If you are a protestant and always heard that the Catholic teaching is wrong, you better read this book...

I had to give this book three stars because we can't give 2.5. That would actually make more sense - Mr. Armstrong hits his mark about half the time. He misses on the Eucharist (come on - do even Catholics believe in transubstantiation anymore? I mean the REAL Catholics, not you Johnny Come Lately converts?), and penance, just to name two.

The real failure of this book is in the author's fondness for stuffing his own straw men to joust with, hanging those cute little card board signs around their necks with PROTESTANT writ large in crayon. I mean, shucks - Dave, Reformed folks moved on past Calvin a long time ago. We've had Barth, for goodness sakes! Even Catholic theologians liked Barth!

Dave Armstrong, like many RC apologists, strives hard for charity and respect. This is to be commended, even when he sometimes backslides into peevishness or sarcasm. Compared to some of his Protestant debate opponents (I'm thinking of one who shall remain nameless but shares this writer's Reformed roots) he is saintly indeed. Okay, maybe not saintly, but definitely not a jerk, (unlike the Reformed guy with the big web site).

One of the good things - perhaps the only good thing - about so-called Post-Modernism is the encouragement to move beyond labels and positions.

This alarms the Professional Apologist, of course, on either side of the aisle. If a person can feel comfortable, say, in his Reformed tradition, without a pope and unafraid of the spectre of Calvin or Luther, affirming some Catholic doctrinal positions (such as freedom of human will and participation in the process of Sanctification) why, we can.

If this is so, what need do we have of Armstrong and his ilk? This must be daunting to face - wholesale closing down of Blog sites, failing book sales, no one on the phone asking the apologist to come to town and debate with the local The Same Only Different Fellow resplendent with charts and graphs and notebooks crammed with pamphlets and order forms for cassettes. No, it hasn't happened yet, but it is coming. Dave, what will you do? Come back home from Rome and start writing "I left but came back" works?

One sad thing to ponder is that, unlike the pagan Roman practice, Christians seem to bring their own lions to devour one another these days. Wonder when we'll forget doctrinal differences (my wife reminds me often that there will not be a Systematic Theology pop quiz when we reach Heaven) and concentrate on reaching the wanderers?