Basics of the Faith: A Catholic Catechism [Paperback]

Alan Schreck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1987

The Essential Catholic Catechism is the revised and expanded edition of the title, Basics of the Faith (ISBN 0892833076). This popular summary of the faith is designed for general readers wo are curious about spiritual matters and the Catholic Church.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Servant Pubns (November 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892833076
• ISBN-13: 978-0892833078
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,791,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even if you're not Catholic..., April 20, 2004

By 

Daniel McAfee "Dan McAfee" (Fort Wayne, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Catholic Catechism: A Readable, Comprehensive Catechism of the Catholic Faith (Paperback)

Schrek's book is a very nice summary of the Catholic Catechism. One difference between the Catholic faith and the Protestant faiths is that Catholics have what can be considered checks and balances on their faith. The Bible, the Tradition, and Past Teachings must all be in agreement or there must be a reason why. So where Protestants are often under the gun to protect their belief from modern changes (whether it's something as simple as women pastors or as difficult as gay marriage) since the Bible doesn't speak to every detail of modern life, Catholics have past Tradition and past Teachings to stabilize the faith. Some reviewers would give books like this a low rating because they believe the Bible and the Bible alone should inform their faith. Since the goal of the book is to describe, summarize, explain and teach the Catholic faith, it seems wrong to blast the book for doing just that. This is an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the Christian faith better than they do now.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading, excellence in evangelism, June 2, 2007

By 

P. Soderberg (Perth Western Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Catholic Catechism: A Readable, Comprehensive Catechism of the Catholic Faith (Paperback)

I'll review this book from two standpoints

(1) Quality of binding, print, paper etc.

(2) Quality of content.

Published by Servant Books, this edition uses thick paper so that print from the facing page does not show through (much) and so that you can use a ball point pen for underlining and adding notes without it bleeding through, the paper is slightly cream coloured.

The pint is a good solid black. The text is about 10 point for easy reading.

The binding is typical for a paper back book but slightly stiff so that the book will not open flat when you lay it on a desk.

For quality of production I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

The content of the book is uniformly excellent. Alan Schreck writes clearly and manages to keep his subject interesting. He covers the following areas of Christian faith

(1) God's Revelation and Our Response

(2) God, His Creation, and Man's Rebellion

(3) God's People of the Old Testament

(4) Jesus Christ and the New Covenant

(5) The Holy Spirit and the Church

(6) Christian Prayer and the Liturgy

(7) The Sacraments

(8) Life in Christ and the Holy Spirit

(9) The Ten Commandments

(10) Catholics in the World

(11) Mary

(12) The Life of the Age to Come

His perspective is orthodox, conservative but not fundamentalist, and slightly charismatic (though this is present only in slight hints in some of the latter chapters of the book).

This catechism is an excellent resource for personal study and for evangelism, it is especially helpful for explaining the Catholic faith to people who have read or heard anti-catholic views because it presents the facts of Catholic faith without entering into any polemics against any denomination or non-christian religion.

The book is 404 pages long (excluding the notes and index at the end, the index is helpful for finding subjects but there is no scripture index).

For content I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Catholic for dummies, March 6, 2006

By 

Ananda - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Catholic Catechism: A Readable, Comprehensive Catechism of the Catholic Faith (Paperback)

I meant that title with the utmost respect.... I am one of those people who does not understand any pages of the bible. This book explains everything in a way that even a non catholic can understand. I love how it goes through the old testament and describes who every person is. For example who Moses was , who Abraham was who was their father etc... It's like reading a story. tThen at the end of each chapter it summerizes it , so for example one could just go to the summery and only read that if you need some quick answers.

Wow, this book may actually make me a catholic again!