Customer Reviews

Catholic Church and the Bible

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Want to go to a Bible Church, go to the Catholic Christian Church. Fr. Stravinskas does an excellent job in showing that the Mass is full of Biblical quotes and prayers. He also shows why the Bible is dinstinctively Catholic in its origin.

Fr. Stravinskas has an intellect like a steel trap. It shows in this book. This book is an excellent outline and introduction to the subject of the Catholic Church and the Bible. Thankfully Fr. Stravinskas does make references to Holy Scripture and the new Catechism of the Catholic Church, along with a few excellent suggestions for further reading, which will be of help to the curious. Not polemical, the work will be useful to both Catholics and non-Catholics who are looking for an introduction to Holy Scripture and the Church which has so carefully preserved and guarded the Word of God for two millenia. If you are not familiar with the history of the Catholic Church and the Bible, or have only been exposed to anti-Catholic propaganda, this is the book for you. Fr. Stravinskas' love of God's Word is evident in his writing.

Fr. Stravinskas is known for his readability, clarity, and orthodoxy, all of which are present in this volume. The initial material deals primarily with the understanding of the relationships between Scripture, Tradition and the Church. The middle, and primary, material deals with the Mass - it's Scriptural and Judaic use of time, candles, incense, etc. as well as the Biblical basis of the Mass. The segment on the Mass texts which cross-references them to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Scripture is in itself worth the cost of the book. The final segment deals more specifically with apologetics - a Catholic response to Fundamentalist and sola scriptura beliefs.

Unfortunately, Fr. Stranvinskas has occasionally been sloppy in his thought. In his section against inclusive language, he confuses linguistic gender with biological gender. In his discussion of Tradition, he refers to "Oriental memory" where his point appears rather to reflect the difference between oral and written cultures. In his discussion of the King James translation, he fails to recognize that the 1611 King James translation was of the Septuagint i.e. the Catholic canon.

While I would recommend this book, with reservations, for high school level religious education, I will continue to seek a similar book with greater concern for precision.

I was especially drawn to Chapter III of this book entitled a Biblical Theology of the Mass. The chapter looks, in part, at the Jewish roots of the Liturgy. Fr. Stravinskas tells how Jewish children from a Hebrew day school and Catholic Children from a Catholic school would experience each others liturgy. He notes that the Jewish Children, never having seen a Mass, understood parts of it from their own services. The first Christians were Jewish converts and there are still elements of that tradition in the Mass.

While the book looks to the Catholic Catechism, Tradition and Scripture to explain the Mass, it is nice to see a book that explores the often overlooked and fascinating aspect of the Jewish roots of the Mass.

Very simple to read and to the point. This book will give you a better ideas on what more indepth topics to check out. You will be suprised as a catholic how much of the bible is incorporated into our daily mass. I would call this a great stepping stone book for further studies.