Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits

by Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520240650
• ISBN13: 9780520240650
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 390 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

applies to many forms of committment

this book suprised me. i read it because i am jesuit educated and wanted to know how the old boys were doing. i found that the issues they are facing are issues all educated people face, that they are universal issues. thus, this book could be read by anyone interested in the spiritual journey of whatever persuasion. nothing is bashed, nothing revered. just an adult look at the human condition and its dilemmas.

A fascinating look inside the cloister

This book saved my life. I don't mean in any religious sense. I mean that I relied heavily upon it as preliminary reading before I wrote my first novel, Rabid. Without this, I would have looked like an idiot when I talked to Jesuits (one of my POV characters is a Jesuit) for additional background. The memoirs contained within Passionate Uncertainty are moving and deeply personal. I suppose that it makes sense that men who have undergone the Ignatian spiritual exercises understand themselves and their motivations deeply. This book asks them to report on the states of their souls and faith, which isn't easy for any of us, but this book delves even farther, asking a lot of Jesuits why they left the priesthood and, far more revealing, why some men stayed. It's a fascinating look inside a world that most people can never access. TK Kenyon Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel

Passionate certainty

Presuming that the methodology is sound, this report is an eye-opening account of what really is going on the minds of religious as they see the church crumbling about them. It also explains why there does not seem to be an outcry from the religious or laity to bring about reform: it is just not worth it to them. I am amazed that this work has not received greater notice among those interested in reform of the Roman Catholic Church.