Almost all of America's private colleges and universities started out as denominational schools, but connections with sponsoring churches gradually attenuated over the last century. Only fundamentalist Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church still maintain colleges and universities closely tied to the spirit of their denominations. Catholic higher education is the largest of these systems, producing a significant proportion of America's college graduates, trained professionals, and doctorates. Andrew M. Greeley argues that Catholic schools are no better and no worse than the vast majority of American higher educational institutions. He chooses a sample of schools varying in the degree to which changes are evident, without revealing this key to his investigator team. Greeley and his field team then visit the schools, interviewing significant segments of each, and characterize each in terms of recent growth and elements which are critical in fostering and supporting such changes. Greeley briefly summarizes information on the history of Catholic higher education. He then furnishes descriptions of three rapid-improvement, three medium-improvement, and three low-improvement schools. In a summary, he provides evidence that the quality of administrative leadership predicts academic improvement in a Catholic college or university. In the final sections, Greeley reviews the administrations, faculties, and student bodies at Catholic colleges and universities, and offers general observations about the outlook for Catholic higher education in the United States.

Most sociologists of religion describe a general decline in religious faith and practice in Europe over the last two centuries. The secularizing forces of the Enlightenment, science, industrialization, the influence of Freud and Marx, and urbanization are all felt to have diminished the power of the churches and demystified the human condition. In Andrew Greeley's view, such overarching theories and frameworks do not begin to accommodate a wide variety of contrasting and contrary social phenomena. Religion at the End of the Second Millenium, engages the complexities of contemporary Europe to present a nuanced picture of religious faith rising, declining, or remaining stable.While challenging the secularization model, Greeley's approach is not polemical. He examines belief in God and in life after death, belief in superstition and magic, convictions about the relations between church and state, attitudes toward religion and science, and the effect of religion on the everyday lives of people. Drawing upon statistical and empirical data spanning twenty years, Greeley shows that while religion has increased in some countries (most notably the former communist countries and especially Russia) in others it has declined (Britain, the Netherlands, and France). In some countries it is relatively unchanged (primarily the traditional Catholic countries), and in still others (some of the social democratic countries) it has both declined and increased. In terms of individuals, Greeley finds that religion becomes more important to people as they age. He observes that surveys showing less religion among the young ignore the possibility that the age correlation is a life cycle matter and not a sign of social change.Patently, religion in Europe changed enormously between the end of the first millenium and the end of the second. In Greeley's judgment, the change has been an improvement, not because superstition has been eliminated (it has not), but because freedom to exercise religious belief has replaced compulsion.

Almost all of America's private colleges and universities started out as denominational schools, but connections with sponsoring churches gradually attenuated over the last century. Only fundamentalist Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church still maintain colleges and universities closely tied to the spirit of their denominations. Catholic higher education is the largest of these systems, producing a significant proportion of America's college graduates, trained professionals, and doctorates.

Andrew M. Greeley argues that Catholic schools are no better and no worse than the vast majority of American higher educational institutions. He chooses a sample of schools varying in the degree to which changes are evident, without revealing this key to his investigator team. Greeley and his field team then visit the schools, interviewing significant segments of each, and characterize each in terms of recent growth and elements which are critical in fostering and supporting such changes.

Greeley briefly summarizes information on the history of Catholic higher education. He then furnishes descriptions of three rapid-improvement, three medium-improvement, and three low-improvement schools. In a summary, he provides evidence that the quality of administrative leadership predicts academic improvement in a Catholic college or university. In the final sections, Greeley reviews the administrations, faculties, and student bodies at Catholic colleges and universities, and offers general observations about the outlook for Catholic higher education in the United States.

Due to heightened global migration and transnational mobility, many residents of the world's cities lack national citizenship in the places to which they have moved for work, refuge, or retirement. The disjuncture between citizenship and daily life has led to devolution of claims from national to urban space. Within nation-states characterized by structured inequalities, citizens have not reduced their social differences. This leads increasingly to calls for greater direct involvement of marginalized classes in reshaping the institutions and spaces directly affecting their lives.

