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Summary: Some follow-up reading...
Review: ...might interest some of you.
James White, a Protestant apologist debated Mark Shea on this book in the bit.listserv.catholic newsgroup. I found this debate very interesting, as it adds further knowledge to the issue, and allows the Protestants to state their counter arguments. If you are interested, go to:
http://groups.google.com
and copy the next line (including quotation marks):
"authority and canon" "mark shea" "james white"
and paste it into the search box.
The main debate is in "Authority and Canon: Let's Begin".
Hope this is useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a Great Book
Review: A true pleasure to read, Mark Shea writes about his movement toward "completing" his Evangelicalism through Catholic Tradition. Throughout his ordeal with Modernist doctrine, he reasons through his difficulties with Tradition using logic and wit. Shea deals with some pretty weighty theological conflicts, yet presents complex arguments with admirable ease and charm. Whether you agree with him or not, Shea offers reasoning that deserves serious consideration for anyone searching for the truth. One of the best of its kind!
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Summary: A Protestant Describes His Journey into the Catholic Faith
Review: As a (very likely ex-) Protestant, I found this book extremely useful because the author describes how and why he accepted the Catholic Faith using terms that are understandable to the Protestant reader. Shea also knows what Catholic Beliefs and Traditions present problems for Protestants and carefully takes the reader through his own process of reconciling himself to such Beliefs and Traditions. The bulk of this book consists of Shea arguing with himself and he invites the reader to listen in. I especially recommend this book to the Protestant who thinks he knows everything there is to know about Catholicism (especially why he doesn't embrace it). I also recommend the book to the Catholic so that he/she can see the types of doubts and questions that arise when Protestants contemplate entry into the Church.
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Summary: Mr. Shea's offering is impressive
Review: As is stated often in other reviews of this book, this is not an exhaustive treatment of the Roman Catholic expression of faith, but it offers a compelling argument. As a stubborn Protestant, I approached it warily but good-naturedly. I have read many such books -- Thomas Howard, Dr. Scott Hahn, Patrick Madrid, David Curie being among the best -- and have had my anti-Catholic bias uprooted, which is a good thing. If for no other reason than that -- the increase of understanding and renewal of fellowship between Catholics and Protestants -- I recommend this book without reservation. The questions it raised -- e.g."If Tradition, than why Scripture in the first place?"-- helped me to seek new depths in my own approach to our great faith. I would have given it four and a half stars if I could...but not five, so perhaps Mr. Shea will be spurred on to publish further works and continue to entice and perplex those of us who remain Protestant hold-outs! Recommended.
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Summary: Concise and compelling
Review: By What Authority is a wonderful read. Shea's prose is witty and his argument is compelling. He describes how as a young evangelical Christian he encountered the writings of revisionist theologians who compose the "Jesus Seminar." After studying the Jesus Seminar's attacks on the central tenets of Christianity, Shea gradually realized that the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura could not provide a sufficient basis of authority to adequately defend his Christian faith. Shea's book marvelously describes his faith journey to the Catholic Church how and why the Church has an articulable and authentic basis of authority on which one can confidently stake one's faith. This is a refreshingly quick read (it took me a day) but the argument is timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Concise and compelling
Review: By What Authority is a wonderful read. Shea's prose is witty and his argument is compelling. He describes how as a young evangelical Christian he encountered the writings of revisionist theologians who compose the "Jesus Seminar." After studying the Jesus Seminar's attacks on the central tenets of Christianity, Shea gradually realized that the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura could not provide a sufficient basis of authority to adequately defend his Christian faith. Shea's book marvelously describes his faith journey to the Catholic Church how and why the Church has an articulable and authentic basis of authority on which one can confidently stake one's faith. This is a refreshingly quick read (it took me a day) but the argument is timeless.
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Summary: Possibly the Best Defense of Catholic Tradition in Print...
