Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There?: Straight Talk for Young Catholics

by Charles E. Rice, Theresa Farnan, Ellen Rice (Editor)

Overview

Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There? is a complete course on Catholicism, featuring concise, reader-friendly, relevant prose. Straight answers are tailored for today’s generation. Topics addressed include: Can I know anything? Can I know what God is like? How am I really in the image and likeness of God? What about my conscience? Am I a gift to others? What about my freedom? Is any sexual activity OK before marriage? Do we have to keep Grandma on a feeding tube forever? 
    This book adapts a wildly successful high-school curriculum developed by Charles E. Rice, who taught for years at an Indiana high school in addition to his storied career at Notre Dame Law School. This classroom-tested curriculum has had life-changing effects. Rice’s students, who took the course in the late 1970s and early 1980s, credit this course for keeping them Catholic, while their peers turned to Zen, politics, or drugs in their search for ultimate meaning.
    Rice, with the valuable assistance of co-author and philosopher Theresa Farnan, updates this curriculum by incorporating the Catechism and the personalist philosophy of John Paul II into the timeless wisdom of the Church. Today’s young Catholics admire the faith more than ever, but need clear answers about what it is and who they are. The straight answers found in this book are a sure antidote to the confusion of the culture of death.
    The revised second edition contains expanded material from Pope Benedict XVI, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other sources. The second edition, as did the first, has received the Imprimatur from Most Rev. John M. D’Arcy, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The second edition has also received from the Office for the Catechism of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a Declaration of Conformity, certifying that it is in conformity with the Catechism.
    The second edition is therefore included in the USCCB’s Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and is officially approved for use in Catholic schools and educational programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587319297
Publisher:	St. Augustine's Press
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	239
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Charles E. Rice is Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame Law School; Theresa Farnan formerly was a pre-theology instructor and formation advisor at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface x

Abbreviations xiii

1 Answer and Decide 1

2 Faith and Reason: What Are They? Can They Tell Me How to Live? 9

3 But Can I Really Know Anything? 14

4 What Can I Know about Myself? Can I Know Whether I Will Live Forever? 20

5 What Can I Know about God? Can I Know that God Even Exists? 26

6 Can I Know What God Is Like? 34

7 What Has God Told Me about Himself? What Does He Do for a Living? 41

8 Why Did God Make Me - and Everyone Else? 44

9 So God Made Me in His Image?! How? And What Difference Does It Make? 50

10 How Did It All Go Wrong? 59

11 How - And Why - Did Christ Fix the Problem? 65

12 How Is Christ with Me Today? 74

13 The Church?! Why Do I Need It? 82

14 The Natural Law? What's That All About? 89

15 What about My Conscience? 102

16 How Do I Relate to Others? 111

17 Am I a Gift to Others? What about My Freedom? 117

18 My Family - Image of the Trinity 133

19 Sex - How Did It Get So Messed Up? 141

20 The "Great Disruption": Truth and Consequences 153

21 So, Do I Have Rights? Where Did I Get Them? 165

22 Do I Ever Have the Right to Kill Somebody? What about Self-Defense? 172

23 What about Abortion? 178

24 Do We Have to Keep Grandma on a Feeding Tube Forever? 184

25 What about the Death Penalty? 193

26 But Can't I Kill People and Break Things in a War? 198

27 Why Is This a Great Time to Be Here? 206

Recommended Readings 214

Index 215