These concerns--cities without citizenship and people without political power--inform the agendas of organizations that seek to restructure urban citizenship in more democratic directions. Remaking Urban Citizenship focuses on the uses and limits of such political organizations and coalitions, shows the various ways they pursue expanded rights within the city, and describes the institutional changes necessary to empower global migrants and popular classes as urban citizens.

Offering individual or comparative case studies of cities in the United States, Europe, and China, contributions to this volume describe the development of actual practices of organizations working to reinvigorate citizenship at the urban scale. Collectively, they locate institutional forms that help migrants lay claim to their cities, show how migrants can become politically empowered, and identify how they can expand their rights or find other ways to belong.

Over sixty years have elapsed since the Communists gained control of the Chinese mainland. The years between 1949 and 1969 were a time of constant change and periodic cataclysm--the initial purges, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution--all bound up with the Communist conception of how to move the country into modernity in the shortest possible time. The Chinese Economy under Maoism summarizes and evaluates the economic consequences of the Communist path to development in a concise, factual presentation that can be readily comprehended by non-economists.

The authors review the major features of the Chinese economy prior to the Communist takeover and discuss the policies, performance, and problems of the individual sectors of the Chinese economy during its initial years under Communism. Included in their review are industry, agriculture, foreign trade, resource allocation, population, employment, and living standards. A concluding chapter summarizes Chinese economic growth and presents a discussion of future policy alternatives and an optimum economic policy for China.

Based on important findings of Western scholars, with many original interpretations by the authors, this material is presented from a developmental point of view. Since it was originally published in 1972, sections of the book devoted to comparative studies of progress in India and the former Soviet regime will be of particular interest now. Free of technical language and providing insights into the economy of one of the most important countries in the world, this book will be useful not only to economists but to a broad range of sinologists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians interested in the path of revolution.

Most sociologists of religion describe a general decline in religious faith and practice in Europe over the last two centuries. The secularizing forces of the Enlightenment, science, industrialization, the influence of Freud and Marx, and urbanization are all felt to have diminished the power of the churches and demystified the human condition. In Andrew Greeley's view, such overarching theories and frameworks do not begin to accommodate a wide variety of contrasting and contrary social phenomena. "Religion at the End of the Second Millenium," engages the complexities of contemporary Europe to present a nuanced picture of religious faith rising, declining, or remaining stable.

While challenging the secularization model, Greeley's approach is not polemical. He examines belief in God and in life after death, belief in superstition and magic, convictions about the relations between church and state, attitudes toward religion and science, and the effect of religion on the everyday lives of people. Drawing upon statistical and empirical data spanning twenty years, Greeley shows that while religion has increased in some countries (most notably the former communist countries and especially Russia) in others it has declined (Britain, the Netherlands, and France). In some countries it is relatively unchanged (primarily the traditional Catholic countries), and in still others (some of the social democratic countries) it has both declined and increased. In terms of individuals, Greeley finds that religion becomes more important to people as they age. He observes that surveys showing less religion among the young ignore the possibility that the age correlation is a life cycle matter and not a sign of social change.

Patently, religion in Europe changed enormously between the end of the first millenium and the end of the second. In Greeley's judgment, the change has been an improvement, not because superstition has been eliminated (it has not), but because freedom to exercise religious belief has replaced compulsion.

The religious imagination is alive and well in the movies. Contrary to those who criticize Hollywood, popular movies very often have metaphorically represented God on the screen. From Clint Eastwood as an avenging angel in "Pale Rider and "Nicolas Cage as a love-sick angel in "City of Angels, "to Jessica Lange as an angel of death in "All That Jazz, "and from George Burns as God in "Oh God "to Audrey Hepburn in "Alwaysto "pure white light in "Fearless "and "Flatliners, "God is very much present in the movies. Images of angels and God used by movie makers are explored here.

