Five Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Kim:

Todd Scacewater provides readers with Three Reasons to Catechize.

Having grown up in “low churches,” I never knew what a catechism was until I learned about them in seminary. At first, I thought it was odd that people would spend time memorizing what I took to be commentaries on the Bible, while I was spending time memorizing the Bible itself. It wasn’t until I became a father that I realized the benefits of catechisms.

Persis:

When you know someone who struggles with mental illness, how can you help? Amy Simpson offers some good suggestions in this article: How to Help a Friend with Mental Illness.

The truth is, as with other complex troubles, there are many ways to help. But when it comes to mental illness, many of us respond with fear or avoidance, and this compromises our creative abilities. Once we start thinking beyond the solutions most of us are not qualified to provide, we begin to realize we can do far more than we guessed.

Rebecca:

The story of Ratramnus of Corbie and His Book on the Lord’s Supper (Simonetta Carr).

Nearly forgotten for the first 200 years, misattributed for the next 600 and condemned until the 20th century, Ratramnus’s book is today still obscure. In some ways, Ratramnus is like Augustine: both Roman Catholics and Protestants claim him as their own. In reality, his book stands in church history more as a question mark than a period. It has contributed to raise important inquiries, and has proven that the history of Christian thought is not as black and white as we often depict it.