This non-fiction work by the wonderful American novelist James Carroll is an illuminating view of the Church as it is and as Carroll wishes it were. Carroll, who left the priesthood but not the Church, is a believer in the message of the Church but an antagonist of its hierarchy. He intersperses a lot of church history, including a lot of discussion about the changes in the Church's attitudes towards and relations with the Jews, with his own personal history -- and pulls no punches in his discussion of the related issues of pedophilia and cover-up.
I emerged from this reading with a better understanding of the symbolism of Christianity than I, as a practicing Jew, have had before, along with greater insight into the parallelism of the two faiths, and even a better understanding of the foundation of some of my own Jewish practices.
Interestingly, I have seen no reviews or other coverage of this book in the press, although I regularly peruse media that pay attention to books and writers-- so I have no idea when or how it snuck onto the public library's shelf. But I recommend it highly.
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April 1, 2010 - 10:40am
Gigi C
I belong to an interfaith study group. This sounds like a good book for my group to read together. Thank you so much for recommending it. I will suggest it to them.
April 7, 2010 - 5:00pm
Larry Kaufman
Oops! I had the name wrong. Carroll's book is called Practicing Catholic, and I had it confused with his previous one, American Requiem. I hope Gigi will report back on the reaction of her group to the book, if they take it on.
April 30, 2010 - 3:50am
Naveed
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May 1, 2010 - 7:32pm
Loretta
Do a Googol search on James Carroll Practicing Catholic and you will find many, many press articles on this book and also many diverse opinions about James Carroll and his writings. Amongst Catholics he is a very controversial figure.
So as far as whether this recent book of his or his others might be a good topic for an interfaith discussion group, I believe the answer is both yes and no, depending on the mindset and beliefs of the Catholics in the group. Devout or conservative Catholics would say James Carroll's writings do not represent the teachings of the Church nor their personal beliefs, and liberal Catholics would say this is the way it should be. It certainly would make a lively discussion.
So if you decide to use such a controversial book in your faith sharing group, I would suggest that you balance it out with a more conservative writer such as G. K. Chesterton. A link to his writings is below:
http://chesterton.org/gkc/theologian/whycatholic.htm
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