This intelligent, insightful volume is an exercise in urban anthropology. Religious imagination is the subject and the movie house is its location. The authors show that the religious imagination is irrepressible, and shows up in our best-known example of popular cultures, movies. Contrary to conservative opinion that suggests that Hollywood is anti-religious, Greeley and Bergesen find just the opposite. Ordinary movies, not explicitly about religion and not made by particularly religious individuals often demonstrate some basic religious theme, point, or message. "God in the Movies "does not judge or approve, recommend or criticize; the authors simply alert the reader to the great variety of metaphors for God, angels, heaven, and hell, from beautiful women to white light at the end of the tunnel to Groundhog Day. They are not concerned with explicitly religious movies. This is not a study of "Ben Huror The Last Temptations of Christ, "but rather of ordinary mass-release movies, including "Field of Dreams, Always, All That Jazz, Commandments, Babette's Feast, Fearless, Breaking the Waves, Jacob's Ladder, Flatliners, Ghost, Pale Rider, Star Wars, 2001, Dogma, "and even Japanimation, like "Ghost in the Shell."

The authors' vivid explication of various cinematic metaphors for God is accompanied by an analysis of what these movies tell about our sociological attitudes toward life and death. They also discuss the social conditions that give rise to various kinds of imagery and forms of movies. In a real sense, this book is for both the professional concerned with religion, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, media and cinema studies, and the layperson interested in how popular movies also contain religious imagery.

The number of minority students, many of them not Catholic, who have enrolled in Catholic secondary schools is substantial. Since it is reasonable to assume that the cost of tuition in such schools is considerable for a minority family, the phenomenon suggests that parents in these families believe that their children will obtain a better education in Catholic secondary schools. The problem of measuring the effect of Catholic secondary schools on minority students is difficult because it is a complex and intricate task to separate family background and student motivation as influences on academic performance from the school's contribution. Here, Andrew M. Greeley makes the case that the burden of proof rests on those who contend that family and student motivation are more important than the character of the school. Using a complex analytic technique that includes sophisticated mathematical models, Greeley demonstrates that the preponderance of evidence tilts in favor of the school. There appears to be an authentic Catholic school effect, attributable to religious order ownership of some schools, more regular discipline in the schools, and especially to a higher quality of teaching in such schools. The effect of Catholic secondary schools on minority students does not occur among students from well-educated families who have been successful in their previous education experiences, but rather among students disadvantaged by race, the fact that their parents did not attend college, and by their own previous educational experiences. As these schools were originally established at the beginning of the twentieth century to socialize the children of the urban poor, their present success with today's urban poor may be due to the fact that these schools are simply doing what they have always done. In a preface written for this new, paperback edition of "Catholic High Schools and Minority Students," Greeley confirms the continued success of Catholic schools based on recent studies, despite dissenting voices who wish to attack both private and religious educational institutions. This is an important contribution to the debate on the future of the education of young people in the United States. Andrew M. Greeley is professor of social sciences at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, as well as research associate at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Both a priest and a best-selling novelist, Greeley is the author of "Priests in the United States, The American Catholic: A Social Portrait," and most recently, "Irish Stew."

What might one expect to learn from a probability sample study of the Archdiocese of Chicago? Can one form a national portrait of Catholics in the United States from data about Chicago? Certainly, Chicago is unique in its judgments about its clergy. As the eminent Catholic sociologist Andrew M. Greeley argues, it is this very difference that makes rigorous comparisons between Chicago Catholics and other Catholic subpopulations possible. He suggests that history and geography provide a basis for understanding the development of the Catholic Church not just in this specific area, but also in the entire United States. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago it composed of two counties, Lake and Cook. At the same time the Catholic population has been pushed up against the boundary of DuPage County by racial change in the city, so that much of the west and south side Catholic population of the city has moved into the southern and western suburbs. In this research area, half of the Catholics have attended college and half of those have attended graduate school. Thus, the conventional image of Chicago as a mix of ethnic immigrant neighborhoods has to be modified although there are still many new immigrants attending special immigrant parishes. Greeley argues that the official church in Chicago, and by inference elsewhere, has not recognized the community structures that permeate the neighborhoods, that it does not grasp the religious stories that shape its peoples' identity, and it does not understand the intense, if selective, loyalty of the archdiocese to its leadership. As part of this argument, Greeley includes transcriptions of in-depth interviews with former Catholics. This study provides a fascinating window into the world of Catholicism in twenty-first century urban America.

