The Gentle Traditionalist: A Catholic Fairy-tale from Ireland

Geoffrey has a problem. All his life he’s lived according to “sensible” sceptical, secular values. Then, his true love left him for a New Age community in Scotland. But it gets worse: now she wants to be a traditional Catholic nun! Geoffrey is bewildered, angry, lost. Until, one Valentine’s Day in Ireland, he meets a mysterious guide--the Gentle Traditionalist. Together they commence a most unusual dialogue of ideas concerning:
 • The Heart of the Gospel • The Real Nature of the Church: A Supernatural Mystery • The Crisis in Catholicism today: the Loss of Tradition • The New Age Movement • Catholic Ireland • Why Secularism gets away with murder
 Both whimsical and serious, the dialogue in this book offers a probing exploration of the Catholic Mystery, Christendom, and the crisis of the West today. Join us for a very special Valentine’s Day when Geoffrey’s barren, rational world gets turned upside down...
 “This is one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read ... written throughout with passion and engagement, with a touching and deep-seated love for Ireland.”--MARY KENNY, author of Goodbye to Catholic Ireland
 “As brilliant a guide for the perplexed as this age is capable of producing.”--CHARLES COULOMBE, author of Everyman Today Call Rome
 “The Gentle Traditionalist is a book with a ‘strange magic,’ like unto the Ireland it loves and mourns. With unforgettable images and a wry sense of humor, Roger Buck unfolds a tale of whimsical fantasy, melancholy realism, and supernatural joy.”--PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College; author of Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis
 “Writing with great wisdom, insight, and a most warm sense of humor, Roger Buck offers us a contemplation of the religious predicaments of our time in the spirit of Chesterton and Belloc. He takes on everything in a charming (and disarming) manner ... a wonderful book.”--MICHAEL MARTIN, author of The Submerged Reality
 “To read this work was a joy, and I thank the author for helping me realize that, despite the passing of three generations and 150 years in the Irish-Australian diaspora, my heart is still Irish.”--GERARD O’SHEA, University of Notre Dame, Australia; author of As I Have Loved You
 “This striking novel by Roger Buck, set in Ireland, is composed with extraordinary sensitivity and insight.”--COLIN MAWBY KSG, Choral Director of Radio Telefis Eireann (RTÉ)
 “An unusual book: part love story, part theological dialog. Roger Buck is that altogether too rare Catholic who understands the importance of the geo-cultural forces that have shaped the modern world.”--THOMAS STORCK, author of From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond
 “The Gentle Traditionalist is a tremendous book: moving and humorous, opening up the most profound issues, engaging the most strident of polemics with the lightest touch.”--JOSEPH SHAW, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales

Religion & Spirituality

Buck, Roger

Christian Books & Bibles

Angelico Press

Geoffrey has a problem. All his life he's lived according to "sensible" sceptical, secular values. Then, his true love left him for a New Age community in Scotland. But it gets worse: now she wants to be a traditional Catholic nun! Geoffrey is bewildered, angry, lost. Until, one Valentine's Day in Ireland, he meets a mysterious guide--the Gentle Traditionalist. Together they commence a most unusual dialogue of ideas concerning: • The Heart of the Gospel • The Real Nature of the Church: A Supernatural Mystery • The Crisis in Catholicism today: the Loss of Tradition • The New Age Movement • Catholic Ireland • Why Secularism gets away with murder Both whimsical and serious, the dialogue in this book offers a probing exploration of the Catholic Mystery, Christendom, and the crisis of the West today. Join us for a very special Valentine's Day when Geoffrey's barren, rational world gets turned upside down... "This is one of the most unusual books I've ever read ... written throughout with passion and engagement, with a touching and deep-seated love for Ireland."--MARY KENNY, author of Goodbye to Catholic Ireland "As brilliant a guide for the perplexed as this age is capable of producing."--CHARLES COULOMBE, author of Everyman Today Call Rome "The Gentle Traditionalist is a book with a 'strange magic,' like unto the Ireland it loves and mourns. With unforgettable images and a wry sense of humor, Roger Buck unfolds a tale of whimsical fantasy, melancholy realism, and supernatural joy."--PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College; author of Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis "Writing with great wisdom, insight, and a most warm sense of humor, Roger Buck offers us a contemplation of the religious predicaments of our time in the spirit of Chesterton and Belloc. He takes on everything in a charming (and disarming) manner ... a wonderful book."--MICHAEL MARTIN, author of The Submerged Reality "To read this work was a joy, and I thank the author for helping me realize that, despite the passing of three generations and 150 years in the Irish-Australian diaspora, my heart is still Irish."--GERARD O'SHEA, University of Notre Dame, Australia; author of As I Have Loved You "This striking novel by Roger Buck, set in Ireland, is composed with extraordinary sensitivity and insight."--COLIN MAWBY KSG, Choral Director of Radio Telefis Eireann (RTÉ) "An unusual book: part love story, part theological dialog. Roger Buck is that altogether too rare Catholic who understands the importance of the geo-cultural forces that have shaped the modern world."--THOMAS STORCK, author of From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond "The Gentle Traditionalist is a tremendous book: moving and humorous, opening up the most profound issues, engaging the most strident of polemics with the lightest touch."--JOSEPH SHAW, President of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales ROGER BUCK is a Catholic convert, who once resided at Findhorn, Scotland-probably the most renowned New Age community in the world. He is also the author of Cor Jesu Sacratissimum (forthcoming from Angelico Press) and a traditional Catholic website of the same name. He is very happily married and lives in the rural northwest of Ireland.

