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The revised edition of this classic work on the foundational documents of the faith, including a helpful explanation of confessional creeds and their history.

Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.

This brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions makes a biblical and historical case for their necessity and shows why they are essential for Christian faith and practice today. J. V. Fesko, a leading Reformed theologian with a broad readership in the academy and the church, demonstrates that creeds are not just any human documents but biblically commended resources for the well-being of the church, as long as they remain subordinate to biblical authority. He also explains how the current skepticism and even hostility toward creeds and confessions came about.

"A history of doctrines of the early Church, written and arranged with exceptional clarity by a leading patristic scholar, the principal of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. Canon Kelly describes the development of the principal Christian doctrines from the close of the first century to the middle of the fifth, and from the end of the apostolic age to the council of Chalcedon. His book thus covers the great doctrinally creative period in the Church's history, the centuries in which there was a constant upsurge of fresh ideas before the settled formalism of both the East and West. He gives the student and invaluable outline of Church history and patrology against which to place the evolving theological doctrines which he summarises and expounds" -- Back cover.