Over sixty years have elapsed since the Communists gained control of the Chinese mainland. The years between 1949 and 1969 were a time of constant change and periodic cataclysm - the initial purges, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution - all bound up with the Communist conception of how to move the country into modernity in the shortest possible time. The Chinese Economy under Maoism summarizes and evaluates the economic consequences of the Communist path to development in a concise, factual presentation that can be readily comprehended by non-economists.The authors review the major features of the Chinese economy prior to the Communist takeover and discuss the policies, performance, and problems of the individual sectors of the Chinese economy during its initial years under Communism. Included in their review are industry, agriculture, foreign trade, resource allocation, population, employment, and living standards. A concluding chapter summarizes Chinese economic growth and presents a discussion of future policy alternatives and an optimum economic policy for China.Based on important findings of Western scholars, with many original interpretations by the authors, this material is presented from a developmental point of view. Since it was originally published in 1972, sections of the book devoted to comparative studies of progress in India and the former Soviet regime will be of particular interest now. Free of technical language and providing insights into the economy of one of the most important countries in the world, this book will be useful not only to economists but to a broad range of sinologists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians interested in the path of revolution.

The religious imagination is alive and well in the movies. Contrary to those who criticize Hollywood, popular movies very often have metaphorically represented God on the screen. From Clint Eastwood as an avenging angel in Pale Rider and Nicolas Cage as a love-sick angel in City of Angels, to Jessica Lange as an angel of death in All That Jazz, and from George Burns as God in Oh God! to Audrey Hepburn in Alwaysto pure white light in Fearless and Flatliners, God is very much present in the movies. Images of angels and God used by movie makers are explored here.This intelligent, insightful volume is an exercise in urban anthropology. Religious imagination is the subject and the movie house is its location. The authors show that the religious imagination is irrepressible, and shows up in our best-known example of popular cultures, movies. Contrary to conservative opinion that suggests that Hollywood is anti-religious, Greeley and Bergesen find just the opposite. Ordinary movies, not explicitly about religion and not made by particularly religious individuals often demonstrate some basic religious theme, point, or message. God in the Movies does not judge or approve, recommend or criticize; the authors simply alert the reader to the great variety of metaphors for God, angels, heaven, and hell, from beautiful women to white light at the end of the tunnel to Groundhog Day. They are not concerned with explicitly religious movies. This is not a study of Ben Huror The Last Temptations of Christ, but rather of ordinary mass-release movies, including Field of Dreams, Always, All That Jazz, Commandments, Babette's Feast, Fearless, Breaking the Waves, Jacob's Ladder, Flatliners, Ghost, Pale Rider, Star Wars, 2001, Dogma, and even Japanimation, like Ghost in the Shell.The authors' vivid explication of various cinematic metaphors for God is accompanied by an analysis of what these movies tell about our sociological attitudes toward life and death. They also discuss the social conditions that give rise to various kinds of imagery and forms of movies. In a real sense, this book is for both the professional concerned with religion, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, media and cinema studies, and the layperson interested in how popular movies also contain religious imagery.

Due to heightened global migration and transnational mobility, many residents of the world's cities lack national citizenship in the places to which they have moved for work, refuge, or retirement. The disjuncture between citizenship and daily life has led to devolution of claims from national to urban space. Within nation-states characterized by structured inequalities, citizens have not reduced their social differences. This leads increasingly to calls for greater direct involvement of marginalized classes in reshaping the institutions and spaces directly affecting their lives. These concerns cities without citizenship and people without political power inform the agendas of organizations that seek to restructure urban citizenship in more democratic directions. Remaking Urban Citizenship focuses on the uses and limits of such political organizations and coalitions, shows the various ways they pursue expanded rights within the city, and describes the institutional changes necessary to empower global migrants and popular classes as urban citizens. Offering individual or comparative case studies of cities in the United States, Europe, and China, contributions to this volume describe the development of actual practices of organizations working to reinvigorate citizenship at the urban scale. Collectively, they locate institutional forms that help migrants lay claim to their cities, show how migrants can become politically empowered, and identify how they can expand their rights or find other ways to belong.

