We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Traditional Catholic apologetics is currently experiencing a revival in U.S. Catholic thought. Modeled in part on the apologetics of the preconciliar Catholic Literary Revival, the new Catholic apologetics draws strategically from the intellectual world of the pre-Vatican II church. Responsive to the conditions of postconciliar Catholicism and later-twentieth-century U.S. culture, the new apologists also exploit the resources of contemporary popular culture to advance a critique of secular society and the status quo in American Catholic life. While defending traditional Catholic doctrine, the new generation of apologists has contributed to the creation of a novel form of American Catholicism—technologically sophisticated, uniquely ecumenical, and aggressively separatist. Utilizing the lecture circuit, the print media, audio and video recordings, cable television, and the internet, the new apologists have made apologetics a vibrant industry of the conservative Catholic subculture in America.
1 Congar, Yves, A History of Theology (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968), 176.Google Scholar
2 Dolan, Jay P., “New Directions in American Catholic History” in New Dimensions in American Religious History, ed. Dolan, Jay P. and Wind, James P. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 153.Google Scholar
3 See Dulles, Avery, A History of Apologetics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971).Google Scholar
4 Ellis, John Tracy, “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life,” Thought 30 (1955): 355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Kreeft, Peter, Fundamentals of the Faith (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), 13.Google Scholar
6 On the conservative “counterrevolution” see Muggeridge, Anne Roche, The Desolate City: Revolution in the Catholic Church, rev. ed. (San Francisco: Harper, 1990)Google Scholar, and Johnson, Paul, Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration (New York: St. Martin's, 1981).Google Scholar On the “new evangelization” see the encyclicals of John Paul II, especially Christifideles laici (1988) and Redemptoris missio (1990). Also see Paul, John II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, ed. Messori, Vittorio (New York: Knopf, 1994), 105–17;Google ScholarMartin, Ralph and Williamson, Peter, eds., John Paul II and the New Evangelization (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1995).Google Scholar
7 Keating, Karl, “Foreword” in Sheed, Frank, Theology for Beginners (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1981), 1–2.Google Scholar
8 Dolan, , “New Directions,” 174.Google Scholar
9 Balmer, Randall, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
10 Dinges, William D. and Hitchcock, James, “Roman Catholic Traditionalism and Activist Conservatism in the United States” in Fundamentalisms Observed, ed. Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R. Scott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 66–141;Google ScholarWeaver, Mary Jo and Appleby, R. Scott, eds., Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995);Google ScholarAppleby, R. Scott, “The Fundamentalism of the Enclave: Catholic and Protestant Oppositional Movements in the United States” in New Dimensions in American Religious History, ed. Dolan, and Wind, , 231–60;Google ScholarShea, William M., ed., The Struggle over the Past: Religious Fundamentalism in the Modern World (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992).Google Scholar
11 Weaver, Mary Jo, “Self-Consciously Countercultural: Alternative Catholic College” in Being Right, ed. Weaver, and Appleby, , 300–24.Google Scholar
12 See The Christian Conflict with Evolution, videotape by Gerry Matatics, John G. Maffei Video Productions; Evolution, audiotape by Vincent Lewis, All Roads Ministry.
13 Berger, Peter L., A Far Glory: The Quest for Faith in an Age of Credulity (New York: Anchor, 1993), 41.Google Scholar
14 Hitchcock, James, “Postmortem on a Rebirth: The Catholic Intellectual Renaissance,” American Scholar 49 (1980): 211–25.Google Scholar
15 Sparr, Arnold, To Promote, Defend, and Redeem: The Catholic Literary Revival and the Cultural Transformation of American Catholicism, 1920-1960 (New York: Greenwood, 1990), xi–xii.Google Scholar
16 See Campbell, Debra, “The Catholic Evidence Guild: Towards a History of the Laity,” Heythrop Journal 30 (07 1989): 306–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17 Karl Keating, lecture, Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Bremerton, WA, March 11, 1995.
18 Keating, Karl, Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians” (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), 333.Google Scholar
19 Dulles, , History of Apologetics, xvii.Google Scholar
20 Schall, James, Does Catholicism Still Exist? (New York: Alba House, 1994), 126.Google Scholar
21 Johnson, Kevin Orlin, Expressions of the Catholic Faith: A Guide to the Teachings and Practices of the Catholic Church (New York: Ballantine, 1994), 269–73.Google Scholar
22 Hudson, Deal, “A Baptist Becomes Catholic,” Homiletic and Pastoral Review 89 (04 1989): 49.Google Scholar
23 See Riddlebarger, Kim, “No Place Like Rome? Why Are Evangelicals Joining the Catholic Church?” in Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Divides Us and Unites Us (Chicago: Moody, 1994), 221–43.Google Scholar
24 Hahn, Scott and Hahn, Kimberly, Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1993).Google Scholar In its first year of publication, Rome Sweet Home sold over 30,000 copies (Eva Muntean, marketing assistant, Ignatius Press, telephone conversation with author, November 30, 1994).
