Rome Sweet Home

By Scott and Kimberly Hahn

Catholic-ometer: 5 of 5

Enjoyability: 5 of 5

This, for me, was an end-of-the-week book.  It's fairly short, and a couple hours of reading a day is all you need to finish it within a couple days.  It took me about three.  Fortunately, this is made easier by the fact that I didn't really want to put the book down.

This book is, in a sense, a sort of semi-autobiography of Scott Hahn and his wife Kimberly.  It tells the story of how they began as enthusiastic protestants, and how, through experience, study, honest thought, and more than a little divine grace, they managed to find the truth of the Catholic Church.

In addition to walking through several points that should be useful in defending the Catholic faith from protestant attacks, this book also recounts the events somewhat charmingly; dividing each chapter into the perspective of Scott and the perspective of his wife Kimberly.  This is important, since it helps to keep track of where each was in their spiritual development, and how long it took them to get there.

The journey of these two souls towards the truth is recounted very pleasingly; doing a very good job of explaining just how they arrived at one realization after another, and what factors slowed their growth.

The keyword for this tale, in my mind, seems to be "development."  I've always loved development in any good story; real or fictitious, and this book certainly has plenty of it.  There's an intellectual honesty to Scott that feels refreshing, and a prioritizing of emotions in Kimberly, which feels, at the very least, familiar to anyone who's ever tried to talk to a friend about the faith.  There's not much else I can really say about the book.  It has no missteps at all in doctrine, discipline or theology.  I consider it nearly perfect.

I say "nearly" perfect, because the foreward is written by Peter Kreeft.  I have mixed feelings about Peter Kreeft.  On the one hand, his understanding of theology can be excellent at times, and he really knows his way around a good metaphor.  On the other hand, he's prone to making mistakes as well, which don't seem to get sifted out in the proofreading.

Fortunately, the foreward to this book may be his best work yet.  I could only spot one semi-error, and even then, it may have just been flattery.  He claims that Scott and Kimberly use their bibles better than any other Catholic in the world.  Now, I'm sure they're way up there, but aren't there, for example, a good two dozen cardinals, some european theologians, and a very wise and talented pope who are also at least in the running for that title?  "Better than any other Catholic in the world" feels needlessly grandiose to me.

Still, even that can't ruin my day now.  This is a fantastic book, and I really enjoyed reading it.  If you're a Catholic looking for encouragement, or (better yet) a protestant seriously considering the Catholic Church, this is one of the best modern books you could pick up.