Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 July 12

= July 12 =

Which one is the most useful housing affordability indicator? Listing price, sale price, or valuation?
I'm playing around with this housing price heat map thingy and was wondering out of the three options (listing price, sale price, and valuation) which one is the most useful for someone looking for an affordable home. My other car is a cadr (talk) 08:29, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * For one specific person looking for an affordable home, the final sales prices seem most useful. However:


 * 1) What you get for that price is also important. If you only get a one room apartment condo in one place for a given price, and get a 3 bedroom house for that in another, then the first option is out if you have a large family.


 * 2) If you are looking at whether people who live there can afford houses, then you also need to consider local incomes. StuRat (talk) 14:25, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Pandectae in Novum Ordinem
Hi Guys Just interested, since our family name "Italici" is rare & we are all related, how my name: Jane Italici features in this book? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.152.208.208 (talk) 16:48, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * It doesn't - it's a scanning error that shows up in a 1782 edition/commentary of the Digest of Justinian (or the "Pandectae") on Google Books. It's a discussion of a law about whether Italians (i.e. people who lived in Italy but were not "ethnically Roman") were subject to Roman taxes in the Roman Empire. It actually says "sane Italici...", "surely the Italians..." Adam Bishop (talk) 17:40, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Teaching the Catechism in the Roman Catholic Church
I have heard before that the Roman Catholic Church teaches the catechism by a question-and-answer format, from the teacher/parent to the young child. Is there a reason to learn this way? Is the purpose to make sure that the individual gets the meaning and exact wording correctly to prevent any heresy? Does the concept apply to adult converts as well? Are there any concrete explanations of the highly abstract theological concepts, or is the point just to memorize it? 66.213.29.17 (talk) 18:38, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * For much of the Catholic church's history, most of its members were illiterate. This would make memorizing the core doctrines all the more necessary, especially since the priest's educational standards weren't much better until 500 years ago.  Ian.thomson (talk) 18:51, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Does that mean modern-day Catholic children and adult converts have to memorize the catechism? 66.213.29.17 (talk) 19:12, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * From what I can find, a lot of Catholics say they're supposed to, but they don't necessarily do so. Looking over forum posts and blogs (which fail our normal reliable sourcing guidelines) leads me to believe that it's the major catechism in particular that most people want memorized (since the major catechism is religion-defining stuff like the Trinity, Incarnation, Resurrection, and so on).  Advocates of memorizing minor catechisms (which elaborate on the major catechism) recommend it on the grounds that it helps internalize their teachings on ethics.  For a similar example from personal experience, I had a religion professor who would fail any student who did not memorize Clifford Geertz's definition of religion verbatim.  Even though I couldn't recite it now, I can still apply the interpretation of religion as 'a cultural system of symbols meant to give the world structure' to academic study (instead of my grandfather's definition of religion).  Ian.thomson (talk) 20:32, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I hope you are aware that the word Catechism often means a document set up in a question and answer format. It is easy to teach that way because it is written that way. However the Catechism of the Catholic Church isn't written in Q&A format but also isn't supposed to be a teaching tool but a resource to make local teaching catechisms like Youcat which is a youth teaching catechism in Q&A format.Rmhermen (talk) 21:33, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * The Baltimore Catechism was the standard text in America until Vatican II, I have a copy in storage, and my father was taught it at Catholic school, as was my brother-in-law in religion class (which is the main reason he is an atheist). It was out of style except in parochial schools by the time I was of age, and since I was confirmed at baptism (as is normal in the Byzantine rite) I did not attend confirmation lessons with the Latin rite kids.
 * My Grandfather converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, although he had attended mass for 50 years. He was required to make a show of studying the catechism.  Everything I know was taught by my father who answered questions my sisters and I had after sunday mass.  Basically my "formal" education was to be drilled in prayers, the 10 Commandments, and watered-down morality lessons.
 * The only real Catholicism I ever felt I got was from a crazy italian nun who heard voices. She taught the rosary, and the idea of offering up one's suffering to God, rather than complaining.  Basically a form of mystical stoicism.
 * μηδείς (talk) 04:05, 13 July 2015 (UTC)


 * There's a catechism in Q&A format in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer - see here - described as "an instruction to be learned of every person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop". (In my case the Bishop in question was Mervyn Stockwood, perhaps best remembered now for his embarrassing TV appearance criticising Monty Python's Life of Brian, but even in those days (1965 I think) we didn't have to learn the Catechism.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:48, 13 July 2015 (UTC)


 * http://usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/index.cfm —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 01:35, 14 July 2015 (UTC)