The Praise of 'Sons of Bitches': On the Worship of God by Fallen Men

by James V. Schall S.J.

Overview

This book tries to return to the first obligation of the Christian, that of worshipping God. It argues that contemporary Christian thought and practice, insofar as they are moved away from the center, usually in the name of social action or ecology, have changed the essential meaning and purpose of human life in the Christian tradition. Christianity has always been concerned with the common man. It has not doubted his finiteness and his fallenness, but it has also insisted that this is the kind of person who is called to share in the life of the Triune God. It is therefore uncompromising in insisting that the worship of God comes first, and this enables Christians to transcend any secular ideology which pretends priority to this worship. The mood of the book is mainly light-hearted. It falls largely into the tradition of sanity and humor that have come to be associated with the particularly English Christianity of such writers as Chesterton and Belloc, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Mascall. Within that tradition it argues that the centrality of the basic dogmas of our faith is precisely what frees us both from the solemnity of contemporary ideologies and for Christian laughter-the Divine Comedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587316548
Publisher:	St. Augustine's Press
Publication date:	08/05/2019
Edition description:	1
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction to the American Edition 1

Part I Who We Are 15

Chapter I On Men in Search of Glory 17

Chapter II On Budding Cathedrals and Tearing Them Down 30

Chapter III On the Christian Love of Animals 44

Part II How We Fail 59

Chapter IV On the Most Dangerous Virtue 61

Chapter V On Boredom 71

Chapter VI On Hatred 84

Part III What Saves Us 97

Chapter VII On Loneliness and Silence 99

Chapter VIII On the Love of Enemies 109

Chapter IX On Sadness and Laughter 121

Chapter X On Playing 133

Part IV What We Do When All Else Is Done 145

Chapter XI On Officially Praying 147

Chapter XII On the University, the Monastery and the City 160

Chapter XIII On Worship 173

Chapter XIV On God's Jokes, Toys, and Christmas Trees 185

Conclusion: On Leading our Lives Calmly and Cheerfully 195