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The Essential Catholic Catechism: A Readable, Comprehensive Catechism
Who is God? How does the Church help me to know God better? What is the connection between faith and reason, between the spiritual life and "real life"? These questions and many others are answered simply and with clarity by the best-selling author. This book will give you an introduction to the Catholic faith that is both theologically sound and readily understandable. An excellent tool for those who want to be able to explain the Catholic faith more clearly: religious education instructors, pastors, and RCIA directors. A Servant Book.
438 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 8, 2023
Excellent resource to learn the aspects of the Catholic faith. Teamed up with the podcast, “The Catechism in a Year,” you will have a new appreciation for the faith.
June 20, 2014
This book deserves more than a three star rating. Unfortunately I can't give it more than three stars because of the nature of the book: by nature a catechism is rather boring. Oh well.
Schreck has done an excellent job, though, in narrowing down the very large Catholic Catechism into smaller, essential (hence the title) bits, without losing any clarity. Indeed, this essential catechism seems so thorough that I can't imagine how the actual catechism could be any longer, or why it needs to be any longer. There are, of course, lots of minor points that Schreck merely references and points to, but they are minor points and therefore you aren't missing anything by reading this catechism rather than the whole catechism.
Even though I feel as if I had a good grasp of Roman Catholic theology, I still learned a lot. I say that only to recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in learning what Catholics actually believe rather than condemning them outright. The sections are fairly short and fairly easy to find so I'd suggest picking it up even if you simply want to read a few points, or to have the book as a reference now and then.
Schreck has done an excellent job, though, in narrowing down the very large Catholic Catechism into smaller, essential (hence the title) bits, without losing any clarity. Indeed, this essential catechism seems so thorough that I can't imagine how the actual catechism could be any longer, or why it needs to be any longer. There are, of course, lots of minor points that Schreck merely references and points to, but they are minor points and therefore you aren't missing anything by reading this catechism rather than the whole catechism.
Even though I feel as if I had a good grasp of Roman Catholic theology, I still learned a lot. I say that only to recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in learning what Catholics actually believe rather than condemning them outright. The sections are fairly short and fairly easy to find so I'd suggest picking it up even if you simply want to read a few points, or to have the book as a reference now and then.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews