Father Smith Instructs Jackson: Centennial Edition!Over 3 million copies of this timeless classic have been sold, and it has influenced thousands of conversions. Witness the engaging and accessible interplay between a priest and a non-Catholic inquiring about the Faith. Their conversation is a masterpiece in catechesis -- as Chris Jackson asks the questions generation after generation wants to ask, and Father Smith responds with wisdom, wit, Scripture references, and solid Catholic teaching. It is one-on-one catechesis at its finest, delivered in a relevant and practical context -- much like Jesus himself taught.
With fresh references and updated language supplied by noted Church scholar Paul Thigpen, this is a book that Catholics and non-Catholics alike can turn to for greater personal understanding of the intricacies and nuances of the Faith.
Archbishop John Francis Noll (1875-1956) had a significant impact on Catholic publishing during his 58 years of priestly ministry. His skill in defending and explaining the Faith was honed during the early 1900s, when he began his mission work to non-Catholics, often attending Ku Klux Klan and other anti-Catholic rallies in order to directly confront the speakers and attendees. Driven by a desire to teach both Catholics and non-Catholics the value of the Faith in a language and format that they could understand, he launched what has become one of the largest Catholic publishing houses in the world, Our Sunday Visitor. In addition to creating a national Catholic newspaper and distributing millions of topical pamphlets on the Faith, he published several books, among which Father Smith Instructs Jackson quickly became a best-seller. After being installed as the fifth bishop of Fort Wayne, he became an esteemed leader among the United States bishops, eventually earning the honorary title of Archbishop as a sign of the Vatican s esteem for his work.