Saints as they really are : voices of holiness in our time / Michael Plekon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Plekon, Michael, 1948-

Contributor:

Edwin B. Cole Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian biography--United States.

Christian biography.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 277 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, [2012]

Summary:

Saints As They Really Are is the third book in Plekon's critically acclaimed series on saints and holiness in our time. He draws on the autobiographical work of Dorothy Day, Peter Berger, Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris, and Barbara Brown Taylor, among others, as well as from his own experiences as a Carmelite seminarian and brother. Plekon shares the power of these individuals' stories as they unfold. The book offers a strong argument that our failings and weaknesses are not disqualifications to holiness. Plekon further confronts the institutional church and its relationship to individuals seeking God, focusing on some of the challenges to this search--the destructive potential of religion and religious institutions, as well as our personal tendencies to extremism, overwork, pious obsessions, and legalism. But he also underscores the healing qualities of faith and the spiritual life. Plekon's insights will help readers better understand their own spiritual pilgrimages as they learn how others have dealt with the trials and joys of their path to everyday holiness.

Contents:

Bringing saints down from the walls and pedestals

Messy lives, imperfect people

Dangerous faith: religion as toxic, destructive, pathological

Holiness and the search for joy

"You want to be happy?": my Carmelite years

Conversion and community: searching for love in all the wrong places and finding it nonetheless

God is everywhere

Transformation in faith and work, liturgy and life, the church and the world

"The church has left the building": belonging to the Christian community in the twenty-first century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edwin B. Cole Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780268038380

0268038384

OCLC:

769430649