L
lisahiku
Guest
is the most recent edition more liberal than previous editions?
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J
JReducation
Guest
If the catechism in question has the official approval of the Church, which the last edition of the CCC has, then it it neither more liberal nor more conservative. The differences between the CCC and the Catechism of Trent, is that the current CCC is more verbose. Some people do not like that, because it requires that they go to the sources to find exactly where the passage is grounded. Many people preter the Catechism of Trent or the Catechism of Pius X because it’s concise.
The difference between those and the CCC is that those catechisms give you the conclusion. Let’s say that you want to know what the Trinity is, those catechisms will give you the concluding the statement. “The trinity is three persons in one God.” The CCC will walk you through the theology of the Trinity. It expects you to pull it together to reach the same conclusion. It does not expect you to end up some place else.
My experience has been that those who are theologians and students of theology find it more useful than the average layman. This makes sense. The average layman opens a catechism with a different frame of mind, “Just the facts”. He’s not too interested in the whole philosophical, exegetical, theological and historical language. At times, the average laymen finds is cumbersome. Some find it ambivalent, because they don’t have the philosophy background. Some find the wording rather strange, because it’s not the familiar wording and others love the lengthy explanations and the references that are not found in the other catechisms.
The trick to reading the CCC is not to think of it as liberal or conservative, but to look at it as it was meant to be read. It was meant to be read as a treatise of Catholic faith, not as a question and answer manual. Therefore, it may require that you go and look up the references, if you are not already familiar with them. It can actually be very interesting study, if you have the time and the inclination to do so.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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