Saints vs Scoundrels: Debating Life's Greatest Questions

Round One: St. Augustine vs Jean-Jacques Rousseau
In the first round, St. Augustine, the 5th century Catholic bishop, argues with and (after a struggle) dismantles the radically anti-Christian arguments of 18th-century French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Round Two: St. Thomas More vs Henry VIII
Be at ringside for the second round as the wise but humble St. Thomas More confronts the tyrant who would later put him to death. More goes toe-to-toe with proud King Henry VIII, the wicked, fallen-away Catholic whose ruthless war against English Catholics and the Catholic Faith was sparked – and sustained – by his lustful, illicit, murderous marriages to one woman, then another, and yet another: six in all!

Round Three: Flannery O' Connor vs Ayn Rand
Round 3 pits Southern Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor against her 20th-century contemporary, novelist Ayn Rand, famous for her promotion of egoism as the standard by which we all should live. From this lively, literate battle of wits and words, you’ll learn where true strength and happiness lie: in selfishness or in service.

Round Four: St. Francis of Assisi vs Niccolo Machiavelli
Round 4 features the gentle St. Francis of Assisi verbally battling the domineering, disdainful Niccolo Machiavelli: two men whose views couldn’t be more opposed about the nature of morality, the truth of religion, and the right way to exercise political power. Will a miracle wrought by the arguments of the little medieval saint shatter the stern views of the hard-hearted, thoroughly modern Machiavelli?

Round Five: St. Teresa Benedicta vs Friedrich Nietzsche
Round 5 introduces you to Edith Stein, the Jewish woman who converted to Catholicism and soon became Carmelite Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, executed at Auschwitz for her Jewish blood. Recently canonized by John Paul II, St. Teresa Benedicta finds herself in Round 5 rudely attacked by Friedrich Nietzsche, the infamous nineteenth-century atheist-philosopher who proudly declared "God is dead!" From that point on, saint and scoundrel go head-to-head in a thrilling battle of philosophies, with one of them emerging victorious and the other frustrated and pushed to the breaking point.

Granted, these men and women never met in real life, but the ideas they represent have battled each other for centuries ... and they clamor for your allegiance even as you read these words. What better way is there to come to understand them in their full force - and in the fullness of their truth and their error - than by means of these imagined debates drafted by philosopher/historian Benjamin Wiker?

Go Five Rounds with these ten fighters! It’s great fun. Better yet, it will train you to engage in similar discussions around your dinner table, at work, or at the next cocktail party when you hear scoundrels casually disparaging your Catholic Faith. You may be no saint, but I’ll bet you’d like to give those scoundrels a run for their money! If so, Saints vs Scoundrels is the book for you!