What book would you give to an atheist?

My choice would be Witness by Whittaker Chambers.

I would have to put Chesterton's Orthodoxy on the short list.

I doubt I'd ever give a book on faith to an atheist, unless asked to do so by the atheist, but I would suggest Simone Weil's Waiting for God.

Orthodoxy was my second choice.

Honestly, I think it depends a lot on what your objectives and theirs are. Understanding? Education? Conversion?

Likewise the individual's current thinking. Not everyone would agree, but Chesterton and the whole Edwardian Catholic literary revival (Lewis, Belloc, Knox, ...) seem to oppose a lazy secularism and not a committed atheism. Moreover there are atheists who are thoroughly versed in the Church Fathers, Church History and Catholic dogma.

And while The Everlasting Man may have done it for Lewis, I really wonder whether Orthodoxy or even the lighter The Ball and the Cross can be pulled out of its time. And in the same way, I tend to see Witness squarely in its Cold War context. But perhaps that's all just me.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Orthodoxy, Chesterton's most popular book. A cause for celebration and a good time to attract new readers!

MMcM, I'm disappointed that you would attempt to discourage people from reading Witness or Orthodoxy because these books are from another time. Wasn't the Bible itself written a long, long time ago?

> 7

Then I have not expressed myself well and I apologize.

I do not discourage reading the Bible, Orthodoxy or Witness, precisely because they offer insight into their times and subsequently through their varying influences: religious, literary and political. A non-believer who is not familiar with the Bible is less able to appreciate much of Western Culture. You need to know Orthodoxy to understand Žižek (touchstone fails, of course) the atheist. And no one should oversimplify the Cold War, especially since so many still think they are fighting it.

I do question whether these are effective tools to initiate meaningful dialog between a modern Catholic and a modern, committed atheist. I confess, though, as I said above, that I am not 100% certain of the objectives on either side. Maybe you can say more about that?

MMcM, The objectives on either side are to try to understand why the other person believes as he/she does. I would certainly be interested to know what books have influenced those who do not believe in God.

I disagree with you on the appropriateness of Witness as a starting book for a modern, committed atheist. For one thing, a modern, committed atheist is likely to have already thought through his position. So he needs something a bit different. And believe me, Witness is like no other book in demonstrating humankind's profound need for God. It is an EXPERIENCE that will stay with him for a long time.

If the putative atheist has some desire to discover something about the religious sentiment, and about the Catholic tradition generally, I would recommend Confessions of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton.

The Confessions by St. Augustine