Eric and I got to take a look through the new Faith Database CD-ROM courtesy of The Catholic Company. Eric played around with it first, and was really impressed. He kept saying, “You need to check this out,” as he found new features.
(I have to admit that I picked this as my next selection from the Catholic Company because Eric wanted to have it for his upcoming Theology class. Because, you know, even if you are a Business Administration major, if you’re at a Catholic college, you just may have to take a few theology classes.)
The Database touts that it has over 1500 resource writings, 10 Biblical texts, and tons of illustrations (maps, art work, etc.). (Okay, they didn’t say the “tons” part — I did.) Before we received the CD, we had no idea how that could fit onto one CD.
When it arrived though, we realized that some of the stuff is on the CD, but many things are actually linked to the web. For instance, you are able to see large thumbnails of art pieces, but then each has a link to view the larger image on the web. I have clicked around quite a bit, and only found one link on the art section that went to a page that said the image had been moved. (Because so much is linked to the web, they actually suggest that you have high speed internet access to use this software.)
The CD is also an amazing source for Biblical reading (in ten different versions), as well as writings of saints, Biblical historians, and doctors of the Church. One thing that I loved as I looked through the Book of Genesis was that as I moved verse by verse, I was able to see art that depicted what the verse was talking about. What a great teaching tool!
I think that one of my favorite parts of the Database is the number of maps available (over 100). This feature alone makes this a great asset to a homeschooling family, for sure. I know that we’ll definitely get a lot of use out of this feature. (Yes, that means this is code for, “I know I gave away the last thing that I reviewed through The Catholic Company here on the blog, but this one is going to stay with me.”)
All in all, for under $40, the Faith Database CD-ROM is a fabulous collection of writings, images, and even some tests! I’m glad that we are now fortunate to have this in our collection of software.
This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Faith Database CD-ROM.
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