Though the Reformation drew Protestants away from the Roman Catholic Church, many people today advocate a return to fellowship. Here are several books I recommend on the subject of Roman Catholicism.
Top Recommendation
- Same Words, Different Worlds by Leonardo De Chirico. De Chirico, who pastors a church just steps from Vatican City, is possibly today’s foremost Protestant scholar on Catholicism.
In Same Words, Different Worlds, Leonardo De Chirico addresses the underlying misconceptions that cripple so many American evangelicals’ understanding of and interaction with Catholic theology. The book shows “why the Roman Catholic words are similar to those of the gospel and yet the Roman Catholic language is different from the gospel’s language” (2). To rephrase the purpose, this book will help evangelical believers to understand why their Catholic friends confess the same gospel as us in words, but live it so differently in practice. We are using the same words to describe dramatically different worldviews.
Other Recommendations
- Getting the Gospel Right by R.C. Sproul – Sproul examines Evangelicals and Catholics Together. This is a follow-up to the equally excellent Faith Alone.
- Are We Together? by R.C. Sproul – In this newer work, Sproul responds to those who proclaim that the Reformation is over.
- The Roman Catholic Controversy by James White – White is very careful to first understand Roman Catholic doctrine before refuting it through Scripture.
- Scripture Alone by James White – White addresses the ultra-important doctrine of sola Scriptura.
Though I have not reviewed it, I also recommend Richard Bennett’s Catholicism: East of Eden.
