Stuff
Product Details
Simon & Schuster, August 2004
Trade Paperback, 448 pages
ISBN-10: 0743261445
ISBN-13: 9780743261449
Description
In this widely acclaimed book that will long remain an indispensable work on American religion and the Catholic Church, one of its most influential laymen in the United States says that the Roman Catholic Church in America must either reform profoundly or lapse into irreversible decline.
In addition to providing a spiritual identity for over 60 million Americans, the church is the nation's largest nongovernmental provider of education and social services, as well as the largest not-for-profit provider of health care. But even before the recent revelations about sex abuse by priests, American Catholicism was already heading for a major crisis, with its traditional leadership depleted by the decline in religious vocations and paralyzed by "theological gridlock."
Catholicism in the United States confronts hard choices among contrasting visions for the future, choices with huge implications for American life. Analyzing these choices in ways that escape all the familiar labels of conservative or liberal, Steinfels points to the directions the church must take to survive.
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IntroductionKevin Starr
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Peter Steinfels is among the most distinguished and respected Catholic commentators in the country....A People Adrift is balanced and judicious.
Alan Wolfe
The New Republic
The moderation and the heartfelt sincerity on display throughout Steinfels' book constitute, at least for this non-Catholic, an exceptionally persuasive defense of Catholicism as the church goes through its difficult days.
David O'Brien
National Catholic Reporter
Peter Steinfels is uniquely qualified by his experience, his access to sources and his journalist's professionalism to survey the state of contemporary American Catholicism.
Garry Wills
The New York Times
Steinfels' balance makes all the more unsettling the harsh conclusions he draws, in his quiet voice, from looking at every aspect of Catholic life....[A] disturbing book.
Monika HellwigPresident of the Association of Catholic Colleges and UniversitiesIf you want to know what is happening in the American Catholic Church, you must read this book. It is provocative. You may find yourself arguing with the author's diagnoses or his prescriptions for the future, but you will not be able to ignore him.
Rev. Theodore M. HesburghPresident Emeritus, University of Notre DameAll Catholics may not agree with everything Steinfels says but all can be edified and stimulated by his good judgment and total dedication to the Kingdom of God on earth. I am happy to endorse this latest work of wisdom on Peter Steinfels's part.
Catholic Review, October 23, 2009
...book. Cardinal George spends a fair bit of space responding to the critique of church leadership offered by Peter Steinfels in his book, 'A People Adrift.' He handles most of Steinfels' objections skillfully and within the context of faith, ...
National Catholic Reporter, October 9, 2009
...concerned about the poor too! You spend a fair bit of space responding to the critique offered by Peter Steinfels in his book A People Adrift, but there’s one point you mention and then let drop. He suggests, as many others have, that the ...
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