The Good Enough Catholic A Guide for the Perplexed [Paperback]

Many Catholics face a dilemma: how can one be faithful to traditions, yet remain open to new discoveries, both about yourself and Catholicism?

In The Good Enough Catholic, Paul Wilkes plumbs the hunger in Catholic souls for a relationship with God and a spiritual life, and boldly confronts the controversial issue of Church authority. After each chapter, there is an invitation to put into practice what has been explored through a rich mixture of doctrine, history, current thinking, and the personal experiences of "good enough" Catholics across America.

With this book, Wilkes beckons us to look to the essence of our religion for the guidance and strength to live lives filled with spiritual transcendence.Paul Wilkes's writing on religious belief and spirituality has appeared inThe New Yorker,The New York Times Magazine,The Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines both in the United States and abroad. He wrote and directed the acclaimed PBS documentary on Thomas Merton,Merton: A Film Biography, and is the author of many books, most recentlyThe Good Enough Catholic.CHAPTER ONE
 
JESUS CHRIST
Wistfulness, Wishful Thinking, and Reality
 
Jesus Christ, the central figure of history, is the link between the historic covenant made by God with the wandering people of Israel, and another covenant, made by a God who chose to be physically present on earth in order to proclaim a message of timeless reconciliation between humankind and its loving creator. While certainly distinct, both covenants had the same object: to show God’s nature to his people, and to reveal a plan for people to live in relationship with him and in harmony with their neighbors. God chose to be known in, and through, these covenants.
 
In essence, both covenants were unique points of contact between God and the beings he had made, beings whose very nature summoned them to transcend their earthlc2