Customer Reviews

Meeting the Living God

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Back in the mid-70's, I was a high-school student of Father O'Malley. He used his "Meeting the Living God" in a theology course he taught for seniors, so it is hard, if not impossible, for me to separate the book and the person. I'd like to say this, though: One Friday or Saturday night way back then, relaxing on a cool night in a parked car with two or three buddies, we were not talking about the upcoming big game or trying to get into a bar without IDs. Of all things, we were talking about Father O'Malley and his book. One basic idea in both the class and the book was for the student/reader to realize what a Christian is and to act on that by kind of lighting a fire under one's ....arse. At one point in that parked car of twenty years or so ago, a buddy, talking about Father, blurted out (a little too emotionally), "He's a living god." Father O'Malley would balk at that, but my friend was probably talking more about himself and whatever changes he was going through. Both the course and the book really did get many of us past the point of thinking about certain things and into the realm of acting. In this way, and through my "Meeting the Living God" experience of the book and the course, I felt very similar to my feelings about Soren Kierkegaard's "Concluding Unscientific Postscript." In both books, the authors are asking and trying to find out the answer to this question: "What do I have to do to become a Christian"?

Inseperable from the book Fr. O'Malley is a teacher to those who seek the most basic questions of ethics. As Kant realizes that morality comes from a sense of duty--so Fr. O'Malley teaches his students and readers what it means to be human. This book connects, compares, and touches upon the essential subjects of morality and God. A great read for anyone who questions. As a friend and former student I can say that here is a man analogous to his words. Meet him and his thoughts, in "Meeting the Living God."

I had the pleasure to meet the author and his students, they're fine people______a beautiful refection of the book itself, I recommend this book.

I am a profoundly questioning Catholic with a fair number of issues with the Church. For many years, those issues completely got in the way of my relationship with God. I was introduced to this book because I read an article Fr. O'Malley wrote more than fifteen years ago. I was so moved by the article, I wrote Fr. O'Malley a letter. In his reply, among many other thoughts, he suggested I get a copy of Meeting the Living God from the library and give it a try.

Unlike a previous reviewer's experience, for me this book was an enormous help in regaining my relationship with God. During the time I worked through this book, I wrote reams in response to the questions at the end of each chapter. I mailed every one of those pages off to Fr. O'Malley. I never once had him reject any of my concerns and he always responded in ways that I felt were authentic and honest. We had great conversations in those letters. Sometimes I agreed with him and sometimes we agreed to disagree. I still have huge issues with the Catholic hierarchy and the positions the Church takes in the modern world. However, I also have a thriving relationship with God and the courage to contine seeking.

I also felt the book was wonderfully organized. For me, the way Fr. O'Malley worked deeper in each chapter made perfect sense. I felt that the suject matter flowed smoothly from one chapter to another. In particular, the questions at the end of each chapter rely on the thinking you've done in previous chapters.

I came to this book as an adult. I wish that I'd been introduced to the book as a teenager. I would still have all the same problems with the Church, but I wouldn't have ignored God, my Friend, for all those years.

A good and definetly entertaining read. However, as a priest of the Catholic Faith, O'Malley fails to recognize his own bias but does bring up numerous interesting points.

In the year or so I have read most of Father O'Malley's books and while, for me as a skeptic,they have not made a convincing case for Christianity (at best, they make the case for deism and not a specific faith. This is not the fault of O'Malley but simply the nature of this type of topic. I have read the works of C.S.Lewis, Lee Strobel, and Dinesh D'Souza, and they have the same flaw in their arguments),I greatly enjoyed Father O'Malley's style and insight on this matter. If you are already a Christian and are simply looking for a logical defense of your beliefs then O'Malley is one of the best authors around for that. He is witty, highly intelligent, well read, and knows his subject inside and out. My only wish is that he would address some of the more controversial topics in Catholicism more indepth (such as birth control,stem cell research, and divorce) without simply glossing over them as it seems to be the case, since I have never found a Catholic book yet that really examines these issues from the mindset of the average layman or woman whom they actually affect. If you are a skeptic like me I doubt that you'll walk away from O'Malley's works and run to your nearest church to convert (or revert, as the case may be), but you'll be entertained and unlike with many of the Evangelical authors, you won't be asked to leave your logic and reason aside as you read. Christianity and religion in general needs more people like Father O'Malley to present their cases sanely and rationally if they are to survive into the next century and remain relevant.

O'Malley poses three questions which are to be his arguemnt: Does God Exist?, If so, what is God like?, and how can we be sure? O'Malley falls very short in addressing these questions adequately. Intended as a text for high school seniors, O'Malley spends much time lambasting seniors for going through the typical growing pains, such as senioritis. He contradicts himself in so far as he begins by arguing that opinion is subjective unless backed up by objective evidence, and frequently thereafter, offers much of his own opinion without offering objective evidence, e.g when talking about thinking for one's self he uses the My Lai incident in Vietnam and seems to categorize all soldiers involved as ignorant beasts that never thought of thinking for themselves. Anybody who has studied war and its effects on the human psyche, knows that O'Malley is way off and should be offended. O'Malley may do better to discus the effects of human condition and war, rather than tearing down the individuals that he knows nothing about. He is also sarcastic and incorporates foul language into his examples. The structure of the book is disorganized and senseless most of the time. He rambles on in a stream of consciousness. This is definately not text book quality and should not be used in a high school classroom. Maybe it works for O'Malley because this book is largely subjective in its arguments, and I am sure that he can teach his own mind well.