Product Description

What does it mean to be a Catholic in today's world? If you are not eating fish on Fridays and having strings of children, then what distinguishes the modern Catholic from anyone else? At a time when the Vatican provokes hostility by its opposition to contraception, abortion and the use of condoms in fighting AIDS, how many Catholics share its views? And if they don't, how can they in good conscience stay in the Church? These are among the many questions that writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford has addressed to some of Britain's best-known Catholics. In this entertaining and enlightening collection of short essays, each has come up with a very different reply.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #215117 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 142 pages

Review
"'This is a hard-hitting book which criticises as much as it praises...it should be read by anyone interested in the phenomenon of organised religion' - Lady Antonia Fraser The Spectator 'Fascinating...a surprisingly uplifting book' Damian Thompson in the Sunday Telegraph 'This book is really rather edifying' Melanie McDonagh The Tablet"

From the Inside Flap
CONTRIBUTORS
· Cherie Booth QC on Catholic social teaching and its influence on her career
· Rugby legend Shaun Edwards on how faith saw him through the tragedy of his younger brother's death
· Channel 4 presenter Dermot O'Leary on conscience and how he still prays every night
· Writer Christina Odone writes how her marriage to a divorcee has excluded her from the sacraments but not the Church
· Award-winning script-writer of Danny Boyle's smash hit 'Millions', Frank Cottrell-Boyce, imagines a dialogue with a sceptic
· Today's Edward Stourton traces his faith back to Reformation rebels
· Anne Maguire on how her faith sustained her while imprisoned for nine years for terrorist crimes she did not commit
· Comedian Mel Gieldroyc (of Mel and Sue) on the pull of her Polish Catholic roots
· Journalist Charlie Brown on being gay and Catholic
· Stem-cell research expert Professor Neil Scolding on discrimination against Catholics in science
· Baroness Patricia Scotland, Home Office minister, on being a Catholic in government
· Former priest and leader of CND, Bruce Kent, on life from the other side of the altar rails

About the Author
Peter Stanford, writer, journalist and broadcaster, is a former editor of the Catholic Herald and author of several books including Heaven: a Traveller's Guide to the Undiscovered Country.

Customer Reviews

See your faith from another perspective
Because of the rituals inherent in Roman Catholicism, I find that it is not difficult to practise the faith "by rote". It is easy to make the right responses in the right places, while thinking about earthly matters and thus failing to engage in the rituals in a prayerful way. Books like this, though, keep the faith alive. By talking about Catholicism in a non-litugical way, they entice the reader into thinking about the Church outside the normal practices. Not only that, by seeing the faith from the point of view of Catholics who have approached Christ from a very different direction allows the reader to see the limitations of their own road, and so broaden their faith.

This book does that, and in an accessible way. The chapters are short, but engagingly personal. The problems faced by the authors are so different to my own, but the lessons they have learned are so similar.

This book renewed my engagement in participation, increased my eagerness to look into the ritual to understand it better, and, ultimately, allowed me to appraise my relationship with the Church in a positive way.

refreshing and optimistic
I thought that the interesting, intensely personal, and honest views of such a diverse group of Catholics were refreshing and uplifting. As a "cradle Catholic" myself I found the testimony on the pull of roots and traditions certainly struck a chord.

However, in a time where many seek to reduce (and in the process distort) Catholocism to "condoms and homosexuals" I found Cherie Blair's (I am not a natural fan !) discussion of Catholic social teaching through to Cristina Odone's moving thoughts on being married to a divorcee fascinating and hopeful. I would highly recommend this book to those who come to the subject as inquisitive non-catholics through to those of us who occasionally need reminding why we too are still catholics.