Lure of Saints: A Protestant Experience of Catholic Tradition Book

All Christians share ancient traditions of making saints and practicing faith in the midst of a cloud of witnesses. We also share the heritage of the Protestant Reformation and the sometimes radical change in attitudes toward saints that resulted from those upheavals. What does this shared history tell us about what it means to be a saint today? Full of colorful characters, wise insights, and profound appreciation for faith, The Lure of Saints is an exploration of how these exemplary men and women have impacted both the Church and the world. This compelling guide includes profiles of ancient, medieval and modern figures, East and West, the sublime and the unusual, with special chapters exploring: *Differences between Catholic and Protestant imaginations. *How saints were made in the past and how they are today. *The radical triumph of the Protestant idea. *Ancient, spiritual practices of relating to saints. *Miracles, apparitions, stigmatas, and more strange, saintly behavior. Also included are the personal reflections of other religious teachers and writers who have daily practices of relating to the saints, including Abbot M. Basil Pennington, Mitch Finley, Fr. Murray Bodo, Rev. Mary E. Haddad, and others; a helpful glossary of terms; and annotated reflections on resources for further reading.

Publishers Weekly

Sweeney (Road to Assisi), who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church believing that Catholic and Orthodox Christians were in need of salvation, honestly admits that his own discovery of the spirituality of the saints is not without serious doubts: I am still a profound skeptic, only a partial convert. He writes that he's drawn to the saints so I might learn to see differently, and build a deeper relationship with God. He offers a somewhat piecemeal tapestry of everything from how a saint is made (a campaign for the ideal patron saint of the Internet is still ongoing, he notes), and the place of bodily relics, to Mary, who cuts to the root of the separation of Protestant from Catholic. There is a satisfying blend of the concrete (prayers, a list of feast days, 10 steps to living like a saint) with Sweeney's personal observations and historical information. He doesn't sidestep some of the troubling aspects of saints, including their images on trinkets and kitsch, and their seeming weirdness (e.g. Angela of Foligno partaking of lepers' sores). While Protestant readers may remain unconvinced about the place of saints in their faith, they will also come away with a deeper understanding of, and sympathy for, why saints play an important role in the lives of Catholic and Orthodox Christians. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.