Review: Especially page for page. The book is not too long and it deals from a number of angles with a topic that is often difficult for even those knowledgeable about the faith to put into words: what is Tradition and how does it function? Anyone who has done apologetics with Protestants knows the common statement "when will Rome produce a laundry list of all of their traditions?" This is a statement that misses the boat because it does not look at Tradition as a living entity that simultaneously develops while maintaining its inner essence. As other reviewers have noted already, it is in essence Mark's spiritual journey from Evangelicalism to Catholicism (or should I say spiritual completion?) as he looks at the different aspects of Tradition and realizes that the Scriptures and the Church require the Tradition to properly function. With the exception of one minor but common error (confusing the Council of Trent's solemn definition of the canon as the first "infallible" decree: most Catholics do not even understand the nuances of the Magisterium unfortunately), I was very impressed and would recommend this book to any Protestant (especially Evangelicals) to become acquainted with Tradition and learn why it is necessary for any guarantee of the truth of Our Lord's revelation. For Catholics it will help in learning to explain this topic to Protestants from someone (Mark Shea) whom I believe discusses this topic better than anyone else currently writing today.
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Summary: Face it!
Review: Face it people! THERE WOULD BE NO BIBLE IF IT WASN'T FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH! Ponder this the next time you are reading your precious "King James" Bible.
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Summary: Great starting point for examing the case for Tradition
Review: First of all, lett me address what I think of this book. It is a great summary of the basic Catholic argument for the validity of both Scripture AND Tradition. However, it doesn't cover all the bases. The author certainly doesn't claim that it does, so if you are non-Catholic and you think you can answer one argument or another, remember that there are Catholic Apologists out there who can counter those arguments. All too often in these reviews I see a review that states some argument against the conclustions of the book. Sadly, I have heard it all before and know that these objections can be answered. I will answer one here. R.C.'s Sprouls notion that the best we can hope for is a "fallibile list of infallible books" is so flawed in its reasoning that I am surprised anyone buys it. Here's why. If I told you I had a car that was made up of a list of parts and that perhaps some of these parts didn't belong or weren't the right part for each job, but that overall the car would never breakdown--thus, it is the perfect car--I think you would laugh in my face. The same goes for Scripture. If the list is fallible, then the Bible must be fallible. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If one of the books in the Bible doesn't belong, then the Bible is teaching error and therefore the whole Canon must come into question. Either the list is infallible and therefore so is the entire canon, or the whole thing is flawed simply by having bits of "tainted" data in it. Sadly, most Protestants fall Sproul's argument--as one of the reviewers obviously has--without thinking throught the implications of the argument. Besides, it is only by having an established, teaching Church that spoke with the authority of Christ that we even have a canon of Scripture. Any other conclusion is simply intellectually dishonest.
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Summary: Catholic Tradition meets Protestant traditon on their terms
Review: I have more than a 150 books, tapes and in-depth tracts on religious apologetics; a 1/3 by Catholics, 1/3 by Protestants and a 1/3 by converts to Catholicism. If I was required to surrender all of them, save but one, it would be this one: By What Authority by Mark Shea. It is above all both convincing, and compelling. It is gentle on the unbeliever yet firm in showing our obligations to give primacy to the Truth of the One who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life", as opposed to our own preconceived agendas. It leads you step by step that is pleasing and interesting (like a brotherly conversation) to both those who are logical as well as those who live their religious beliefs by feelings alone. For those who wish to find the truth and the True Religion in the smorgasbord of religious denominations and sects (30,000 and counting), Mark truly gives us the path to follow. When you are done reading it, you can't help but see the sweet harmony that exists between the Church's Bible (the Witness of light for the faith), the Sacred Tradition (the lens explaining and giving full flesh to the truth of the witness), and the Church which is judge and preserver of the truth. Without the teaching Church and Sacred Tradition of which Paul praises, we end up in the scandalous quagmire of "Bible Only" interpretations which have done so much to dismantle Christendom's attraction for all unbelievers who now gloat over our fundamental disagreements as to God's Truth. Besides my own copy (which is glutted with marker clips and highlightings), I have given this book to many religious foes of Catholicism, and asked them to return it if they find it unconvincing. None have come back to me so far. This book will save many a truth - hungry soul and may Mark's own soul be saved as he has saved so many.
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