How to Do Apologetics: Making the Case for Our Faith Paperback – July 20, 2016

Great resource to go to begin shaping and forming your mind to defend the faith. Another amazing book by Patrick Madrid that I would highly recommend. Some topics are covered only general, but this book is meant to generally go over the variety of potential topics and issues in Catholic apologetics, rather than delve into deep analysis of any one topic. That said, throughout the book, Patrick suggests many great and additional resources to consult (and a long recommended reading list at the end) for further and deeper learning on any of the many topics he covers.

Provides a broad scope of apologetics so you can know exactly what you need to do to hone in on a specific topic. It also provides detailed arguments on a lot of essential topics, but doesn't overwhelm the reader with detailed arguments for everything. Rather, the reader is frequently directed to alternate resources, which is one of the reasons the book is so short. Definitely worth the read for its cogent arguments and its role as a valuable basis and reference for apologetics, even if you are a beginner.

Patrick Madrid, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a true inspiration to all who will read and listen with a willingness to remain open to God’s will. This book is worth reading and rereading when needed. Thank you Patrick for being in the right place at the right time. You are always in our prayers. Please keep us in yours.

“If you don’t know why you believe what you believe, how can you make a defense of your faith?” That’s the advertisement for this book and the basis for the quasi-scholarly pastime, “apologetics.” The book’s target readership is those Catholics who’ve always just accepted what they’ve been taught by the Church but may want to defend these teachings. Clearly, it’s a sham to use Madrid’s arguments as your reasons for your beliefs when you really didn’t have any.“Apologetics” was employed by the Catholic church to push back on the onslaught of new information. The Church touts its one year of teaching 2,000 times, and “apologetics” is its defense against developing ideas. There’s “apologetics” with Protestants: the Bible doesn’t say it’s the authority that Protestants claim it is. Therefore, the Church is the authority. (A technicality.) With a few other selected beliefs systems, as well. Not just faith, either. Madrid applies “apologetics” to “destroy” his virtual “pro-abortion” opponents. And a future edition of Madrid’s book will likely virtually destroy "gender ideology," the Church’s latest fabrication in its continuing efforts to deny the TRUTH of the complexity of humanity.Madrid’s “apologetics” with so-called “atheists” rests on the fanciful musings of the discredited philosopher, Aristotle, and adopted by a theologian, Aquinas. Without discussing Aquinas’s logical failures, I’ll just observe that the proof of a Creator depends absolutely and logically on the evidence, or at least a theory, of the mechanism of creating. Additionally, Madrid makes no argument linking a Creator to the God of the Catholic Bible; he just does and hopes the reader won’t notice.Madrid’s” apologetics” uses “tools” to win arguments. That suggests something less than honest debate. One tool is what Madrid mischaracterizes as the Socratic Method, which, in its true form, invites dispassionate attacks on an issue by all participants in order to arrive at a complete understanding of it. In Madrid’s Playhouse, he has prepared narratives using questions that he assumes will blindside his clueless, virtual opponents, who will have to accept each of his misleading premises at each turn until it’s Madrid for the win! Another (unstated) tool Madrid overuses is analogy. An analogy is virtually never equivalent to the issue in question, and Madrid takes advantage of this to fool his virtual, naïve opponents into accepting his own false premises and their inevitable false conclusions until, once again, it’s Madrid for the win!This is just Madrid making a defense of his faith to himself. No reader will win any arguments–the only purpose of “apologetics” --using the approaches in this book, especially against someone actually DID know why they believed what they believed.

Can't say enough about how helpful this book is for those wanting to share our wondering Catholic Faith. I've been studying on my own for years and this book is really helping me put it all together. God bless you Patrick!

The best book I've read on the subject. I expect Madrid's book to help answer questions for our parish member attendees after we watch each session of the DVD series "Catholicism" during our "Faith Sharing Group" meetings.

Through this book I have learned to appreciate and love even more my Catholic faith and the beauty of apologetics using knowledge and logic. Thank you Patrick Madrid!

Patrick Madrid writes great books. You can hear him on the radio during the week from 6:00-9:00 PST at Immaculate Heart Radio. Here is a link [...]