Alcohol Was My God
A Catholic Alcoholic Reflects on His Faith
- Counseling, Grief & Mental Health
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
Something big happened in the life of Dennis Dempsey when he was in his early twenties. Now fifty years later, he tells his story with a disarming degree of honesty. Alcohol Was My God narrates how a young man with a terrible drinking problem got sober and over time became a professor of theology. Alcoholics Anonymous put him in touch with a spirituality that served as the spark plug that restarted his Catholic engine. The Catholic Church opened up a path that blended spirituality and religion as two sides of the same coin, uncovering the treasures of a tradition that spans many centuries. This book offers a unique blend of personal witness and academic analysis by an author who lives recovery as he researches and writes about Catholic theology.
Endorsements (3)
“The famous theologian Bernard Lonergan declared that reflection on spiritual transformation is the new foundation for genuine religious living. Dennis Dempsey provides us with a unique, deep look into two worlds: Alcoholics Anonymous and the Catholic Church. His narrative reveals the profound action of grace on his own self-destructive addiction, and the role that religious experience played in pivoting him into a new life. His story reveals his own attempt to integrate the spirituality of his twelve-step program with his re-commitment and rediscovery of his childhood Catholic faith. This is an honest, captivating account from someone who has been to Hell and back.”
“This book is an intriguing testimony of how faith is at the same time an intellectual as well as an existential journey. It is marvelously written and combines the skills of brilliant storytelling with substantial theological reflection. Moreover, especially today it tells us how the Christian belief in a living God who reveals his mercy in Christ is intimately connected to a love for the church.”
“I cried reading Alcohol Was My God. I felt the hopelessness of the author in his darkest moments but also the helplessness of the people who loved him. If there is one message to take from this honest and non-romanticized account from alcohol addiction to living ‘one day at a time,’ it is that hope, love, and faith are always waiting to embrace us, to re-embrace us, and to be embraced and re-embraced by us.”
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