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I was pleasantly surprised when I sat down with this book—actually, I was hooked! And another thing: I wish this book was available during my years of Bible study.... If you think the subtitle—Everything You Need To Know But No One Ever Taught You—is a little pretentious, it isn't. This book really does live up to its claim: it answers all of those questions you may have had about the Bible. Which translation is best? Why? Protestant Vs. Catholic Bible? And what about the Old Testament? How to understand puzzling passages? And more, much more. If you are a curious person and are always willing to learn something new, chances are you will love this approach to understanding and tackling the Bible. Furthermore, even if you have participated in Bible study for many years, I believe you will find something in this friendly volume that you didn’t know before!

The book is divided into three sections following an explanatory introduction, presenting to the reader the way the book works. It is in the introduction for instance that the first question appears: Why read the Bible? A solid argument for the importance of the most influential book of Western Culture follows, along with spiritual reasons. Here we also become familiar with the format of the book and icons used throughout, along with several considerations to be made.

The three sections are entitled "How to read the Bible", "How to read the New Testament", and "How to read the Old testament". Each section contains from six to eleven chapters. It would be smart to read the book in the order presented, but it is also possible to fully enjoy it by just picking it up and reading a page chosen at random. There is a useful bibliography of sources, but I would have liked to see an index. It would have been more useful to those using this book as an aid to a Bible study. Yet, the book is so well and clearly sectioned that the table of contents should serve a similar function.

Editorial Review:
Perhaps you know very little about the Bible … or enough to realize there’s so much more to discover! Maybe your previous attempts to read the Bible have not been fruitful, and you don’t get much out of the readings at Mass. You observe the role the Bible plays in the lives of others and feel that you’re missing something. The How-To Book of the Bible, by Karl A. Schultz, is your key to unlocking this treasure. Unlike other Bible-related books, this one not only introduces you to the Scriptures but also helps you develop a deep, fulfilling, and lasting bond with the Bible.
I believe this would make a fantastic choice for a high school homeschool student who needs a year of Bible. The format and language will appeal to the young student and in comparison with the dryness of the texts available to homeschoolers, this will shine. I would love to see a workbook companion for this, complete with tests and an answer key!

The New Catholic Answer Bible is a pretty standard revised New American Bible (RNAB) plus inserts about various aspects of Catholic teaching. It is not (as I had at first thought) a "study Bible" with lots of notes about the Scriptural content, relating it to doctrine, liturgy, history, etc. The inserts are basically short apologetic tracts written by a pair of well-known Catholic apologists. A reference to the book of the Bible into which they are inserted often, though not always, provides a connection.

The inserts take the form of a question about the Faith and its corresponding answer. A box at the bottom of the page provides a quick reference to the texts cited as well as additional Scripture and Catechism references. Each insert is limited to a single page, so they are necessarily brief in their treatment of the topic. Nevertheless, they do provide a good basic understanding of the answer and a starting point for further inquiry using the information in the box at the end.

A sampling of the topics addressed:

• What is Apologetics?
• Does the Church Teach Evolution?
• Why is Catholic Worship Full of Rituals?
• What is the Holy Trinity?
• Aren't Statues a Form of Idolatry?
• Why Won't the Church Ordain Women?
• Why Are Abortion and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Wrong?

I did find it a little annoying that some of the references given did not explicitly say what the context implied. For example, insert I-1 says in part:

At the same time, no matter how terrible the evil caused by sin, God is great enough, and wise enough, to bring about through that evil an even greater good (see Gn 50:20, Rom 8:28).

The first reference is what Joseph says to his brothers when they come to Egypt to get grain, while the second is the famous "All things work out for good for those who love God." Although these references do speak of God bringing good out of evil, it was not obvious to me that it was an "even greater good" than the one God would have brought about had the evil not taken place.

In another place, insert K-3 (about divorce) refers to Mt. 19:9, which contains the (in)famous "exceptive clause." Unfortunately, the RNAB has a unique rendering of this exception as "unless the marriage is unlawful," which is an interpretation or commentary; the actual text literally reads "except for unchastity." I am uncomfortable with the tract treating this gloss as though it were really what the Bible says. It may work with someone who only uses this Bible version, but what happens when he encounters a different version, or a Protestant calls him on it?

I consider these quibbles and overall, Thigpen and Armstrong have done an excellent job of explaining the Church's teaching on a variety of topics simply and accurately.

This is a fascinating travel/apologetics documentary focusing on the story of Saint Peter as related in the New Testament. Apologist Steve Ray travels to Rome and many sites in the Holy Land to tell Peter's story. He provides fascinating details of the connections between particular places and important events in Peter's life.

This would make a great supplement to a Bible study, an apologetics lesson on the Papacy, a geography unit on the Middle East or simply an important part of Church history. Our teen discussion group watched this together just after reading the chapter in Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth on Peter's Confession and the story of the Transfiguration. The DVD tied into these themes very nicely.

We very much enjoyed the professional quality of this video that is packed with theological and geographical insights, connections with Old Testament History and a nice visual perspective to well-known Bible stories. The format is engaging and the visuals help make the particulars of the story quite memorable.

I would suggest that this is best for high school and adult viewers, but some younger viewers might enjoy it after a parental preview.