Once a Catholic

Rating:
Summary: For Honest Seekers of Truth Only
Review: As a former Catholic, I can appreciate the intellectual and spiritual honesty that Tony Coffey invested in his book, "Once A Catholic." Coffey, a former Catholic himself as the title indicates, obviously know his subject matter-the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines- extremely well.

Although Protestants and former Catholics such as myself can still be informed by Mr. Coffey's book, his writing is perhaps more helpful to Roman Catholics who want to know more about the origins, definitions, and significance of the peculiar doctrines that separate Catholics from other Christians.

Is the Catholic Church really the one true church intended by Christ? Should we base our Christian beliefs on the Holy Scriptures only, or does God want us to include the flexibility of Church tradition in the mix? What about confession, and the virgin Mary? These and other dogmas and Catholic teachings are explored and evaluated in an easy to understand, common sense manner with God's written word as the ultimate judge.

I would strongly recommend any Roman Catholics who do not have an understanding of the doctrines that they are required to believe, or how they relate to scripture, to read Coffey's book. They may be shocked to discover the lack of scriptural basis for what they have been raised to believe. For those Roman Catholics who are secure in their beliefs, can it do any harm to see another viewpoint? Those who have written reviews on this book and given it a bad rating make me wonder if they even bothered to read the book, or if they just automatically dismiss it as anti-Catholic.

Coffey's approach is gentle...this is not an angry or harsh denunciation of a denomination's practices and teachings. It is a loving call to awareness of God's objective and scriptural truth. Catholics reading this book may be surprised at what they learn and at one point thank God that they, too, can say they were "once a Catholic" but now know the difference between a relationship with a religion and a relationship with Christ.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for Catholics & Protestants alike
Review: I'ma former Catholic who is now a Protestant and an Ordained minister. I wasn't born catholic. I became one a few years after I got saved. Boy, I wish i had read this book before I joined the Catholic Church. This book would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Tony Coffey, in a lovingly and non-bashing manner, explains what is wrong with Catholic teaching. He was born & raised Catholic and became a Protestant in his mid-20's. He didn't just up and leave in an angry huff as some have. Instead, he took out his Bible and examined the Catholic faith against what the Bible taught. To those reviewers who don't like Tony Coffey's book, I think you need to re-read your Bible against what the church teaches. More specifically, look at Mary & the Saints, Purgatory, the pope, and priests being single. One last item-the Catholic church has and will always maintain that when there's a difference between Catholic Church tradition & the Bible, tradition overrules the Bible. Look at the New Testament at what Jesus said about the traditions of men. You'll be surprised.
There's 3 other books I'll also recommend in addition to this one: "A Woman Rides the Beast," Far from Rome near to God," and "When Catholics Die." These 3 books, along with "Once a Catholic," should give you plenty to ponder on.
If you're thinking about becoming a Catholic, read "Once a Catholic." If you know of someone wanting to become a Catholic, give this book to them as a present. You'll save them some grief down the road.

If this book isn't

Rating:
Summary: Lapsing into Gnosticism
Review: The deluge of books published in the last few years by former Evangelical Protestant pastors converting to the historic Churches raises an interesting question - what about those going in the opposite direction? What is their take on the issues that divide Christians? Tony Coffey, a former Catholic turned Evangelical Protestant evangelist, intends such a response in Once a Catholic but succeeds only in defining a narrow ahistorical version of the Christian faith confined to the parochial outlines of shallow pop culture and its modernist ethos.

Coffey's troubles begin early when he attempts to attack the idea of tradition. Focusing on the passages where tradition (the Greek paradosis - which simply means that which is passed down) is criticized and ignoring passages where it is praised, he is seemingly unaware of the wealth of scholarship on the issue and instead recycles lame arguments long since refuted. All Christians - including Evangelicals like Tony Coffey use their own tradition as a template for understanding Holy Scripture. The dispute is really not over tradition per se but which of these traditions best reflects Apostolic teaching. 

