{"id":1977,"date":"2013-08-13T14:01:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T19:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2013-08-13T14:01:33","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T19:01:33","slug":"love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I\u2019m jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like they\u2019re idiots.\u00a0 Allow me to begin with a word from our sponsor<\/a>, emphasis mine:<\/p>\n

\u00a0. .\u00a0 . thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole mind<\/strong>, and thy whole strength.\u00a0 (Mark 12:30)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Catch that? Your whole mind.\u00a0 If you read here, you\u2019ve probably got a pretty nimble one.\u00a0 The kind of mind that, left with nothing to do, will think up something to do. The kind of mind that will never be satisfied with a fistful of warm fuzzy platitudes for a faith.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re capable of learning real theology.\u00a0 Denied that chance?\u00a0 Your brain will fill its theology cortex* with some other topic, and you\u2019ll end up one of those weird one-sided people who know everything about engineering or accounting or name-that-subject, but couldn\u2019t identify the correct definition of the Trinity if you put it an one-deity line-up.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for you, theologians are standing by.\u00a0 Pulled off my review shelf, here\u2019s my list of favorite resources for college-material Catholics who need a 101 on the faith:<\/p>\n

\"Introduction<\/a>1. Introduction to Catholicism for Adults<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>There are no puns in this book, and if the power goes out, it\u2019s heavy enough that you could iron a shirt with it.\u00a0 Consider it a Catholicism 101 textbook for one of those colleges where \u201cReligious Studies\u201d means actually learning what the religion under study really teaches, in detail and with intelligence.\u00a0 At the end of each chapter there\u2019s extra homework just in case.\u00a0 Great go-to resource for catechists preparing a topic for class.<\/p>\n

And even though it it isn\u2019t the ideal book for every newbie Catholic, every now and then, I\u2019m not kidding here, it\u2019s the right choice for RCIA or post-RCIA.\u00a0 Do not bring someone with a graduate degree into the Church via some flimsy booklet, and consider them<\/strong> \u201cformed\u201d.<\/strong>\u00a0 You can start with the booklet if you must, but don\u2019t stop there. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>2. Text of your choice from the Didache Series<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong> Working backward a few years . . . MTF also has a whole slate of high school theology textbooks.\u00a0 To make parish life easier, they\u2019ve recently released \u201cParish Editions\u201d that cover the same ground in a shorter course.\u00a0 I won\u2019t say that every serious Catholic high school theology program uses these (because there are some other good syllabi that use different but similarly substantial texts<\/a>), but I will say that if your student is doing college-prep in everything else, your student needs to do college-prep theology as well.<\/p>\n

Something I really like about the texts from this series that I\u2019ve seen: These are suitable for adults, too.\u00a0 Many of your RCIA candidates and adults interested in taking a faith formation class are not going to have time to swallow Intro to Catholicism<\/em> in one course.\u00a0 The parish editions in particular are very well suited to breaking adult faith formation into manageable mini-courses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>3. Anything written by Eric Sammons<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 These are intelligent, thoughtful tours of the basics of Christian spirituality, in a quick, comfortable read.\u00a0 Can\u2019t go wrong.<\/p>\n

\"cps\"<\/a>4. Fr. Longenecker\u2019s Catholicism Pure and Simple<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Fr. L. has proposed that for those entering the Church, it\u2019s easy to get distracted by 10,000 weird devotions, or heated arguments over the latest hot Marian apparition.\u00a0 His answer is a straightforward tour of the essentials of the faith, and he pulls it off admirably.\u00a0 You can\u2019t stop your study here, but it\u2019s an excellent place to begin.<\/p>\n

\"Grade<\/a>5. The Faith and Life<\/em> textbook series<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0 Written for grades 1-8, these are hands down the best elementary textbook on the market for study at home. (There may be good reasons for going with some other textbook in the parish . . . but it won\u2019t be because F&L is too light.)\u00a0 By book 7 or 8, the material can rival anything written for grown-ups.<\/p>\n

How well does this prepare youngsters for later study?\u00a0 The other afternoon we had three young teen boys sitting on our porch, following along for an hour while their dads studied Deus Caritas Est<\/em>, then did a thematic tour of scriptural teachings on the love of God.\u00a0 No coddling.\u00a0 These books get your student ready to study the faith for serious.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>6. The Bible Tells Me So<\/em> by Christian LeBlanc<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a step into a year-long survey of the Bible from Creation to Revelation, informed by Tradition and peppered with all the essentials of Catholic spirituality.\u00a0 Readable, fun, excellent companion to any read-the-Bible study plan.<\/p>\n

Ronald Knox<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 When you\u2019ve graduated from C.S. Lewis and GKC, Knox is next.<\/p>\n

And then of course there\u2019s always the Pope.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s got their favorite encyclicals<\/a> (don\u2019t they?), so I\u2019ll toss out my picks for economics-junkies: Rerum Novarum<\/a><\/em>, followed by Spe Salvi<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

How about you?\u00a0 What\u2019s your favorite intelligent spiritual reading, Pope-generated or otherwise?\u00a0 I know I\u2019ve missed a bunch of good titles.\u00a0 Add to the list, please.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

*fake jargon alert.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I\u2019m jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like they\u2019re idiots.\u00a0 Allow me to begin with a word from our sponsor, emphasis mine: \u00a0. .\u00a0 . thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169,178,198,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-catholic-church","category-resources","category-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLove the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.theologicalforum.org\/Images\/products\/ITC-Adults.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer Fitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Jennifer_Fitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jennifer Fitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/\",\"name\":\"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3\"},\"description\":\"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\",\"name\":\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Fitz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jennifer Fitz\"},\"description\":\"Jennifer Fitz is the mother of four fantabulous children, and author of Classroom Management for Catechists. She writes online for Patheos and for the Catholic Conspiracy. When she isn't blogging, teaching, or complaining about something, she likes to play outside.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jennifer_Fitz\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/jenniferfitz\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up","description":"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up","og_description":"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/","og_site_name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/","article_published_time":"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.theologicalforum.org\/Images\/products\/ITC-Adults.jpg"}],"author":"Jennifer Fitz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Jennifer_Fitz","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jennifer Fitz","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/","name":"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-13T19:01:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3"},"description":"It's Passing on the Faith Month at Patheos, and I'm jumping in with my #1 criticism of parish faith formation in the US today: Treating people like","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/08\/love-the-lord-with-all-your-mind-resource-round-up\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Love the Lord with All Your Mind . . . Resource Round-Up"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/","name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/a1a80a6198996fd8f065088c38a255c3","name":"Jennifer Fitz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3aa95bdcebf0f9f0962d1a672129e152?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jennifer Fitz"},"description":"Jennifer Fitz is the mother of four fantabulous children, and author of Classroom Management for Catechists. She writes online for Patheos and for the Catholic Conspiracy. When she isn't blogging, teaching, or complaining about something, she likes to play outside.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JenFitz.Writes\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jennifer_Fitz"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/jenniferfitz\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}