Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith
Johnson, Paul
The "reform" legislation and expectations that immediately preceded or followed on, from the Federal Election Campaign Act to the Impounding Control Act to the War Powers Resolution have uniformly...
...Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15b1 and 15b2): Preceding 12 Month Average: 224,241 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 204,547...
...Issue Frequency: Monthly...
...Doubleday /313 pages /$x,4.95...
...There is no arguing that belief in Catholicism at the end of the twentieth century, and practicing Catholicism, are complicated matters, and there are many different ways of tackling them...
...10...
...This kind of oblique attack on Catholicism does not worry Buckley too much because he believes it evokes from Catholics valuable responses, just as Charles Kingley's crude and unfair attack on John Henry Newman produced his masterpiece, Apologia Pm Vita Sua...
...In short, it is a bit of a rag-bag, and I have the impression that Buckley had some hesitation in deciding whether to write the book in the first place, and then in settling the way he should do it...
...The benefits of Clinton's removal from office, Tyrrell and Anonymous make clear, outweigh the risks...
...15...
...of Issues Published Annually: 12...
...Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months and Actual No...
...15i...
...A further chapter examines the experiences and views of such prominent converts to Catholicism as Father John Neuhaus...
...He needs therefore to argue through a number of points until he is satisfied he has got them right...
...78 December r 9 9 7 • The American Spectator shaped them, except incidentally...
...He is not concerned with writing an elegant book, or a logically shaped book, or a comprehensive book...
...There follow further chapters on church and state and the national culture, on the uniqueness of Christ, and on what the author calls "the special blessings, and problems, of Catholics...
...It does not trace the evolution of Buckley's religious opinions systematically, from start to finish, nor identify the books and persons and events which God and Man and William F. Buckley, Jr...
...Complete Mailing Address of Publication: The American Spectator, 2020 N. 14th Street, P.O...
...15b...
...Total No...
...3685) (1...
...Copies of Single Issue Published nearest to Filling Date: (15a...
...Office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: Preceding 12 Month Average: 12,443 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 7,541...
...In many ways my religious trajectory and Buckley's followed similar landmarks...
...He is concerned with the truth, as it appears to him, and "truthful" is the adjective which most aptly describes this work...
...Free Distribution by Mail: Preceding 12 Month Average: 1,003 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 982...
...Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters of General Business Office of Publisher: Same as above...
...Paid and /or Requested Circulation...
...15c...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...Chapter Eight is devoted to the crucifixion, in which he makes impressive use of a work by the Italian poetess Maria Valtorta, The Poem ofthe Man-God, which describes the execution of Christ in horrific detail...
...Then came Yale, and Buckley has illuminating things to say about the elements of Christianity to be found there in his time, and today...
...Filing Date: September 26, 1997...
...16...
...Publication Name: The American Spectator...
...Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: October 1997...
...I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete...
...I suspect many people, both cradle Catholics and converts, and indeed those with other faiths or none at all, will find reading this sincere and straightforward book a fruitful experience...
...But the nature and quality of his faith, and its history, have been personal matters up to now...
...Buckley's next move is to deal with miracles by describing a visit he paid to Lourdes, on the edge of the Pyrenees, which is the biggest place of pilgrimage in France and probably in Europe...
...15h1...
...He does not seem to have been bothered by most of the tricky questions created by the specificality and exigence of Catholic doctrine, but he admits to having been "arrested" by the need to reconcile divine omniscience and individual free will...
...But it is not easy for him either...
...His religion is not, as it is for some people, an agonizing aspect of his life...
...The "reform" legislation and expectations that immediately preceded or followed on, from the Federal Election Campaign Act to the Impounding Control Act to the War Powers Resolution have uniformly made matters worse...
...Annual Subscription Price: $34.95...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...15g...
...1997 issue of this publication...
...He is determined not just to believe but to accept the consequences of his faith in his daily life...
...Buckley goes on to discuss the Second Vatican Council and its mixed message: on the one hand it did some much-needed updating of the Catholic Church, but on the other it seemed to set it on a path of free-fall to liberalism...
...Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15f): Preceding 12 Month Average: 231,077 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 212,779...
...It is also common knowledge that he is a strong, practicing Catholic, and that his Catholicism informs every aspect of his public convictions...
...Total (Sum of 15g, 15h1 and 15h2: Preceding 12 Month Average: 269,589 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 242,005...
...12...
...Extent and Nature of Circulation with Average No...
...Owner, Full Name: The American Spectator Educational Foundation, Inc...
...On fundamentals I am in agreement with Buckley, but on virtually everything else my sensations, approach, doubts and opinions, hang-ups and frissons are at variance...
...I have provided this breakdown of the contents of Buckley's book because it is not an ordinary spiritual autobiography...
...There is an epilogue about the religion of his mother, to whom the book is dedicated, and some useful appendices, one of which lists in detail the current religious practices, such as they are, at various American schools—Groton, Brooks, Deerfield Academy, St...
