"Catherine Doherty's primary message to seminarians is the need for holiness, which will light fires in people. Prayer is requisite; next are approachability and accessibility." -- Catholic Transcript "Urges seminarians to prepare to fill the need for spiritual direction and for teaching the beauty and fullness of God. -- Catholic Messenger
The present book is the first work to highlight Catherine Doherty's vocation to spiritual motherhood. Drawing upon primary archival sources, the author traces Catherine's development as a staritsa, or spiritual mother in the Russian-Eastern tradition. Of particular interest are the chapters dealing with Catherine's exercise of spiritual motherhood for priests and laity alike. Previously unpublished letters of spiritual direction between Catherine and her major spiritual directors offer the reader a privileged glimpse into the soul of this servant of God and her spiritual children, as she grows in her vocation as staritsa. For example, in one striking letter, Catherine describes how she guided a disillusioned young priest who was struggling with a drinking problem and temptations involving young women, and was bordering on despair: "With clenched teeth I sailed into him, first gently, almost caressingly calling him back to Christ he once loved, then more sternly, then quietly. . . . He left full of thanks and some hope . . . ."
From the creator of the TV show Bones, The Seminarian is a twisty murder mystery perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen. Xavier “Priest” Priestly is a snarky former seminarian turned private investigator. Dusty Queen is a hard-as-nails professional stuntwoman and freelance bodyguard. When Dusty’s girlfriend suddenly disappears, a woman in a strange blue wig tries to assassinate Priest, and a twelve-year-old boy shows up claiming to be his son, the two friends are thrown into a maelstrom of intrigue and high-stakes violence that’s as convoluted and dangerous as it is hilarious. Thankfully, Priest and Dusty don’t have to navigate these tangled mysteries alone. Aided by a lawyer who’s underwhelmed by their extra-legal methods, a straight-laced detective who doesn’t trust them as far as he can throw them, and Priest’s father, a notorious bank robber, they are well equipped to deal with potential kidnapping and attempted murder. But whether Priest is up to the challenge of a son with a gun, a backpack full of weed, and a major attitude problem ... well, that’s a different story. With its unforgettable cast, parade of twists and turns, and breakneck pace, The Seminarian showcases Hart Hanson at his best. Packed with action and glistening with snappy dialogue, surprising tenderness, and (mostly) good people doing some exceptionally bad things, this distinctive thriller is as entertaining as it is insightful.
Churches today are caught in a sociological trap. Parishioners want to keep comfortable status quo organization. Churchmen feel the pressure to modernize, to "get where the action is." This book is a provocative and zesty analysis of the problem. Dishonest to God? The churches have followed corporations in emphasizing fat figures and solid annual growth. If religion were sold like stocks you would have the "high fliers" like the booming Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholics, the "blue chip" denominations-Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians-and then those with small growth potential like the Jews. The "sick" clergy. Most clergymen of the various faiths, needless to say, are not alcoholic or homosexual. On the other hand enough clergymen have these problems to cause concern, and beyond the slippery labels of neuroses there are enough inward tortured people in the clergy to make church authorities wonder what in heaven is wrong. The future. One of the basic models for churchly change is ecumenism, but although ecumenism may look good on the drawing board, it has some very formidable hurdles before it . There is no sign in the heavens that the organized religion in America will be granted a resurrection.
Aimed at a wide audience of readers, The Anthropology of Catholicism is the first companion guide to this burgeoning field within the anthropology of Christianity. Bringing to light Catholicism’s long but comparatively ignored presence within the discipline of anthropology, the book introduces readers to key studies in the field, as well as to current analyses on the present and possible futures of Catholicism globally. This reader provides both ethnographic material and theoretical reflections on Catholicism around the world, demonstrating how a revised anthropology of Catholicism can generate new insights and analytical frameworks that will impact anthropology as well as other disciplines.
“In providing a modern translation . . . Sheila Delany sheds light on a text that illustrates the complexity of Enlightenment attitudes toward religion.” —Reading Religion “My God! Pardon me if I have dared to make sacred things serve a profane love; but it is you who have put passion into our hearts; they are not crimes—I feel this in the purity of my intentions.” —Agatha, writing to Zoé In pre-revolutionary Paris, a young woman falls for a handsome young priest. To be near him, she dresses as a man, enters his seminary, and is invited to become a fully ordained Catholic priest—a career forbidden to women then as now. Sylvain Maréchal’s epistolary novella offers a biting rebuke to religious institutions and a hypocritical society; its views on love, marriage, class, and virtue remain relevant today. The book ends in La Nouvelle France, which became part of British-run Canada during Maréchal’s lifetime. With thorough notes and introduction by Sheila Delany, this first translation of Maréchal’s novella, La femme abbé, brings a little-known but revelatory text to the attention of readers interested in French history and literature, history of the novel, women’s studies, and religious studies. “While the contents of The Woman Priest make for a good story (drag, drama, and death—what more can you ask for?), the astonishing complexity of the novella seems to lie not necessarily in the general plot line, but rather in the context in which the author wrote the book—as brilliantly explained in Delany’s introduction to her translation.” —Canadian Literature
