Unbecoming a Priest
A Memoir
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2023
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Publisher's Description
Tony Bartlett's story is thrillingly upside-down. Rather than the classic conversion narrative of escaping the world to dedicate your life to God, it is about escaping a collapsing institutional order to discover a different self and learning to be in the world. An extraordinary account with pivotal themes of sexuality, trauma, revolution, and relationship, Unbecoming a Priest spans eras, classes, continents, cities, wars, iconic figures, spiritualities, and above all divergent modes of Christian-being-in-the-world. From London to Rome, from Europe to Latin America, journeying with exceptional fellow pilgrims like Mother Teresa, Pedro Casaldaliga, Carlo Carretto, it is a story of pain and messiness becoming ultimately one of joy, life, and meaning. Subtly but surely, the journey is also gospel-inspired, where the figure of Jesus takes on a provocative, anarchic role, helping in the overturning of sacrificial cliches and systems. Inevitably at stake is the meaning of priesthood itself, either propping up an eternal order amidst history's escalating crisis, or seeking with others the germ of authentic new human becoming and hope. Here is the inescapable drama and contemporary truth of unbecoming a priest.
Endorsements (4)
“Admirers of Anthony Bartlett’s theology will find here the roots of his liking for Heidegger (contra Platonic escapism), Girard (on scapegoating), and semiosis (on narrative shaping reality). But most of all he offers profoundly humane testimony to how Christ liberated him from a toxic family system and a chimeric religious quest.”
“The well-known theologian Anthony Bartlett has written an honest, readable autobiographical account of his becoming and unbecoming a Catholic priest. Without a trace of false self-dramatization, his careful writing has given us a believable and heartening narrative of a religious life recognizable to many who have followed similar paths in different confessions.”
“Unbecoming a Priest is the story of how Anthony Bartlett’s love for Jesus becomes the light by which he painfully and slowly finds his way to liberation from soul-emaciating religious delusion, dogmatism, and dysfunction. His example will inspire you to keep seeking your own further liberation and will point you to the door that will always open to the persistence of faith. This book shows what faith really is, and I’m grateful Bartlett has shared the hard-won riches of his life’s journey with us all.”
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