Building the Way to Heaven (Emmaus Road Publishing)

Biblical Typology is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Most of them relate to Jesus as Adam, Moses, and King David are all Old Testament prefigurements of Jesus, but we also see this with Eve and Mary, Joseph in the Old Testament and Joseph in the New Testament, and Elijah and John the Baptist. Emmaus Road Publishing has given us a series of children's books on this subjects with the following three titles currently in the series - The End of the Fiery Sword, Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb, and Building the Way to Heaven. They are all written by Maura Roan McKeegan and illustrated by T. Schluenderfritz. Today, I am going to tell you about the third book in the series.

Building the Way to Heaven begins by asking children if they have heard of the stories of The Tower of Babel and Pentecost. It explains that even though one is from the Old Testament and one is from the New Testament, when you put the stories next to each other, you can see a hidden mystery unfold. The two stories are then placed side-by-side on the pages throughout the book, so we see the Great Flood on one page and Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension on the other page. This leads us to the pages where all the people in the Old Testament speaking the same language and all the people in the New Testament speaking different languages. The Old Testament people were prideful wanting to build a tower to elevate themselves. The New Testament Apostles wanted to spread the Good News and elevate Jesus. Thus, the Old Testament people were scattered and given different languages to speak. However, the Apostles were given the ability to speak different languages so the whole world would know about Jesus. Thus, we learn that you cannot build your way to Heaven. The only way to Heaven is through Jesus. Like the other books in this series, the author and illustrator do a good job of educating your child on Biblical Typology without overwhelming them with information. These types of books, not only give your children more Biblical exposure, it also helps them look at old stories in new ways and see exactly how the Old Testament relates to the New Testament. Highly recommend this series!

This book was provided to me by Emmaus Road Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb (Emmaus Road Publishing)

Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb is the second book in the series of Biblical typology children's books from Emmaus Road Publishing. Both the author (Maura Roan McKeegan) and illustrator (Ted Schluenderfritz) remained the same. The first book in this series was entitled The End of the Fiery Sword. And for those who don't recall my last review, Biblical typology is a kind of symbolism where something in the Old Testament prefigures something in the New Testament. Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb focuses on the figures of Jonah and Jesus.

The book focuses mainly on the differences between Jonah and Jesus. Jonah and Jesus both had missions to save different cities, Nineveh and Jerusalem, respectively. Jonah ran from his mission and tried to avoid it, but Jesus willingly accepted his mission. Both were on a boat one day when a storm was raging. The people on Jonah's boat were in danger of dying, but the people on Jesus' boat were never in any danger. The main parallel, however, involves Jonah being "buried" at sea by having a whale swallow him and Jesus being buried in a tomb. Three days later, Jonah was out of the whale and preaching to Nineveh. Three days later Jesus was raised from the grave. Both spent 40 days leading people to repentance. However, Jonah still begrudged Nineveh their ability to repent, whereas Jesus was sad that more people did not repent.

Like the first book in this series, Into the Sea, Out of the Tomb is a friendly introduction to Biblical typology for children. The pictures are vibrant and just plain gorgeous. The lessons in the book are simple without being dumbed down for the audience. Parents, teachers, and catechists would benefit from these books, and I'd wager they could learn as much as their children when reading it to them. Pick up a copy for you and one for a friend too!

This book was provided to me for free by Emmaus Road Publishing in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

Fulfilled in Christ (Emmaus Road Publishing)

My three year blogging anniversary is quickly approaching (September 1st), and in that time I have reviewed A LOT of books. Some of them I couldn't express how wonderful they were, and others I wonder why I wasted my time reading them. I'd like to think in those three years that I've grown in my level of understanding of all things Catholic. I am by no means an expert in any field, but just a bit more educated now. With that level of understanding though, I believe (at least I like to tell myself) that I have grown more discriminating in what I read and review. As of late, I have had a particular affinity toward academic titles. I'm not sure how long it has been in existence, but I recently discovered Emmaus Road Publishing's academic imprint. Today, I am reviewing their latest release Fulfilled in Christ: The Sacraments.

