Faith Maps

Ten Religious Explorers from Newman to Joseph Ratzinger

John Henry Newman
Maurice Blondel
Karl Rahner
Hans Urs Von Balthazar
Bernard Lonergan
Flannery O'Connor
Dorothee Soelle
Charles Taylor
Pierangelo Sequeri
Benedict XVI

In Faith Maps a theologian of great flair and originality ‘translates’ the voices of several leading thinkers into a series of reflections on faith and contemporary life and culture. The result is both a delightful introduction to theology and religion for students and general readers and a thought-provoking improvisation on familiar themes that will delight specialists.

Gallagher devotes a separate chapter to each of ten writers who have explored the credibility of religious faith, beginning with John Henry Newman and ending with Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

But, he writes, ‘I do not simply report on what they say. I offer a brief summary of their ideas but I also “translate” their vision into a more contemporary and less specialist idiom. What would they say today? Or, what do they inspire in me? As in music, they are variations on a theme with considerable freedom to go beyond their explicit statements.’

Michael Paul Gallagher wrote several books on faith and contemporary culture, including Faith Maps, Clashing Symbols and Dive Deeper. He was a lecturer in modern literature at University College Dublin before going to Rome where he was rector of the Bellarmino College and professor of fundamental theology at the Gregorian University. He died in November 2015.