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From Calvinist to Catholic
With over one hundred books to his name, Peter Kreeft is the most prolific Catholic author of his generation. He’s also one of the most loved, having influenced countless Catholics in the U.S. and beyond. But who, exactly, is the man behind the books? In this new autobiography, Kreeft finally tells readers his own story, including the encounters, people, and ideas that led him to the Catholic Church as a young man.
With his signature insight and sharp wit, Kreeft takes readers through his childhood in midcentury New Jersey, where his family attended a Dutch Reformed church and anti-Catholicism was a given, to his undergraduate years at Calvin College, where he studied philosophy and found himself on the road to Rome. From there, we follow him to Fordham and Yale, where he finally crossed the Tiber in 1960—with his future wife, Maria, as godmother. Finally, he reflects on his post conversion years, distilling the central insights from a long and fruitful life in the Catholic Church.
Replete with delightful anecdotes and bearing the stamp of Kreeft’s wry sense of humor, this autobiography is a human look at one of the great Catholic apologists of our a philosopher, a man of letters, and above all, of man of faith.
With his signature insight and sharp wit, Kreeft takes readers through his childhood in midcentury New Jersey, where his family attended a Dutch Reformed church and anti-Catholicism was a given, to his undergraduate years at Calvin College, where he studied philosophy and found himself on the road to Rome. From there, we follow him to Fordham and Yale, where he finally crossed the Tiber in 1960—with his future wife, Maria, as godmother. Finally, he reflects on his post conversion years, distilling the central insights from a long and fruitful life in the Catholic Church.
Replete with delightful anecdotes and bearing the stamp of Kreeft’s wry sense of humor, this autobiography is a human look at one of the great Catholic apologists of our a philosopher, a man of letters, and above all, of man of faith.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published March 11, 2025
About the author
Peter Kreeft
193 books1,132 followersPeter Kreeft is an American philosopher and prolific author of over eighty books on Christian theology, philosophy, and apologetics. A convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, his journey was shaped by his study of Church history, Gothic architecture, and Thomistic thought. He earned his BA from Calvin College, an MA and PhD from Fordham University, and pursued further studies at Yale. Since 1965, he has taught philosophy at Boston College and also at The King’s College. Kreeft is known for formulating “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God” with Ronald K. Tacelli, featured in their Handbook of Christian Apologetics. A strong advocate for unity among Christians, he emphasizes shared belief in Christ over denominational differences.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 20, 2025
I learned my first prayers in the echoing nave of St Bridget’s Catholic Church, where the crucifix loomed larger than the Texas sky and the smell of candle wax mixed with barbecue smoke drifting in from the fellowship hall. As a boy I thought the world neatly split between the hush of that sanctuary and the hot clatter outside; grace tasted like stale hosts and Jaritos. In time I wandered from those polished pews to the rough‐hewn benches of Presbyterianism, or moreover the Dallas Children’s Theater NSP calls home. Finding in covenant theology the wide, oxygen rich air my lungs had been missing. Yet the memory of incense and genuflection never quite left my bloodstream. So when Peter Kreeft’s “From Calvinist to Catholic” crossed my desk, I opened it with both a theologian’s curiosity and a child’s half buried nostalgia.
Kreeft’s book is a fireside testimony that keeps trying to pass as some sort of theological treatise. At 150 pages it moves quickly, perhaps too quickly. Skipping over potholes it swears are mirrors. Each chapter covers years of Kreeft’s life, reducing everything into bite sized vignettes that would have better suited a Vine video at 6 seconds long.
I still cant tell if I liked the book. I think I ultimately felt cheated. I wanted a serious polemic against my faith, from someone who did the opposite with his life as I did mine. But instead I got some sort of Reddit Screed delivered for the #TradCaths of the internet. Kreeft tells us that in a providential world “nothing is random, nothing is coincidence” (143), a line so Kuyperian it practically smells of Dutch pipe smoke, yet he cites it as though Rome invented concurrence. Moments like that glitter; you pencil them with stars and wonder why the rest of the book won’t stay that honest.
