Fr. Brown's writings are very apt to lead to heretical understandings of basic elements of the Catholic faith. I regret that I spent money on his books. Why do I say what I do? Well, in his first Union Theological Seminary lecture, in 1971, sounded a well-publicized call for "a scholarly reassessment" of the historical accuracy of Jesus' conception and virginal birth. Moreover, in his "Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine (1985)", he put the Virgin Birth — a central dogma of the Catholic faith — in the category of "doctrines for which there is slender basis in Scripture." Fr. Brown had way too much influence on biblical studies. In part, Ratzinger's excellent "Erasmus Lecture" was directed against Brown's modernist reading of Sacred Scripture (and, in fact, Brown got very upset by it as friend of mine who was there told me). Fr. Brown and many of those Catholic exegetes who followed him hold that it is "very uncertain" that angels appeared to Mary and Joseph; that there appeared a star interpreted by magi from the east as a sign of the birth of the King of the Jews, and that they followed it to Bethlehem; that angels appeared to the shepherds; and that Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. Don't waste your time and money. The earlier Brown is forgotten, the better. Also, another commenter (who also has a Ph.D. with a concentration in biblical studies as I do), argues that since Brown was put on the PBC, he was fine. Actually, it was only after Paul VI downgraded the authority of the PBC by making it be no longer a part of the Magisterium that he was allowed on it.