The Spirit of Catholicism

Adam's book is terrific, and as Olson points out, amazing in that it was ahead of its time. Another reviewer's comments on his socialism pushed me to do a little research. Despite his brilliant writing, Adam was in certain ways a child of his time and place, and appears to have been a patriotic German. While his loyalties may have been misplaced, and he was also anti-semetic in ways embarrassing to us today, he was no Nazi. In certain ways he seems to offer a Catholic counter-portrait to the many devout Christians who were overly zealous in support of America's Confederate South. We can condemn the man and his writings, or see it as grace that despite human blinkers he was still able to get so much so right, and keep his lasting books free of the nationalist taint that hurt his middle years. To modern eyes his volumes read as strikingly clear-sighted and irenic, and I can think of no author better to recommend to inquiring Protestants (along with Bouyer, Guardini, and von Hilderbrand). These comments on Adam's German patriotism from The Catholic Historical Review are long but helpful: "The Tübingen theologian Karl Adam (1876-1966) won international respect in the 1920's with the publication of The Spirit of Catholicism (German text, 1924), which appeared in English in 1929 and eventually in ten other languages,including Chinese and Japanese.This book on the Church as the mystical body of Christ influenced Yves Congar, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, Karl Rahner, and Pope Paul VI,who implicitly drew on the work in his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam (1964). Adam wrote other widely read books as well: Christ Our Brother(1926) and The Son of God (1933), in which he stressed the humanity of Jesus Christ, and The Christ of Faith(1954), which illumines the Church's teachings about Jesus Christ against the demythologizing of Rudolf Bultmann and the reductionism of the liberal quest for the historical Jesus. Adam was surely one of the most creative Catholic theologians of the early twentieth century. However,he was also one of the most prominent German Catholic proponents of an accommodation between the Catholic Church and Adolf Hitler. How could he have perceived common ground between Catholicism and National Socialism? What was it about his theology that fed into his political naiveté? Lucia Scherzberg answers these questions in Kirchenreform mit Hilfe des Nationalsozialismus, "church reform with the help of National Socialism." Along with most Germans,Adam's patriotism swelled in August,19l4,when the nation went to war,and it was deeply offended by the war's end and the Treaty of Versailles. Beginning in 1919, Adam set out to present the Catholic Church's primary teachings in categories that were faithful to the Bible and Christian tradition and simultaneously intelligible to his contemporaries. Intent upon finding an alternative to Neo-Scholasticism,he made use of Max Scheler's phenomenology and the neo-romantic existentialism or Lebensphilos

German theologian Karl Adam makes here the best case I have yet found for the following proposition: The Catholic faith not only speaks to all people, it speaks to each part of every person. Adam knew, and showed, how rich the Catholic faith is, from art and literature to intellectual and architectural cathedrals; from piety and community to mysticism. Each part of a person is addressed: the intellectual, the affective (or emotional), and the imaginative. And each part is brought together with the others to form a beautiful, brilliant, and vibrant whole. Adam shows the teachings of the Church as lived realities. They are beautiful, intellectually sound, and viscerally charged. lamentably, contemporary writings about the Church's loveliness tend to fall miles beneath the august standard here set. Though written in the 1920s, this book's appeal is not primarily historical. It presents a fresh vision of what the Catholic life may yet again be, and inspires one's journey toward that lovely horizon.

This book helped me immensely with my apologetics "homework", especially concerning communion of the saints and other issues that are so alien to Protestants. The book is extremely well written and contains so much information that I haven't found in one source anywhere else. If you are sitting on the theological fence then this book is a MUST read!

This book is considered to be the best available by respected converts such as Thomas Howard and Scott Hahn. Adam covers all the most important points in a short book, and he covers them very well. This is a brilliant description of what Catholicism is all about -- a must-read for Catholics and non-Catholics alike, particularly for those who believe that the Church is nothing more than a tyrannical, despotic body that kills reason and self-discovery in the name of absolute obedience. One of the strengths of this book is that Adam frequently quotes the leading Protestant thinkers of his day in order to show the limitations of Protestantism generally. To his credit, Adam is never judgmental or hostile to non-Catholics. On the contrary, he goes to great lengths to show just how open-minded the Church is regarding non-Catholic (and non-Christian) beliefs, and what is positive and helpful about them. I was very surprised to find how little I knew about the complexities of, for example, the Church's position on salvation through the Church, and the role of individual conscience and freedom in faith. Adam shows, very convincingly, that the Catholic Church is exceedingly fair, open, reasonable, and caring in its approach to these controversial and widely misunderstood issues. His approach is always positive, hopeful, and logical. His arguments are iron-clad, rooted in Scripture, and absolutely devastating. Adam's book is extremely valuable and must be read if one wishes to gain a real understanding of Catholicism in a short book. Whether you are a Catholic seeking to know more about your ancient faith or a non-Catholic seeking to learn about Catholic beliefs, Adam's book is required reading. You'll be surprised at what you find within these pages, and perhaps even ashamed that you believed all the half-truths and distortions about Catholicism. Let the reader beware: if you have any doubts at all about your own church's teachings and traditions before you pick this book up, Adam's book will certainly amplify then, and it may well bring you into the Catholic Church!

That such a book could have been written nearly 50 years before Vatican II is an amazing testament to the insight and understanding of the brilliant German theologian Karl Adam. This work beautifully explains the many facets of Catholic doctrine and shows how they are so tightly and organically intertwined. Particularly helpful is Adam's explanation of Catholic soteriology and sacramental life. He avoids the more technical theological language without sacrificing precision or detail, plus rightly emphasizes the Biblical nature and core of Catholic doctrine and dogma. A must buy for anyone wishing to more deeply appreciate and comprehend the riches of the Catholic Faith.