November 1, 2024
By
Joanna Bogle
Recently I was asked to list some books that would be a useful for people who are keen to share their Catholic faith with others, and want to explore good ways of doing so.
Obviously, I listed the Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church and also suggested that the monthly Magnificat magazine, with its daily prayers and information on saints as well as the liturgical readings through the year, might be useful. What other books went on my list? What would be on yours?
Here are my suggested must-reads:
I might also add, for current discussions and debates, Mary Harrington's Feminism Against Progress, and - published some years ago but still relevant - Mary Kenny's Why Christianity Works.
Of course, many people are attracted to the Faith through reading fiction, or poetry, or some witty piece of journalism which highlights the wisdom of the Christian case without the writer specifically aiming to do so. And many books, not deliberately meant as persuasion or polemics, open up a discussion about Catholicism: obviously Evelyn Waugh' Brideshead Revisited comes into that category.
A good knowledge of modern history is important. In the days when Eastern Europe was in the grip of the Soviet Union and access to good reading was difficult, I was involved with helping to take in useful material to Poland. I remember we took in, among other items, copies of Paul Johnson's History of the Modern World.
And it goes without saying that there are books that should be part of the life of every family in Britain: Lewis's Narnia series, Jane Austen's novels, some Arthur Ransome... and plenty of good poetry. A few years ago, Fisher Press produced an excellent paperback, Set the Echoes Flying, with a splendid selection of everyone-should-know-this poems including Horatius, and Wordsworth's On Westminster Bridge, and Shakespeare's This royal throne of Kings, and his magnificent lines for St Crispin's day.
We need to nourish ourselves with good things. In a debate about Christianity, simply parading an apparent knowledge of Scripture can be surprisingly off-putting. Parrying verse-against verse rarely works well. And when issues of faith are at stake, sometimes people do not really listen and are instead influenced by who we are rather than what we say.
Sincerity of heart, good humour, and some evidence of true love of neighbour are probably worth all sorts of useful quotations from all or any of the books I have been mentioning here. But a good sharing of good reading is not without its value, if time, goodwill and some pleasant refreshment are also available.
Thank God for our ability to read, and to write.
Thank God for good books.