The historical corners of this work are the worst lit. Jan Hus, we learn, merely “died” and evidently left no reforming legacy. No mention of that inconvenient “council fire” or the Swan that would come after that Bohemian Goose. Even Jim Elliot’s martyrdom is reduced to being nothing more than Taoism. But if all devout deaths are equal, Rome’s mandatory specificity evaporates, and Kreeft has argued himself out of his own church before the incense cools.
He calls objections to transubstantiation objections to the Incarnation itself (132), swapping categories mid-sentence. Reformed theology is adamant about the hypostatic union; our quarrel is over mode, not fact, of presence. To say otherwise is to fight a scarecrow. His choice of sparring partner is equally convenient: C. S. Lewis stands in for Protestantism, though Lewis was an Oxford Anglo-Catholic allergic to the label “Reformed.” Hiring him to refute Calvinists is like asking Chesterton to defend Zwingli.
Kreeft celebrates Vatican II while assuring the reader that Rome “has never once deviated from its historic theology.” As usual the Church of Rome has given us immutability with a seasonal wardrobe. Meanwhile most Protestants, he claims, are liberals, and Catholics present a phalanx of unity unmarred by the pesky little fact of German liberalism, South American Pentecostalism, or the syncretic elements where Romanism seems to mix with folk religion almost everywhere it goes. In the real world my pew is full of confessional Presbyterians who sound like Athanasius, Basil the Great and Agustine. And most of the Catholics in my life sound more like Bultmann’s ghost. Kreeft’s taxonomy would not pass a freshman sociology quiz.
The irony is that Kreeft and R. C. Sproul often sound like spirited twins yelling through a paper wall. I think the road between Geneva and Rome might be shorter than we would like to admit. Both Geneva and Rome offer a high view of the sacraments, infant baptism, a massive view of God, a large view of the Church institutional, and a reliance on the creeds. It seems fitting that weak Catholics often discover covenant theology and bloom into robust Calvinists; weak Calvinists of another stripe find smells, bells, and Baroque vestments and return as trad-caths breathing fire. A friend in the ministry recently told me in regards to the election of Pope Leo that “when Catholics are good Catholics, Presbtyerians are better Presbyterians.” I cant tell if Kreeft wants honest dialogue, or if hed rather hunt scarecrows for sport.
So who is this book for? Not Calvinists weighing Rome. Certainly not ecumenical round tables. Rather this book is for the the internet trad-Cath crowd hunting for sleek retorts to straw-man Presbyterians. It is field-manual, not symposium. Still, the best lines shine. They remind me that if Presbyterians neglect the breadth of a truly reformed catholicity, others will claim the missing half and walk across the Tiber. The task, then, is to live a Geneva deep enough to echo the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, but not compromise our true identity.
So here is the word I carry away, one whispered to the kid who once knelt on marble, and to the young man who recently got to stand behind a rough hewn pulpit at the Dallas Children’s Theater in the ministry of the Word. The creed says we believe in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” That line belongs to Rome and to Geneva alike, because it belongs first to Christ. Catholicity is breadth without blur: the worldwide people of God singing the same gospel in many harmonies. But breadth that dissolves every contour ceases to be a body; it becomes a puddle.
Therefore the church’s wide embrace requires each tradition to keep the gifts it holds in trust. For Presbyterians that means guarding the hard-won clarity of sola gratia and sola fide, the covenantal imagination that reads Scripture as one unfolding promise, the elder-led discipline that refuses to let sheep drift into fog. We offer those treasures to the larger household not by surrendering them but by living them so beautifully that others taste their goodness.
Kreeft reminds us, sometimes by inspiration, often by provocation, that catholicity without Protestant backbone is sentimental, and Protestantism without catholic breadth is skeletal. The vocation is to be fully, joyfully Reformed and at the same time unapologetically catholic: people whose roots run deep in Geneva’s soil while their branches stretch toward every corner of Christ’s garden. Hold the line, open the arms, that is the shape of true catholicity, and the church will be poorer if we fail at either.
