Coherent Christianity

Throughout this book, Louis Roy illustrates his conviction that Christianity consists in the most profound experience to which human beings are invited by God. This experience involves meaning and truth, hope and love, suffering and joy, solidarity and critique. It is a space of freedom, where diverse persons seek the light and make their decisions, interacting with the intellectual and affective resources of their culture. Faith is understood as a personal and communal adventure--a sequence of real life experiences. The book proposes an articulate and coherent vision of the Christian faith. It surveys the complementary dimensions of Christian experience. It points to various paths, traveled by different people. It offers an actualization for our time, that is, a road map that is at the same time flexible and in keeping with truth. It engages in a dialogue with psychology and with non-Christian views, for example on meditation and on reincarnation. The book is addressed to a large audience of educated readers, who are likely to be very interested in its biblical, philosophical, psychological, sociological, interreligious, and pastoral components. Its originality consists in bringing together the interactions between several disciplines, in a practical way. ""This book is written by a scholar who has a pastoral heart. Louis Roy writes with a clear purpose in mind. As a theologian, Roy will introduce the reader to the intellectual, psychological, moral, and religious dynamics at work in the human experience, yet with a clear vision of hope. Thinking 'nones?' Yes!"" --Carla Mae Streeter, Professor Emerita, Aquinas Institute of Theology, Saint Louis, Missouri ""Louis Roy is one of our time's most prolific and respected experts on religious experience. Drawing from the psychology, philosophy, and theology of Jean-Luc Hetu, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, and, especially, Bernard Lonergan, Coherent Christianity invites readers on an 'adventure' that begins with an awareness of their everyday encounters with the transcendent and moves to relate the power and joy of those experiences to all areas of their lives. I highly recommend this beautiful book to those seeking to integrate their relationship with God with their relationships with others and the world."" --Mark Miller, Associate Professor, University of San Francisco ""To be a person of faith and to ponder questions and doubts with intellectual honesty: Coherent Christianity supports and guides just such a reader. For priest and theologian Louis Roy, authentic Christian living presumes desire, requires reflection and a spirit of integrity, and shapes both behavior and attitude. Insightful cultural critic and adept practitioner of religious dialog, Roy models conscientious engagement with contemporary challenges and sheds light upon the search for Christian wisdom."" --John E. Allard, Assistant Professor of Theology, Providence College Louis Roy, a Dominican friar, holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. After teaching for twenty years at the Jesuit university of Boston College, he is now professor of theology at the Dominican University College in Ottawa. He has published books in English, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese. He is interested in intellectual, affective, and mystical approaches to God, in religious experience and revelation, in interreligious dialogue, and in the relations between Christianity and cultures.