The Prodigal Church

by Brandon McGinley

For too many decades, our Catholic Church has diluted her distinctive traditions in order to please contemporary culture, losing not only her patrimony but much of her moral authority- just when the world needs it most.
Today, with our country and our Church suffering their worst crises since the 1960s, distressed American Catholics are understandably hungry for big solutions to their big problems. Fortunately, where today so many see only darkness, author Brandon McGinley sees light, arguing that these dire days offer us an opportunity to rescue our Church- if only we have the holy confidence to seize this God-given moment.

Unlike many who have responded to these crises, McGinley does not propose that we return to an unrealistically romanticized Catholic past. Rather, dwelling in the perennial teachings of the Church, which have animated the best of ages, he shows how, with the help of much prayer and sacramental grace, we can reinvigorate our present Christian communities in ways that will transform not only ourselves and the Church but the entire world.

With painstaking clarity, he unearths what was working- and what wasn't- in the decades before Vatican II, and he shows how genuine Catholic renewal can emerge only from authenticity to our Catholic identity and tradition, applied to the contemporary world. We have everything we need- we have Christ!- but we need the confidence to bring His grace and truth to the world. We live in a time when Catholic institutions are attached to the prevailing order, but McGinley argues they must operate without political fear as witnesses to the truth of the Catholic Faith with a boldness that emerges from holiness, which is the product of grace acting on our souls and in our communities.

Here is our road map for renewal- a roadmap for families, for schools, for parishes, and, indeed, for the institutional Church. In this crisis, we can complain and despair, or we can seize the opportunity to demonstrate that the Catholic Church is the means to bringing the grace and peace of heaven to earth.

Genres: Catholic, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2020

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it shortly after Dreher's "Live Not by Lies" -- this is a better book. I hope to write more later, but in short, instead of spending half a book railing against "wokeism" and "social justice warriors," McGinley dives into the actual question if what does it look like for an institutional Church, parish, family, and community of Catholic friends to live a life of truth.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot to chew over and think about here. There are both diagnoses of fundamental problems and looking at possible paths to overcoming them. Not that it intends to provide a todo list, but to help you think about what you can do and what can be done as communities. The "third places" he references as a sociological term are mostly culturally gone, which means we have to come up with new ones. In that aspect, this reminds of Leah Libresco "Building the Benedict Options" in how we can build community.

[Kelly Guilbeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me want to run through a brick wall. Incredibly insightful, spicy at times (wait for the part about JFK!), and overall encouraging in return to grace and God’s plan for the Church on earth, big and small. And that chapter on marriage >>>>

[Nathan Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine book. Although McGinley's analysis of the crises facing the Church is nuanced, complex, and careful, the solutions he points to are ultimately simple: total reliance on Christ's grace, the cultivation of Christian community and an uncompromising pursuit of holiness. What if we arranged our lives and our society like we truly believed that Christ is King? We have only worldly respectability and comfort to lose; we have heavenly hope and joy to gain.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good premise, sloppy editing. Each chapter could’ve been half as long and more efficiently (and beautifully) gotten the point across. I also don’t think it goes quite far enough— renewing the Catholic tradition within Catholics is very good, but once that renewal has taken place, it must go out into the broader neighborhood and world; McGinley only marginally touches that.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

the refreshing thing about McGinley's book is how normal its vision is - no esoteric theories or tendentious readings of history or doctrine.
He clearly sets out how the American Catholic Church lost its way and how it can regain its footing.
I'm so glad the book grapples with the problem of the social for Catholics - how we ought to live, work, and pray together. Some problems will certainly not have simple solutions but it's so important that we understand the status quo isn't enough. If we at least have our eyes on a new ideal for living then even if things don't change in our lifetimes at least we're pointing future generations in the right direction.

[Fr. Ambrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This analysis of the current state of the Church in the US, and some ideas on how to improve it, is the best that I've read in recent years. None of the other books about problems in parishes and failings in faith deal with the real issues at the depth that Brandon McGinley's text does. It's refreshing, it hearkens back to the joy of the Gospel that animated the preaching of the Apostles, and it paints a vivid, enticing picture of what a truly Catholic future might look like. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

[Matt Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was excellent. It will definitely be something I revisit and something I would recommend all Catholics to read (or non-Catholics, if you want). McGinley writes concisely and points to many of the problems that the Church is facing today and does something that many cultural commentators are not doing: proposing practical solutions.

This is a wake-up call to those Catholics who would believe that grace isn't actively working in the world. It is a wake-up call to Catholics who need to light their faith on fire or needed some extra fuel to keep the fire going. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At a digestible ~200 pages, there is no reason to not read this!

[Fr Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and refreshing look at how things are, and what the way forward might be in rebuilding the faith of our people and the culture that ought to flower from it. McGinley's is a clear, faithful, and un-ideological change of pace from the hackneyed takes of those who normally write this kind of book.

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come, but I will say that I was not the audience for this book.

I do also think that McGinley could use a better editor, but content-wise, this was lightyears ahead of most other Catholic books of this style out there.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author critiques the complacency of the Catholic Church, especially in the US, but also encourages offers concrete ideas for bringing her back to a a fuller life.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful read. Clear eyed analysis of how the American Catholics gradually lost there way and a sincere urging to reframe the way we conduct ourselves and how to think of the Church.

[Paige Skipper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for every Catholic. Seriously.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

McGinley is such an earnest writer - that it engages deeper and more thoughtfully than the content would suggest. There’s prescription and analysis; but there’s more rumination and mediation.

[Fr. John Clark]

A wonderful crystallization of what so many of us have been saying for so long. It is a beautiful summary of the American Church’s problems and a lamp to light the path ahead.