The religious experience of revolutionaries

Bianchi, Eugene C.

DOUBLEDAY

Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits

Founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus remains the largest and most controversial religious order of men in Catholicism. Since the 1960s, however, Jesuits in the United States have lost more than half of their members, and they have experienced a massive upheaval in what they believe and how they work and live. In this groundbreaking book, Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi draw on interviews and statements gathered from more than four hundred Jesuits and former Jesuits to provide an intimate look at turmoil among Catholicism's legendary best-and-brightest. Priests and former priests speak candidly about their reasons for joining (and leaving) the Jesuits, about their sexual development and orientation, about their spiritual crises and their engagement with other religious traditions. They discuss issues ranging from celibacy to the ordination of women, homosexuality, the rationale of the priesthood, the challenges of community life, and the divinity of Jesus. Passionate Uncertainty traces the transformation of the Society of Jesus from a fairly unified organization into a smaller, looser community with disparate goals and an elusive corporate identity. From its role as a traditional subculture during the days of immigrant Catholicism, the order has changed into an amalgam of countercultures shaped around social mission, sexual identity, and an eclectic spirituality. The story of the Jesuits reflects the crisis of clerical authority and the deep ambivalence surrounding American Catholicism's encounter with modernity.

McDonough, Peter

History

University of California Press

Founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus remains the largest and most controversial religious order of men in Catholicism. Since the 1960s, however, Jesuits in the United States have lost more than half of their members, and they have experienced a massive upheaval in what they believe and how they work and live. In this groundbreaking book, Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi draw on interviews and statements gathered from more than four hundred Jesuits and former Jesuits to provide an intimate look at turmoil among Catholicism's legendary best-and-brightest. Priests and former priests speak candidly about their reasons for joining (and leaving) the Jesuits, about their sexual development and orientation, about their spiritual crises and their engagement with other religious traditions. They discuss issues ranging from celibacy to the ordination of women, homosexuality, the rationale of the priesthood, the challenges of community life, and the divinity of Jesus. Passionate Uncertainty traces the transformation of the Society of Jesus from a fairly unified organization into a smaller, looser community with disparate goals and an elusive corporate identity. From its role as a traditional subculture during the days of immigrant Catholicism, the order has changed into an amalgam of countercultures shaped around social mission, sexual identity, and an eclectic spirituality. The story of the Jesuits reflects the crisis of clerical authority and the deep ambivalence surrounding American Catholicism's encounter with modernity.

World

Argues that the latter portion of a person's life can be a time for contemplating spiritual values and shows how religion can help people face the trials of old age

Aging as a spiritual journey

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Crossroad

The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that the church is the "People of God." In this volume thirteen scholars and theologians, including Hans Kung, Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, Jay Dolan, Philip Berryman, Charles Curran, as well as Rosemary Ruether and Eugene Bianchi, propose how to implement this idea. The contributors argue for a more democratic and participatory church. They maintain that the current structure of the church derives not from the mandate of Jesus Christ, but from the monarchies within which it existed in times past, and that it is long overdue for change. Further, the editors argue that "the issue of a democratic Catholic Church is not merely an academic debate. Rather it is a crucial hinge for opening the door to further reforms in the spirit of Vatican II. The quarter century since the council has been a long lesson in how needed change in the church can be derailed for lack of participational, democratic structures." What is at stake is the redemptive power and witness of the church. The time for reform is at hand, and it will only be accomplished by all the people of the church.

A Democratic Catholic Church: The Reconstruction of Roman Catholicism

Crossroad Pub. Co

Elder Wisdom: Crafting Your Own Elderhood

Jimmy Carter, Tillie Olsen, Desmond Tutu and 100 others invite readers in their 50s, 60s, and beyond to grown inwardly and participate more fully in life. In this refreshing new vision of aging, Bianchi offers the varied experiences of others to inspire readers, offering practical wisdom for personal enrichment. Bianchi is the author of Aging as a Spiritual Journey.

