A new Catholic catechism from the CTS

I’ve just written a catechism! It started life as a series of short articles about the Catholic faith, and gradually morphed into a more systematic presentation within a traditional catechetical structure.

The full title is The Christian Faith: A Mini-Catechism for Catholics. You can order it here from the Catholic Truth Society – a bargain at £2.50.

I’ve copied below the Introduction, to give you a sense of what it is all about, and the Contents page, so you can see the topics and the structure.

INTRODUCTION

This booklet presents the Christian faith in a series of short articles. Each article expresses, in a nutshell, the core ideas about each topic as they are found in the Catholic tradition. The aim is to give food for thought, and to provide a mini-catechism of the most important elements of the Christian faith.

The richness and beauty of faith cannot be expressed in mere words; but the right words can point us to this richness and beauty, and encourage us to enter into it more deeply.

I have tried to squeeze as much as possible into each article, in just two or three hundred words, and to make them more or less self-contained. As a consequence, some of the explanations are quite dense, some may appear simplistic, and now and then there is some repetition. If you want to open up any of these tightly packed articles, or to go deeper, you can look up a particular subject in the index of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

These articles were first published in The Portal, the online magazine of the Personal Ordinariates of Our Lady of Walsingham and Our Lady of the Southern Cross. They were presented there in a different format, as “An A-Z of Catholic Faith”. I would like to thank Ronald Crane and Jackie Ottaway, the UK co-editors of The Portal, for inviting me to undertake the project, for encouraging me over the two years of the serialisation, and for giving permission to reprint the articles in this booklet. Please do visit their website at www.portalmag.co.uk to see both their current issue and their archives.

The articles were then presented as short catechetical talks to the students at Newman House Catholic Centre, which is part of the Catholic Chaplaincy to the Universities and Higher Education Institutions in the Diocese of Westminster. I would like to thank the students who attended for the many stimulating questions and insights they shared in the discussion times. I would also like to thank various friends who have commented on the text.

I do not claim any great originality in this presentation of the Catholic faith. Many of the articles are simply summaries of the teaching found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But if there are any mistakes then they are mine. Some passages of the text are borrowed from other writings I have published with the CTS. The theology presented here reflects for the Western/Latin tradition, and so there are certain nuances in the Eastern tradition that are not alluded to.

Here is the Contents Page. You could spend forever thinking-discussing-arguing about where you start and what progression you take as you journey through the Christian faith…

PART 1: The Meaning of Faith

GOD

REVELATION

FAITH

KNOWLEDGE

THEOLOGY

 

PART 2: The Christian Story

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

THE ANGELS

THE DEVIL AND THE REALITY OF EVIL

HUMAN BEINGS

ORIGINAL SIN

THE JEWISH PEOPLE

THE INCARNATION

THE LIFE OF CHRIST

THE SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS

THE RESURRECTION

REDEMPTION

THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

 

PART 3: Church, Tradition, Bible

THE CHURCH

TRADITION

THE BIBLE

THE APOSTLES

THE PAPACY

INFALLIBILITY

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

NON-CHRISTIANS

 

PART 4: Sacraments of Initiation and Healing

GRACE

THE LITURGY

THE SACRAMENTS

BAPTISM

CONFIRMATION

THE EUCHARIST

FORGIVENESS

THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK

 

PART 5: Sacraments and the Christian Vocations

VOCATION

THE LAITY

MARRIAGE

CONSECRATED LIFE

SINGLE LIFE

ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE

ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD

ORDINATION TO THE EPISCOPATE

 

PART 6: The Vocation to Love

THE UNIVERSAL CALL TO HOLINESS

LOVE

FREEDOM AND CONSCIENCE

MORALITY

NATURAL LAW

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

THE BEATITUDES

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR

LIFE AND DEATH

THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH

LOVE FOR THE POOR

EVANGELISATION

MARTYRDOM

 

PART 7: The Spiritual Life

CHRISTIAN PRAYER

THE OUR FATHER

OTHER KEY PRAYERS

DAILY PRAYER

INTERCESSION

CONTEMPLATION

DEVOTIONS

THE ROSARY

 

PART 8: The Last Things

DEATH

JUDGEMENT, HEAVEN, PURGATORY, HELL

HOPE

ETERNAL LIFE

THE SAINTS ON EARTH

THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

TWO MARIAN PRAYERS