25 Currie, David, Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1996);Google ScholarMadrid, Patrick, ed., Surprised by Truth: Eleven Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic (San Diego: Basilica, 1994).Google Scholar See also O'Neill, Dan, ed., New Catholics: Contemporary Converts Tell Their Stories (New York: Crossroad, 1989).Google Scholar
26 Burns, Kristin M., “The Existence of God” in Reasons for Hope: Apologetics, ed. Mirus, Jeffrey A. (Front Royal, VA: Christendom College Press, 1982), 12.Google Scholar
27 Most, William G., Catholic Apologetics Today (Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1986), 8.Google Scholar
28 Dulles, , History of Apologetics, 218–21.Google Scholar
29 Kreeft, Peter and Tacelli, Ronald, Handbook of Christian Apologetics (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 14-15, 48-88, 235–56.Google Scholar
30 Kreeft, Peter, ed., A Shorter Summa (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1993), 41n, 15.Google Scholar
31 Mirus, , ed., Reasons for Hope, 104, 113.Google Scholar
32 See Hahn, and Hahn, , Rome Sweet Home, 179;Google ScholarThe Scott Hahn Conversion Story, videotape by Scott Hahn, St. Joseph Communications; Howard, Thomas, Lead, Kindly Light: My Journey to Rome (Steubenville, OH: Franciscan University Press, 1994), 29, 64.Google Scholar
33 See Mirus, , ed., Reasons for Hope, ii, ix, 9–10.Google Scholar
34 See ibid., 197-249. See also Most, William, Catholic Apologetics Today, 168-69, 171–72.Google Scholar
35 Howard, , Lead, Kindly Light, 61.Google Scholar See The Bible Only Debate, audiotape by Karl Keating, Patrick Madrid, Bill Jackson, and Ron Nemec, Catholic Answers; Does the Bible Teach “Sola Scriptura”? audiotape by Patrick Madrid and James White, Catholic Answers.
36 Keating, Karl, What Catholics Really Believe (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1992).Google Scholar
37 Keating, Karl, “Going Down in Flames,” This Rock 5 (12 1994): 19.Google Scholar
38 Levis, Robert J., “Priests and the Catholic Resource Network,” Homiletic and Pastoral Review (08-09 1995): 58–63.Google Scholar
39 St. Joseph Communications, newsletter, 1994. Hahn himself claims that the sales figure for the tape registers in the “hundreds of thousands” (see Hahn, and Hahn, , Rome Sweet Home, 166–67Google Scholar).
40 Neuhaus, Richard John, The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), 92ff.Google Scholar
41 “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” First Things 43 (05 1994): 15–22.Google Scholar
42 Fournier, Keith, Evangelical Catholics (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1990)Google Scholar and A House United? Evangelicals and Catholics Together (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994).Google Scholar
43 Wuthnow, Robert, Christianity in the Twenty-first Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 118.Google Scholar
44 Kreeft, and Tacelli, , Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 388.Google Scholar See Howard, Thomas, C. S. Lewis: Man of Letters (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988).Google Scholar
45 The Conversion of Gerry Matatics, videotape, by Gerry Matatics, John G. Maffei Video Productions; Matatics, Gerry, “On Tracing the River Back to Its Source,” Res Fidei (03 1995): 10–11.Google Scholar
46 Papacy Triumphant, audiotape by Vincent Lewis, All Roads Ministry.
47 See Moore, R. Lawrence, Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986);Google ScholarFinke, Roger and Stark, Rodney, The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992).Google Scholar
48 George M, Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 204.Google Scholar
49 O'Brien, David J., Public Catholicism (New York: Macmillan, 1989).Google Scholar
50 Küng, Hans, The Church Maintained in Truth (New York: Seabury, 1980), 77;Google ScholarCarr, Anne E., Transforming Grace: Christian Tradition and Women's Experience (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 210.Google Scholar
51 Kreeft, and Tacelli, , Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 24.Google Scholar
52 Wuthnow, , Christianity in the Twenty-first Century, 168–80;Google ScholarMojtabai, A. G., “A Missed Connection,” Wilson Quarterly 19 (Spring 1995): 18.Google Scholar
53 Hahn, and Hahn, , Rome Sweet Home, 33–42.Google Scholar See Becoming a Catholic Family, videotape by Scott and Kimberly Hahn, St. Joseph Communications.
54 The Catholic Home School, videotape by Karen Wood, Family Life Center International; Hahn, Kimberly and Hasson, Mary, Catholic Education: Homeward Bound (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1996).Google Scholar See also Clark, Mary Kay, Catholic Home Schooling (Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1993).Google Scholar
55 Madrid, , ed., Surprised by Truth, 44, 91, 222, 245.Google Scholar
56 “Religious Illiteracy,” The Catholic Northwest Progress (03 16, 1995): 7.Google Scholar
57 Pacwa, Mitch, Catholics and the New Age (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1992);Google ScholarFalse Doctrine and the New Age, videotape by Mitch Pacwa, Ignatius Press.
58 See How I Became a Traditional Catholic, Just a Few Good Bishops, Fiddle while Rome Burns, Wolves in Shepherds' Clothing, Is Something Rotten in Rome? videotapes by Gerry Matatics, John G. Maffei Video Productions.
59 Keating, Karl, “Habemus papam?” This Rock (07/08 1995): 11–18;Google ScholarLikoudis, Paul, “What's a Catholic to Do as Allure to Schism Grows Stronger?” The Wanderer (02 16, 1995): 1, 7.Google Scholar See Fidelity (12 1994) and The Wanderer (01 19, 1995): 11.Google Scholar
60 “The End and the Beginning 1994-1995,” Catholic Twin Circle (01 1, 1995): 4.Google Scholar
