The "True Grit" of Catholicism

I've been to Rome twice now and have yet to tour the Scavi. This book made me first hit myself then start saving my pennies to go to Rome a third time "videre Petrum" - to see St. Peter and check out the man's remains for real this time. A few chapters later, Weigel persuaded me that I also must travel to the Holy Land if to do nothing else but visit the place where our Lord rose from the dead and the Easter mass is celebrated every Sunday.

The power of persuasion in this my now favorite of George Weigel's books lies in his development of the theme of the "grittiness" of Catholicism. The ability to touch, smell, feel, see and taste the relics of our faith which are both bound in time and space and beyond them add a crucial dimension to faith which makes faith more than intellectual assent to certain definitions.

Certainly this is no innovation, just a good and sound development upon the theology of the Incarnation of Christ as laid out in St. John's prologue. I believe a firm grasp of this truth will deepen any Catholic's faith and hopefully serve to bring the ideologues on the far left and the far right back to the cross where they can make some real spiritual progress - maybe for the first time in their lives. I would recommend this book for anyone even if he hadn't quoted Flannery O'Connor which always wins an auotmatic recommendation from me.

A positive book, for youngsters from 9 to 92

Count me in for a five-star vote for this wonderful book.
I've been one of those Catholics who has occasionally felt guilty for feeling good about being a Catholic. After all, why feel good about a tradition which is so so politically incorrect, which has inflicted almost as many atrocities on humanity as atheism (or other religions), and which has done really bad things like support the political institutions which embarrassed Galileo?
Weigel not only makes me positive about being Catholic, he makes me positive about being a human being. Instead of showing us some profound doctrinal twist or turn, he takes us to the cheerful good humor of G K Chesterton as he spent a few nights in a pub, the deep expressions of love expressed in Chartres and in Brideshead Revisited, and the truly human humanism of a politically-incorrect figure like Gertrude Stein, who was martyred by the Nazis for beliefs which any moral relativist would condemn today.
Thanks for a great book and keep up the good work.
"...solemnity flows out of men natually, but laughter is a leap...Satan fell by force of gravity."

balm for the wound of a "progressive" Catholic education

The opening essay of this highly readable book is an evocation of the "last moment of intact Catholic culture" -- Weigel's own youth in uber Catholic Baltimore in the 1960s. He describes a close-knit Catholic community united by traditional devotions and centered around the sacraments and parish life. To most young American Catholics (certainly those of us under 35), this first letter will sound like a missive from another planet.

Although Weigel treads lightly and tactfully on this point, it seems to me the book is a recognition of--and an antidote to-- the fact that most of us young Catholics never learned the catechism or formerly central devotions like the stations of the cross and Eucharistic adoration. The existence of robust intellectual tradition within the Church was never so much as hinted at.

(Not that I blame my teachers for my ignorance on these points... between being urged to "work within the church for change," to dismiss unenlightened doctrines, and to sing ad nauseam every song in "Glory & Praise," who had the time to dust off a catechism? But I digress..)

Weigel's book proposes that the cure for the sadly diminished Catholic culture of which many of us are the product is to reconnect with our rich, vibrant, living past.

Weigel makes a case for embracing tradition-- the Catholic intellectual tradition--not because he is a head-in-the-sand reactionary but because it has so much to give us.

As Weigel quotes GK Chesterton, "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about."

Weigel is the consummate guide through the people and places of the "Catholic world" and Letters to a Young Catholic provides an invaluable introduction (for those like me, who need it) to John Henry Newman, Belloc, Chesterton, and others. Each essay is thought provoking and beautifully crafted. The book as a whole will help you chart a course for further reading.