Overview

A teacher, therapist, and writer, Vernon Ruland here weaves the strands of his remarkable life into a fascinating selfportrait. From the blue-collar parishes of his native Erie, Pennsylvania, to ministries around the world, Ruland traces a life of vocation, service, and discovery. An activist against the Vietnam War, counselor to troubled people in hospitals, prisons, and schools, and distinguished scholar of world religions, psychology, ethics, and philosophy, Ruland takes stock of all these accomplishments. He also reflects movingly on the deep values—as a human being first, then as Christian, Catholic, Jesuit, and priest—that give meaning and mission to his life.

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This is the life-story of a noted Jesuit teacher-counselor-writer in passage from an American ghetto Catholicism to a Church more global and self-questioning. Probing his recurrent uncertainties, he revisits key faces first encountered in classes, kitchens, clinics, sickbeds, barracks, or lockups -- many loyal to a faith tradition other than his own, many averse to all religious labels. Father Ruland interweaves accounts of amusing misadventure, of engagement with some extraordinary clients and students, and of his maturing spirituality, ever more open and pluralistic. In its wisdom and style of disclosure this autobiography shows proof that an honest examined life can be truly worth living.

This is the life-story of a noted Jesuit teacher-counselor-writer in passage from an American ghetto Catholicism to a Church more global and self-questioning. Probing his recurrent uncertainties, he revisits key faces first encountered in classes, kitchens, clinics, sickbeds, barracks, or lockups -- many loyal to a faith tradition other than his own, many averse to all religious labels. Father Ruland interweaves accounts of amusing misadventure, of engagement with some extraordinary clients and students, and of his maturing spirituality, ever more open and pluralistic. In its wisdom and style of disclosure this autobiography shows proof that an honest examined life can be truly worth living. -- -Chris Hayward, M.D., * Stanford University *

This is the life-story of a noted Jesuit teacher-counselor-writer in passage from an American ghetto Catholicism to a Church more global and self-questioning. Probing his recurrent uncertainties, he revisits key faces first encountered in classes, kitchens, clinics, sickbeds, barracks, or lockups -- many loyal to a faith tradition other than his own, many averse to all religious labels.<br> Father Ruland interweaves accounts of amusing misadventure, of engagement with some extraordinary clients and students, and of his maturing spirituality, ever more open and pluralistic. In its wisdom and style of disclosure this autobiography shows proof that an honest examined life can be truly worth living.

Author Information

Vernon Ruland, S.J., teaches at the University of San Francisco. His books include Sacred Lies and Silences: A Psychology of Religious Disguise and Imagining the Sacred: Soundings in World Religions, awarded the National Jesuit Book Award.

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