If you read one book on conversion this year, make it Matthew Levering’s Why I am Roman Catholic. Levering combines impressive erudition with an accessible style, inviting readers into a meaningful engagement with the treasures of the Catholic tradition. One of Levering’s strengths as a writer—a strength that is evident across his published works—is his care in addressing arguments with which he disagrees. Levering is allergic to strawmen, which suits him well in a book focused on his reasons for being Catholic. Whereas some popular apologetic works seem incapable of entertaining alternate viewpoints, Levering in this book carefully addresses some of the most common criticisms of the Catholic position with a seriousness appropriate to what’s at stake. Chapter 4 (“What I Have Found Difficult about Being Catholic”), in particular, is a shining example of what it can look like to critically evaluate one’s own outlook without abandoning it. This approach, I’m sure, will help Levering to gain a hearing with readers who might otherwise be closed off to a defense of the Catholic faith.

Two other notable strengths of the work are worth mentioning here. First, Levering’s writing style has a personal touch that is rare among academicians. While he clearly possesses deep familiarity with the tradition, Levering never allows his immense learning to get in the way of connecting with his readers. The warmth of the book radiates off its very first pages. Levering begins with an honest admission about the depth of grief that he experienced at the death of his mother: “When my mom died a few years ago, just before I wrote the first draft of this book—she had just turned seventy-three but was not yet ‘old’—I found myself even more forlorn than I had expected” (p. 1). With that opening sentence, we immediately recognize that the conversation to follow will hardly be a cold, detached discussion of abstract theological points. Levering continues in a similar vein at the start of chapter 1, where he openly shares about his lifelong struggle with chronic illness and limited mobility. Levering is a writer who not only sympathizes with the griefs and trials of human existence, but he is able to express his thoughts in such a way that readers come to recognize their own experience of pain in his words.

Second, Levering gives added texture to his discussion by weaving in copious quotations from the saints. On page 7, he signals that this will be a prominent feature of the book: “In explaining why I’m Catholic, I will at every opportunity call on the saints, ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Heb 12:1).” And he definitely follows through on this promise. The book is littered with quotes from the saints, many of these fleshed out further with brief synopses of the saints’ exemplary witness. As another reviewer has written, Levering possesses a “near-encyclopedic knowledge of the writings of saints down through the ages,” and his weaving together of this source material compellingly “brings us into communion” with the heralds of the Church Triumphant. Why I am Roman Catholic is worth purchasing, in my opinion, if for no other reason than that it will deepen one’s familiarity with a whole host of saints.

In chapter one, Levering provides an important reminder for all of us who dare to speak about divine realities: “My ideas about Christ and God are not false, but if I cling to my ideas, that way lies disaster. It is the living God who alone can fill the space that dying (and, for that matter, living) opens up. Only the living God can fill this space with gifts: Christ, the blessed, the new creation, beatitude” (p. 24). This seriousness about relying on God permeates every page of the book. Levering is a brilliant scholar; that much is clear from his other published works. But his writing is always oriented toward leading readers into a more expansive love of the Creator. To borrow language from John Henry Newman, when Levering writes about theology his concern is with the real, not simply the notional. Readers will be moved learning about the contours of Levering’s spiritual journey because it so clearly has the ring of authenticity.  In my estimation, Why I am Roman Catholic has the feel of a book destined to be a classic. As someone who is a great fan of spiritual autobiographies, I enjoyed this work almost as much as I enjoyed reading Santa Augustine’s Confessions or Dorothy Day’s The Long Loneliness. What Levering’s account lacks in narrative structure, it more than makes up for in theological depth and range of topics tackled.

If you have been wrestling with doubts of any kind, this is an excellent book to turn to. Levering adroitly blends personal testimony with apologetical heft as he goes about unpacking some of the thornier questions that arise in discussions about the Catholic faith. To his credit, he does so without ever resorting to simplistic answers or coercive rhetorical moves. By book’s end, I found myself thinking about how great it would be to sit down over a pint with Levering and dive deeper into matters of faith. That’s the mark of a great spiritual writer, I think, especially when the work under consideration is an explanation as to why the author believes what he does. We should be grateful, then, that Levering set aside time from his steady stream of scholarly publications to pen this reflection. This book promises to be a great gift, both for Catholics who want to better understand their faith and also for anyone not presently a member of the Church who wants to know more about the reasons for Catholic belief. In conversations with friends and family members who ask you about your faith, you could hardly do better than to gift them a copy of Levering’s humble offering.