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed

The Cor Jesu Sacratissimum is the Heart of the World, the beating Heart of the Church, yet that truth becomes ever more obscured in our modern age. This book’s mission is precisely to disclose and address those obscuring forces: the New Age movement, globalized secular culture born of the Enlightenment, the often-hidden legacy of Protestantism in the Anglo-American world, and, perhaps most baneful of all, the liberal excesses in the Church Herself, unleashed after Vatican II. It details also the personal journey of a Catholic convert, once submerged in the New Age, who found liberation in Catholic Tradition. Drawing upon his intimate knowledge of all things New Age, Roger Buck first unveils its Eastern origins in a way that goes far beyond what most Christian and Catholic books ever say on the subject, and then confronts head-on the apparent death of Christianity in the West. For, increasingly, he argues, Westerners face a tragic choice between Secularism or a vague post-Christian New Age spirituality that subtly and insidiously depersonalizes what is truly human. The only answer, he contends, entails restoring not only Catholic culture, but also the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born in France at the cusp of modernity. The book owes an unusual debt to the Catholic thinkers Valentin Tomberg and Hilaire Belloc, as well as the author’s own experience of living in France and Ireland—all of which are explored in this personal cry from the heart: a cry for Christendom renewed.
 “In this elegant feast of a book, Roger Buck—master of the blog of the same name—expertly skewers the modern world, with its twin horrors of arrogant materialism and non-specific ‘spirituality.’ But he does this without a drop of malice in his compassionate soul. Rather, he strives to tear away the choking illusions of modernity, to reveal the bright, shining love and truth at the center of the universe—symbolised by the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and incarnate in the Catholic Church and her Sacraments. Buck cuttingly diagnoses, but lovingly prescribes.”— CHARLES COULOMBE, author of Puritan’s Empire and Everyman Today Call Rome
 “Roger Buck goes to the heart of the problem paralyzing our broken-hearted world. As a seeker after truth, he first thought he could find it in the New Age movement, but finally discovered it in the goodness and beauty of the Catholic Church, moving beyond the spirit of the age to the Spirit who moves all ages.”—JOSEPH PEARCE, author of Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton
 “In Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, Roger Buck traces his journey—geographical, metaphorical, and mystical—from New Age adventurer to Catholic traditionalist, from spiritual dilettante to repentant wayfarer, from lost to found. Along the way we are treated to spiritually rich meditations on politics, economics, social movements, modernity, the spiritual dangers of our age, and the eternal mysterium of the Church. But Roger Buck does not merely describe his own journey. No, he holds our times up to a mirror and shows us our own faces. And with great clarity.”—MICHAEL MARTIN, author of The Submerged Reality: Sophiology and the Turn to a Poetic Metaphysics
 “Roger Buck has done a great service to the Church by his careful and well-informed examination—both charitable and unflinching— of the New Age, and his discussion of wider issues in the Church from the perspective of a former New Age initiate. Buck shows that the New Age is an attempt, however flawed, to escape the materialism of modernity, and that it is Catholicism in its traditional forms—with its mystery and ritual, its sacramantals, art, and pious practices—that can best reveal the immense reality of the suffering and love for all mankind of Christ’s Sacred Heart to those trapped in the false mysteries of the New Age.”—JOSEPH SHAW, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales

The Cor Jesu Sacratissimum is the Heart of the World, the beating Heart of the Church, yet that truth becomes ever more obscured in our modern age. This book's mission is precisely to disclose and address those obscuring forces: the New Age movement, globalized secular culture born of the Enlightenment, the often-hidden legacy of Protestantism in the Anglo-American world, and, perhaps most baneful of all, the liberal excesses in the Church Herself, unleashed after Vatican II. It details also the personal journey of a Catholic convert, once submerged in the New Age, who found liberation in Catholic Tradition. Drawing upon his intimate knowledge of all things New Age, Roger Buck first unveils its Eastern origins in a way that goes far beyond what most Christian and Catholic books ever say on the subject, and then confronts head-on the apparent death of Christianity in the West. For, increasingly, he argues, Westerners face a tragic choice between Secularism or a vague post-Christian New Age spirituality that subtly and insidiously depersonalizes what is truly human. The only answer, he contends, entails restoring not only Catholic culture, but also the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born in France at the cusp of modernity. The book owes an unusual debt to the Catholic thinkers Valentin Tomberg and Hilaire Belloc, as well as the author's own experience of living in France and Ireland--all of which are explored in this personal cry from the heart: a cry for Christendom renewed.

The Gentle Traditionalist Returns: A Catholic Knight's Tale from Ireland

From the Back Cover\n"Those who were charmed by Roger Buck's previous books--well, prepare to be charmed again, but also warned and given plenty of food for thought. This book strikes a more somber note, but one tuned to the timbre of our times. Read it and tune in."--THOMAS STORCK, author of An Economics of Justice and Charity\n"Roger Buck's character, the 'Gentle Traditionalist,' returns with a vengeance in this stand-alone sequel. Set against the backdrop of modern Ireland's headlong flight from sanity, this book skewers the modern malaise with the kind of sanity we have come to expect from this author."--CHARLES COULOMBE, author of A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail\n"The Gentle Traditionalist Returns is a welcome visit from an old friend. Roger Buck's delightful narrative--as the title assures us--gently leads the reader into a new perspective on the Catholic Mystery. An absolutely refreshing read!"--MICHAEL MARTIN, author of Transfiguration: Notes Toward a Radical Catholic Reimagination of Everything\n"Once again, Roger Buck has shown himself to be a prophet in the tradition of Ezekiel; he is the watchman on the wall. Buck's experience as a convert from New Age activism has uniquely fitted him for this vocation."--GERARD O'SHEA, author of Educating in Christ\n"The Gentle Traditionalist Returns is not only a compelling story, but a brilliant diagnosis of the spiritual malaise of modern society, written with gentleness, generosity, humour, pathos ... and, above all else, love."--MAOLSHEACHLANN Ó CEALLAIGH, author of Inspiration from the Saints\nThree years ago, the Gentle Traditionalist introduced the skeptical, secular Geoffrey to the Catholic Mystery. Now a convert, Geoffrey struggles to see with his reason what his wife Anna intuits to her horror: the steady possession of a once-Christian West by the twin forces of Secular Materialism and Secular Spiritualism—the New Secular Religion and New Age Religion. In Ireland, land of saints and scholars, the transformation is rapid and devastating: over 1,500 years of faith evaporating in just 50 years. Meanwhile, Anna’s cousin Brigid, who grew up Catholic, is now entangled with Gareth LightShadow, a slick salesman of post-Christian enlightenment—and a smooth operator with the ladies. The situation is desperate. 
Enter Gilbert Tracey (the Gentle Traditionalist), who deftly exposes the contradictions, confusions, and lies within LightShadow’s shallow creed “Spiritual But Not Religious,” which brackets out sin and the Cross. In the process—and with unexpected visits from the Chesterbelloc and the mysterious Emperor of Christendom, no less—we are taken behind the scenes to the little-known but deeply influential promoters of (in GT’s words) “Eastern Occultism Without Christ.” We are left with no doubts: something profoundly disturbing, an epochal shift, is under way, driven by giant political and economic interests. It is time to wake up, time to see clearly, time to act. 
“Those who were charmed by Roger Buck’s previous books—well, prepare to be charmed again, but also warned and given plenty of food for thought. This book strikes a more somber note, but one tuned to the timbre of our times. Read it and tune in.”—THOMAS STORCK 
“Roger Buck’s character, the “Gentle Traditionalist,” returns with a vengeance in this stand-alone sequel. Set against the backdrop of modern Ireland’s headlong flight from sanity, this book skewers the modern malaise with the kind of sanity we have come to expect from this author.”—CHARLES COULOMBE 
“The Gentle Traditionalist Returns is a welcome visit from an old friend. Roger Buck’s delightful narrative—as the title assures us—gently leads the reader into a new and refreshing perspective on the Catholic Mystery. An absolutely refreshing read!”—MICHAEL MARTIN 
“Once again, Roger Buck has shown himself to be a prophet in the tradition of Ezekiel; he is the watchman on the wall. Buck’s experience as a convert from New Age activism has uniqu

