Andrew M. Greeley

The religious imagination is alive and well in the movies. Contrary to those who criticize Hollywood, popular movies very often have metaphorically represented God on the screen. From Clint Eastwood as an avenging angel in Pale Rider and Nicolas Cage as a love-sick angel in City of Angels, to Jessica Lange as an angel of death in All That Jazz, and from George Burns as God in Oh God! to Audrey Hepburn in Alwaysto pure white light in Fearless and Flatliners, God is very much present in the movies. Images of angels and God used by movie makers are explored here. This intelligent, insightful volume is an exercise in urban anthropology. Religious imagination is the subject and the movie house is its location. The authors show that the religious imagination is irrepressible, and shows up in our best-known example of popular cultures, movies. Contrary to conservative opinion that suggests that Hollywood is anti-religious, Greeley and Bergesen find just the opposite. Ordinary movies, not explicitly about religion and not made by particularly religious individuals often demonstrate some basic religious theme, point, or message. God in the Movies does not judge or approve, recommend or criticize; the authors simply alert the reader to the great variety of metaphors for God, angels, heaven, and hell, from beautiful women to white light at the end of the tunnel to Groundhog Day. They are not concerned with explicitly religious movies. This is not a study of Ben Huror The Last Temptations of Christ, but rather of ordinary mass-release movies, including Field of Dreams, Always, All That Jazz, Commandments, Babette's Feast, Fearless, Breaking the Waves, Jacob's Ladder, Flatliners, Ghost, Pale Rider, Star Wars, 2001, Dogma, and even Japanimation, like Ghost in the Shell. The authors' vivid explication of various cinematic metaphors for God is accompanied by an analysis of what these movies tell about our sociological attitudes toward life and death. They also discuss the social conditions that give rise to various kinds of imagery and forms of movies. In a real sense, this book is for both the professional concerned with religion, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, media and cinema studies, and the layperson interested in how popular movies also contain religious imagery.

In My Love: A Prayer Journal, Father Greeley continues his quest to reveal the God of Love, Understanding, and Forgiveness. Picking up where the last of his popular journals left off, he shares his most intimate joys, fears, challenges, and hopes with God and with us all. In the process, he offers us a remarkable experience of praying as it happens and helps us find our own prayerful voices. Inspiring and encouraging, My Love points beyond the fascinating life of Andrew Greeley to the life of faith itself.

Millionaire media mogul Raymond Neenan can't believe his ears--or his eyes. the seat next to him, empty for the whole flight, now barely contains a huge man who looks a lot like Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan. In fact, the "man" is the Archangel Michael ("Not Mike, not Mikey, but Michael. you got a problem with that?), and he's looking to make a deal for Neenan's immortal soul. Neenan isn't interested in his soul or anyone else's unless there is money in it, but a little well-timed turbulence that sends the plane hurtling earthward caused him to reconsider. If he doesn't believe in it, what could it hurt to sign? But for a man like Neenan, making amends is no easy task. Though he never knew it, he's damaged a lot of lives, including his own. He's hated or feared by his parents, his ex-wife, his children, and practically everyone he's ever met.

Dermot Michael Coyne isn't sure what he's gotten himself into. Nuala Anne McGrail, that beautiful and vivacious "Celtic witch" has finally agreed to marry him. But they've barely tied the knot when Nuala's psychic "spells" begin again. Visions of a burning castle, the captain of the infamous "Black and Tan" police force, a wild woman from Chicago, and bloodshed--all somehow connected--lead the two to the remnants of a mystery long buried in the mist of Ireland's turbulent and violent past. How did Kevin O'Higgins, the murdered leader of the movement to free Ireland, die? And who among the living will do whatever it takes to keep Nuala and Dermot from finding out?

Many observers assume that America is a much less religious nation than it was forty years ago. According to Andrew Greeley, however, this is simply not true. Carefully analyzing surveys conducted over the past half-century, Greeley concludes that rates of church attendance, prayer, church membership, activity in church organizations, belief in life after death, and other measures of religious involvement have remained surprisingly constant.

he cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church have gathered in Rome for the papal election following the death of the incumbent pope. Torn by internal conflict and with many of its members alienated, the Church faces one of the most serious crises in its history. A coalition of cardinals favors a more moderate and pluralistic style of papal governance, but must contend with shadowy Vatican forces that oppose change and loss of their own power. These forces are determined to destory the coalition's candidate, a gentle and brilliant Spanish scholar. The leader of the coalition is Chicago's wily Sean Cardinal Cronin, aided by his patently indispensable sidekick, Bishop John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan. A lone assassin stalks the Vatican, his crazed mission: to destroy the next pope as soon as the traditional white smoke issues from the cardinals' meeting room--the Sistine Chapel--followed by the ancient words "Habemus papam." Can politics--Chicago style--turn the Catholic Church around? What will happen when the next pope must be chosen? Only Andrew M. Greeley, priest, bestselling novelist, and respected sociologist could have written this blockbuster tale of the forces actually ripping the Church apart, and of the next papal election, when the fate of the entire Catholic Church itself may well hang in the balance.

Essays based on the Scriptures offer comfort, advice, and encouragement in coping with life's problems

Discusses how Mary enlarges the Christian concept of God, how Christ's teaching can help us renew ourselves, and which are the most important of the Ten Commandments

Andrew Greeley looks back at Irish history and at the famous Irish of today to show how the Irish in America really live, think, act--and what makes them statistically the richest and best educated gentile group in American society.

Always provocative on the subject of sex and human sexuality, Father Andrew Greeley gives his candid thoughts on how everyone can use his or her sexuality as a positive, delightful force in everyday life.