Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich was an Augustinian nun who lived from 1774 to 1824. In addition to being a nun, she was also a stigmatic and ecstatic. Like a lot of saints, she grew up in a poor family. However, she was always very close to God and showed great love for Him and those of His Church, often giving everything she had, leaving her without anything for herself. What was extraordinary about Emmerich is that from an early age, she experienced visions of Old and New Testament scenes. Angelico Press has made it their mission to publish English translations that have been supplemented and revised with material never translated before. Today, I would like to tell you about two of the volumes - First Beginnings and Mysteries of the Old Testament.
First Beginnings starts by talking about angels and the fallen angels. This was equal parts intriguing and terrifying. On the one hand, we see one set of angels choosing God and another set of angels choose self. We then see Hell being created. It isn't overly descriptive, merely described as a dark disc rising from below. Some of the fallen angels remained there, and others still roam trying to lead man to eternal damnation. After this vision, we are walked through the Creation story, Paradise, Adam and Eve, the Fall, and the death of Abel. A brief section is dedicated to the name of Golgotha. This leads to Cain's descendants, Enoch, Noah,, and the construction of the ark. Other figures discussed were Nimrod, Derketo, Semiramis, Melchizedek, and Job.
Mysteries of the Old Testament begins with Joseph being sold into slavery. It talks of the jealousy of his brothers, a description of his coat of many colors, and mention of a special gift Jacob gave to Joseph, some of the bones of Adam. There is then much attention given to Asenath, Joseph's future wife. From the Old Testament, we know very little about her, but here we are given a physical description of her, learn that she is a prophetess, and also are given examples of her great intelligence. The next section details Moses, specifically the burning bush. We see the prefigurement of Mary and the Incarnation in this area. Also included are Elijah (a personal favorite), Elisha, Ezra, and Malachi. Lastly, there is a lengthy passage on the Ark of the Covenant as it related to Abraham, Moses, Mary, and Jesus. This was a truly fascinating section and worth the price of the book alone!
Publishing these volumes was no doubt a monumental effort for Angelico Press, but you can tell it was truly a labor of love. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the Old Testament writings, as I find the people and history of the Old Testament to be fascinating. The level of detail and the illustrations provided make these two books a must read for any student of the Old Testament. I also appreciated the copious amounts of footnotes that were provided, as this gives us better understanding of the visions and the illustrations as well. In addition to these two volumes of the Old Testament, there are ten other volumes in this series that cover the life of the Virgin Mary, people of the New Testament, Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich's own life, and other themes. I am going to have to investigate and read these when I have the chance to get a fuller and more complete picture of the visions Anne experienced and the remarkable life she lived.
There are many ways to educate your children. I am the product of Catholic school and public school, and my wife was strictly Catholic schooled. In a few years, she and I will have to decide how to educate our child(ren), and for us there are only two options - Catholic school or homeschool. Homeschool used to be a dirty word, but in the past decade, the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children has increased exponentially, and I for one am pleased about that, because with this rapid growth means better curriculum, both secular and religious. Leading the charge for quality Catholic homeschool materials is TAN Books. TAN Books has recently launched a new website called TAN Homeschool, which includes blog posts, freebies, and a recently released, groundbreaking Bible education series called The Story of the Bible!
The Story of the Bible is a comprehensive program, which includes a textbook, test book, activity book, teacher's manual, dramatized audiobook, AND lecture DVDs! I was provided with a review copy of the Old Testament materials, so let me tell you about it. The textbook is approximately 300 pages long and is divided into five parts:
1. How God Came to Promise Us a Redeemer
2. How God Founded the Nation from Which the Redeemer of the World Came
3. How God Protected His Chosen People and Led Them Into the Promised Land
4. How God's Chosen People Lived Under Their Kings
5. How God's People Went Into Exile and Returned
As you can see, Part One deals with the Creation story. Parts Two and Three deal with the Pentateuch. Part Four is during the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon; and Part Five is under the time of the Prophets. Now don't be confused. Even though the textbook has Scriptural quotes in it, it is not an actual Bible. This book is part summary of important Bible stories, part explanation, and part reflection. Therefore, your child will want and need a Bible with this book. Different people have different opinions on which Bible to get, but I always recommend the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), since that is what they will hear every Sunday at Mass.
