Why I am a Catholic / Garry Wills.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wills, Garry, 1934-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Apologetic works.

Catholic Church.

Papacy.

Genre:

Apologetic writings.

Physical Description:

viii, 390 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Summary:

Papal Sin and its expose of a fundamental dishonesty at the heart of the church hierarchy provoked both praise and heated debate. Accused by some of harboring deep resentments against the church, Garry Wills now counters with a powerful statement of his Catholic faith. Wills begins with a reflection on his early experience of that faith as a child, and later as a Jesuit seminarian, revealing the importance of Catholicism in his own life. He goes on to challenge, in clear and forceful terms, the dogmatic claim that criticism or reform of the papacy is an assault on the faith itself. In a sweeping narrative covering two thousand years of church history, he reveals that the papacy, far from being an unchanging institution, has been transformed dramatically over the millennia and can be reimagined in the future. Wills ends with a moving meditation on the significance of the creed, the timeless core of the Catholic faith, which endures even as the institution of the church changes. Posing urgent questions for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike, Why I Am a Catholic argues for the continuing relevance of a papacy understood as a symbol of unity, not of infallibility. Wills has already stirred up controversy about the profound failures of a corrupt church hierarchy. Now, at a time when the church faces one of its most difficult crises, he is sure to spark an equally heated conversation about its future.

Contents:

I. Born Catholic 9

1. Saint Mary's and Campion 13

2. Jesuit Days 21

3. Chesterton 31

4. Encyclicals 43

II. Church Without Papal Primacy 53

5. Peter 57

6. Paul 70

7. Rome Mediating 78

8. Rome Meddling 85

9. Rome and the East 93

10. Rome Turns West 109

III. Forms of Papal Primacy 123

11. Forgeries and Populism 127

12. Rise of the Secular State and the Church Council 142

13. Renaissance and Reformation 154

14. Trent and England 165

15. Ancien Regime and Revolution 178

16. War on Democracy 190

17. Reign of Terror 208

IV. The Vatican II Church 223

18. The Great Rebirth 226

19. Born to Set Times Right 239

20. Fighting Vatican II 255

21. Living Vatican II 271

22. The Pope's Loyal Opposition 282

V. The Creed 293

23. I believe in God ... 299

24. ... the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth ... 308

25. ... and in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only son of God ... 316

26. ... conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary ... 324

27. ... shall come to judge the living and the dead ... 331.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [345]-367) and index.

ISBN:

0618134298

OCLC:

50059695