As an evangelical Christian rooming with a Catholic last spring, my roommate’s response to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation and the appointment of Pope Francis, which arouse my curiosity about the papacy. When I saw a book about the new pope on BookSneeze, I decided to check it out.
Francis: Man of Prayer is divided into three sections, defining his early life, his rise among the Jesuits, and five challenges facing him as pope. The first part felt a bit rushed in places, while the second section digressed somewhat into a discussion of the Jesuits’ origins. The final section was what I was really interested in.
I appreciate the author’s speed in bringing out this book, but the book struggles to define itself. The biography sections suffer from uneven focus, jumping from the details of Francis’s life to the wider political realm and back again. Furthermore, the descriptions of how the Catholic church operates were still unclear to me as an evangelical, while too detailed, I suspect, for Catholics.
The book still is interesting and contains several interesting quotes, but I’d recommend non-Catholics read a book on Catholic hierarchy first to understand it better.
I received a copy of this book for free through Thomas Nelson’s Booksneeze program but was not obligated to write a positive review.
Good for you for taking the time to learn about Catholicism! I am very Catholic myself, and I love Pope Francis. He is an amazing man.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, if you have questions about Catholicism that you would like answered, please feel free to email me or leave a comment or something. I know that many things about the Catholic Church seem confusing to those looking in, and I would love to discuss our differences and similarities. Don't feel obligated to start some theological discussion, but do let me know if you have something about Catholicism that is bugging you or confusing.
Again, kudos to you for learning about a varying faith. I really respect that. :)