Rating: 
Summary: Thorough coach for ecclesiastical latin in 1 year
Review: The claim is true, use this resource and you'll be able to read ecclesiastical Latin in one year.It does an adequate job of this by providing a systematic, stair-stepped approach sequencing through grammar, pronunciation, drills which are ecclesiastical in nature. I enjoyed working through this and will continue to use it as resource and refresher. I advise and recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Tthe best Latin manuals on the market
Review: The only Latin language manual that even remotely compares to John Collins' "Primer" is the well-known "Latin for Americans" high-school and college text. If you want to jump right into the language, however, and focus on predominately religious subjects, "A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin" is the text for you. Collins' book is extremely well put together. It is effective, clear, and assumes little or no prior language study. The author uses few technical terms, and explains them when he does. While it's true that the book is only a primer (you won't quite be able to read Erasmus when you're finished) you'll make a good deal of headway into Latin. I can now read most of the New Testament, some of the Old, and even easier selections from classical Roman authors with practically no difficulty. Cheap, too.
Rating:
Summary: Tthe best Latin manuals on the market
Review: The only Latin language manual that even remotely compares to John Collins' "Primer" is the well-known "Latin for Americans" high-school and college text. If you want to jump right into the language, however, and focus on predominately religious subjects, "A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin" is the text for you. Collins' book is extremely well put together. It is effective, clear, and assumes little or no prior language study. The author uses few technical terms, and explains them when he does. While it's true that the book is only a primer (you won't quite be able to read Erasmus when you're finished) you'll make a good deal of headway into Latin. I can now read most of the New Testament, some of the Old, and even easier selections from classical Roman authors with practically no difficulty. Cheap, too.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and inviting.
Review: This book covers just about all of the morphology and syntax as well as Wheelock, and would make a good introduction to Latin generally. But to me, its strength is that, unlike Wheelock, it also stresses English to Latin translation, and so encourages its readers to frame their ideas in Latin. Ecclesiastical Latin is so much more inviting to write than Classical Latin is, and as such this book makes a valuable contribution to keeping the Latin language alive.
Rating:
Summary: Great intro to Latin for the autodidact
Review: This book is quite useful for the self-teaching student of Latin. The material is presented at a good pace, with the student making noticeable progress without being asked to memorize huge wordlists. The student's time is not wasted with tedious rehashings of elementary English grammar. My only quibble is that there's no key to the exercises...
Rating:
Summary: Great intro to Latin for the autodidact
Review: This book is quite useful for the self-teaching student of Latin. The material is presented at a good pace, with the student making noticeable progress without being asked to memorize huge wordlists. The student's time is not wasted with tedious rehashings of elementary English grammar. My only quibble is that there's no key to the exercises...
Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Review: This book was much needed at its publication, and is one of a kind.
No other book on Church Latin covers grammar, vocabulary and the syntax of Christian Latin as comprehensively as Dr. Collins.
The book starts off slowly with the concepts of Grammar, and speeds up once you get to the 6th unit, and is rather intensive. There is lots of vocabulary in each unit, however if you eat it up you will learn the language quickly. I used this book in college and learned to read and speak Latin in 6 months. Since Classical Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin differ little in grammar, Dr. Collins take the best of Classical approaches, and teaches with a Christian vocabulary toward reading the Vulgate and other Patristic sources and Medieval sources. One who successfully completes this book can easily go back and learn Classical vocabulary and syntax, and read Cicero and Caesar in a month!
The Excercises are germain, and tailored to the grammar and syntax just learned, and are often in later chapters selections from scripture, and also selections from hymns, and various liturgical documents.
The only drawback is that Dr. Collins looks ruefully at the Traditional Mass and Breviary, which will offend most Traditional Catholics, a significant group who will want this book. All the liturgical exercises are taken from the New Order of Mass (1970), and nothing is given from the Traditional Mass (1570) or other ancient sourcebooks like the Ambrosian Liturgy, the Gelasian Sacramentary, and other liturgical fragments that survived. The Vulgate readings however are well selected, and words that the student has not encountered yet are footnoted with translation.
This is an excellent resource either for a class or for someone to teach themselves Latin.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent text book and teaching resource.
Review: Those learning or teaching Latin for ecclesiastical usage are very quickly faced with the problem that most text books are intended to teach *classical* and military Latin, usually preparing introductory students to first read the works of Julius Caesar and then of the other classic writers. If this course if followed, it is then necessary to acquire later a new set of vocabulary, modes of expression, and pronunciation rules when one finally deals with ecclesiatical texts. Collins' well written and organized book short-circuits this process, starting the student out immediately with eccliastical vocabulary and usage. I found this book when preparting to teach an informal class in ecclesiastical Latin at my parish, and I fully intend to use it again -- and more extensively -- the next time I do so.
Rating:
Summary: Great for self study...
Review: While I have a base in Classical Latin, this book made it very easy to make the switchover to the study of Ecclesiatical Latin. Everything is clearly laid out and set into plain English. This is one of the only texts in Ecclesiastical Latin that I could find. A nice feature of this book is that there are some supplemental readings in Latin in the back.
Rating: 
Summary: The aim of this book.
Review: Written for those charged with the responsibility of teaching the Latin of the Church, this book aims to give the student within one year the ability to read ecclesiastical Latin. It includes the Latin of Jerome's Bible and that of canon law, liturgy, scholastic philosophers, Ambrosian hymns, and papal bulls.
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