The Teacher's Manual contains guided lessons, which include a Bible passage for Lectio Divina, questions for review, narration exercises, craft projects, and even food projects! The manual also corresponds with an Activity Book, which contains coloring pages, word searches, and crossword puzzles. There is also the dreaded Test Book. No child likes tests, but these tests are all multiple choice and matching. I would prefer if they added some essay exercises or short answers, but any good homeschooling parent can improvise and come up with these for his or herself.
And now for my favorite part of this comprehensive program...the audio CDs and DVD lessons! The CDs are dramatized audiobooks, which are produced and read by Kevin Gallagher, who has narrated a handful of TAN Books. He has a rich voice and one that you can listen to for hours. There is also music and sound effects, which children young and old will appreciate. Having a physical book is nice, but younger kids sometimes get intimidated by so many words. With the CDs, they can still listen to the book and follow along. Plus, the whole family can listen to it, without having to fight over the textbook! The DVD lessons, which I have included a sample of one below, are presented by Brian Kennelly. He has a nice way of presenting the material so it is accessible, but not dumbed down.
Overall, I found myself very impressed with this series on the Old Testament, and if the New Testament is half as good as this one, I'm sure it's a home run as well. As stated earlier, this is geared toward the homeschool crowd, but I believe any Catholic family with children will find value in this program. Religious education begins at home, and if your child goes to Catholic school or public school, you cannot expect the Church to solely teach your child about their faith. I highly recommend this program for all Catholic families. Be sure to sign up at the bottom of the TAN Homeschool page and receive 30% off your first order. Also check back frequently at TAN Homeschool for all the updates they will be rolling out. I guarantee it will be great!
This program was provided to me for free by TAN Books in exchange for an honest review.
If you love learning about your faith but are on a budget like me, then you look for inexpensive ways to grow in your faith. Maybe your public library has a decent Catholic book selection. (Mine doesn't unfortunately). Maybe, there are great classes that go on at your Parish. I know mine offers several, and I try to attend when my schedule permits. I'm still waiting for an online Catholic university to offer a free class per semester to audit, but until then, we have Catholic Courses. And while we still await the release of the long-awaited Dante's Paradise, they are still producing quality studies like the one I am reviewing today entitled God of the Old Testament.
Dr. Paul Niskanen is the presenter for this Catholic Course. He begins by explaining and dismissing common misconceptions people have about the Old Testament. For example, he makes it a point to explain that all of the Bible is not history and that reading it like a history textbook won't make any sense. He also talks about the negative bias most people have of God in the Old Testament. Many people see God as vengeful and fill of wrath but there are numerous Old Testament passages that discuss His love and mercy. We then dive into the three ways to read the Old Testament - Literalist (Fundamentalist), Secular (Liberal), and Catholic (Embracing the Whole). He then goes on to talk about languages and translations, using coffee as an example. Different countries (like Italy) translate coffee as one thing and see it as a completely different thing. The same can also hold true when trying to understand the Bible. However, we also have to take into account the culture the Bible was written in and the genre of book we are reading.
Disc Two Lesson Three finally looks at actual texts in the Old Testament. St. Augustine believed that you could learn about every Christian doctrine in the opening chapters of Genesis. While Dr. Niskanen doesn't completely agree with St. Augustine, he does believe that you can learn a great deal about who God is and who humanity is. He then walks us through all the days of Creation. Lesson Four talks about the importance of names and more specifically the Name of God. For reference, Dr. Niskanen refers to the book Exodus when Moses met God in the Burning Bush. It was very interesting to hear his explanation on the name of God, which is Yahweh; how we started referring to God as Lord (or Adonai); and the mistranslation that resulted in the word Jehovah.
