Whenever there is a bestseller I always need to read it. If a book has been on the top of the New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks or so I have to read it; even if I’ve never read anything by the author, if anything just to know what the culture is thinking. The same applies to books in the religious realm in which the book Pope Peter by Joe Heschmeyer fits the bill. Catholic and Protestant YouTubers are talking about this book and Heschmeyer is having quite a few interviews. I decided to take the plunge and read it.
Heschmeyer starts out by describing the nightmare scenario Catholics find themselves in with this disaster papacy. He doesn’t go as far as Taylor Marshall in his criticisms but he certainly pulls no punches. I was actually surprised that Catholic Answers Press would publish a book like this. Still, the book isn’t about Pope Francis but the Biblical evidence for the papacy. I’ll be honest, I expected it to be a rehashing of Steve Ray’s book Upon This Rock. While I did enjoy Ray’s book, I didn’t want to read a book where 90% of the arguments are taken and repeated just in finer language. Luckily that didn’t happen and I was quite delighted.
Heschmeyer takes a pretty unorthodox approach in dealing with this subject. Most Catholics, whether layman, clergy, or apologist would lead with Matthew 16:18-19 and go from there. Heschmeyer actually doesn’t even touch this verse until later in the book. He talks about Peter’s role in the Gospels and also a lot of principals derived from the Gospels. He talks quite a bit about about the sermon on the Mount and the phrase “city on a hill” and explains its significance in ways I’ve never heard before.
Chapters 4 and 5 are probably the best chapters of the book. I won’t get into them here but I believe the material in these two chapters are worth the price of the book itself. In chapter 5 on page 83 he produces a quote from Martin Luther which is really damaging to the Protestant concept of authority. Luther realized the dilemma he was in but essentially chose to ignore it.
He eventually gets to Matthew 16, having already established several themes in the New Testament. The exegesis is quite good. He quotes quite a few Protestant scholars of high repute. In many chapters, in semi-scholastic fashion he has a section called How Might a Protestant Respond?
The book has a couple downsides to it. One is that it has a couple of errors. He says Casti Connubii was released in 1931 while the date was actually December 31, 1930. I normally wouldn’t be picky on a minor detail like this but it was on the first page of the book so it was kind of annoying. Less forgivable is an error he made on Eastern Orthodoxy. The book is mainly written for Protestants but he does deal with Eastern Orthodoxy for a couple pages. While trying to show that they don’t agree among themselves on the number of ecumenical councils, he blundered by saying that some accept the 869-870 Council of Constantinople as the eighth ecumenical council. The Eastern Orthodox Church has never accepted that council; the council that they accept(and that some believe to be the eighth ecumenical council) is the council of 879-880, also held in Constantinople. Another downside to the book is the lack of interaction with the council in Acts 15 where the role of Peter is disputed. Luckily there is a book out there that plugs that gap quite well: Jesus, Peter, & the Keys, written by several authors.
Despite these couple of problems the book is decent. Heschmeyer did a lot of research which is attested to by over 400 references in this 230 page book. There are no shortage of books on the papacy but this one is unique in many ways and makes for an enjoyable read. I look forward to more good books by Heschmeyer in the future.
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