Overview

In this provocative work, which could not be timelier, Garry Wills, one of our country's most noted writers and historians, offers a powerful statement of his Catholic faith. Beginning with a reflection on his early experience of that faith as a child and later as a Jesuit seminarian, Wills reveals the importance of Catholicism in his own life. He goes on to challenge, in clear and forceful terms, the claim that criticism or reform of the papacy is an assault on the faith itself. For Wills, a Catholic can be both loyal and critical, a loving child who stays with his father even if the parent is wrong. Wills turns outward from his personal experiences to present a sweeping narrative covering two thousand years of church history, revealing that the papacy, far from being an unchanging institution, has been transformed dramatically over the millennia -- and can be reimagined in the future. At a time when the church faces one of its most difficult crises, Garry Wills offers an important and compelling entrée into the discussion of the church's past -- and its future. Intellectually brisk and spiritually moving, Why I Am a Catholic poses urgent questions for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike.

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9780618380480

Table of Contents

Reviews

The entire last section of WHY I AM A CATHOLIC is among Wills's most memorable writings. --Denis Donoghue New York Review of Books Wills . . . explodes much of what passes as institutionalized Catholicism . . . and in his closing and very close reading of the Apostles' creed, boils the question of why one could possibly be a Catholic down to its essentials. --John Anderson The Nation It is hard to imaginea more timely book than Garry Wills's Why I Am a Catholic . . . it is a great satisfaction to have the Church's history analyzed by a mind so critical but still so in love. --Joan Acocella The New Yorker Wills's book is well written and carefully referenced to support his point of view. Publishers Weekly, Starred The prolific historian offers a timely confession of faith and an apology in the true sense of the term. Kirkus Reviews, Starred This new book . . . is a powerful work of personal reflection and history . . . Wills . . . is simply the most astute Catholic writer in America today. --James Carroll Boston Globe

Why I Am a Catholic is in great part a spiritual autobiography, in which Wills brings before us his most personal intellectual and spiritual influences.

Author Information

GARRY WILLS, a distinguished historian and critic, is the author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Saint Augustine, and the best-selling Why I Am a Catholic. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he has won many awards, among them two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the 1998 National Medal for the Humanities. He is a history professor emeritus at Northwestern University.

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