Religion as Poetry continues in the grand tradition of the sociology of religion pioneered by Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Talcott Parsons, among other giants in intellectual history. Too many present-day sociologists either ignore or disparage religious currents. In this provocative book, Andrew M. Greeley argues that various religions have endured for thousands of years as poetic rituals and stories. Religion as Poetry proposes a theoretical framework for understanding religion that emphasizes insights derived from religious stories. By virtue of his own rare abilities as a novelist as well as sociologist, Greeley is uniquely qualified for this task.

Greeley first considers classical theories of the sociology of religion, and then, drawing upon them, he explicates his own interpretation. He critically examines the viewpoint that society is becoming more secular, and that religion is declining. He observes that this theory stands in the way of persuading sociologists that religion is still worth studying. In contrast, Greeley is interested in why religions persist despite secular trends and alongside them. He argues that it is poetic elements that touch the human soul. Greeley then sets out to test this viewpoint.

Greeley maintains that his theory is not the only, or necessarily even the best approach to study religion. Rather, it is his contention that it uniquely provides sociologists with perspectives on religion that other theories too often overlook or disregard. Religion as Poetry, an original and intriguing study by a distinguished social scientist and major novelist, will be enjoyed and evaluated by sociologists, ' theologians, and philosophers alike.

The number of minority students, many of them not Catholic, who have enrolled in Catholic secondary schools is substantial. Since it is reasonable to assume that the cost of tuition in such schools is considerable for a minority family, the phenomenon suggests that parents in these families believe that their children will obtain a better education in Catholic secondary schools. The problem of measuring the effect of Catholic secondary schools on minority students is difficult because it is a complex and intricate task to separate family background and student motivation as influences on academic performance from the school's contribution. Here, Andrew M. Greeley makes the case that the burden of proof rests on those who contend that family and student motivation are more important than the character of the school. Using a complex analytic technique that includes sophisticated mathematical models, Greeley demonstrates that the preponderance of evidence tilts in favor of the school. There appears to be an authentic Catholic school effect, attributable to religious order ownership of some schools, more regular discipline in the schools, and especially to a higher quality of teaching in such schools. The effect of Catholic secondary schools on minority students does not occur among students from well-educated families who have been successful in their previous education experiences, but rather among students disadvantaged by race, the fact that their parents did not attend college, and by their own previous educational experiences. As these schools were originally established at the beginning of the twentieth century to socialize the children of the urban poor, their present success with today's urban poor may be due to the fact that these schools are simply doing what they have always done. In a preface written for this new, paperback edition of Catholic High Schools and Minority Students, Greeley confirms the continued success of Catholic schools based on recent studies, despite dissenting voices who wish to attack both private and religious educational institutions. This is an important contribution to the debate on the future of the education of young people in the United States.

What might one expect to learn from a probability sample study of the Archdiocese of Chicago? Can one form a national portrait of Catholics in the United States from data about Chicago? Certainly, Chicago is unique in its judgments about its clergy. As the eminent Catholic sociologist Andrew M. Greeley argues, it is this very difference that makes rigorous comparisons between Chicago Catholics and other Catholic subpopulations possible. He suggests that history and geography provide a basis for understanding the development of the Catholic Church not just in this specific area, but also in the entire United States.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago it composed of two counties, Lake and Cook. At the same time the Catholic population has been pushed up against the boundary of DuPage County by racial change in the city, so that much of the west and south side Catholic population of the city has moved into the southern and western suburbs. In this research area, half of the Catholics have attended college and half of those have attended graduate school. Thus, the conventional image of Chicago as a mix of ethnic immigrant neighborhoods has to be modified--although there are still many new immigrants attending special immigrant parishes.

