God at the Ritz: Attraction to Infinity, A Priest-Physicist Talks About Science, Sex, Politics, and Religion - Hardcover

Albacete, Lorenzo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824519515 ISBN 13: 9780824519513

Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002

Synopsis

A priest shares his funny, insightful story of the night he defended his faith at a national media convention, answering "big" questions touching on life after death, science and religion, and religion and politics.

About this title

About the Author

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, a columnist for The New York Times, is a physicist by training. He holds a degree in Space Science and Applied Physics as well as a master's in Sacred Theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University St. Thomas in Rome, Italy. He has taught at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC and St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, NY, and from 1996 to 1997 served as President of Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, PR. He is a columnist for the Italian weekly Tempi, has written for the New Yorker, and has been advisor on Hispanic Affairs to the U.S. National Council of Catholic Bishops. Monsignor Albacete resides in Yonkers, NY.

Reviews

Trained as a physicist and a Roman Catholic priest, Albacete has written a fine book of short reflections on religion, its place in our world, its at-times troubled relationship to its own truth claims, the meaning of suffering, and the experience of pluralism and liberalism. Albacete cites the thought of John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, to be sure, but he also engages with Germaine Greer, Federico Garc¡a Lorca, and Paul Ricoeur. Albacete's profound sense of the religious leads him not to dogma but to a series of sensitively framed, sincere questions that should catch the attention and empathy of many readers. Highly recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Monsignor Albacete was a consultant to a PBS program on John Paul II and, after presenting it to TV critics at the Pasadena Ritz Carlton, was asked so many questions about faith that he felt as if he were God's spokesperson at the hotel. Hence the title of the ingratiating little book in which he puts his answers together formally. The roots of faith grow out of the human longing for infinity, for transcendence, he says, and are watered by wonder in the face of creation and acceptance, rather than rejection, of reality. Reason is the instrument for understanding the great mystery at the heart of creation, and this is the same reason science employs to discover the material workings of creation. From an absorbing discussion of reason, Albacete proceeds to suffering; sex, money, and politics; and religion. Each discussion is conducted in little chapters that agreeably break up into digestible portions what amounts to a thorough general--that is, not just Christian--theory of faith in God. Ray Olson
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Edition details

• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824519515
• ISBN 13: 9780824519513
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208