Its no secret that I enjoyed (and continue to delight in) the pomp and circumstance of Catholicism. There is something poetic to the liturgy, the booming pipes that shake the ribs, the clouds of incense that lift the imagination beyond our fluorescent ceilings. Yet I have also stood where the organ reverberates against hollow walls and even emptier souls, where the smoke curls not toward the risen ascendent Lord but stalls beneath the porcelain nose of a crucified statue. Beauty without the bright Word and lively Spirit risks becoming theater. The remedy is not to abandon beauty, God forbid, but to wed form to fullness: Scripture preached with Calvin’s fire, sacraments administered with Patristic joy, doxology swelling in both muscle and marrow. The trick then is to re-enchant the imagination. The beauty of Catholicism will never find its fullness without the Protestant convictions. It is there that the organ’s thunder becomes a doxological Amen, and the incense, no longer a sentimental mist, carries the fragrance of Christ Himself.
Kreeft’s book is a fireside testimony that keeps trying to pass as some sort of theological treatise. At 150 pages it moves quickly, perhaps too quickly. Skipping over potholes it swears are mirrors. Each chapter covers years of Kreeft’s life, reducing everything into bite sized vignettes that would have better suited a Vine video at 6 seconds long.
I still cant tell if I liked the book. I think I ultimately felt cheated. I wanted a serious polemic against my faith, from someone who did the opposite with his life as I did mine. But instead I got some sort of Reddit Screed delivered for the #TradCaths of the internet. Kreeft tells us that in a providential world “nothing is random, nothing is coincidence” (143), a line so Kuyperian it practically smells of Dutch pipe smoke, yet he cites it as though Rome invented concurrence. Moments like that glitter; you pencil them with stars and wonder why the rest of the book won’t stay that honest.
The historical corners of this work are the worst lit. Jan Hus, we learn, merely “died” and evidently left no reforming legacy. No mention of that inconvenient “council fire” or the Swan that would come after that Bohemian Goose. Even Jim Elliot’s martyrdom is reduced to being nothing more than Taoism. But if all devout deaths are equal, Rome’s mandatory specificity evaporates, and Kreeft has argued himself out of his own church before the incense cools.
He calls objections to transubstantiation objections to the Incarnation itself (132), swapping categories mid-sentence. Reformed theology is adamant about the hypostatic union; our quarrel is over mode, not fact, of presence. To say otherwise is to fight a scarecrow. His choice of sparring partner is equally convenient: C. S. Lewis stands in for Protestantism, though Lewis was an Oxford Anglo-Catholic allergic to the label “Reformed.” Hiring him to refute Calvinists is like asking Chesterton to defend Zwingli.
Kreeft celebrates Vatican II while assuring the reader that Rome “has never once deviated from its historic theology.” As usual the Church of Rome has given us immutability with a seasonal wardrobe. Meanwhile most Protestants, he claims, are liberals, and Catholics present a phalanx of unity unmarred by the pesky little fact of German liberalism, South American Pentecostalism, or the syncretic elements where Romanism seems to mix with folk religion almost everywhere it goes. In the real world my pew is full of confessional Presbyterians who sound like Athanasius, Basil the Great and Agustine. And most of the Catholics in my life sound more like Bultmann’s ghost. Kreeft’s taxonomy would not pass a freshman sociology quiz.
The irony is that Kreeft and R. C. Sproul often sound like spirited twins yelling through a paper wall. I think the road between Geneva and Rome might be shorter than we would like to admit. Both Geneva and Rome offer a high view of the sacraments, infant baptism, a massive view of God, a large view of the Church institutional, and a reliance on the creeds. It seems fitting that weak Catholics often discover covenant theology and bloom into robust Calvinists; weak Calvinists of another stripe find smells, bells, and Baroque vestments and return as trad-caths breathing fire. A friend in the ministry recently told me in regards to the election of Pope Leo that “when Catholics are good Catholics, Presbtyerians are better Presbyterians.” I cant tell if Kreeft wants honest dialogue, or if hed rather hunt scarecrows for sport.
