Practicing Catholic

by James Carroll

Book Overview

"Offers controversial insights on modern American Catholicism. A captivating look at the Church and a call for change from within its numbers." -- Kirkus ReviewsA clear-eyed and personal examination... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618670181
• ISBN13: 9780618670185
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 385 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

PRACTICE IS NEVER OVER

IN THIS ONE VOLUME JAMES CARROLL BEAUTIFULLY AND LOVINGLY DESCRIBES THE CHALLENGES AND FRUSTRATIONS HE HAS FACED IN THE RELIGION OF HIS BIRTH. JUKST UNDER SEVENTY YEARS, HE HAS LIVED A CHARMED AND PRIVILEDGED LIFE AND WALKED IN THE CHAMBERS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE. AND ALL THESE THINGS MADE HIM WHAT HE IS TODAY, STILL A PRACTICING CATHOLIC WHO SEES THE CHURCH SO VERY DIFFERENTLY NOW THAN IN HIS YOUTH, HIS PRIESTHOOD AND AS AN ACCOMPLISHED NOVELIST AND HISTORIAN. TAKE THIS JOURNEY WITH CARRROLL AND SEE THE WORLD THROUGH HIS EYES, AND REALIZE THAT YOUR OWN JOURNEY IS NOT SO ALONE ON THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED...

A must read for 'practicing' Catholics.

Having lived through Church changes since Vatican II, James Carroll's book is a must read for any Catholic struggling with their faith. It pares down the psychology behind such issues as a woman's role in the church, homosexuality, social justice and, most importantly, power and true authority. It is thorough, compassionate and enlightening. It is simply the best laying out of an argument I have read in the past twenty years. Thank you, James Carroll.

Why Is James Carroll a Practicing Catholic?

At nearly 400 pages, James Carroll's PRACTICING CATHOLIC is a readable assortment of reflections on the life and times of the author and selected other practicing Catholics admired by the author. Both Catholics and interested non-Catholics will probably find this book accessible and informative. In addition to matters detailed in the text, the book includes a handy five-page "Twentieth-Century American Catholic Chronology," discussion notes, and an index. I give this book a five-star rating for being well written. In two earlier autobiographical books, AN AMERICAN REQUIEM: GOD, MY FATHER, AND THE WAR THAT CAME BETWEEN US (1996) and HOUSE OF WAR: THE PENTAGON AND THE DISASTROUS RISE OF AMERICAN POWER (2006), James Carroll has detailed the basic outlines of his life. He left his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University to become a seminarian for the priesthood in the Paulist religious order. After he was ordained a priest in 1969, he served as chaplain at Boston University during protests against the Vietnam War, a war that he himself protested against, despite his father's prominent position in the military. However, the author subsequently became a formally and officially laicized former priest as well as a playwright, novelist, and columnist. In addition to publishing a number of novels, he has also published a detailed critique of the Roman Catholic Church's tragic mistreatment of Jews over the centuries, CONSTANTINE'S SWORD: THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS: A HISTORY (2001). Thus in various ways, Catholicism has been a central feature of James Carroll's life. However, despite his published critique of the history of the Catholic Church, it's his choice to remain a practicing Catholic. However, after reading his book PRACTICING CATHOLIC, I cannot tell you why he remains a practicing Catholic -- or why he does not stop being a practicing Catholic. In PRACTICING CATHOLIC, the author highlights his admiration for Pope John XXIII, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), and the prolific theologian Hans Kung. Hans Kung was at one time stripped of his appointment of a Roman Catholic teaching post for being too liberal to suit the Vatican's far more conservative bent. Like Hans Kung, James Carroll is not pleased with the conservative bent of the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II. But in this book he accentuates the positive as much as he can. Not surprisingly, he finds times in his life as a practicing Catholic and in the lives of other practicing Catholics to remember fondly and cherish and celebrate. It strikes me as appropriate to give credit where credit is due, as he does repeatedly throughout the book. Good for him. Wouldn't his life have been empty if he had no memories after all these years that he could fondly remember of himself as a practicing Catholic and of other practicing Catholics? Thomas J. Farrell, author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (The Hampton Pr

Practicing Catholic

I bought this book for my husband, who was raised Catholic and has strayed away from his faith. He has really enjoyed the book, he has learned a lot from reading it. He would recomend it to anyone of the Catholic faith.

Poetry as the quintessence of theology

Carroll writes that "language is God" and that "God is language." This is a theological statement that supports the poetry of John's Gospel, which begins with the poetic fact that the "Word is God." Carroll is making the point that John's poetry communicates better than theological prose. This does not mean that theology is not helpful, but that theology is secondary to poetry as a way of knowing God. Created things dispose the mind to believe in God, but the Word creates an even stronger disposition to believe. Theology is like the Tree of Good and Evil, which commuicates on the level of logic. Poetry is like the Tree of Life, which feeds imagination; it conveys spiritual truths more clearly than logic can. Imagination is the phenomenological lens that provides a clearer view of the numinous than the opaque glass of theology. Imagination is indispensable to spiritual epistemology, to becoming one with the object known, to faith. Logic is the theological mechanism that tests the imagination, making sure that fundamentalism does not impede theological development. Faulty theology is corrected by imagination, just as faulty imagination is improved by logic. Carrol's book presents poetry as the ground for building Catholic identity, an ongoing process. It supports the image of the pope as the flawed foundation stone for the practicing Catholic. We know we can't always believe the pope, because even Peter was a liar; three times he denied he knew Jesus. Nevertheless, we bear with a faulty pope; we know that all people, all popes are sinners; we know that all people, all popes are conduits of historical lies told by institutional leaders. We know that poetry is a better anchor of truth than the faulty theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Poets like Carroll are helping the pope form a Catholic practice that acknowledges the ground upon which his identity and authority rest--the People and the Poetry of God. Carroll focuses on the primacy of poetry for practicing Catholics. But his emphasis on democracy is equally immportant. Without democracy, the Poetic Word cannot easily inform the structures and the theology of the Church. He shows how the advocates of democracy in Catholic America were stifled before Vatican II, but then affirmed by John XXIII and the Council bishops. The history of Isaac Hecker and the Paulists is very interesting. It shows that the American Church is the trigger for the growing demand for a global Church that is truly catholic and truly democratic. Democracy, which is anchored in the indigenous Iroquois, is the gift of the American People to all the People of God. Carroll is not only Priest and Prophet (poet of pathos), but also King. King of existentialist (rather than essentialist) theologians.