Strangers in a Strange Land

Charles J. Chaput's Strangers in a Strange Land is a vivid critique of American life today, but also an empowering guide to how Christiansand particularly Catholics-can live their faith vigorously, with confidence and hope, in a post-Christian public square From the author of Living the Catholic Faith and Render Unto Caesar comes a fresh, urgent, and ultimately hopeful treatise on the state of Catholic life and Christian community in the United States. America today is different in kind, not just in degree, from the past.

And this new reality is unlikely to be reversed. The reasons include, but aren't limited to, the decline of a sustaining sense of family and community, the impact of new technologies and economic changes that widen the gulf between rich and poor, diminished religious belief among young people, significant demographic shifts, profound new patterns in sexual behavior and identity, the growth of federal power and its disregard for religious rights, and the growing isolation and elitism of our leadership classes. But the author gives more than a penetrating diagnosis of the nations problems.

Archbishop Chaput offers a compelling reflection on the person of Jesus Christ, the nature of the Church, the urgency of radical faith, and the redemptive power of beauty all in the spirit of Psalm 8 and the enduring words of Irenaeus "The glory of God is man fully alive."

Charles J. Chaput, O. F.

M. Cap., was named archbishop of Philadelphia in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI. As a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, he was the second Native American to be ordained a bishop in the United States and is the first Native American archbishop.

Chaput is the author of two booksLiving the Catholic Faith Rediscovering the Basics and Render Unto Caesar Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Lifeas well as numerous articles and public talks.