Many times in its 2,000-year history, the Catholic Church was under tremendous scrutiny and even persecution, thus necessitating the faithful to provide a cogent and passionate explanation of doctrine to skeptics. These explanations developed into a formal branch of theology known as "apologetics." Hahn, an increasingly popular theologian, speaker and writer, has grabbed the doctrinal baton with books like The Lamb's Supper
and Hail, Holy Queen.
Here he presents a contemporary apologetics for those who feel a need to defend their faith in the postmodern world. Hahn certainly knows the Catechism, and his writing is concise and certain. He unabashedly declares the Catholic faith to be "the only Christian body that professes one faith, undivided, unchanged, throughout the world and throughout the ages." While some may be persuaded by this rhetoric, such phrases will come across to others as overly triumphalistic, especially since the history of the church includes many doctrinal disputes and painful clashes over belief that Hahn glosses over. Readers wrestling with doubts about their faith may not find much solace in Hahn's work, but Catholics who feel the need to articulate their viewpoint to fellow believers and nonbelievers could benefit from Hahn's clear explanation of doctrine. (May)
