Knowing God's Love (Sophia Institute Press)

One of the fundamental questions people often ask about God is, "What is He like?" We all have our own understanding/misunderstanding of who God is, what He is like, and what He thinks of us, but what is the truth? Dr. John D. Labarbara recently penned the book Knowing God's Love, which gives us "Eight Essential Truths Every Catholic Should Know." The book is divided into three parts - The Foundational Truths, The Foundational Truths Applied Personally, and The Foundational Truths Applied Publicly.

The book begins reflecting on the first chapter of Genesis. In this chapter, we learn three things. 1. God is a "We." 2. God is a God of relationship. 3. God is love. The second chapter of the book focuses on what God thinks of, and the author again turns to the book of Genesis. As God is a "We," humanity is a "they" of man and woman. Secondly, we are made in God's image. Lastly, both sex and marriage were gifts from God to be enjoyed by spouses. In the third chapter, we learn more about the relationship with God. God wants us to love Him, but with our sin, we broke that relationship with Him. With His mercy and compassion, He continues to forgive us and call us back to Him. The remaining five chapters are application in aspects such as work, charity, social teaching, and government.

Knowing God's Love can best be described as introduction or summary to the Catechism. Within it, you will find a summary of the teachings and truths of the Catholic faith. What I liked best about this book is the bullet point summary at the end of every chapter. Sometimes, it is hard to process a lot of information in a chapter, no matter how concise it is. This helpful recap helps to crystallize everything and let it sink in. The last helpful thing I really liked in this book is that there are appropriate Scripture and Catechism references throughout the chapter where necessary. This gives credibility to the book and shows that the writings are grounded in something more than just the author's words. This is a very helpful book for both new and cradle Catholics alike.

This book was provided to me for free by Sophia Institute Press in exchange for an honest review.