 A
Long Way from Tipperary
What a Former Monk Discovered in His Search for the Truth
by John Dominic
Crossan
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I have spent thirty years reconstructing
the historical Jesus. I have done so self-consciously and self-critically
and have tried to do the same on reconstructing myself. But what
justifies this memoir is how my own personal experience, from
Ireland to America, from priest to professor, from monastery
to university, and... from celibacy to marriage, may have influenced
that reconstruction. Where has it helped me see what others have
not, and where has it made invisible to me what others find obvious? |
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--from A Long Way from Tipperary |
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From his upbringing in Ireland to
front-page coverage in the New
York Times and mention in cover stories in Time, Newsweek,
and U.S.
News & World
Report, John Dominic Crossan - who has courageously pioneered the
contemporary quest for the historical Jesus - has dared to go his own
way. In this
candid and engaging memoir, the world's foremost Jesus scholar reveals
what he has discovered over a lifetime of open-eyed, fearless exploration
of God, Jesus, Christianity, and himself. Crossan shares his provocative
thinking on such issues as how one can be a Christian without going
to church; whether God is vengeful, or just, or both; and why Jesus
is more like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. than like the Pope or
Jerry Falwell.
Raised in the traditional Irish Catholic Church, Crossan inherited
a faith that was "accepted fully and internalized completely but
undiscussed, uninvestigated, and uncriticized." A dauntless spirit
whose imagination was ignited not by piety but by the lure and challenge
of adventure, he became a monk to travel and explore the world, unaware
that his most thrilling quests would be scholarly and spiritual. "God
had going the best adventure around," Crossan confesses.
Because he could never subject his theological convictions and historical
findings to the restrictions of the Church, Crossan chose to leave
the monastery and priesthood. Speaking of this time in his life, Crossan
writes, "Not even a vow of obedience could make me sing a song
I did not hear." But he never abandoned the Roman Catholic community
or tradition and never lost his faith. He has devoted his life and
career to a reexamination of what he calls "necessary open-heart
surgery on Christianity itself."
Book Reviews
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"A great narrative! This book gives the reader a rare insight
into one of the great figures of contempory Christianity as well
as an awareness of the events that moved his life. Dominic Crossan
has helped a generation of Christians to separate the essence of
their faith from the traditional trappings. This book invites us
all to walk with him into new, scary, and exhilarating places on
our eternal pilgrimage into the mystery of God." |
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-- John Shelby Spong, author of
Here I Stand |
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"Crossan applies the same intellectual
curiosity and cool objectivity to his own life that he has spent
half a lifetime applying to the life of Jesus. Central to his personal
search is whether his background as Irishman and erstwhile monk
contributed to his recognition of Jesus, beneath layers of gospel
revisionism, as a controversial peasant agitator who championed
the downtrodden. Not your average autobiography, this book zigs
and zags more than somewhat between the quotidian and the holy
in search of their missing links." |
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-- Michael Farrell, editor of
The National Catholic Reporter |
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"Crossan has shows his many readers how
to think critically and constructively about our faith. This moving
book displays the large heart and humane history that have made
him a prophet of the real meaning of Jesus. We are more in his
debt than ever." |
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-- James Carroll, author of
An American Requiem |
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"While Crossan has been engaged in what
he calls 'open heart surgery on Christianity,' his critics have
assumed he has no heart at all. In A Long Way from Tipperary, he
bares it and affirms that it is still Christian." |
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-- The Oregonian |
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