This is going to be a first for me. But I have to agree with James White in one of his latest videos. I know, pigs are flying and cows have sprouted wings! I must admit that there is a great lack of scholarship in the modern Catholic apologetics world today in general. There is a real need for faithful Catholic scholars these days to step up and put out some scholarly works. There isn't much to many of these Catholic apologetics books that are coming out these days. There are rarely notes and sources given. Many of these books, although sometimes sufficient for novices, are not worth much beyond that. This is not an attack on any of these Catholic apologists personally. I like Patrick Madrid and the folks over at Catholic Answers. I do however feel that we really need to step it up when it comes to scholarship. Printing a book with a few Scripture quotes with a few paragraphs to expound on it is just not going to cut it anymore. I think that the target audience at novices has been exhausted, and there is plenty of material out now for that purpose. We need in depth apologetics material. When we look at previous works by Catholic Scripture scholars, they would take a whole chapter to expound on each Scripture passage, using the Church Fathers, Church Councils and exploration in languages to back up their work.
I will readily admit that I am no scholar, and I do not have the tools to read Greek and expound upon the original texts and so forth. I do however cite my sources whenever I write an article and provide the sources that I used, so people can do their own research and verify what I have written. Sadly, we don't even have this in most of these modern Catholic apologetics books today. If I can't go to the source that someone is using or have any reference to at least go back and check on their work, then I personally have no use for it. Where are all of the real scholars in the Catholic apologetics world today? In the past we saw the Catholic Church produce great Scripture scholars and apologists, many whose works are now out of print. Yes we have a few gems to work with like the recently reprinted work of Lapide on the Four Gospels which are spectacular. When it comes to modern apologetics work however we are sadly lacking in material. Is all lost?
Don't fret, there are still some well written books out there that are well documented and focused at an audience other than the novice. In order to find real scholarship you will unfortunately, for the most part (There is still some good material being written), have to look beyond the apologetics world of today to get it. Catholic scholars are not targeting this market, so you will have to find it in the academic realm, or find it reprinted from earlier sources. Here are a few works that I really like and I think are well written and well documented. They may not be specifically aimed at an apologetics audience, but the material in them can be used for such a purpose. It just takes more digging and more time to read through the material and gather the information for yourself. The few sources below are well worth purchasing for your library. There are many more, you just have to look harder to find them, and pay a little more (or alot more!) to get them. I also have some great book recommendations on my Catholicchampion website, as well as some others on the right side of this blog page.
1. Sacred Scripture: The Disclosure of the Word by Francis Martin
2. The Catena Aurea- Thomas Aquinas
3. Commentary on the Four Gospels- Cornelius a Lapide
4. History and Theology of Grace: John Hardon SJ
5. The Mystery of Mary: Paul Haffner
6. Trinity in Aquinas: Gilles Emery, OP
7. Catholic Moral Tradition: David Bohr
3 comments:
I totally agree. Either scholarship is dead, or it is ignorant of how the Saints and Scholastics worked and taught and defended the faith.
Sadly, much of today's apologetics is churning out books as fast as possible, with little substance beyond a few verses here and there. It's a materialist driven field, whether they realize it or not, and that is wrong.
Basic apologetics, as you say, are always good and welcome, but there is a lack of more "meaty" apologetics books being written.
I think that books like Not By Faith Alone and Not By Scripture Alone fit the "scholarly" model of apologetics. Yet they are written for the energetic layman who is willing to read them. The fact is, no Protestant has dealt head on with NBFA, and I don't believe any could because it is so thorough and solid. It is full of footnotes to various books and documents and Fathers and Greek studies, etc, etc.
Too many of the apologetics authors today don't go to primary sources (for either Catholic or Protestant claims), don't know Greek, don't reference standards like St Thomas, etc, etc, and as a result their work remains on the surface level.
While I believe Catholicism is solidly Biblical, the "training" the average Catholic gets from today's pop-apologetics don't teach them how to respond to Protestant's better objections.
I also agree with you about what you said on your own work. I am also not a scholar, but I do try hard to go to official documents and quote them. My apologetics articles on my webpage strive to use primary sources (found freely available online) for my arguments.
Your points are well taken, and they are important. But you know its only a mattter of time when people like James White, and his poodle hack your quote (about lack of depth), and use it to fool their audience.
I agree with your assessment of the current state of affairs in the catholic pop-apologetic world. The better known apologists (those found on EWTN, Catholic radio, Catholic Answers, etc.) continue to publish similar material, with similar arguments that have long been exhausted. There certainly was a need for that material, but now is the time to step it up.
Some of these apologists have become so popular that they have a cultish-like following, which ensures continued book sales, even if those new books are nothing more than a rewording of prior material. They have marketed themselves well. However, because of their success, these same folks have been able to crowd out “shelf space” in the bookstores and other media, keeping lesser known scholars from merging in. To find these scholars you have to go to the university libraries, etc.
We must face the fact that even though these pop-apologists are defending the faith, they are also looking to financially support themselves, so if there is still a demand for their material they will continue to publish it. I happen to believe that the demand exists because the market doesn’t know any better. The pop-apologists would be of better service to the Church if they knew their limitations and pushed the more scholarly works. This would not be good for business, but it would create a wider demand for these works, and that would be good for the Church. As sad as this may sound to some, if Patrick Madrid or Jimmy Akin ect were to go on Catholic Answers Radio for instance, and ask folks to buy Professor X’s book on Y, then people would go out and buy it.
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