Three years ago, the Gentle Traditionalist introduced the skeptical, secular Geoffrey to the Catholic Mystery. Now a convert, Geoffrey struggles to see with his reason what his wife Anna intuits to her horror: the steady possession of a once-Christian West by the twin forces of Secular Materialism and Secular Spiritualism--the New Secular Religion and New Age Religion. In Ireland, land of saints and scholars, the transformation is rapid and devastating: over 1,500 years of faith evaporating in just 50 years. Meanwhile, Anna's cousin Brigid, who grew up Catholic, is now entangled with Gareth LightShadow, a slick salesman of post-Christian enlightenment--and a smooth operator with the ladies. The situation is desperate.\nEnter Gilbert Tracey (the Gentle Traditionalist), who deftly exposes the contradictions, confusions, and lies within LightShadow's shallow creed "Spiritual But Not Religious," which brackets out sin and the Cross. The result is often heartlessness, including toward the unborn child -- a key theme of this very pro-life book. All of which GT demonstrates to Geoffrey with unexpected aid from theChesterbelloc and the mysterious Emperor of Christendom! In the process, we are taken behind the scenes to the little-known but deeply influential promoters of (in GT's words) "Eastern Occultism Without Christ." We are left with no doubts: something profoundly disturbing, an epochal shift, is under way, driven by giant political and economic interests. It is time to wake up, time to see clearly, time to act.

The definitive account of the Chesterfield Music Scene in the 1960's and early 1970's - detailing early venues such as The Queens Park Hotel, Chesterfield Folk Club, Rhythm 'n' Blues at the 'Smokestack Club', The Barrow Hill Hotel and the emergence of Joe Cocker, Shape of The Rain and The Blueberries. The scene was incredibly vibrant with the Top Rank Days and Regal/ABC Cinema, and Vic Ballroom witnessing World Class Acts such as The Kinks, The Small Faces, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Bo Diddley and Dave Berry and The Cruisers rocking Chesterfield in the 60's. Amazingly, we hear accounts of Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull and Free, amongst others, in these hallowed pages, and first hand accounts and revealing anecdotes from the movers and shakers of the era, including Pete Dodd (founder member of The Thompson Twins), and Sheffield journalists - John Firminger and Martin Lilleker. A unique book that perfectly captures the spirit of the vibrant Market Town in North Derbyshire

Sounds In The Shadow Of The Crooked Spire: The Story of the Chesterfield Music Scene in the 1960's and early 1970's

Arts & Photography

Rowland, Tom

McPhie, Mr David

Lee, Ian

Blankley, Graham

Levers, Maureen

Element, Veronica Sanderson

Scoffham, Keith

Dodd, Pete

Firminger, John

Music

Independently Published by 'Brierlow Bar Books'

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

Books by Buck, Roger

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

The Gentle Traditionalist: A Catholic Fairy-tale from Ireland

The Gentle Traditionalist: A Catholic Fairy-tale from Ireland

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed

Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed

The Gentle Traditionalist Returns: A Catholic Knight's Tale from Ireland

The Gentle Traditionalist Returns: A Catholic Knight's Tale from Ireland

Sounds In The Shadow Of The Crooked Spire: The Story of the Chesterfield Music Scene in the 1960's and early 1970's