So who is this book for? Not Calvinists weighing Rome. Certainly not ecumenical round tables. Rather this book is for the the internet trad-Cath crowd hunting for sleek retorts to straw-man Presbyterians. It is field-manual, not symposium. Still, the best lines shine. They remind me that if Presbyterians neglect the breadth of a truly reformed catholicity, others will claim the missing half and walk across the Tiber. The task, then, is to live a Geneva deep enough to echo the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, but not compromise our true identity.
So here is the word I carry away, one whispered to the kid who once knelt on marble, and to the young man who recently got to stand behind a rough hewn pulpit at the Dallas Children’s Theater in the ministry of the Word. The creed says we believe in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” That line belongs to Rome and to Geneva alike, because it belongs first to Christ. Catholicity is breadth without blur: the worldwide people of God singing the same gospel in many harmonies. But breadth that dissolves every contour ceases to be a body; it becomes a puddle.
Therefore the church’s wide embrace requires each tradition to keep the gifts it holds in trust. For Presbyterians that means guarding the hard-won clarity of sola gratia and sola fide, the covenantal imagination that reads Scripture as one unfolding promise, the elder-led discipline that refuses to let sheep drift into fog. We offer those treasures to the larger household not by surrendering them but by living them so beautifully that others taste their goodness.
Kreeft reminds us, sometimes by inspiration, often by provocation, that catholicity without Protestant backbone is sentimental, and Protestantism without catholic breadth is skeletal. The vocation is to be fully, joyfully Reformed and at the same time unapologetically catholic: people whose roots run deep in Geneva’s soil while their branches stretch toward every corner of Christ’s garden. Hold the line, open the arms, that is the shape of true catholicity, and the church will be poorer if we fail at either.
Its no secret that I enjoyed (and continue to delight in) the pomp and circumstance of Catholicism. There is something poetic to the liturgy, the booming pipes that shake the ribs, the clouds of incense that lift the imagination beyond our fluorescent ceilings. Yet I have also stood where the organ reverberates against hollow walls and even emptier souls, where the smoke curls not toward the risen ascendent Lord but stalls beneath the porcelain nose of a crucified statue. Beauty without the bright Word and lively Spirit risks becoming theater. The remedy is not to abandon beauty, God forbid, but to wed form to fullness: Scripture preached with Calvin’s fire, sacraments administered with Patristic joy, doxology swelling in both muscle and marrow. The trick then is to re-enchant the imagination. The beauty of Catholicism will never find its fullness without the Protestant convictions. It is there that the organ’s thunder becomes a doxological Amen, and the incense, no longer a sentimental mist, carries the fragrance of Christ Himself.
July 18, 2026
I once half-joked that if my semester with Professor Kreeft hadn’t been truncated by Covid, he may have convinced me to become Catholic. I picked up this book hoping it would complete some of the discussions I had started with Kreeft in 2020, and I was disappointed. I do not believe the quality of this work is representative of Kreeft, and I would not be surprised if—as an autobiography—this was less edited and carefully crafted than his other works. The organization made it a challenging read.
Kreeft’s glib humor was out of place here. The resulting book is an underdeveloped story of his life, a strawman characterization of Protestantism, and a highlight reel of Catholic dogmas. If Kreeft’s Protestant faith was as he describes Calvinism, he was a woefully unserious Protestant, and his conversion seems more of a development into serious faith generally than a turn from one practice to another. I was hoping to be challenged, presented with the best sides of arguments as Kreeft historically has done. I was challenged to finish reading the book. While he gives credit to being a student of C.S. Lewis’s works, Kreeft’s most profound theological articulations in this book are convoluted retellings of Lewis (i.e., his description of the Church as a sprawling force through time; his conclusion of God telling the damned “thy will be done”). Throw away lines about abortion and DEI gave a sense of rambling—“And another thing!”
