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Shop nowWhy Priests?
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Learn moreBestselling author of Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic,
Garry Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and
nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and
reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need
priests at all? Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began
without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the
priesthood, as it was at its outset?
Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests?
asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the
New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity
where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an
apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the
sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of
redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely
away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of
Peter and Paul with notable success.
Wills concludes with a
powerful statement of his own beliefs in a book that will appeal to
believers and nonbelievers alike and stand for years to come as a
towering achievement.
Garry Wills is an adjunct professor and cultural historian in the Department of History at Northwestern University. He has written many acclaimed works on religion and on American history, including Lincoln at Gettysburg, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize; Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment; and the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant and Why I Am a Catholic. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and other publications, he studied for the priesthood and took his doctorate in the classics.
Michael Prichard has played several thousand characters during his career. While he has been seen performing over one hundred of them in theater and film, Michael is primarily heard, having recorded well over five hundred full-length books. During his career as a one-man repertory company, he has recorded many series with running characters-including the complete Travis McGee adventures by John D. MacDonald and the complete Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout-as well as series by such masters as Mark Twain, John Cheever, and John Updike. His numerous awards and accolades include an Audie Award for Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman and several AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for At All Costs by Sam Moses and In Nixon's Web by L. Patrick Gray III. Named a Top Ten Golden Voice by SmartMoney magazine, he holds an M.F.A. in theater from the University of Southern California. Michael appears regularly on the professional stage, including as a member of Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company, performing such great roles as Captain Beatty in Fahrenheit 451, which became the second-longest-running production in the Los Angeles area. Bradbury himself dubbed Michael "the finest Beatty in history."