Why I Am a Catholic

by Wills, Garry

• ISBN13: 9781587243431
• ISBN10: 1587243431
• Edition: Large
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc

Summary

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. 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 difticult crises, he is sure to spark an equally heated conversation about its future. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Garry Wills, one of our most distinguished historians and critics, is the author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Saint Augustine. 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 an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University

Table of Contents

Introduction	11	(12)
I. BORN CATHOLIC	23	(68)
Saint Mary's and Campion	29	(13)
Jesuit Days	42	(15)
Chesterton	57	(18)
Encyclicals	75	(16)
II. CHURCH WITHOUT PAPAL PRIMACY	91	(104)
Peter	95	(20)
Paul	115	(12)
Rome Mediating	127	(10)
Rome Meddling	137	(12)
Rome and the East	149	(25)
Rome Turns West	174	(21)
III. FORMS OF PAPAL PRIMACY	195	(158)
Forgeries and Populism	199	(24)
Rise of the Secular State and the Church Council	223	(20)
Renaissance and Reformation	243	(18)
Trent and England	261	(21)
Ancien Regime and Revolution	282	(19)
War on Democracy	301	(29)
Reign of Terror	330	(23)
IV. THE VATICAN II CHURCH	353	(108)
The Great Rebirth	356	(21)
Born to Set Times Right	377	(26)
Fighting Vatican II	403	(26)
Living Vatican II	429	(17)
The Pope's Loyal Opposition	446	(15)
V. THE CREED	461	(67)
I believe in God	468	(14)
...the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth	482	(12)
...and in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only son of God...He descended into hell	494	(11)
...conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary	505	(10)
...shall come to judge the living and the dead	515	(13)
Epilogue	528	(3)
Notes	531	(42)
Acknowledgments	573