Things Worth Dying For
Thoughts on a Life Worth Living
-
-
4.5 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
With a balance of wisdom, candor, and scholarly rigor the beloved archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia takes on life’s central questions: why are we here, and how can we live and die meaningfully?
In Things Worth Dying For, Chaput delves richly into our yearning for God, love, honor, beauty, truth, and immortality. He reflects on our modern appetite for consumption and individualism and offers a penetrating analysis of how we got here, and how we can look to our roots and our faith to find purpose each day amid the noise of competing desires.
Chaput examines the chronic questions of the human heart; the idols and false flags we create; and the nature of a life of authentic faith. He points to our longing to live and die with meaning as the key to our search for God, our loyalty to nation and kin, our conduct in war, and our service to others.
Ultimately, with compelling grace, he shows us that the things worth dying for reveal most powerfully the things worth living for.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chaput (Strangers in a Strange Land), former Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, draws on his memories and the works of classic writers in this erudite if rambling reflection on "things worth dying for... things worth living for, the things that give life beauty and meaning." Chief among these, for Chaput, is love and service of God, and he also praises family, friends, and both secular and religious communities. He takes inspiration from a line from J.R.R. Tolkien stating that great tales never end, but rather "the people in them come and go as their part's ended," in his contemplation of his role in the "drama of the Christian story" at age 75 and Cicero's argument that death is not an evil but "deliverance from the burdens of the material world." The strongest section digs into the tension in Christian thought that holds death as both desirable (because it brings union with God) and terrible (as a result of Adam and Eve's sin in Eden). A weaker portion is his simplistic critique of contemporary culture, which Chaput sees as full of yearning for transcendence. The book also suffers from dubious assertions about the similarities between Jewish and Christian theology, such as his claim that both religions hold the story of Moses and the burning bush as God's first self-revelation in the Hebrew Bible. While fans of Chaput's homilies or previous works will enjoy this, it's unlikely to win new ones.