Hands down, Disc Three was my favorite disc. In Lesson Five, Dr. Niskanen discusses covenants found in the Old Testament. He does this by using the book of Leviticus to explain what a covenant is and how it differs from a contract or a promise. Lesson Six focuses on one of the most important Biblical covenants - the Davidic covenant. Using the first account of the covenant in 2nd Samuel, he contrasts it with the Sinai Covenant. We also get a brief lesson in Hebrew poetry when the Davidic covenant is recounted in the book of Psalms. I LOVE reading and hearing people talk about covenantal theology, and I feel each time I learn a little bit more and things begin to make better sense and click. Disc Four wraps up the lesson by showing God's love and God's compassion in the Old Testament. As I said earlier, these are traits people don't often associate with God in the Old Testament, but we must remember God is unchanging. Our view of Him changes, but He never does. He is always all-loving and all-merciful.
Dr. Niskanen has a sense of humor you don't expect when it comes to theology professors, especially Old Testament ones. He makes references to both "The Sound of Music" and cartoon legend Homer Simpson, and he also makes jokes about being a Bible Man superhero with an arch-nemesis of Marcion. Sense of humor aside, what you really notice in these DVDs is the love that Dr. Niskanen has for the subject matter, God, and the Catholic Church. So if those 46 books in the front half of your Bible have always intimidated you, or you just want to learn more about the Old Testament in general, this is the Catholic Course for you. For a brief preview, check out the video below:
Promise and Fulfillment is the 8th Volume in the Letter and Spirit series. For those of you unfamiliar with the Letter and Spirit series, it is an annual journal series of Catholic Biblical Theology with Dr. Scott Hahn as the editor. I am proud to say that I own all released volumes, and the first thing I do when I receive the volume is flip it over and read the list of contributors on the back cover. Like the volumes before it, Promise and Fulfillment contains articles by Dr. Hahn, Dr. Edward Sri, Dr. Sean Innerst, and Dr. Brant Pitre to name a few. I knew from those names alone that this Volume was not going to disappoint.
The whole of this volume addresses the Old Testament and New Testament, how they relate to each other, and how the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament. For example, Dr. Pitre talks about Jesus' Messianic Wedding Banquet and compares it to a banquet thrown by King Hezekiah in 2nd Chronicles. Dr. Sri discusses the Marian typology of Mary as Daughter Zion and Queen Mother. Both of these can be found in numerous Old Testament passages. Particularly of interest to me in this article was the idea of Queen Mother. I have recently learned that in ancient times, because the king had numerous wives, but only one mother, the mother was in fact the queen, not a wife. For that reason, Jesus' queen would be His own mother, Mary. Explaining this to Protestants might open their minds and hearts more to Mary and hopefully erase some of their prejudices.
It's hard to pick a favorite article in this volume as each was well-written and full of high theology. However, I did enjoy reading Dr. Leroy Huizenga's article, "The Tradition of Christian Allegory Yesterday and Today." I learned about the School of Alexandria and their use of Christian allegory several years ago and have been fascinated by it every since. Unfortunately, most Christian scholars look down on allegory, so it was refreshing to read a modern-day defense of it. Dr. Huizenga wasn't saying that we should abandon all other forms of interpretation, nor was he saying to use only the the historical-critical method. Instead, he advocates use of the four senses method described in the Catechism paragraphs 115-119 and shows the use of allegorical interpretation in the West from Sts. Irenaeus, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. He also spends some time highlighting allegorical passages in the New Testament, particularly Luke 24:13-35, which deals with Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
Promise and Fulfillment may only be 245 pages, but it packs a punch. You can tell that each article was carefully researched and written to provide the reader a detailed link between the Old and New Testament. Like the previous volumes in this journal series, it is worthy of a 5-star rating. However, it is not for the beginning Catholic to pick up and read. This food is spiritual meat for the advanced Catholic looking to grow deeper and more fully in his understanding of the Catholic faith. Therefore, if you pick up this journal, I recommend a slow and careful chewing so that you may fully digest every word.
This book was provided to me for free by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!
