Books

A Guide To The Passion Of The Christ : 100 Questions

Reviewed by Fr Scot Armstrong STL

Contents - Aug 2004 - Buy a copy now Editorial: New challenges for Catholic education - Peter Westmore Pope's representative reminds Australian religious leaders on liturgy abuses - Archbishop Francesco Canalini News: The Church Around the World Getting serious about orthodoxy: an American bishop shows how - Michael Gilchrist Catholic politicians and informed conscience - Bishop Michael Sheridan Bioethics: Embryo stem-cell research: time for a moral benchmark - Christopher Pyne MP The morning after pill - Bishop Anthony Fisher History: Catholic education: triumph over adversity - Cardinal George Pell Carnivale Christi: Whatever happened to beauty in art? - Paul Fitzgerald The Catholic Church and the Greens: why? - Tony Kearney Letters: Missal translation - Pastor David Buck Letters: Hymn parody - Peter Hannigan Letters: Casual trend - Gina Voskulen Letters: Parish revitalised - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Threats to family - Gordon Southern Letters: Abortion - Anne Boyce Letters: Relearning needed - Anne Lastman Letters: Gospel dates - Jack R. Nyman Books: DANIEL MANNIX: Wit and Wisdom, by Michael Gilchrist - Hermann Kelly (reviewer) Books: A Guide To The Passion Of The Christ : 100 Questions - Fr Scot Armstrong STL (reviewer) Books: Interview with the author of 'The Da Vinci Hoax' - Carl E. Olsen Books: More new titles for 2004 from AD Books Reflection: Why teaching in a Catholic school is far more than a profession - Fr Dennis Byrnes

A GUIDE TO THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST:
100 Questions about The Passion of the Christ
(Ascension Press, 2004, 130pp, $8.95. Available from AD Books)

A Guide to The Passion of the Christ has been published to coincide with the release of the film The Passion of the Christ, with the aim of providing an accessible and easily understandable explanation of the film's content.

The book's conversational style and simple, direct presentation make it an extremely useful evangelising tool, most especially for youth and unevangelised or fallen away Catholics. It is well suited for use in groups and could be employed in parishes, schools and even in ecumenical initiatives, so clearly and respectfully does it propose the Catholic Faith.

The film The Passion of the Christ places before us the person of Jesus Christ and compels us to decide where we stand on the question He puts to us: "Who do you say I am?"

The book's presentation has been expertly structured to resonate with the experience of encountering Christ. One first sees or hears a representation or image of Him is then interiorly moved to seek to know more about Him, until the moment arrives in which the personal encounter with His risen presence takes place, from which flows the life transforming effect of having come to know Him personally.

The first chapter is devoted to explaining scenes from the film. The second examines the "Case for Christ" or His claim to be the Son of God, while the third deals with His founding of the Catholic Church. Finally, the fourth chapter gives practical suggestions on how the reader might go about living out what has been presented in the book.

Every diocese and parish should purchase copies of the book and make them available to people everywhere. Schools and youth ministries ought to hand them out to young people, who long for no-nonsense answers to their questions about Jesus Christ.

Now is the time for us to avail ourselves of the window of opportunity presented by the film The Passion of the Christ.

Fr Scot Armstrong is a priest in the Wagga Wagga Diocese.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 17 No 7 (August 2004), p. 17