Greeley argues that the official church in Chicago, and by inference elsewhere, has not recognized the community structures that permeate the neighborhoods, that it does not grasp the religious stories that shape its peoples' identity, and it does not understand the intense, if selective, loyalty of the archdiocese to its leadership. As part of this argument, Greeley includes transcriptions of in-depth interviews with former Catholics. This study provides a fascinating window into the world of Catholicism in twenty-first century urban America.

Belief in universal education as the means to prevent divisions among social classes has long been an important element in American society. This highly-regarded sociological study refutes prejudices against Catholic education, such as claims that Catholic schools are authoritarian, and that they no longer have a valuable role to play in society.

Andrew M. Greeley and Peter H. Rossi tackle issues about Catholic education at all levels: elementary, secondary, and college. These include reasons why families have (and have not) sent their children to Catholic schools, comparisons among different Catholic ethnic groups in their tendency to take advantage of Catholic education, effects of Catholic schools on the religiosity commitment of their students and graduates, and the relationship between religious formation in the home and in Catholic school.

Greeley and Rossi provide a complete picture of the state of American Catholic education on the verge of a new age for Catholicism in the country. Some of their findings--such as the tendency of "Catholic school Catholics" to be more "tolerant" than others--provide insight to the reasons for the profound changes in the American Catholic community that followed in subsequent years.

"The Great Mysteries" responds with passion and skill to the growing concerns of spiritual seekers and teachers of the Catholic faith. In radical, refreshing fashion, Greeley explores 12 essential questions of faith and grounds them in human experience.

Dermot Michael Coyne isn't sure what he's gotten himself into. Nuala Anne McGrail, that beautiful and vivacious "Celtic witch" has finally agreed to marry him. But they've barely tied the knot when Nuala's psychic "spells" begin again. Visions of a burning castle, the captain of the infamous "Black and Tan" police force, a wild woman from Chicago, and bloodshed--all somehow connected--lead the two to the remnants of a mystery long buried in the mist of Ireland's turbulent and violent past. How did Kevin O'Higgins, the murdered leader of the movement to free Ireland, die? And who among the living will do whatever it takes to keep Nuala and Dermot from finding out?

In the autumn of 1984, Jason Berry heard reports of the sexual abuse of boys by a priest in rural Louisiana. As an expectant father, he was horrified for the children. As a Catholic he reasoned that even a priest can commit crimes. As a reporter, he wanted to find out what had happened. In this ground-breaking book, first published in 1992 and still used in many newsrooms, Berry exposed a culture of corrosive secrecy in which bishops concealed a criminal sexual underground. One of Berry's sources accurately projected $1 billion in church losses by century's end. Lead Us Not Into Temptation is the masterful narrative of an epic crisis as it unfolds. The story begins in one Cajun community numbed by the realization that a single priest abused dozens of children. A brave weekly newspaper reports that the bishop reassigned more predator priests, and for its effort finds itself counter-attacked by the daily press. As church officials sit in silence, lawyers battle over the price of victims' suffering. As the prosecutor bears down, Berry finds an eerie church insider who guides him into a labyrinth. The story moves to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., where a secret pedophilia report warns American bishops of the staggering implications if a forthright policy is not soon adopted. Yet cases keep surfacing. New York City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Cleveland, Honolulu, Seattle, New Orleans and in Canada as Berry unpeels a web of suffering and struggles for justice. While abusive priests are reshuffled, Berry follows a Vatican crackdown on liberal theologians. As Vatican officials attack gays, Berry profiles gay priests and seminarians. Lead Us Not Into Temptation is as much about journalism as the cover-up culture the author exposed a decade before The Boston Globe's major series. In this updated edition, Lead Us Not Into Temptation stands as a fair and fearless portrayal of the Catholic Church's worst crisis in centuries. Jason Berry's book stands too as a haunting affirmation of faith. "The greatest scandal in the history of religion in America." -- From the foreword by Andrew M. Greeley " Has] the same narrative excitement as Woodward and Bernstein's All the President's Men. There is even a mystery whistle-blower, equivalent to Deep Throat, whom Berry dubs "Chalice" and who meets a sorry fate in the denouement." -- The Nation "Berry is the rare investigative reporter whose scholarship, compassion, and ability to write with the poetic power of Robert Penn Warren are in perfect balance... T]he church itself could not have asked for a more fair-minded instrument of its own indictment." -- USA Today "Lead Us Not into Temptation is frequently as compelling as a novel, but it is also a thoughtful, restrained examination of an explosive subject that in less skilled hands could easily have been exploited and sensationalized." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