Self-Help

Archbishop Mark Doyle, a church reformer and a martial arts expert, falls wildly in love with his therapist, Miriam Faberini. Their love affair would be enough to complicate a celibate bishop's life, but his troubles multiply when two of his priests are murdered. A clandestine Catholic group claims responsibility for both killings, and vows to eliminate Doyle as a symbol of corrupt liberalism. The Vatican demands that Doyle account for damaging allegations against him. His shadowy nemesis, a priest defrocked for sexually abusing teenage boys, dogs the Archbishop's every step. His story displays key tensions agitating the still medieval structures of  today's church.     Surprising, shocking piece of fiction from a well-known scholar quite obviously off on a lark. He''s created a bigger-than-life bishop, a liberation theologian who does aikido, drinks Dewar's, canoodles on a regular basis with his shrink-lover and leads his flock into near-schism while the Vatican pushes for his quiet resignation and a psychotic stalker tries to kill him. If this novel is a mischievous preview of the church-to-come, we''re in for quite a roller-coaster ride. What fun!   Robert Blair Kaiser, author, contributing editor,  Newsweek magazine   "Eugene Bianchi''s fast-paced novel centers in the liberal reforming bishop of San Francisco, Mark Doyle, in love with his therapist. Around them swirl all the conflicts of contemporary Catholicism: liberation theology, the role of women in the church, celibacy, homosexuality, pedophile priests. Dark forces opposed to church reform conspire against them, plotting violence and assassinations of priests, in a story that ranges from Nicaragua to Northern California and Rome. A fun read you will not be able to put down until you finish."   Rosemary Radford Ruether Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

The Bishop of San Francisco

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

AuthorHouse

This memoir invites readers to explore stages of their own spiritual journey. Bianchi graphically describes his path from an Italian immigrant family on the West Coast, through twenty years as a Jesuit, to being a professor of religious studies at Emory University. As he develops a more this-worldly inner life, Bianchi struggles with church teachings about Christ, sexuality, and authority. He candidly reveals how failed marriages gave him a humbler grasp of meeting the transcendent in everyday problems. He embraces a contemplative spirituality that links Buddhist and Taoist practices with western mysticism. With a foot in Christianity, he shows how to walk a way of inter-spirituality as a meaningful road for the contemporary seeker. For Bianchi this involves becoming a metaphorical Christian as he moves away from religious certitudes of early life to find spirit in nature and humanity. Bianchi, a well-known writer on spiritual aging, challenges Baby Boomers to craft a contemplative life that works for them today. With his wife and two cats, he discovers a home for body and spirit along the banks of the Oconee River in Athens, Georgia.

Taking a Long Road Home: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Resource Publications

Elder Wisdom invites us to a refreshing new vision of aging in the company of one hundred creative elders who share their insights and experiences about getting older. These mentors invite us to reflect on their lives so that we can reflect on our lives with pertinent questions about how we are eldering. They don't promise us an "ageless body" or a "timeless mind," but rather practical wisdom on how we can grow inwardly and reach out during later life in exciting and rewarding new ways.Over a two-year period, Eugene Bianchi interviewed more than one hundred older people for this book. Their ages range from the midsixties to centenarians. They range from well-known people such as Jimmy Carter, Maggie Kuhn, E. G. Marshall, Tillie Olsen, Desmond Tutu, Martin Marty, and June Singer to an electrician, a teacher, a homemaker, an entrepreneur, an artist, and a bookstore owner. The selection is at once diverse and universal. The book's gift is its power to draw us into lives that are similar to our own, so that we can apply its elder wisdom to ourselves.Topics covered include learning from work and life's turning points, empowering your elder self, expanding, reaching out, cherishing your family, cultivating friendships, encountering mortality, developing a personal spirituality, and sharing gifts of wisdom.Elder Wisdom is not just for the still-active elder. It is a pathfinder that will help all of us move toward elderhood in creative and promising ways.

Wipf and Stock

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bianchi, Eugene C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bianchi, Eugene C.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bianchi, Eugene C.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The religious experience of revolutionaries

Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits

Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits

Aging as a spiritual journey

A Democratic Catholic Church: The Reconstruction of Roman Catholicism

Elder Wisdom: Crafting Your Own Elderhood

A Democratic Catholic Church: The Reconstruction of Roman Catholicism

The Bishop of San Francisco

Taking a Long Road Home: A Memoir

Elder Wisdom: Crafting Your Own Elderhood