For over two thousand years, the Catholic Church has relied on both Holy Scriptures and its Living Tradition to explain the Word of God. This highly readable and informative history of that amazing tradition recounts the major schisms, heresies, and slanders that were aimed at the Church in each danger-filled generation and how the Church countered those attacks. No student of the Catholic Church can ignore its traditions and its need for a teaching authority-a magisterium. From the Fathers of the Church to recent popes, from Doctors of the Church to its saints, the human race has benefited by the teachings of the Church. This enjoyable and fascinating revelation of the Deposit of Faith from one generation to another explains the need to inculcate new cultures, new languages, new ways of explaining the road to salvation passed down from the lips of Jesus Christ to the Universal Church. While the audience for this brief but highly interesting book is expected to be high school, CCD, and home school students, any history buff or Catholic adult will find in it an excellent overview of the religious influence wielded by the Church over the years. An influence which cries out for acceptance in today's secular world.
About the Author: Julian Bauer has authored four historical novels; one addressing the life of a Jewish family at the time of Christ (Eugenios: Servant of Kings); another describing the accomplishments of Origen and Jerome (The Scholar's Challenge); a book of the sixteenth century and the Council of Trent (The Hidden Saint: The Sixteenth Century Church in Crisis); and finally a novel exploring the conversion of the Ottoman empire into a secular Muslim nation-Turkey (Ibrahim, the Turk). In addition, Julian published two contemporary novellas: one examining religious relics (The Lawyer's Relic); and another asking how a grandfather should deal with an immoral grandson (A Grandfather's Dilemma). Rock of the Apostles: A Brief History of Catholic Tradition is Julian's latest and only nonfiction book. It was designed as a textbook for the exploration of Catholic Tradition. He is currently working on another nonfiction book: How to Become a Saint in Ten Easy Steps dealing with the Communion of Saints and the Final Judgment. Julian received a Bachelor in Arts degree in English from DePaul University. He also attended Florida State University, Baylor University, University of Illinois, Northwestern, George Washington Graduate School of Finance, and the law school at the University of Maryland. He has held numerous executive level positions in the Federal Government, as well as a national non-profit organization. He also founded and became the CEO of his own touring company. He was elected as national president of the American Volkssport Association, American Liaison to the International Federation of Popular Sports, American Legion Post Commander, and as national Vice-Commander of the Catholic War Veterans. One of his greatest pleasures was serving as a Knights of Columbus usher at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. He and his wife of fifty-nine years, Carmen Espinosa, live in Maryland near three children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.