Numerous writers and composers have been captivated by the suggestiveness of Jesus' Seven Last Words. But Richard John Neuhaus's sustained exploration of these utterances is something altogether different. Through them he plumbs the depths of human experience and sets forth the central narrative of Western civilization-the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ-in a way that engages the attention of believers, unbelievers, and those who are not sure what they believe. Death on a Friday Afternoon is an invitation to the reader into a spiritual and intellectual exploration of the dark side of human experience with the promise of light and life on the far side of darkness.

Can evangelicals and Roman Catholics be allies in the culture wars now being waged against Christian beliefs and values?

This courageous book seeks a way to allow sectarian strife between the two groups to give way to a decision to work together to mend the fabric of values that has been relentlessly rent in the last thirty-five years. Here, both evangelicals and Roman Catholic authors ask whether the time has come to present a united front against the onslaught of publicly sanctioned unbelief in the land.

Growing out of a historic seminar in the spring of 1994, this bold statement with its probing questions admits the deep differences in Roman Catholic and evangelical attitudes toward the Church, Papal authority, and the sacraments. But it also holds that with more openness, and more clarity about continuing doctrinal differences, enough common ground can be found to engage the larger enemy of skepticism that threatens the country's foundations.

Several of the contributors to this book have been criticized for daring to suggest cooperation between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. They respond with careful concern for their detractors but affirm courageously with Martin Luther: "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise."

All thinking Christians owe it to themselves to see whether this conviction is based on God's Word - and to consider the shared spiritual commitment proposed by these authors.

Christians are by their nature a people out of place. Their true home is with God; in civic life, they are alien citizens "in but not of the world." In "American Babylon," eminent theologian Richard John Neuhaus examines the particular truth of that ambiguity for Catholics in America today.

Neuhaus addresses the essential quandaries of Catholic life--assessing how Catholics can keep their heads above water in the sea of immorality that confronts them in the world, how they can be patriotic even though their true country is not in this world, and how they might reconcile their duties as citizens with their commitment to God. Deeply learned, frequently combative, and always eloquent, "American Babylon" is Neuhaus's "magnum opus"--and will be essential reading for all Christians.

In Catholic Matters , Father Neuhaus addresses the many controversies that have marked recent decades of American Catholicism. Looking beyond these troubles to the splendor of truth" that constitutes the Church, he proposes a forward-thinking way of being Catholic in America. Drawing on his personal encounters with the late John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, Neuhaus describes their hope for a springtime of world evangelization, Christian unity, and Catholic renewal. Catholic Matters reveals a vibrant Church, strengthened and unified by hardship and on the cusp of a great revival in spiritual vitality and an even greater contribution to our common life.

"A profoundly serious rumination on the meaning of life and especially on the meaning of death. Father Neuhaus's book prompts us to think seriously about our own inevitable death, as well as the way we are leading our current lives." - Wall Street Journal.