I'm very familiar with the Bible, with the exception of the books that weren't in the Protestant Bible I studied all of my life until last year.

I've been reading in some of the Church Fathers.

My question is simply: "If you were to choose ONE book to read to bolster/create/aid in, Apologetics skills, what would that book be?

Appreciate any input on this one

Peace & Blessings!
~S

My number 1 recommendation is St. Francis de Sales' "The Catholic Controversy"

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The Deuterocanonicals. That isn't what you asked, but from what you said, why not start there? You build the foundation first. I like Proverbs, too. I should read the Bible more. I think I should read it for Lent.

Just a thought here. I am the problem, I know it, I recognize it, I own it. Over the last year or more I have been working a lot more on me. The more I have the more I have recognized that what I said is true. I have to fix me first, but that doesn't stop me from helping others or reading apologetics or learning that kind of stuff, but I can't let that sort of thing be a distraction. It does seem like it can be a trap. I would recommend not letting it be your primary focus. If you read that kind of stuff, make it a third of your reading. The other two-thirds should be positive. Apologetics is often us vs them, and that isn't great. Getting into that seems like an easy way out, a distraction, or even a temptation to avoid the real problem, which is me vs me.

I could see this in The Screwtape Letters.

As the most scholarly member on this forum says,

I was thinking a while ago that I missed a good side to apologetics. It may be important to you to help with what I said should be your primary objective, which is to improve yourself. Surely you have some lingering questions from your conversion and prior beliefs you may need to hash out, and by all means do so. I would do it just a little at a time and not just read books on apologetics. Treebeard made a good post in the other thread, I'll link to it. Self-improvement is better. Also, the books in this category are so much more enriching than apologetics. Like Thomas a Kempis.

How Not To Share Your Faith

A book that was very influential in my conversion was The Ante Nicene Fathers, Volume I, The Apostolic Fathers. (Really the entire set is worth looking at.)

I did not read it cover to cover. What I did do was listen to a lot of EWTN and read a lot of online articles. Whenever I heard or saw a reference to what the earliest post-100 AD Christians did or believed I would listen/look for the specific reference, go look it up for myself, and read at least the entire page both before and after the citation. Over time, many years, I spent hour after hour reading Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus; and others in subsequent volumes.

This method did not give me a well thought out, clearly presented, comprehensive answer for today's apologetic questions. Why? Because the Christians of 2,000 years ago were, in many (most?) cases, dealing with different issues, or speaking to a different audience than today.

What this method did was give me a reasonable assurance that many of the beliefs and practices we see in the Catholic Church today were there, albeit sometimes in seed form, at this early stage of Christian history.

I would sometimes read a passage to my Evangelical friends and ask: Does this sound more Catholic, or Protestant?

Irenaeus is great.

I would highly recommend Cardinal Gibbon's book "Faith of Our Fathers"

Tertullian's Prescription Against the Heretics. Yeah, I know. It's Tertullian. Feel free to pelt me with empties.

Be sure to get his Latin writings exclusively.

Found something I didn't know existed: Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, 2nd Catholic Edition RSVAm enjoying the commentary VERY much! There's as much or possibly more commentary as there is Scripture, and I'm learning the Catholic ways of viewing Scripture, which is just sooooooo cool!