Pope Benedict has, in his Wednesday General Audiences, been giving brief addresses on the leadership of early Christianity. He began last year with the Apostles. Such things naturally lend themselves to be collected in book form, and a couple of months ago, OSV obtained rights to publish an edition of Apostles in the US (a British version has already been published).
As the editor was working his way through the text (cleaning up footnotes, clarifying puzzling translations, etc), it occurred to me that this would lend itself to the needs of an adult religious ed program. It’s short, the chapters are relatively brief, and of course, it’s Pope Benedict writing, so the content is rich and clearly presented, with at least one thought-provoking, made-for-reflection sentence on every page.
So, I opened my big mouth, and here I am with one more project to do before the end of the month.
Anyone who does religious ed in a parish setting – consider this. There will be twelve sessions, each with questions for study and questions for reflection, as well as opening and closing prayers.
I really believe in what Pope Benedict is doing – he is a master catechist, he understands the problems and challenges of the way of discipleship, of the way of simply being human, and he brings all of that into what he writes.
And here are those Wednesday General Audiences – (backwards from June) on Athanasius, Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, Origen, Irenaeus…
