How to Do Apologetics. Patrick Madrid

       Introduction

      I got started in apologetics about thirty years ago. There was nothing then even remotely resembling the robust and widespread apologetics movement that now exists in the United States. Back then, before apologetics had become “cool” in certain circles, there were no contemporary Catholic apologetics books to be had, no audio resources, no apologetics magazines, conferences, or training programs. There was no Catholic radio to speak of then, and the fledgling Catholic network EWTN featured virtually no apologetics programming. Of course, being the pre-Internet era, there were also no apologetics websites, YouTube videos, or apps. About all an Anglophone student of apologetics had available to learn from in those days were the relatively few apologetics books from decades earlier — important works by men such as Fr. Arnold Lunn, Fr. Ronald Knox, G.K. Chesterton, Frank Sheed, and Archbishop Fulton Sheen. One particular apologetics gold mine that helped me immensely was the classic three-volume tour-de-force, Radio Replies, by Frs. Leslie Rumble and Charles M. Carty, originally published in 1942. The fact that it is still in print and still selling steadily, seventy-five years later, is testimony to the power and clarity of the answers these two priest apologists brought to the table in their efforts to defend the Faith against challenges raised mainly by Protestant skeptics and atheist critics of the Church. More to the point, Radio Replies’ remarkable longevity attests to the profound and very often irresistible potency of the truth when it is presented cogently and plainly.

      I feel most fortunate to have embarked on what became my life-long love for and exploration of the world of apologetics at a time when apologetics materials were scarce and few people bothered with it. It made the exploration that much more of an adventure for me — exhilarating, at times — when something I read, whether from a modern or very early apologist, turned into a key that opened doors leading to new and unexplored aspects of Catholic doctrine, praxis, and history. Learning both the mechanics and the content of apologetics was for me, in those earlier days, immensely satisfying. The more I learned, the more I realized how vastly more I had yet to learn. And it was contagious. Along the way of this exploration, I met men who would become lifetime friends and colleagues, many of whom have

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