Chief Truths of the Faith

• Paperback 
• by Fr. John Laux 
• TAN Books – 2010 

The Fr. Laux texts provide excellent, thoughtful, somewhat challenging information. Fr. Laux lays the material out and in order to understand it the student has to put his mind on the matter presented. He has to think. This is the way one’s mind is formed. Further, Fr. Laux doesn’t just give interesting information, he gives arguments. He leads the reader from one premise to another, and to the conclusion that comes from putting those premises together. Additionally, both Fr. Laux texts have in depth questions at the end of the chapter. They require laying out a position, or arguing from one point to another. There are also very helpful paper outlines.

In the high school program, we are working toward a clear understanding of the motives of credibility. The argument starts with an exposition of basic Catholic doctrine, laid out in a causal order. Then one moves on to the proofs for the existence of God, the claims of Jesus to be God, made in a reliable historical document, the fact that He founded a religion and that religion is the Catholic Church.  One can’t make that argument well if he hasn’t been prepared for it. Fr. Laux was not only an intelligent man, he was a teacher. In the text he takes the student by the hand and directs him, in the right order, from one truth to the next, building the student’s understanding of the arguments and giving him the tools to deepen that understanding.