Theology for Beginners Paperback – Illustrated, November 18, 2013

Easy to Read.The most concise and informative book on Theology, perfect for the ordinary Catholic. Easy to read, great for learning, such a challenge to live.

Definitely worth your time! Stick with it! Slow going at time. Then stop and ponder...and pray for enlightenment. And keep going.

Wow, what an amazing book. My brain overheated several times, forcing me to take a break, but it was so worth it. Concise, but as profound as Aquinas or Augustine (and greatly improved my appreciation and understanding of both!) If you want a solid grounding in Catholic theology, I can't think of any better start. Brought many new insights to my faith. A great place to start if you are interested in theology and a better understanding of the Catholic faith . . . wish I had this 30 years ago!

Was delivered to the wrong apartment number but beyond that great book

This book brought me back to the catholic faith after 40 years. So glad I ran across it. It really has the potential to change your outlook on everything. Easy to read, thought provoking throughout, excellent catholicism belief manual and a way back to purpose in your life.

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.

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.

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.