The whole title of this book is Bible Basics for Catholics; A New Picture of Salvation History. It's by John Bergsma who teaches at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. I wish it had a catchier title because it is a highly readable and very clever way of presenting the seven covenants found in the Bible that God makes with us, his children. Bergsma uses the the device of cleverly drawn simple cartoons to help students remember the details of each covenant. It really is a rather delightful way of teaching this.
I wish I had found this book a couple of weeks ago. Sean's text in high school this year is the Didache Series' Understanding the Scriptures. That book talks about these covenants too, but in such a confusing way that we were really puzzled by it and Sean got a C on his quiz about it. This book, though, is written so clearly that Bergsma makes something that is profound and complex really easy to understand. And the pictures are great triggers for helping the student recall the meaning and context of each covenant.
I am planning on reading this out loud to Becky. Bergmsa handles some potentially tricky stuff very deftly, like the little incident of Noah's nakedness/drunkenness. So I think it would be appropriate for 7th or 8th grade students (with maybe some very slight censoring) and a wonderful way to introduce them to these concepts.
I am cheating a little bit here with this review. I haven't quite finished the book. I still have 40 pages to go (what a biblical number!). But for an adult it is a quick read.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment