Monday, April 17, 2017

The Proverbs Explained (EWTN Publishing)

Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament. For starters, it is 31 chapters long, so it's the perfect length for reading a chapter a day seven months out of the year. Secondly, it contains simple and straightforward wisdom for people of all walks of life. Recently EWTN Publishing released a book by Fr. Mitch Pacwa called The Proverbs Explained: A Blueprint for Christian Living, and I knew I had to have it because Fr. Pacwa writes great books. Let me tell you a little bit about it.

The book begins with an introduction, which gives the background on the book of Proverbs, explains the different types of proverbs found in this Biblical book, and lastly provides a logical division of the Biblical book based on style and form. Fr. Pacwa then divides his book into three parts - Family, Justice, and Virtue. For example, in the first part, Fr. Pacwa doesn't only provide explanations on the proverbs specifically for husbands, wives, parents, and children, but he also discusses chastity and love. In the part on justice, Fr. Pacwa focuses on the proverbs that relate to government, business, and social justice like wealth and poverty. Lastly, in the part of Virtue, he expounds on proverbs that discuss anger, pride, and humility to name a few.

When I first received this book, I thought it was going to be a verse-by-verse walkthrough of the entire book of Proverbs. That was not the case, which disappointed me at first, but I quickly got over it. This book arrived at just the right time for me, because it had so many parts that spoke to me. Yes, I gained a lot from the section on husbands and parents, but the chapter on silence and speech hit me over the head. I knew in the Epistle of James that he talked about how dangerous the tongue was, but I didn't realize it was discussed in Proverbs as well. We could all do well, myself most of all, to guard our tongues more closely and avoid not only idle talk, but hurtful talk as well. I highly recommend you pick up this book.

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

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