Jimmy (aka. James) Akin's strongest quality, in addition to his knowledge and high intellectual capacity, is his ability to write clearly and succinctly. As a former Protestant, he understands both the Protestant (especially Calvinist) viewpoints quite well, and articulates them in juxtaposition with the Catholic notion (especially as expounded by Thomas Aquinas).

Although he does not diminish the differences, he explains that many points of contention are misunderstandings often resulting from the failure to define terms properly. Akin clarifies these terms and returns to the most debated Bible verses. He then defends the Catholic position using Scripture, history, logic, and common sense.

He also explains how some common sense notions such as "middle salvation" (eg: one man's preaching leads to another's salvation) and "temporal atonement" (eg: returning what was stolen) have been left out of the Protestant vocabulary. The result is that instances in Scripture that refer to these types of salvation are often mistaken for eternal salvation, thus creating more confusion.

Other topics he writes about are penance, indulgences, TULIP, boasting, and ecumenism. My only disappointment is that he only briefly touched on the belief of "eternal security" or "once saved always saved." I would have liked to have seen a whole chapter dedicated to that. Nevertheless, I believe the book still deserves 5 stars. ( )