This misreading of the issue of tradition leads many modern Evangelicals astray method of scriptural exegesis. The individualistic paradigm so common in Evangelicals circles is of modern vintage and completely alien to the culture and life of the early Church. Until modern Evangelicals take seriously the witness of the early Church, they are doomed to descend ever more deeply into triviality and irrelevance.

If his understanding of the early Church is evidence, Coffey obviously does not take this witness seriously. Firing a barrage of simplistic judgments on topics ranging from the formation of the New Testament Canon to the liturgy, Coffey aims at any and all Roman Catholic position differing from his own. All along, he appears blissfully unaware many of the positions he now supports are unique to his modern version of the faith and have little historical support.

In his zeal to attack Roman Catholic doctrine, Coffey often lets his emotions get the better of him and sinks into unintended heresy. For example, in his attempts to refute the Catholic interpretation of the Bread of Life discourse in the Gospel of St. John as Eucharistic, he latches on to the passage "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." He thus implies Jesus is saying His flesh counts for nothing and that His words should be taken "spiritually." This exegesis of the passage is, to put it mildly, problematic. If the flesh of Christ profits nothing, then what are we to make of the Cross? By inferring our salvation had no physical aspect, he implicitly negates the Incarnation. Like the crowd who listened to the Jesus speak these words, he recoils when faced with an uncomfortable byproduct of the Word becoming flesh. In the end, he prefers lapsing into gnosticism to fully accepting the Incarantion.    

Even when turning to the more problematic Roman positions of the papacy and the Marian dogmas, Coffey is surprisingly weak. Rather than giving an accurate portrayal of the development of these beliefs and a proper critique, he builds up straw men and proceeds to knock them down. It is interesting that many arguments he uses are the same ones noted converts to Rome believed prior to their conversion and later discovered were erroneous. Thus, despite his claims of fairness, Coffey never ventured to understand the reasons behind the doctrines of his former ecclesial home and is parroting arguments used in his own conversion. The centrality of personal experience in his faith is evident by his confidence that if he didn't have answers to these objections to the Catholic position, then there mustn't be any. Ironically, he makes no use of far more telling criticisms of Rome put forward by many Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox scholars. His entry into this debate is best interpreted as well meaning but misguided and uninformed. 

With all the obvious weaknesses, it must be said to Coffey's credit that he never engages in the scandalous sensationalism common to some anti-Catholic literature. He is a very sincere man, but is sincerely unequipped for this debate. One may agree with him in rejecting many Roman Catholic claims, but his refutations of those claims are both historically naive and factually flawed.    

It is doubtful any properly catechized Roman Catholic (or a knowledgeable Christian of any persuasion) would find Once A Catholic convincing. He may well make converts, but only among those with little or no understanding of the faith of the Church through the ages. It is precisely this lack of historical perspective leading many thoughtful Evangelicals to leave the movement. Some, sadly, reject Christianity entirely; others, less shaken, move to a richer expression of the Christian Faith within Anglicanism, Orthodoxy, confessional Protestantism, and, increasingly, Roman Catholicism. It would be a strange irony if, by his own inaccuracies, Coffey planted the seeds of future Roman Catholic apologists - hardly fruit he is seeking.

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable Personal Narrative
Review: Tony Coffey is a sincere and well-meaning Christian. He came to a crossroads in his journey, and, from my perspective, he felt pressure to make an immediate decision rather than to engage in a longer, more systematic pursuit of truth. St. Paul said, "Come, let us reason together." I don't find that reasoning here. Nevertheless, it is sadly true that many people must leave the Catholic Church to find their personal relationship with Christ. It is true the average Catholic does not know the Scriptures or the foundations of the Catholic Christian faith. Coffey's reasoning is often superficial and subjective, but I respect his bravery in making a difficult decision to follow his conscience. I just wish he had given more study to the Biblical foundations of Catholic Christianity. I'm saddened by Coffey's either-or approach, as well. The Christian Church includes Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Pentecostals. But I faced the same crisis Mr. Coffey did, and he has written of the difficulty of that crisis well. Thank you for an honest & good read, Mr. Coffey.