...The next chapter is devoted to Malcolm Muggeridge, whom Buckley knew well, revered, and with whom he made a TV movie about the Vatican...
...The American Spectator • December 1997 79...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...Finally there is a detailed chapter on the ordination of a Catholic priest, which Buckley witnessed...
...REVIEWED BY Paul Johnson B ill Buckley's place in the contemporary American political and media scene is secure and well-known, and he needs no introduction...
...Known Bondholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None...
...Then he passes on to the problem of evil, and the nature of a God who can allow to take place earthquakes and other natural disasters which kill innocent people, often cruelly...
...First Buckley describes the salient episodes of his childhood...
...Buckley is more exercised by such current Catholic problems as the arguments over women priests and birth-control, and the difficulties produced by divorce, remarriage and "living in sin" within Catholic families, all of which he deals with in Chapter Twelve...
...Buckley has at last decided to open up the windows to his soul, and it is of interest to show exactly how he sets about it...
...15e...
...I found Buckley's way, which is not mine, refreshing, original, and illuminating...
...Return from News Agents: Preceding 12 Month Average: 26,069 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 21,685...
...For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at special rates...
...That would be his revenge and his final degradation of American politics and the office he held...
...This involved Princess Grace Kelly and an abortive "private audience" with Pope John Paul II, of which Buckley provides an entertaining account...
...Perhaps deposing Clinton Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith...
...Copies Not Distributed...
...I was educated by the Jesuits, knew Ronald Knox and Muggeridge, lived through the Vatican Council, and have had to write about birth-control, women priests, and similar subjects...
...15h...
...11...
...would give us campaign spending "reform...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...15h2...
...Paul's, and so on...
...Publication No.: 0148-8414...
...15b2...
...In Chapter Eleven, Buckley looks at the way Hollywood has dealt with religious subjects, and in particular its treatment of True Confessions, the novel by John Gregory Dunne (1977), which features the bad priest who visits brothels...
...William F. Buckley, Jr...
...Total Free Distribution Preceding 12 Month Average: 6,836 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 8,232...
...13...
...The poem was new to me, and the extensive summary and quotations Buckley provides made a striking impression on my visual consciousness of the event...
...Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner: Ronald E. Burr, Publisher...
...He is not prepared to slide over difficulties, to fudge, avoid or belittle them...
...04 ficulties" that thereby arise...
...United States Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (The following information is published as required by 39 U.S.C...
...I found it intriguing because a couple of years ago I wrote an idiosyncratic spiritual autobiography of my own, called The Quest for God...
...Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales, Preceding 12 Month Average: 14,827 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 12,735...
...This Statement of Ownership will be printed in the Dec...
...15b1...
...But all these problems arise from what emerges as Buckley's strongest characteristic: his honesty...
...I even had a similar "private" audience with Pope John Paul H, though not, alas, with Grace Kelly holding my hand...
...17...
...He then discusses what he calls "the never-ending debate" about the existence of God and the role of religion in life, with particular reference to the demands on a person made by Catholicism and the "difPAUL JOHNSON'S latest book, A History of the American People, will be published by HarperCollins in March...
...Signature on file with United States Postal Service, PS Form 3526...
...Editor, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., 2020 N. 14th Street, P.O...
...The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months...
...Buckley selects some of the curesexamined by Cranston for his own analysis, and relates them to his experiences at the shrine...
...Managing Editor, Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, 2020 N. 14th Street, P.O...
...It is, rather, a collection of descriptions of happenings in Buckley's life which had a bearing on his beliefs, and an examination of the credal and moral subjects which tax his faith...
...Indeed, I am not sure it is a spiritual autobiography at all, in the sense that New-man's Apologia is...
...15d...
...Free Distribution Outside the Mail Preceding 12 Month Average: 5,833 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 7,250...
...He describes in some detail the conditions which have to be satisfied to authenticate a Lourdes miracle, making extensive use of a book, The Miracle of Lourdes, written by a convert, Ruth Cranston, in the 1950's and recently updated...
...Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher, Ronald E. Burr, 2020 N. 14th Street, P.O...
...Much of it was spent just before World War II in England, where he attended the Jesuit school at Beaumont, near Windsor Castle, though he seems to have derived most of his religious ideas from his God-fearing parents (his mother took Holy Communion daily...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0549...
...Copies (Net Press Run), Preceding 12 Month Average: 269,589 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 242,005...
...15f...
...Complete Mailing Address: 2020 N. 14th Street, P.O...
...Publication Title: The American Spectator...
...Paid or Requested Mail Subscriptions, Preceding 12 Month Average: 209,414 and Single Issue Nearest to Filing Date: 191,812...
...He deals with the Spanish Inquisition, slavery, the doctrine of Hell, and even that old chestnut, Indulgences, and the sale thereof, quoting extensively from the defenses put up by such Catholic controversialists as Sir Arnold Lunn and Father Ronald Knox...
...14...
Vol. 30 • December 1997 • No. 12