I am glad to be done with this. I am looking forward to reading different Catholic apologetics works, and different works by a beloved professor and writer.
Kreeft’s glib humor was out of place here. The resulting book is an underdeveloped story of his life, a strawman characterization of Protestantism, and a highlight reel of Catholic dogmas. If Kreeft’s Protestant faith was as he describes Calvinism, he was a woefully unserious Protestant, and his conversion seems more of a development into serious faith generally than a turn from one practice to another. I was hoping to be challenged, presented with the best sides of arguments as Kreeft historically has done. I was challenged to finish reading the book. While he gives credit to being a student of C.S. Lewis’s works, Kreeft’s most profound theological articulations in this book are convoluted retellings of Lewis (i.e., his description of the Church as a sprawling force through time; his conclusion of God telling the damned “thy will be done”). Throw away lines about abortion and DEI gave a sense of rambling—“And another thing!”
I am glad to be done with this. I am looking forward to reading different Catholic apologetics works, and different works by a beloved professor and writer.
October 14, 2025
Dr. Kreeft has written his conversion story and his life story. I was fascinated in learning about the beliefs of Calvinists and I have to say, it really does speak to how some protestant sects demonize Catholics and drill such error that into the minds of their adherents. All based on fallacies. It is of course the rule that once you start digging into the history of the Catholic Church, you will cease to be protestant.
Dr. Kreeft's journey seemed purely intellectual to begin with and that doesn't always stick, but his did and then the love comes. I have read quite a few of his books. (nowhere close to the 100 written) and his writing is always enlightening, engaging and making you feel like you have become a better person just by reading him.
I highly recommend this book for all to read, to gift at Christmas to Catholics, non Catholics and non Christians. Everyone will find a nugget in there, especially Catholics who do not really know the faith or who have forgotten what they do know. The key is always Jesus.
Dr. Kreeft's journey seemed purely intellectual to begin with and that doesn't always stick, but his did and then the love comes. I have read quite a few of his books. (nowhere close to the 100 written) and his writing is always enlightening, engaging and making you feel like you have become a better person just by reading him.
I highly recommend this book for all to read, to gift at Christmas to Catholics, non Catholics and non Christians. Everyone will find a nugget in there, especially Catholics who do not really know the faith or who have forgotten what they do know. The key is always Jesus.
June 25, 2025
Well written and very easy to read, but not very convincing.
I was hoping for some great arguments that led to his conversion to Catholicism. But most arguments were more mystic than logic. For instance, The Catholic churches are more beautiful than Protestant's - we do not really worship Mary, we just pray to her - we gave you the Bible, so we have as much authority as it - etc.
There are very few Biblical arguments provided. I assume that is because they are not needed if the Catholic Church itself has as much or more authority than the Bible.
I was hoping for some great arguments that led to his conversion to Catholicism. But most arguments were more mystic than logic. For instance, The Catholic churches are more beautiful than Protestant's - we do not really worship Mary, we just pray to her - we gave you the Bible, so we have as much authority as it - etc.
There are very few Biblical arguments provided. I assume that is because they are not needed if the Catholic Church itself has as much or more authority than the Bible.
May 21, 2025
May 2025. Finished. It is good, as expected, and I'm especially grateful for the middle. The thirty chapters, as Kreeft himself observes in the introduction, are divided into three groups: the first ten on life before conversion, the last ten on life after conversion, and the central ten on the conversion itself, both its moral and intellectual dimensions.
But it is not Kreeft's best writing. It is more redundant than usual (I am usually not bothered by his repetitions) and (at times) poorly edited. In the introduction he half regrets publishing it; that may be correct.
The final three chapters (perspective, retrospective, prospective) are refreshing. He is definitely in top form as a writer when asking philosophical questions and pursuing moral and practical rabbit trails; in such a context, his trademark anecdotes and jokes are positive goods.
