Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology is a classic text by the late Fr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, a highly respected author, professor, and theologian of the twentieth century. “This book appeared in 1942 under the rather unimposing title We Stand with Christ: an Essay in Catholic Apologetics. It should have become a classic,” writes Scott Hahn in the foreword. “It is, I believe, the greatest work of apologetics produced in a time of superstar apologists such as F. J. Sheed, Ronald Knox, and Fulton Sheen. It represents the high point of apologetics as well as a gold standard for subsequent works of fundamental theology.”
Top Highlights
“Each man must speak in the language of his people and according to the mentality of his time” (Page xii)
“His is not a cause to which men are to be won over by skilled pleading or any merely rhetorical tactic. He wills only that men should understand what He has spoken and what He has accomplished.” (Page xi)
“The only recourse left to one who wishes to establish the intellectual acceptability of Catholic dogma is the demonstration that these mysteries’ have actually been revealed by God.” (Page 4)
“Since the days of Jesus of Nazareth, men have written and spoken to refute the charges advanced against His followers and His doctrine and to show decisive reason why their fellows should accept His teachings with the assent of divine faith.” (Page 1)
“ apologetics sets out to explain and to demonstrate that ‘Catholic dogma is rationally credible as divine revelation,’” (Page 11)