The Case for Catholicism: Answers to Classic and Contemporary Protestant Objections

Changed my life. Thank you Trent. Great work and attending Franciscan now...

I highly commend Trent Horn’s presentation, thoroughness, and passion, which is evidenced on every page. The writing is smooth and avoids overly academic prose so that readers can hear what he has to say and make their own conclusions. For that, I heartily offer five stars. I encourage Protestants to absorb his work with a prayerful and Holy Spirit-saturated attitude. Everything following is a critique of some of his arguments. Generally speaking, Horn tends to depend on Scripture when it works to support an argument, but many of these arguments lack any Scriptural support. He leans on tradition which he clearly equates as having the same authority as Scripture. That goes to the heart of many Catholic doctrines that are only strengthened by their longevity but no original source of truth. He consistently uses Patristics for support, but they, like us today, had numerous disagreements and opposing viewpoints. I noticed a number of logical problems such as weak analogy, confirmation bias, begging the question, gaslighting, and straw man. Most importantly, Horn expresses the Catholic faith’s doctrine on justification, true to the Catholic church itself. He hints at the real problem, in that how can a person of that faith ever have any certainty of their salvation? It’s not Horn’s fault that the Catholic doctrine of salvation, like so many other religions, is beyond confusion. No Catholic can ever know if they’ve confessed enough, prayed enough, or done enough good works. On page 210, he states that Jesus doesn’t say, “we must only believe in him.” I’d urge readers to focus on John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Salvation in Christ alone is for me and anyone else reading this.

As stated in the Preface "One of the limitations of this book, however, is that each of the topics it addresses could be expanded into a book-length treatment." I could not put this book down. I have only recently stumbled into finding out who Trent Horn is, and he is as thorough as he could be in the amount of pages he had. I also have been able to listen to him speak via podcast and youtube and appreciate his ability to communicate in a Charitable way. I will admit that this book is not just for anyone to pick up and read. You have to be interested in understanding and seeking out why there is a division between Catholic view and Protestant view of Christ and his Church, and what are we to do about that. Trent has done his research and reading. It is apparent on every single page with reference after reference cited, and the majority of the references show you how much Protestant literature he has read. I am only more recently being introduced to apologetics so not everything comes easy to me to understand. Fortunately my interest in understanding the early church and tradition has helped a lot. Prior to reading this I have been studying Understanding the Old Testament, the Early Church Fathers, Early Church letters not included in the Bible i.e.( Clement 1&2, Didache, Letters from Ignatius etc.), and the one that launched it all was Eusebius' The History of the Church. If you want look at why there are so many different oppositions from a Protestant view and see what the Catholic Church truly believes this is a great book to read. I find there is a lot of prejudice created by ignorance and misinformation amongst Protestants in regards to the Catholics, and I could even say from my own experience that there is ignorance and misinformation amongst Catholics about Catholicism. If you are either, you will learn a lot.

To preface, I finished this book a few months ago and I'm just now getting around to a review. I've been fan of Trent Horn and the Catholic Answers crew for a couple of years now, but learning that Trent had an overall and comprehensive book over the Catholic faith made me excited to read it. After finishing the book, I highly recommend it to anyone curious about the strongest arguments and explanations for Catholicism. If you are familiar to Trent's material and videos, this will definitely feel like a series of his YouTube episodes (Counsel of Trent) put into text. The argumentation, presentation of general objections, and Trent's extensive use of historical, patristic, and general rebuttals to said objections made this a delight to read. Pros: -Extensive examples (historical, patristic, and general) to rebut objections -Footnotes and citations galore -Feels like a Catholic Answers / Counsel of Trent episode Cons: -Presentation gets repetitive, especially toward the end -My copy had [book] spine issues; fixed but beware Overall, if you want a good and concise case for Catholicism, this is the perfect book for you. It definitely helped me understand and convert to the faith, and it may as well help you too. Just be aware if there are any spine issues, which is why I am not giving a 5 star review; very bizarre for Ignatius Press.

This is an AMAZING book if you want to get into Catholic apologetics. Horn delves into most of the major arguments that Protestants use against the Catholic Church. The logic he uses is easily understandable and the arguments are strong. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in Church history and wants to develop a strong foundation on how to defend the Catholic Faith. -- Zachary Dunsavage

Great book. And great shipping. Came in perfect condition. And the book itself is a very thorough and amazing read. Life changing.

No waffle or flowery wording. Just full explanations.

I am very excited about reading this book. I've had a sneak first read and it seems very relevant to all those typical arguments that Protestants give Catholics. It's slightly heavy but not heavy enough to lose my interest.

Great explanations deep in theology

It is no surprise that Trent Horn's Case for Catholicism is a winner!