This Lent and Easter Season, I took on the Catholic Answers challenge. As I mentioned in the original post, I was recommending it without reading the books. I felt it was only fair to share my thoughts on the books as I read them (and amend my recommendation if necessary).
Scripture and Tradition by Jim Blackburn “examines the first and most important issue in the Christian Faith: the manner in which God has communicated to us the saving truths of the gospel.”
I am always impressed by how much content the authors are able to fit into the 20 Answers booklets. Blackburn expertly addresses a number of oppositions to the idea of Sacred Tradition by pulling from resources like The Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, early Church writings, and Dei Verbum (from Vatican II). I appreciated that he made his definitions for the word, Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and human tradition abundantly clear so the reader can focus on his arguments rather than semantics. He did a nice job building on topics and restating some points without becoming too redundant. My one criticism is Blackburn uses so many quotes that the reading can get a little clunky because of the slightly different writing styles. The content within the quotations, however, is important and expressed in such a great way that it makes sense that Blackburn chose to write this way. Overall, I thought this book was very well done, and the clunkiness of the reading was a minor detail that doesn’t really detract from the overall quality of this resource.
To read my other book reviews, click here.
If you want to learn more about the Bible, I recommend Trent Horn’s book called The Bible (my review). Additionally, you can read my posts on the topic through the links below:
- General Tips for Bible Interpretation
- Why We Aren’t Held to all the Old Testament Laws
- Why We Concern Ourselves with Things Jesus Didn’t Talk About
- How We Should Respond to Inconsistent Expectations from Non-Believes Regarding Biblical Teaching
