The Prodigal Church & Church in Crisis (2 Book Set)

• 2 Book Set - How to grow in holiness in the modern day church
• The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception
• These dire days offer us an opportunity to rescue our Church — if only we have the holy confidence to seize the moment
• A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward
• A detailed look at the growing hostility to the Catholic Church and its teaching

The Prodigal Church: Restoring Catholic Tradition in an Age of Deception

For too many decades, our Catholic Church has diluted her distinctive traditions in order to please contemporary culture, losing not only her patrimony but much of her moral authority – just when the world needs it most. 

Today, with our country and our Church suffering their worst crises since the 1960s, distressed American Catholics are understandably hungry for big solutions to their big problems. Fortunately, where today so many see only darkness, author Brandon McGinley sees light, arguing that these dire days offer us an opportunity to rescue our Church — if only we have the holy confidence to seize this God-given moment.

Unlike many who have responded to these crises, McGinley does not propose that we return to an unrealistically romanticized Catholic past. Rather, dwelling in the perennial teachings of the Church, which have animated the best of ages, he shows how, with the help of much prayer and sacramental grace, we can reinvigorate our present Christian communities in ways that will transform not only ourselves and the Church but the entire world.

With painstaking clarity, he unearths what was working — and what wasn’t — in the decades before Vatican II, and he shows how genuine Catholic renewal can emerge only from authenticity to our Catholic identity and tradition, applied to the contemporary world. We have everything we need — we have Christ! — but we need the confidence to bring His grace and truth to the world.

We live in a time when Catholic institutions are attached to the prevailing order, but McGinley argues they must operate without political fear as witnesses to the truth of the Catholic Faith with a boldness that emerges from holiness, which is the product of grace acting on our souls and in our communities.

Here is our road map for renewal — a roadmap for families, for schools, for parishes, and, indeed, for the institutional Church. In this crisis, we can complain and despair, or we can seize the opportunity to demonstrate that the Catholic Church is the means to bringing the grace and peace of heaven to earth.

 

A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward

Nearly forty years ago, Ralph Martin’s bestselling A Crisis of Truth exposed the damaging trends in Catholic teaching and preaching that, combined with attacks from secular society, threatened the mission and life of the Catholic Church. While much has been done to counter false teaching over the last four decades, today the Church faces even more insidious threats—from outside and within.

In A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward, Martin offers a detailed look at the growing hostility to the Catholic Church and its teaching. With copious evidence, Martin uncovers the forces working to undermine the Body of Christ and offers hope to those looking for clarity.

A Church in Crisis covers:

-polarization in the Church caused by ambiguous teachings

-initiatives that accommodate the culture without calling for conversion

-Vatican-sponsored partnerships with organizations that actively contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church

-and the recycling of theological errors long settled by Vatican II, Pope St. John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI.

Powerfully written, A Church in Crisis reminds all readers to heed Jesus’ express command not to lead His children astray. With ample resources to encourage readers, Ralph Martin provides the solid foundation of Catholic teaching—both Scripture and Tradition—to fortify Catholics against the errors that threaten us from all directions.

Ralph Martin is the president of Renewal Ministries and Director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization and a professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He holds a doctorate in theology from the Angelicum University in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. He was also appointed as a peritus for the Synod on the New Evangelization which was held in Rome in 2012. Martin is the author of the bestselling The Fulfillment of All Desire and several other books. He and his wife Anne reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan and are the parents of six and grandparents of nineteen.

 

Dimensions & Specifications

The Prodigal Church:

• Author: Brandon McGinley
• Pages: 208
• Format: Paperback

A Church in Crisis:

• Author: Ralph Martin 
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 536