A Few Words From Mark Brumley

I haven’t yet had Mark Brumley as a guest blogger here, though he’s more than welcome to serve as one any time he likes. As I’ve said before, Mark is one of the best of the best in the apologetics world. Unfortunately, his duties as president of Ignatius Press often keep him from doing as much apologetics (and as much blogging) as he’d like.

But yesterday (along with a bunch of other folks) I got an e-mail from him announcing a couple of recent Ignatius titles that are worth y’all’s consideration, so perhaps by reprinting his e-mail here it can serve as a faux blog entry for him. Here goes:

Friends,

Theology students, apologetics enthusiasts, and others interested in
theology often ask me, “What’s a good book on Tradition?”

Tradition is one of those ideas that people often get muddled—including
many apologists. In part that’s
because there are so many different meanings to the word.

Apologists commonly (and rightly) distinguish between what is often
called “capital ‘T’ Tradition” and “lower case ‘t’ tradition”, the former being
divine and the latter human. That distinction is helpful, but not
sufficient. There’s a lot more to
the theological notion of Tradition (and tradition).

Probably the best, relatively short work on the subject is Yves Congar’s
The
Meaning of Tradition. This is
an accessible, more coherent presentation of the material Congar put together
in his massive two-volume work, Tradition
and Traditions.

Ignatius Press has just re-published Congar’s classic volume, I am
delighted to report.

Cardinal Avery Dulles’ insightful Foreword to the new Ignatius Press
edition is now available online at IgnatiusInsight.com:
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/carddulles_foreword_dec04.asp.

Check it out and please help spread the word to apologists and others
who are interested in the subject.

And—at the risk of sounding like Columbo—just one more thing:

Ignatius Press has also recently published Louis Bouyer’s The
Word, Church, and Sacraments in Protestantism and Catholicism. There is no other book in English in
print today that so succinctly explains in a friendly way the key differences
between Protestants and Catholics on these subjects. Bouyer shows how many Catholics and Protestants
misunderstand Catholic teaching about the Bible, the authority of the Church,
and the Sacraments.

Every theology student and apologist who participates in
Catholic/Protestant discussions on these subjects needs to read this book. Bouyer is lucid, and he is fair to both
sides of the discussion, even though he is himself a convert from Protestantism. You get neither pabulum nor polemics,
but a patient exposition of the subject. Bouyer is a master.

I can’t recommend these books highly enough.

Mark

P.S. I hate to sound like a commercial here, but I don’t know what else
to do. These are great books.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

4 thoughts on “A Few Words From Mark Brumley”

  1. Don’t feel bad for selling something people actually need! The attack on Tradition has become the most popular Protestant argument on the Internet, and as Catholic laity, we need to be prepared to face it. Some examples that I’ve heard are:
    “Name one essential Christian doctrine that cannot be found in Scripture.”
    “We *know* Scripture records apostolic teaching accurately, but there is no other verified record of apostolic teaching outside of Scripture.”
    “List everything that you consider to be part of Tradition.”
    “Show me an example of any document that records the words of the Apostles outside of Scripture.”
    These attacks and more have been answered by Catholic authors like the ones being recommended here, and people just don’t read them. Too many Catholics are out there trying to reinvent the wheel when they have Ferraris in the garage.

  2. Why do you consider questions, attacks?
    I have yet to see anything that accurately describes all of the above positions on the sacraments. I hope that work succeeds.

  3. “Why do you consider questions, attacks?”
    I don’t. I have left a discussion at a point of reasonable disagreement many times, and I have nothing against genuine curiosity from Protestants or anyone else. But unfortunately, there are people out there who are making attacks, not asking questions. Those are the people to which I’m referring, because those are the cases in which it is most vital to be able to respond confidently on the spot.

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