really do believe in salvation by faith and works (contrary to Romans 3:20), that Mary never lost her virginity (what about James?), that the apocrypha is inspired (this is contrary to centuries of Jewish tradition and is derived from the Septuagint rather than the original Hebrew text), that Christ's substance is really in the bread and wine (this is based on an awful "exegesis" of John 6:53-58 that would even put most hardline literalist fundamentalists to shame), and that the Roman Church is a very hierarchical ecclesial dictatorship that dictates doctrines (contrary to the simple congregational type of churches in the first century and the spirit of the Bereans). If you want an objective view of Romanism from reliable writers try "The Gospel According to Rome" by James G. McCarthy or "The Roman Catholic Controversy" by James R. White. These books will clear up any mud that might still exist.
Rating: 
Summary: kinda thin
Review: though simple and clear, and orthodox, I found Karl's book a little superficial and random in what he picks to talk about. I found Peter Kreeft's 'fundamentals of the faith' a better apologetics intro to Catholicism; more succint, yet more complete and methodical, with better analogies and rhetoric. Karl's other book 'catholicism and fundamentalism' is better--it has some good warnings of common fundamentalist tactics and source material. It seems a lot better researched and thorough. His magazine, 'this rock' I can heartily reccommend to all budding apologists.
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