Customer Reviews

This Is the Faith: A Complete Explanation of the Catholic Faith

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My wife saw this book and said, "Here's a book even I can read!" -- she has a VERY short attention span. She browsed through the book for hours.

I have YET to pick it up and not find something that I'm learning about my Catholic Faith. It's not only a page-turner, but VERY INSTRUCTIVE.

Amazon.com has a great price, too. Direct from the publisher costs more!

Here's what Tan says, (and I AGREE):

"A priest friend brought us a copy of This Is the Faith with the endorsement that this is the best book he had ever seen for instructing people in the Faith - whether converts or those whose education in the Faith has not been complete, or who just want a review. Once we read it, we had to agree! This book is at once complete and thorough, but also easy to read and very intelligible. Here is a book you can confidently give to friends and relatives inquiring about what the Church teaches and know it is excellent and will not be dry, long-winded or over their heads.

Originally published in 1951, the book covers the nature of God, the nature of man, the meaning of life, the nature of religion, the sources of Faith, the necessity of prayer, the duty of belief, the consequences of sin, the Commandments of God, the Holy Trinity, belief in Christ, the Redemption, the nature of the Church, the supremacy of the Pope, his infallibility, the Commandments of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Sacraments, the Mass, the priesthood, devotion to Mary and the Saints, what happens after death, the devotional life of a Catholic, etc.

This Is the Faith covers everything the convert or inquirer needs to know about the Catholic faith, and does so with a thoroughness that is at once completely satisfying, but never trying. Moreover, its approach is always dignified, reverent and commanding of respect. The result is that the reader will garner a true picture of the reasonableness, thoroughness and beauty of the Catholic religion that - with grace - will all but guarantee the assent of his will if he approaches the book with honesty and integrity. This book belongs in every Catholic home. It is unparalleled as a review, as a catch-up course, or as an introduction to the truth of the Catholic Faith for converts. Great, sadly needed and destined to do great good in our time! "

I have to agree with the other reviewer! This book is truly a gem! Not only is it thorough in its presentation, but it is easy to understand and it's interesting. This book makes an excellent apologetics text as well with topics on the supremacy of the Pope and an in depth discussion on the sacraments, complete with all relevant scriptural references. There are also some special chapters on the devotional life of a Catholic, the reformation, and Catholic social principles. The appendix includes a run-down of the Church through the ages, and the principle heresies. Every person inquiring about the Catholic faith should own this book! 5 stars!

One who wants to learn about the Catholic faith would do very well to read this classic book. The chapters start out in the question-and-answer format that those who are familiar with the Baltimore Catechism will recognize, and continues with easy-to-read text on the subject of that chapter. At 40 chapters, one short chapter per day, this book could make an excellent six-week course on the Catholic Faith.

In reading through the pages of this book, all I found was orthodox magisterial Catholic teaching, and none of the modernism that infests our Church today. It is written in very readable language, and would make a great first book to read on the faith. Commandments, Sacraments, Disciplines, everything is presented here.

Well worth the price. Five stars.

This is a most excellent and thorough explanation of Catholic beliefs! When I wanted to convert to the Catholic Church early last year, my priest gave me a copy of this book and told me to read it. I read the book in a couple of weeks. The book was very easy to understand and each chapter is divided into subsections which discuss each subtopic within the chapter. It does an excellent and thorough job and explaining the Catholic Church and her beliefs in a thoroughly orthodox and easy to understand way! I highly recommend this book both to cradle Catholics, new Catholics, and potential converts to Catholicism! This book has both an Imprimatur and a Nihil Obstat which ensures that the book does not contain any doctrinal error or bad teaching.

This excellent book represents itself as "a complete explanation of the Catholic Faith". Certainly, this is an audacious claim. However, the book delivers. I strongly recommend it to anyone seriously interested in learning about the Catholic Faith.

I received my book 2 days after I ordered - now this is fast service! The book was perfect in every way and lived up to much more than was advertised. This is the best book I have come across that explains the Faith so all can understand. I recommend this to all who want to brush up on their knowledge and share it with others. Perfect for RCIA candidates and Jr. High students in Faith Formation.
Thank You,
Pat

This is the finest overview of the Catholic faith I've come across. This is a big book but it's not overwhelming and it is ideal for people going through RCIA (particularly if your RCIA director is not up to the job) and it's great for people who already are Catholic but were never really taught the catechism or for people who need a refresher course.

It's clearly written, decisive and is easy to understand. If I had to hand one single book to a person who was asking about the Church this would be the one.

There seems to be a growing body of Roman Catholic apologetic literature out there. Some of it is better than others. None, in my reading, quite matches the wide range of questions or provides a more thorough treatment of any one of them than this classic work (originally published in 1951). Chapters are provided for virtually every topic questioned by non-Catholics about the faith - Mary, the Saints, the Pope, and so on. Each topic is discussed with great depth and careful exegesis of scripture in support. The size of the book may intimidate casual searchers but it is ideal for the more demanding challenger.

Due to the arrangement of chapters by topic, they can easily be read out of sequence to follow a specific interest or in order to gain a solid base of understanding. You will want a copy to keep as a reference to the specific topics.

There are two very helpful Appendixes included with the work. The first is a brief timeline of the history of the church. The second is a summary of major heresies that have challenged the church in that history.

Keep your volume close at hand for handy reference in defending the faith and strengthening your own understanding as well. Indeed a classic that continues to age with grace and clarity. Well worth the investment to keep it handy.

This book is an excellent introduction to the Catholic faith. I especially like how it begins each chapter with an old-fashioned catechetical dialogue, which would be an excellent way to introduce the chapter within an RCIA (if only!) session, or a teen catechism class.
It has a few drawbacks, however. First, some of the arguments, especially regarding the soul and other natural/spiritual topics, require a fairly Thomistic philosophical viewpoint, and therefore fall into the same traps that Thomistic philosophers run into when confronting modern philosophical schools, or even completely materialistic schools of thought. From that angle, it would probably have been better simply to give the religious point of view with a "Contra gentiles" approach to showing those views consistent. Second, this edition is a classic example of what's wrong with the practice of biased editing. In a couple cases, the editors feel it necessary to insert their own viewpoint, while both the author and the Church have felt it unnecessary to comment. This is typified in a comment on evolution which is really useless (p. 5). We don't need more Christians using incompetent science to make religious claims. Finally, there are a few incorrect statements, such as making the eastern theology about the procession of the Holy Spirit into a heresy, "because it teaches that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone and not from the Father and the Son" (p. 466). In fact, this matter was settled at the Council of Florence and is NOT considered a heresy.
Overall, however, with a guided reading, it is, in my opinion, the best textbook for a late Catechism program I have ever seen.

This was required by our church for RCIA classes. It looks like a great resource