But it is not Kreeft's best writing. It is more redundant than usual (I am usually not bothered by his repetitions) and (at times) poorly edited. In the introduction he half regrets publishing it; that may be correct.
The final three chapters (perspective, retrospective, prospective) are refreshing. He is definitely in top form as a writer when asking philosophical questions and pursuing moral and practical rabbit trails; in such a context, his trademark anecdotes and jokes are positive goods.
May 7, 2025
Absolutely enjoyable and inspiring book from prolific author Peter Kreeft, part autobiography, part apology (a defense of Catholicism over Calvinism). While I am not personally a Catholic, I understand and agree with many of his points. Each one of us agrees on one point, which is really the main point, that Christ is "what it is all about" (p. 175), the key to everything, the center of everything (p. 176). In addition to loving the Lord, Peter Kreeft loves philosophy, theology, Thomas Aquinas, and C. S. Lewis, and many other subjects and authors, these are also favorites of mine, after reading this book you will love them too.
September 5, 2025
I'm quickly over my head in philosophy and theology, but I'm attracted to both, so I read books like this looking for "understandables".
Though probably non-central to the message of the book, here are two quotes that may step on the toes of popular culture:
1. I nominate Facebook for an award for being the most insufferably egotistical enterprise and the biggest waste of time in human history. (Introduction)
2. "These ['trans insanity'] are sins not merely against good philosophy but against previously universal common sense and sanity, and they characterize only insane asylums and prestigious universities." (Chapter 29)
Thanks for sharing your story Peter Kreeft.
Though probably non-central to the message of the book, here are two quotes that may step on the toes of popular culture:
1. I nominate Facebook for an award for being the most insufferably egotistical enterprise and the biggest waste of time in human history. (Introduction)
2. "These ['trans insanity'] are sins not merely against good philosophy but against previously universal common sense and sanity, and they characterize only insane asylums and prestigious universities." (Chapter 29)
Thanks for sharing your story Peter Kreeft.
October 15, 2025
An excellent book like all of Peter Kreeft’s books. It’s amazing that he can still write so well at age 88. If anything has changed over the course of Kreeft’s time writing (and if the author has perchance stumbled upon this little review of mine, I beg him to read no further), it lies in how the virtue of humility shines through in this last book of his. He loves Socrates, who dedicated himself to the dictum “Know thyself.” This book makes it obvious that Kreeft has followed his philosophical hero’s footsteps.
I enjoyed reading about Kreeft’s life and conversion. Any fan of this author will similarly enjoy it.
I enjoyed reading about Kreeft’s life and conversion. Any fan of this author will similarly enjoy it.
November 4, 2025
Alright, the prose of this book is good—it’s an engaging biography.
It’s also filled with many strawmen against Calvinism, Presbyterianism, and Protestantism; and some historical inaccuracies. I expected a well-argued apology for Catholicism by a specialist (Kreeft has taught at a RC college for decades), but what I found were the typical arguments that are parroted online by non-specialists.
It’s also filled with many strawmen against Calvinism, Presbyterianism, and Protestantism; and some historical inaccuracies. I expected a well-argued apology for Catholicism by a specialist (Kreeft has taught at a RC college for decades), but what I found were the typical arguments that are parroted online by non-specialists.
February 27, 2026
This book was pretty good. Some parts in the middle fell flat and disinterested me. But alas. Man oh man! Kreeft stuck the landing! A wonderful final few chapters of reflection on a life time of love with God.
April 21, 2025
Everything he writes.... ❤️
May 7, 2025
Like all of Peter Kreeft’s other books, this is an original that only he could have written. Not a standard autobiography, but a sparkling recounting of his conversion from Calvinism to Catholicism.
November 10, 2025
Interesting and raises questions but not very persuasive (jumps the gulf between Calvinism and Catholicism without really making a bridge).
December 5, 2025
It’s Peter Kreeft, it gets 5 stars. It took me so long to read it bc I’ve been so stressed and in a book slump.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews