Not By Faith Alone

Not by... #1

by Robert A. Sungenis, Scott Hahn (Foreword), Peter Stravinskas (Epilogue)

As never before, the Catholic Church has been called upon to be the defender of Scripture and preserver of truth in modern times. Not by Faith Alone will set the biblical and historical record straight. But more important, as you learn the real truth about salvation and all that it embraces, this book will offer you the means to come to one of the deepest relationships with God that you have ever experienced. Faith alone? Is it justifiable? Not biblically, and Robert Sungenis shows why. Has an Imprimatur.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Catholic, Christian

816 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Sungenis is the president of Catholic Apologetics International — an international evangelistic organization dedicated to teaching and defending the Catholic faith. CAI produces books, audio and video tapes, holds conferences, seminars and debates.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book argues for the Roman Catholic view of justification. I would say that the author is very tenacious in his arguing for the RC view. However, I found his hermeneutics to be a bit defective overall. For example he argues that the "obedience of faith" in Romans 1:5 must mean that Paul thinks the instrument of justification is faith and obedience. This seems really simplistic. He also argues better for some aspects of the Roman Catholic view than others. For example, on infused righteousness vs. imputed righteousness he has very little evidence that justification means infusion in Greek. He also tends to make arguments from silence, such as when he says that Paul never uses the word "alone" in reference to justification by faith and yet he uses the word alone in many other places. He also parodies the Reformed view at some places. He tries to get the reader the think that protestants do not have a general view of justification but that they mostly disagree, which is false. However, if you are looking for a good book to understand the RC view, look no further.

Update: I would just like to say that I probably read this book a little too fast and injudiciously on my first review. I have come to see that the Catholic view of justification does make more sense of the Biblical data. This book made me think about some of the exceptions to Luther's ideas taught in several other texts in the New Testament, such as Romans 2 and James 2. If you want to understand a Roman Catholic view of justification, the best book to read is probably the Salvation Controversy by James Akin.