Why I Am a Catholic

by Wills, Garry

• ISBN13: 9780618380480
• ISBN10: 0618380485
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-08
• Publisher: Mariner Books

Summary

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 entre 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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Key to Brief Citations	ix
Introduction to the Mariner Edition	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
I. BORN CATHOLIC	9	(44)
1. Saint Mary's and Campion	13	(8)
2. Jesuit Days	21	(10)
3. Chesterton	31	(12)
4. Encyclicals	43	(10)
II. CHURCH WITHOUT PAPAL PRIMACY	53	(70)
5. Peter	57	(13)
6. Paul	70	(8)
7. Rome Mediating	78	(7)
8. Rome Meddling	85	(8)
9. Rome and the East	93	(16)
10. Rome Turns West	109	(14)
III. FORMS OF PAPAL PRIMACY	123	(100)
11. Forgeries and Populism	127	(15)
12. Rise of the Secular State and the Church Council	142	(12)
13. Renaissance and Reformation	154	(11)
14. Trent and England	165	(13)
15. Ancien Régime and Revolution	178	(12)
16. War on Democracy	190	(18)
17. Reign of Terror	208	(15)
IV. THE VATICAN II CHURCH	223	(70)
18. The Great Rebirth	226	(13)
19. Born to Set Times Right	239	(16)
20. Fighting Vatican II	255	(16)
21. Living Vatican II	271	(11)
22. The Pope's Loyal Opposition	282	(11)
V. THE CREED	293	(48)
23. I believe in God ...	299	(9)
24. ... the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth ...	308	(8)
25. ... and in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only son of God ...	316	(8)
26. ... conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. ..	324	(7)
27. ... shall come to judge the living and the dead ...	331	(10)
Epilogue	341	(4)
Notes	345	(23)
Acknowledgments	368	(1)
Index	369