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Advance Praise for The Past as Pilgrimage

 “Shannon and Blum argue that Christian historians need to rethink how they perform their craft, less subject to positivism and isolated from other disciplines, and more attuned to the big questions. Throughout they remain attentive to their responsibilities as both researchers and teachers. They are passionate about their thesis, will surely provoke a range of responses, but have added an important voice to the debate about the vocation of the Christian historian.”

— Rev. James L. Heft, S.M.
President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California

“Taking as their starting point Alasdair MacIntyre’s understanding of the inescapably tradition-grounded character of all forms of knowledge and moral inquiry, the authors argue that it is high time to look past the stale and exhausted forms into which so much professional historical writing has settled. Instead they seek to restore the dignity and scope of historical writing by envisioning it a kind of pilgrimage, a way of deepening and keeping faith with the common life of the Church. A provocative and reverent book, which deserves a very wide readership.”

— Wilfred M. McClay
Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, University of Oklahoma

“The authors show that all history is written from a particular worldview, and when the Catholic worldview is precluded, other philosophical or covertly theological perspectives take its place — much to the detriment of the Church, which depends upon historical narratives for its communal flourishing. Exhibiting the wise judgment, erudition about the past, and narrative skills that comprise good historical writing, this gem of a book offers a brilliant fresh start for Catholic historians. Future historians will point to this book as a classic text that accomplished for the field of history what MacIntyre accomplished for philosophy. A must read.”

— Matthew Levering
Perry Family Foundation Professor of Theology, Mundelein Seminary

“The Past as Pilgrimage is a bold call to recover a distinctly Catholic historical imagination and to chart an alternative conception of the historian’s craft–one that views historical inquiry as much more than a professional enterprise. Shannon and Blum’s manifesto will challenge and inspire historians who find Enlightenment historiography impoverished. And it will surely anger others for whom a different understanding of the historian’s craft is unthinkable.”

— Donald Yerxa
Editor, Fides et Historia

“Drawing on Catholic thinkers ranging from Augustine and Newman to Balthasar and MacIntyre, Shannon and Blum challenge the dogmas and functionally atheistic methodologies that shape most contemporary historical work.  In doing so, they underscore the importance of a crucial and often neglected intellectual task: rescuing the writing of history from the delusion that we can provide an account of the past, our own and all humanity’s, without reference to God.”

—Michael Baxter

Visiting Associate Professor, Catholic Studies, DePaul University

Elio Sgreccia, a former tenured professor of bioethics at the A. Gemelli School of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, is the former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and current honorary president of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration. He was a member of Italy’s National Bioethics Committee and is currently the director of the journal Medicina e Morale.

John G. West is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. He is co-editor of The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia and author of The Politics of Revelation and Reasonand Darwin Day in America. He has been interviewed by major media outlets including Newsweek, USA Today, and the New York Times, and CNN, FoxNews, and C-SPAN. He holds a Ph.D. in government from Claremont Graduate University and he formerly was the chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at Seattle Pacific University.

In addition to constructive advice, this book includes four appendices with multiple resources. These include sample letters for writing to express support for Church teaching; a comprehensive list of Catholic publications, youth programs, home study aids, and other resources; and study questions suitable for use with book groups or for further meditation.

This helpful guide is like having a conversation with a trusted spiritual director. It’s easy to see why What the Catholic Faithful Can Do has been a popular title among Catholics for nearly twenty-five years.

Gerard Morrissey is the pseudonym for a Catholic priest.

Even more astonishing is the story of his brother monks, trained to chastity and regimented prayer, who followed Tom into the deepest caverns of desperation and depravity to save his life and soul.

This story of redemption offers a window into the grace awaiting all who seek the moment when God enters fully into our all-too-human lives.

Mark Delery, O.C.S.O., is a Trappist monk at the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia.

Walter M. Werbylo here brings out the multiple layers of meaning in John 7:37–39 (which includes Jesus’ cry: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink”) by integrating the patristic exegesis of these three verses with the modern exegesis. His patient, wise investigation shows what the patristic and modern methods look like in practice, and it confirms that patristic exegesis and modern exegesis are indeed guided by particular and identifiable principles that can —  and should — be fruitfully combined.

Walter M. Werbylo, C.S.B., is assistant professor in New Testament at St. Augustine’s Seminary of Toronto.