Book Review – Foundational Truths – A Modern Catechism Israel Wayne

My philosophy with catechisms is that as long as it is biblical and I can know where I stand on each subject to interject where I’d disagree or add to the topic, the more the merrier. I’ve done the Westminster Catechism (in song) and the New City Catechism with my family before and each has been special (who doesn’t love to ask 6 months later “What is the chief end of man?” and hear the response from your kids?!).

Here, Wayne lays out the structure well and allows for a 6-day coverage of 52 topics with each day through the week being a Bible verse. This allows for discussion on each verse and what it builds into the whole of the main question. Definitions are provided which are always great to have and a call to action along with a prayer for the week are nice to have. Each week has a new picture and the whole book is bright and color-coded without being distracting.

A few small quibbles to be had include some definitions of words that seem to be taken so as to broaden the tent of coverage (definition for baptism for example) seem to be taken to not “rock the boat” as much as it could. The use of KJV I can see being used so as to include because other versions that may have been desired are subject to copyright restrictions (I won’t go on a rant here) so if you want something other than KJV, you’re going to need to bring your own Bible along. It would have been nice to include action points for each day rather than everything up front for the week and to include a relevant to the topic hymn just as a reference would have been chef’s kiss. Again, all these are minor issues. I would recommend this for a new Christian or a 1st generation Christian family looking for a starter catechism and would happily put this next to The New City Catechism in recommendation level.