Fulfilled in Christ is arranged like a compact encyclopedia on the sacraments. Because of this presentation, there is a brief guide on how to use this book before reading it. Each sacrament receives its own section, and each section contains types and symbols. Each type/symbol contains introductory material composed of Scriptural references, Catechism references, and cross-references to other types/symbols within the book. After the introductory material for each type/symbol are summaries of all the references to the specific type/symbol. For an example, both the sacrifice of Christ and the Eucharist were prefigured by animal sacrifices, We then are treated to numerous Scriptural references of animal sacrifices, both sufficient ones and insufficient ones. At the end of the book are appendices which contain readings from the Liturgy for each sacrament and a list of readings from the Liturgy of the Hours that the author, Dr. Devin Roza used in this book.

It's hard to say one has a favorite section in a book of this nature, but the Introduction in this book was very enlightening. For starters, it covered how many different Church Fathers made use of typology with their study and interpretation of types and symbols in the Bible. Dr. Roza also discusses the unity of the Old and New Testament and how God's plan was fulfilled in Jesus. And like any good scholar, he finally presents the other side of the argument, and explains why typology has fallen out of grace and how one must not accept all typology as good typology. His chief example is St. Cyprian of Carthage suggesting that Noah getting drunk on wine prefigured the Eucharist. That's absurd to even think about, and proof that even saints aren't perfect.

When I received this book, I thought I was getting a scholarly tome that broke down each sacrament in essay form or chapter form. The book is scholarly, but it does not read like an essay or typical book. It is instead more systematic and reads like a reference book, where if you had a specific type or symbol you wanted to know more about, you would flip to that specific section and read the notes and reference the specific Scripture and Catechism passages. This is not a bad thing. It is just not what I was expecting. If you want to have a comprehensive guide to Sacramental typology this book is first class. If you want to understand Scripture better, are a seminarian, or studying theology, then this book belongs on your reference shelf. It has earned a coveted place on my Bible study desk alongside some Bible dictionaries, concordances, and atlases, and is a volume I will reference for years to come.

This book was provided to me for free by Emmaus Road Publishing in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!

The End of the Fiery Sword (Emmaus Road Publishing)

It's been a bit slow going for children's books in the Catholic publishing world. Therefore, when I see a new one released, I immediately jump on it to see how good it actually is. One of the latest books I've discovered is called The End of the Fiery Sword, available from Emmaus Road Publishing. What initially drew me to this book was that it presented Biblical typology to a young audience. For those unfamiliar with Biblical typology, it is a kind of symbolism where something in the Old Testament prefigures something in the New Testament. The two most well-known examples of this are Jesus being the new Adam and the Virgin Mary being the new Eve, and these are exactly the subjects of focus for this book.

In this book, Maura Roan McKeegan walks us through the Creation passages in Genesis and contrasts them with the life of Jesus and Mary. For example, Eve was created and made to be the mother of all the earth. Mary was created and chosen to be the Mother of God, and thus our Mother as well. A serpent visited Eve and tempted her to disobey God. An angel visited Mary and asked her to obey God. Through Adam's sin the gates of Paradise were closed. Through Jesus dying on the Cross, the gates of Paradise were opened again. There are several more examples in the book, but you get the idea.

Overall, I was impressed with the content in this book. It took a very difficult subject matter, and made it simple for kids and adults alike. The drawing style was not exactly my cup of tea. I think it was something about the faces, but I won't hold that against the book. Perhaps, the most exciting thing to me is the potential. I read on the website that this was part of "Old and New Series." I hope this means that there are more books coming, because there is so much more typology that can be discussed like the Burning Bush prefiguring Mary, Moses or Joseph prefiguring Jesus, and all the Baptism typology such as Noah's Ark and the crossing of the Red Sea.

This book was provided to me for free by Emmaus Road Publishing. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!