In this book, Bishop Robert Baron breaks down each line of the Nicene Creed, reflecting on its origin, meaning, and relation to the Catholic faith. Though a relatively short book at 164 pages, it’s a deep dive.

Whether you’re a lifelong Catholic, new to the faith, or looking to learn more about Catholicism and Christianity, there’s no better place to start. As a lifelong Catholic myself, I learned a lot.

The writing is accessible to every audience while also maintaining a full form. Nothing is watered down, which I greatly appreciated.

Thanks to NetGalley and Word on Fire for providing me with a free digital ARC of the book!

Pretty much exactly what the title claims. Learned a fair amount, so if you dig religious history you could do worse.

The Nicene creed is something I was taught to recite from when I was a little kid, it’s something I can still rattle off, but it’s not something that I consciously think about that it means anymore. This book gives a really good, easy to understand overview of what the Nicene Creed means and how to understand it.

The description I read of this book says that it invites “skeptics, seekers, and lifelong Christians” to reflect on the question, “What do Christians believe?” This well written and thoughtful book does exactly that provided the reader is willing to engage the question in a fairly academic manner. It’s not the most difficult book I have ever read, but it’s not the easiest either.

My biggest critique of this book occurs in the first paragraph of the foreword. The final sentence of that paragraph begins, “In recent movies, of course, the greatest minds generally are scientists…” The author then cites two movies, one from 2014 and one from 2023. Not only are two movies from the past 11 years neither recent nor a decent enough sample size to deserve an “of course,” it is simply not a true statement. Hollywood has produced a wide array of stories in the past decade and only a few have been about scientists.

I am a Christian who respects Bishop Barron and was therefore willing to read further, but if your target audience includes “skeptics and seekers” it seems deeply unfortunate that one of the very first things they will read is an obviously false and completely unnecessary statement.