Monday, April 17, 2006

Guerilla Tactics for Apologetics

Here are two great resources for Catholic bookshelves everywhere. Written by a homeschooling dad named Paul E. Nowak, Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics and Guerilla Apologetics for Life Issues are wonderful resources for educated debates on Catholicism and pro-life concerns.

I first heard about these books because my brother, Paul A. Nowak, did the cartoons in the Life Issues book. So, I do have a bit of bias on these books. But I really like the clean, direct apologetics contained in both of these slim volumes.

The slim paperback, Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics, is packed with fabulous information that is easy to read and important for all Catholics to understand. Guerilla Apologetics for Catholics starts with the Bible -- refutes that the Bible is the only source of revelation and that it doesn't say faith or personal acceptance of Jesus is enough -- then goes on to talk about who founded the Church, teachings with the authority of Christ, leadership traceable back to Christ, uses certain individuals as examples of how we should live, forgiveness of sins, Purgatory, sanctity and inviolability of marriage, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. All of these are discussed within a three-four page analysis that is direct and irrefutable.

The conclusion of the book includes recommendations for further reading and almost a dozen lined pages for notes.

The Guerilla Apologetics for Life Issues is much the same in format except that it states each argument in the form of a question rather than a statement. When does life begin, can choices be wrong, and does legality mean right-ness are just the first three questions. The safety and life issues for the mom are the next concerns. The book continues with asking questions about the veracity of population control statistics, benefits of embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia. The final question is the traditional ultimate apologetics question -- "what if you're wrong" -- attributed to Pascal's famous "wager".


As with Nowak's earlier volume, Life Issues does not have many wasted words or pages. And, "ya gotta" love the cartoons done by my brother (although I do wish the prints had been a bit clearer)!

Nowak has a website, GApologetics.com, where you can order these resources for your Catholic resource shelf.

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