Some are of the opinion that the teaching of religion requires no

preparation and that anything is good enough for the child. Asking

catechism questions and listening to the child's recitation of the

memorized answers - exercises which are considered as constituting the whole

process of catechization - are in their estimation, after all, very simple

tasks. And if the child stumbles and hesitates, a little prompting will

elicit the desired answer. Unfortunately these exercises of verbal memory,

instead of inflaming the child with a love of God, leave him as cold as do

the drills of the multiplication table. The unassimilated abstract forms,

instead of promoting spiritual growth, become non-functional memory loads.

Religion, presented by methods such as these, strikes the child as a mere

formality and as a hard law, and he applies himself to it more out of

necessity than out of love and a joyous enthusiasm.

The teacher must carefully prepare the religion lesson if he wishes to give

an accurate and adequate explanation of the catechismal truths. The child's

intellectual powers are not sufficiently developed to grasp correctly a

religious truth without appropriate explanations. The adult has by

experience acquired many ideas and can interpret the new in terms of the

old. But this is not true of the child. For him the bread of divine truth

and life must be broken slowly. At the same time his mind is an "unmarked

virgin slate" which registers new impressions with the pliability of wax

and retains them with the durability of marble. If a child, through a

faulty presentation on the part of the teacher, assimilates an erroneous

idea in his early years, he may retain it for the rest of his life. The

child will be confirmed in his error by the teacher's authority, which he

accepts unquestioningly, and by his own imitative tendency which makes him

readily repeat whatever the teacher says. If the instructor is to be a

messenger of truth and not of error, he must have access to doctrinal

commentaries in which the truths of faith are explained in a simple,

accurate and authoritative manner.

The catechist must supply those concrete explanations which the Catechism

and religion books are obliged in their brevity to leave out. Theological

manuals in use by priests and seminarians usually state a thesis and then

prove it from the infallible decrees of the Church, from the Scriptures and

Fathers, and finally from reason. The thesis should logically be placed at

the end of such a discussion, since it is an abstract conclusion based upon

many concrete facts. The doctrinal statements in our Catechisms and

religion books are also conclusions - conclusions based upon facts derived

from various sources. To expect the child to grasp these abstract formulas

without first becoming acquainted with the concrete facts on which they are

based, is to expect greater intellectual acumen in the child than in the

theologian. Catechists must with the help of appropriate handbooks build up

the rich doctrinal background which the Catechism and religion books

presuppose.

In his translation entitled "The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas

Aquinas," the Rev. Joseph B. Collins, S.S., S.T.D., Professor of Theology

and Catechetics at the Catholic University of America, has made available

to teachers of religion a theologically accurate explanation of the

Catechism. It is Dr. Collins' latest contribution to the catechetical

movement in America. The appearance of this translation of St. Thomas'

catechetical works will be greeted with genuine satisfaction by all. In

these days of renewed interest in Thomism, especially on the part of

laymen, it will be comforting to know that the vast knowledge of the

Church's greatest theologian is now made accessible - in a condensed and

simple form - not only to teachers of religion but to the laity at large.

The work presents several peculiarities. Suggestive of the medieval custom

of dividing the contents of catechetical manuals, the work contains an

explanation of the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments, the Our Father,

and the Hail Mary. The principle of doctrinal correlation is frequently in

evidence. Thus, a brief explanation of the Sacraments is correlated with

the Tenth Article of the Creed - "The Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness

of Sins"; for it is through the Sacraments that Christ, our Head,

communicates graces to the members of His Mystical Body. As in the great

theological syntheses of the Middle Ages, the presentation of truth is

comparatively cold and abstract. The medieval theologians deemed it

inadvisable to appeal to the imagination and to the emotions in the quest

of truth. But they were by no means unacquainted with the ethical appeal of

the truths they were discussing. In no one's career, perhaps, was the

golden thread of doctrine so closely woven into the tissues of a perfect

life as in that of St. Thomas. Of him it may be said that he wished to know

in order that he might love; then, because he loved, he wished to

scrutinize ever more closely the object of his affections. His sublime

hymns on the Eucharist are best proof that lofty speculation does not

suppress or warp the affective element in human nature.

To-day, as in other ages, "truths are decayed, they are diminished among

the children of men." The environment in which we live and the atmosphere

which we breathe are tainted with irreligion and unbelief. May the perusal

of this book produce in the readers that strong faith, fond hope, and

burning love of God which animated the soul of the great theologian, the

Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas!

RUDOLPH G. BANDAS, S.T.D. ET M.