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Do You Ever Read "christian Books?"


Bruce S

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I love to read, always have.

The other nite, while plowing through another book [unimportant which one] it suddenly struck me that the author .. and MOST of the authors of the books I had recently wrote, actually HAD A DENOMINATION, yet it never came up in their books, they were Christian books, not denominational books.

So, the question here, on the floor, for the "Uber-Catholics" is....

Do you read general "Christian Books" or do you shun them, and look for the IMPRIMATURE mark before buying a book on religion? Is it important that you keep "pure" in your readings?

Edited by Bruce S
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As long as they're good, i'll read'em. Anna provided an excellent example.

Also, not all Catholic authors recieve impramateur.

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It doesn't really matter what denomination people are. I like to read everything. I love to read Church history though, and it's kinda hard to find non-Catholic Christian authors before 1500.

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I love reading too. I only refer to the Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat when it's something on doctrine, like the Summa or an Encyclical or something like that. Since I like reading fiction and inspiration 90% of the time, all the other stuff doesn't really matter as long as it's not specifically focused on anti-Catholicism. I like reading Reformation stuff out of personal interest, like Luther's Three Treatises, but some of that stuff I don't touch because I would need a theologian or a class to explain the situational stuff to me. C.S. Lewis is all around amesome. Peace with God by Billy Graham is awsome and Becomming a Contagious Christian is pretty cool and really useful. I have Bishop T.D. Jakes' inspirational men's notebook if that counts for anything.

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Not a fan of Billy Graham, so I've never read his books (though I like him better than his son). Read the Left Behind books for quite a while. Decent fiction, poor theology. I'm also wary of "fad" books (Prayer of Jabez, Purpose Driven Life, This Present Darkness, etc). I read "Prayer of Jabez for Teens" and it was basically a health and wealth gospel. I prefer something that's stood the test of time and scrutiny, not the latest fad.

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Honestly, there are so many good Catholic books it's hard for me to rationalize reading something that quite possibly could contain error.

Not saying that Catholic books are necessarily inerrant, but it's a little less stressing to always have my "heresy" fiddler on.

There is one exception though, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'm not sure of the official title yet but it's by a Baptist named Adam! ;)

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John Elderage, who authored "Wild at Heart", is some worth reading. Although I am really tied to classical scholar ship, so I love reading the patristics, and as they are all Catholic, I usually just read Catholic stuff.

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I've heard of that one Jake. It's supposed to be a really amesome, balanced book. I heard the author is a really great guy, and his wife's cool too.

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I read books by C.S. Lewis(Mere Christianity), Selwyn H. and Trevor J. (Cover To Cover), Lee Strobel(Case for Christ) and Eugene H. Peterson(The Message, NT).

Currently reading: "The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren"!

My discipler encourages me to read a fair amount of books by Catholic as well as Protestant authors. But generally I do love books by Protestant/ex-Protestant(Scott Hahn) authors because their style of writing is very refreshing! :lol:

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I generally pay attention to what religious affiliation a particular author has, because I think it does influence his or her perspective on certain issues. But I read non-Catholic writers on a fairly regular basis. A few months back, I read a fantastic book by Miroslav Volf, who's not Catholic; I also enjoy Madeline L'Engle, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, and Dorothy Sayers.

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