MODERN CATECHETICS: Message and Method in Religious Formation

Teachers of religion on any level -- including that key place, the home -- here have a treasury of information, suggestions and recommendations to enhance the results of any efforts at religious formation of the young. Father Gerard Sloyan, the head of the department of religious education at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. and author of Christ, the Lord (supplement p. 1009) has brought together thirteen experienced catechists who offer their know-how to all teachers who want to increase the effectiveness of instructional methods. As is the case so often with symposia of this kind, the chapters are uneven in quality and usefulness, but they all deserve to be read closely. What is said is candid and honest. Shortcomings of present practices are pointed out and remedies are suggested. The book is truly a home-study course in the message and methods necessary for effective catechetics. Oddly, only one of the appendices treats specifically and in detail with the increasingly important and peculiar problems which confront the religion teacher of Catholic children who are not attending parochial schools. However limited, it is an excellent outline of a plan of action which every pastor in this country would do well to read, study and put into practice. Modern Catechetics is an excellent handbook for parents serious about the religious instruction of their children, and for those in ""loco parentis"" in the school and churches -- the teachers of religion. This book complements books like the Gesell series in that it deals with the one area which Gesell skips over -- the religious formation of children.