Practicing Catholic
Subtitle: a personal history of belief
By: James Carroll.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Boston, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 385
ISBN-13: 9780618670185
Subjects: Carroll, James, -- 1943-; Catholic Church -- History -- 20th century; Catholic church -- History -- 21st century; Catholic Church -- Doctrines; Catholics -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: This personal history of the American Catholic Church during writer Carroll's lifetime traces the transformation of a medieval institution, suspicious of American ideas of freedom and democracy, into a church that has begun to embrace basic American principles of pluralism and respect for conscience. The book tells the story of heroes (Pope John XXIII, Thomas Merton, Cardinal Richard Cushing, William Sloane Coffin), and great events (Vatican II, the Kennedys, the end of the Cold War). Considering the new meaning of belief in a secular world, it stands against the fundamentalisms of "neo-atheists" as well as of born-again Christians. The book shows how and why the world needs a renewed, rational, vital Catholic Church. For Carroll, faith is a practice--like all practice, it aims at getting better.--From publisher description.

An evaluation of America's impact on Catholicism draws on the author's life and experiences to trace the church's transformation from a reactionary monolith to an institution in which the deepest aspects of faith are being re-examined.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Born Catholic; title: The God of my youth; title: Coming of age; title: The council; title: A new language; title: Sex and power; title: Thou art a priest; title: The scandal; title: Religion and terror; title: A writer's faith.