Customer Reviews

Catechism of the Catholic Church: Second Edition

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I grew up Catholic, served as an altar boy, followed the sacraments and thought I was a Catholic.

I received this as a gift from my parents. While thumbing through it, I realized I had no idea what being a Catholic was.

"Catechism of the Catholic Church" -- officially published by the Vatican -- is used by both protestant and Catholic schools to teach what Catholics believe. The top evangelical college in America (Wheaton College) even uses it for their Catholic theology course.

I realized while reading this I had no idea what a Catholic baptism was, what the Catholic Church said about saints, what Rome has to say about Catholics who have converted to another Christian faith. And I learned some things the priest in our Chicagoland parish was not teaching Catholic doctrine.

Whether you are Catholic or not, there is a fair chance you've bought into some of what pop-culture has said Catholic is and is not. This easy-to-read (thick, but well-organized) book will give you the Catholic position on the matter.

I fully recommend "Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Anthony Trendl
http://anthonytrendl.com

One might expect the Catechism to be dry and difficult to understand, but I am incredibly impressed with how well-written and clear the book is to the reader. It not only clearly explains difficult theological concepts so that the lay reader can understand, but it is filled with wonderful footnotes for further research. It is incredibly insghtful and written with a care which really shines through to bless the reader. Whether one is a Catholic, a searching protestant, or one trying to simply understand the Church more clearly, this is the book for you. Investing in its reading will benefit you in the years to come.

A good priest I know says every Catholic should own and read at least three books: The Bible, Documents of Vatican II, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (if you're not Catholic and want to learn what the Church really teaches the Catechism is a good place to start). I agree. The Catechism is an invaluable resource in helping one to know and understand their faith and is chocked full of insightful citations to the other two must-read books mentioned above. You can read it from front to back or use the Subject Index to find what you're most interested in. This version is also very small (you can easily hold it in one hand) but the font is still readable.

While I grew up Protestant (Baptist) I didn't know that any Christian group had such a thing as a Catechism book, a book of their confession, or even by-laws. I thought all that was needed was the Bible (sola Scriptura). As a result all I learned about who the Catholics are and what they believe was from pastors with an anti-Catholic ax to grind, mis-informed or non-practicing Catholic classmates, and biased anti-Romish Protestant literature.

Since I had so many questions from church history and interactions with devout and God-fearing Catholics, I found this book invaluable in understanding certain Roman-Catholic Church (RCC) doctrines.

This Catechism of the RCC is very well organized, with valuable cross-references, and easy to read and understand. While I do not agree with all the doctrines and interpretations, I respect the Catholic Christians who know what their church teaches (i.e. read their Catechism) and love the Lord.

This Doubleday edition of the Catechism is incomplete - it lacks the Index of Citations and Glossary, and the Subject Index is incomplete. It is dishonest to present this as the second edition.

Finally I got it on my bookshelf today. It is the first day and I have already finished 100 first pages of the Cathecism. This is to me a perfect reasoning to explain Catholic faith, how the Church interprets the Scripture, put it into the context of the Church's doctrines, and explains it in the most sensible way to everyone: Catholics, non-Catholics, even non-Christians.
It is really interesting to see how "rational" the Cathecism has presented, especially how the book describe the concept of God and His Trinitarian nature as the foundation of Christian belief. This book is certainly a source of information as well as a strong defence material for Protestant attacks on Catholic doctrines.

This pretty much what every practicing or non-practicing Catholic should have a copy of. It has the answers according to canon law, etc. It has answers about societal issues and like we know, it's needed in this society we live in today.
Though there are other condensed versions of the CCC, this is what we should really have read. It's a good source for the student as well.

I purchased this version of the Catechism to replace the original first edition by Ligouri Press that I had before (ahem) "lending" it to someone a few years ago and never getting it back. I miss that first edition for a number of reasons, not the least of which were my rather copious margin notes and highlights I had made, as well as it's overall heft. The only downside was that they subsequently did some revisions and issued a separate addendum containing the corrections. For the record, that addendum always stayed with the main book and is presumed "missing" along with its main volume. Without getting too bogged down in the history of the book, the First Edition was based largely (if not exclusively) on the French translation of the Catechism. Once they completed the Latin version and began cross-checking, they discovered a number of linguistic inadequacies that were later addressed through the addendum then through subsequent issuances (like this one.)

I was pleased to find this 2nd edition printing available (in hard cover, no less) for such a decent price. And to be certain, it is indeed the "revised" (based on the Latin text) version of the new Catechism. The reality of things hit me as soon as I pulled the volume from the box it shipped in. This edition is at least 1.5-2 inches smaller in both height and width than it's Ligouri predecessor. It also seems a skosh thinner than I remember the original being. I'm guessing this is due to smaller margins and MUCH smaller typeface, as well as some apparent content that was trimmed from this edition (primarily indices).

The book does seem to be well constructed; the binding is tight, the leaves appear clean-cut and a casual pass-through noted no noticeable bleeds, smudges or mis-registers. Aside from my expectations with regard to dimensions, it seems to be a nice, solid publication. The 4-star rating was for the overall size of the volume and typeface. The Catechism itself receives a solid 5-stars for content, and will likely be the Catholic Church's legacy to future generations for many, many years to come.

I was disappointed in Doubleday's second edition. It lacks the great index of citations contained in my original Cataechism of the Catholic Church by Liguori Publications.

I love the new Edition of the Catechism! I bought it on the recommendation of my theology teacher and I love the compactness of it, and the hard cover. It is just a beautiful book and what can I say about our new Catechism except that it is incrredibly inspiring and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful Church!