Theology for Beginners

Excellent book! I find myself going back to it again and again. It was not easily understood by me at first. Whenever I encounter a new idea, a new twist on something, or something I never knew or understood before, I get excited and tend to start reading ahead faster, thinking there will be a fuller clarification. However, in so-doing, I miss exactly what I was looking for! However, reading slower and stopping to think about what I read solved the problem. I also make sure my phone is nearby to lookup things online I don't fully understand.

This treatise on theology is so well written that I highly recommend reading it thoroughly. I've just started reading the second chapter dealing with the spirit and found that can I understand the subject. I wanted to contact the publisher, Aeterna Press to thank them for publishing the book,but unfortunately, they don't have a web site. You don't have to be a scholar to enjoy this book! So get a copy and explore the richness of theology!

I'm sorry to say it, but I suspect an awful lot of people have zero interest in reading Catholic theology, and I don't mean because they think it will be written over their heads. However, anyone who does have such an interest should not only seriously consider buying this book, but also any other book by Frank Sheed as well. This man understood his subject to perfection, and to say he had a knack for explaining it clearly to any audience does not do justice to an author who learned and honed his apologetics skills from years of successfully meeting all comers from atop a soap box in London's Hyde Park. This short book, like his other short work, Map of Life, sticks to the point and is a sheer delight to read. His longer works are the same, but obviously demand a more sustained commitment. Pick any Frank Sheed book on Amazon, click on his name, then follow the link to Amazon's Frank Sheed page to look over his many books. I had an excellent Catholic education from kindergarten through university, from Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to Jesuits, no less. I even had as a spritual advisor a quintessential Jesuit who was a priest and a geologist of such accomplishment that he spent the Geophysical Year(1957-58)at Antarctica. I tell you this: I have truly never seen Catholic theology explained with a clarity comparable to that of Frank Sheed. Read and reread him with great profit and great pleasure.

I am new to the Church (less than 12 months) and English is my second language (I am really new to the Theology and I hope my below comments make sense).This is really a well written book to cover the very difficult topics without using metaphysical terms and definitions such as matter/ form, substance/ accident, essence/ existence, etc... For example, the explanation of "person" (soul and body) or the transubstantiation are nicely explained without using such technical terms. It covers a lot of important topics, and the chapters are logically arranged so that the earlier chapters will support later chapters. Each chapter topics can be further studied by reading more specific books. This book helped me better understand the same topics covered by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.It's about 240 pages long, and I was able to read the whole thing during my 5-day travel to Mexico (and I am a very slow reader!). I know I will have to re-read many chapters again to better understand the contents not because of how it is written but because of many topics are covered in this book.

This book, 'Theology for Beginners' by Frank Sheed, is recommended by Daniel Burke in his book, 'Navigating the Interior Life: Spiritual Direction and the Journey to God', as being part of the needed preparation before beginning spiritual direction. Being a relatively recent convert to Catholicism I'm hungry for spiritual instruction, but I also remember a "beginning" course in theology taken at a Protestant college many, many years ago! So with some degree of trepidation I bought this book... and then was delighted to find Sheed's presentation both easy to understand and enjoyable to read.This book is an excellent source for studying dogmas of the Church, but it is not, however, a book to be read straight through. As the author eloquently stated, "This book is not planned as a hand-gallop over the field of revelation... Slow careful thinking... will pay dividends later." So I agree with, and pass on, this suggestion: read a portion, let it roll around in our heads for a while, make it our own, then read some more another time. Just don't give up!I'm glad I came across the recommendation for this book, and I certainly pass that recommendation along to others.

The title is grossly misleading, theology is the study of religions, not an in-depth treatise on Catholicism. I happen to be a Catholic, but didn't buy this book to read about Catholicism. I expected it to be a brief overview of religion, I guess that's my fault for not reading the synopsis.I feel confident in my 1 star review not only because the title is misleading but the verbose and dense nature of the writing is daunting. There is no preamble or ramp up, just straight in to a very dry and dense subject matter that is very offputting.

Francis Joseph Sheed was a favorite lay theologian of mine and his book I read in the 1950's and so please that it ha been re-issued in this paperback - renewing my friendship with Mr. Sheed and loving every minute of it.