With a master storyteller's skill, "New York Times"-bestselling author Greeley disentangles a web of deception to reveal the souls of men and women ravaged by love and hate and the struggle for success.

Petey Pat Kane and Mariana Pia Pelligrino have been in love with each other their whole lives. Even Father Jimmy recognized it the moment he met the little couple as their second-grade teacher at St. Regis' in Poplar Grove, Chicago. But years later, on a night that was supposed to be one of the best of their lives, Pete makes a choice that forces him to leave his city behind. Guilt over running away from Mariana and the truths he is too scared to face lead him into the Army, where he becomes Captain Kane, war hero. But nothing can make him forget his humiliation. Or his love for Mariana. Then, on his third deployment in Iraq, Pete is injured in a roadside bomb attack and finds himself alive...and dead, on a spiritual journey of the afterlife so wondrous he is given a second chance at life from God Himself. Yet even a heavenly encounter may not be enough to overcome Pete's legendary stubbornness. That task must fall to Pete's oldest friend, Father Jimmy, who welcomes the wounded soldier back to Poplar Grove. With Christmas approaching, time is running out for Pete to complete the most important mission of his life: convincing himself that he and Mariana really were meant to share a special message of love with the world.

Countless readers have been delighted by Father Andrew M. Greeley's bestselling novels. Now Forge is proud to bring one of Father Greeley's classic titles back into print. You're in for an unforgettable experience when America's master storyteller turns his enormous narrative gifts to the passionate, haunting subject of the American woman, searching for - and often finding - love and faith. There's teenaged Rosemarie, coming to grips with the evil of the twentieth century - or is it the evil in the human heart? Peggy, whose widowhood plunges her into the cold of loneliness. Rita, whose marriage is rich and fulfilling - except at its core. Laura, torn between three lovers, one of them a seminarian. Julie, haunted by something that happened long ago. Sionna Marie, an imp diving passionately into adulthood. And Patricia, caught in a web she may not have the power to break.

Petey Pat Kane and Mariana Pia Pelligrino have been in love with each other their whole lives. But on a night that is supposed to be one of the best of their lives, Peter makes a choice that forces him to leave Chicago - and Mariana - behind. Guilt leads him into the Army, where he becomes Captain Kane, war hero. But nothing can make him forget his love for Mariana. On his third deployment in Iraq, Peter is injured and finds himself on a wondrous spiritual journey, both alive and dead, where he is given a second chance at life from God Himself. With Christmas approaching, time is running out for Peter to complete the most important mission of his life: convincing himself that he and Mariana were meant to share a special message of love with the world.

Father Laurence O'Toole McAuliffe, the pastor of Saint Finian's parish in Forest Springs, is weary and worn out, his priesthood and faith in tatters. Once literally a bomb-throwing radical and then a Vatican Council liberal, Lar McAuliffe has grown old and cynical and, worse, is smart enough to know what is happening to him and to despise himself. God, the Cardinal, or some combination of the two, play a dirty trick on Lar by sending Father James Stephen Michael Finbar Keenan, the 'new priest', to the parish. Lar is expecting a classic confrontation between young and old, between sardonic maturity and enthusiastic inexperience. But the new priest does not fit the stereotype. Father Lar is tempted to try to create the classic rectory conflict, but the new priest forestalls that by becoming his friend. Together they face the conflicts and joys, the hopes and pains of the contemporary Catholic parish - the old-fashioned school principal; the bravely dying woman; the destroying mother; the broken family; the reactionary finance committee; frustrated young lovers; and, the chancery office and timid Cardinal, who interferes with the priests' work on every possible occasion.