Did you know there are serious cracks in the cement of western civilization? To repair these, two books work excellently well together. While one is fiction and the other non-fiction, together they provide food for thought to supercharge our diet of 21st Century Catholic perspective.
The Decline & Fall of the Catholic Church in America by David Carlin (Sophia Institute Press) addresses the real causes of the disintegration of Catholicism in America. Brilliantly defining the three powerful social forces storming against the Catholic Church in America, this is must reading and re-reading for every concerned Catholic. I would choose this work over owning a thousand mediocre Catholic books.
If one were to ask what is the single most important chapter of all – and believe me when I say all are excellent and timely – but my vote would firmly be cast for Chapter 25, “Losing the Catholic Voice Will Harm American Culture.” This analysis is so good one is tempted to memorize it word-for-word. It shows where the Catholic Church kept rising in influence until the 1960s – then declined due to three powerful forces.
I believe this 30-year interruption was only temporary – a darkest-before-the-dawn scenario – and now in 2007 the Catholic Church will resume where it left off, if we regain the perspective in this book. And if this book is used in conjunction with its counterpart in timely fiction, Museum of Heretics by Stephen Volk (available now at Lulu.com). Together, both books are essential!
As the 54-year old author of Museum of Heretics, I hadn’t first read The Decline & Fall of the Catholic Church in America till two weeks after publication of Museum of Heretics. You can imagine my surprise when I realized how the Holy Spirit and His endless true creativity led one author in fiction and another in non-fiction to present to the world two timely and pleasantly urgent books! These two books have the complementariness of Paul and Timothy; of true doctrine with true morality. Like the Apostles going out two-by-two, these books going to the world two-by-two will revolutionize! If these were the only two books one read and re-read in 2007, one’s Catholic literary diet would be immensely gratified and satiated.
Let me shout it from the house tops! Don’t go blindly into 2007 and beyond without the powerful illumination of these two books. The Decline & Fall of the Catholic Church in America (Hardcover from Sophia Institute Press @ Alibris.com) and Museum of Heretics (Hardcover and paperback @ Lulu.com). Surely they are must reading for every Catholic home and high school, college, rectory and retirement home library! Together, like a 21st century Paul and Timothy, they are a force to turn things around…
Now Available!