Theology and Sanity
by Frank Sheed
The title is a provocation, and Sheed means every word. If God is real, then a person who leaves God out of his picture of the world is working with a large piece of reality missing. That isn't a failure of piety. It is a failure of sanity, in the old sense of a sound mind seeing things as they are.
From that starting gun, Sheed runs through the central truths: God's existence and nature, the Trinity, creation, the spiritual soul, the fall, the Incarnation and Redemption, the Church, grace and the last things. He goes further and deeper than in Theology for Beginners, but it's the same voice: patient, logical, unafraid of hard questions, and alive with wonder. His point is practical. Doctrines describe the world we actually live in. So they should change how we see everything, from the neighbor next door to our own death.
It suits inquirers who like to think things through, readers who finished an introductory book and want more, and catechists who want to know the doctrines well enough to teach them with confidence. Take it a chapter at a time.
Key Takeaways
- Why leaving God out distorts how we see the world.
- A deeper tour of the central doctrines.
- How doctrine changes everyday perception.
- Confidence for explaining the faith to others.
It argues that sound doctrine isn't a hobby for experts. It's how you see reality clearly.
