Bibliography on Roman Catholicism

Select Annotated Bibliography of Modern Literature
(updated February 2013) 

Note: Some of the literature included here is academic and some of it is popular, controversial, and apologetic in nature. Inclusion of a volume in this bibliography does not consistitute an endorsement.

Armstrong, John, (ed.) Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Analyze What Divides and Unites Us. Chicago: Moody, 1994.

Beilby, James K., and Paul R. Eddy (eds.) Justification: Five Views. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011.

Boettner, L. Roman Catholicism. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1962.[Note: This volume is included a example of the way in which some conservative Reformed writers addressed Roman Catholicism in the first half of the 20th century. It has been criticized as inaccurate]

Berkouwer, G. C. Recent Developments in Roman Catholic Thought. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958.

Creighton, Mandell. A History of the Papacy During the Period of the: Reformation. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 2012.

Cleenewerck, Laurent. His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism Between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Washington DC: Euclid University Press, 2007.

De Chirico, Leonardo. Evangelical Theological Perspectives on post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism. Religions and Discourse, vol. 19. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.

Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006

Faggioli, Massimo. Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning. New York: Paulist Press, 2012.

Fesko, J. V. Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing. 2008.

Fortescue, Adrian. The Early Papacy to the Synod of Chalcedon in 451. 4th edition. San Francisco: St Ignatius Press.

Kelly, J. N. D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

King, David T. and William Webster, Holy Scripture: The Ground and Pillar of Our Faith. Battle Ground, WA: Christian Resources Inc., 2001.

MacArthur, John, and Don Kistler. eds. Justification by Faith Alone: Affirming the Doctrine by Which the Church and the Individual Stands or Falls. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995. [NB: Doctrinal concerns have been raised about the Armstrong essay].

Kistler, Don. ed. Sola Scriptura!: The Protestant Position on the Bible. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995.

Kruger, Michael. Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Lampe, Peter, and Marshall D. Johnson. From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the first two centuries. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

McCarthy, James G. The Gospel According to Rome. Eugene, Or: Harvest House, 1995. [NB: This volume denies infant baptism]

Noll, Mark A. and Carolyn Nystrom. Is the Reformation Over: An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005. [Note: This volume has been criticized as misrepresenting the nature of the differences between Rome and confessing Protestants]

Norwich, John Julius. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy. New York: Random House, 2011.

O’Malley, John W. A History of the Popes: From Peter to the Present. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publ, 2011.

Powell, Mark E. Papal Infallibility: A Protestant Evaluation of an Ecumenical Issue. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Riddle of Roman Catholicism. New York: Abingdon, 1959.

Sessa, Kristina. The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy: Roman Bishops and the Domestic Sphere. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Sproul, R. C. Are We Together?: A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism. Orlando, Fla: Reformation Trust Pub, 2012.

Stroll, Mary. Popes and Antipopes: The Politics of Eleventh Century Church Reform. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Svendsen, Eric D. Upon This Slippery Rock: Countering Roman Catholic Claims to Authority. Amityville, N.Y.: Calvary Press, 2002.

Svendsen, Eric D. Who Is My Mother?: The Role and Status of the Mother of Jesus in the New Testament and Roman Catholicism. Amityville, N.Y.: Calvary Press, 2001.

Wells, David F. Revolution in Rome. London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973.

Zachman, Randall C., ed. John Calvin and Roman Catholicism: Critique and Engagement, Then and Now. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.

Historic Protestant Critiques of Rome

Calvin, John An Admonition, Showing the Advantages which Christendom Might Derive From an Inventory of Relics (PDF includes the letter to Sadoleto, Reply the Theology Faculty of Paris, and the Antidote to Trent]

Calvin, John Acts of the Council of Trent with the Antidote (1547)

Calvin, John et al, A Reformation Debate: John Calvin & Jacopo Sadoleto

Chemnitz, Martin, Examination of the Council of Tent (1565–73). The Latin text is available here.

Luther, Martin, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Luther, Martin, The Freedom of the Christian Man

Luther, Martin, The Bondage of the Will

Perkins, William, Catholicus reformatus (Hanover, 1608). English translation: A Reformed Catholicke (1597).

Roman Symbols and Conciliar Documents

Abbott, W. M., (ed.) The Documents of Vatican II. Guild Press, 1966.

Canones et Decreta Concilii Tridentini (Leipzig, 1860).

Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, trans. H. J. Schroeder (Rockford, 1978).

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edn (Vatican: Libreria editrice, 1997).

H. Denzinger, ed. Enchiridion Symbolorum, 30th edn (Freibourg: Herder, 1960).

—— The sources of Catholic Dogma. trans. Roy J. Deferrari (St. Louis, Herder [1957]

Tanner, Norman P. The Church in Council: Conciliar Movements, Religious Practice, and the Papacy from Nicaea to Vatican II. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.

 

    Post authored by:

  • R. Scott Clark
    Author Image

    R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

    More by R. Scott Clark ›

Subscribe to the Heidelblog today!