The Quest for God: Personal Pilgrimage, A [Hardcover]

Paul Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 1996

A thoughtful and inspirational examination of the relationship between humankind and God explores how that relationship has evolved and why it has remained so important, searching for life's deeper meaning in terms of community and belief. $50,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though a spate of religious quest books have appeared in recent years, Johnson's book is neither a search for the historical Jesus nor a quasi-mystical personal odyssey. Johnson, it seems, is perfectly happy with the faith of his father and as accustomed to the Catholic Church "as a much-loved old teddy bear or a favorite armchair or a smelly old favorite dog." A journalist and historian, Johnson has written an apologia in which he answers such basic questions as "What is God, then?" and "Is there an alternative to God?" His answers surprise, provoke, and even provide comfort.

From Publishers Weekly

Historian Johnson (A History of Christianity; A History of the Jews; The Birth of the Modern World Society) switches to a more intimate scale as he tries to provoke readers into examining their beliefs, or lack thereof, in God. Johnson's allegiance to the Catholic Church and its ritual are balanced by an assessment of the history of that institution and his agreement that for "some people, salvation is more likely outside my church-in other churches or no church." Necessarily, Johnson's view on Purgatory, Hell and the Last Judgment reflect his Catholic faith; however, statements such as "The Last Judgment is not so much delivering verdicts as confirming verdicts already reached in the heart of each individual" show Johnson's careful examination of free will and of God's intentions toward creation. Originally published in England, this American edition will invite discussion, introspection and controversy from both liberal and conservative readers in this country as it calls them to their own quest for God.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (April 12, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060173440
• ISBN-13: 978-0060173449
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #823,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Beginning with Modern Times (1985), Paul Johnson's books are acknowledged masterpieces of historical analysis. He is a regular columnist for Forbes and The Spectator, and his work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What the World Needs Now ..., June 6, 2003

By 

Nicholas Stix (New York City/Queens) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage (Paperback)

...
It is no accident that this unapologetic blow for conservative Catholicism was written by a layman. The same spring that saw HarperCollins release The Quest for God saw Oxford University Press publish academic Steven Pals' Seven Theories of Religion. All but one (Mircea Eliade) of the theorists Pals discusses see religion as dependent on some other phenomenon. That means that they have not so much a theory of religion, as a theory of x, whereby x is NOT religion. Religion then becomes so much "garbage," as when computer scientists speak of "GIGO: garbage in, garbage out." Religion, politics, accounting, sports: Same difference.

Not so, says Paul Johnson, who goes to great lengths to make clear that only God is God. In a time when militant secularists insist on seeing God as a front for politics, Johnson says, "No! There is no substitute for the real thing." According to Johnson, it is the secularists who are deluding themselves with God-substitutes, which he sees as the cause of the twentieth century's genocidal history.

Although Johnson begins a bit pompously, and even weirdly, with some bad science, after the first two chapters this book becomes quite charming, exhibiting a droll sense of humor and, at times, a refreshing modesty. However, to appreciate Johnson's modesty, one must be able to countenance the notion that a belief in moral absolutes can accommodate tolerance towards those with whom one disagrees on doctrine. Thus, if you believe that all values (or principles or virtues) are relative; have an absolute contempt for anyone who disagrees with you; and third, believe in showing "no tolerance for the intolerant!," then this book is probably not for you. If, on the other hand, you are at all curious about Catholicism; you feel that unlimited access to abortion on demand for young girls, and detailed, public school instruction in safe "fisting" by the Gay Men's Health Crisis are not quite the answers to what ails us; or if you have deep spiritual yearnings, then you could do worse than devote a day or so to The Quest for God.

While barely 200 pages long, and written by a popular historian used to having closer to one thousand oversized pages to get the job done, Quest... is an incredibly meaty -- but not overstuffing -- meal. In summing up his own life and work, Johnson recalls his childhood, the famous and not-so-famous whose paths he has crossed, and tells quite a bit of church and secular history. The personal anecdotes and capsule histories, often coming from his historical studies, all bear on Johnson's quest(ion): How does one live, and die, in the proper Christian manner?

There is much of philosophical substance here, yet Johnson is at once both more personal and more philosophical than most academic texts I see on philosophy of religion. The successors to the social gospel, whether feminists, Afrocentrists, or even gay activists, see in religion no more than a worldly, political tool. Some sharp, less politicized minds, on the other hand, offer merely arid analysis; both sides seem to have lost sight of the prize. Johnson hasn't. And so, his philosophical considerations are guided always by the same, simple consideration: How best may I serve God, and thereby, hope to attain Heaven?

If you're a Christian, that's what it's all about. Of course, it may well be harder for a Catholic to keep matters in perspective, as a 2000-year-old tradition of bad theology has rejoiced in complicating matters. With great good humor, Johnson seeks to explain some of these complications as briefly as possible without needlessly confusing or alienating the reader.

"Catholicism - the Holy Roman Catholic Church - Rome - the Scarlet Woman - the Whore of Babylon -- has no terrors for me because I am as used to it as a much-loved old teddy bear or a favorite armchair or a smelly old favorite dog.... I have, as it were, been married to the church all my life and am used to her ways, be they slatternly or tiresome, noble, loving, admirable, foolish or insupportable.... I have a fondness for old institutions which have high pretensions but are also timeworn and manipulable, theoretically rigid but in practice accommodating, which demand everything but will settle in practice for less, often much less."

In sixteen brief chapters, Johnson tussles with contemporary conflicts and perennial problems: The challenges of atheism, feminism, environmentalism and gay activism; the nature of God; the problem of evil; the consequences of there possibly being other rational beings in the cosmos; the roles of dogma and authority, respectively, in the Church; the relationship of Christians to Jews; death; Judgment Day; Hell; Heaven; and the role of prayer. Finally, he has appended some prayers he has composed for the reader's possible inspiration and use.

Johnson notes, early on, that "the most extraordinary thing about the twentieth century was the failure of God to die." He believes that, rather than costing men their faith, the atrocities of the twentieth century actually turned them towards God.

The biggest problem I have with The Quest for God is with Johnson's insistence in the one moment that God is inconceivable in terms of petty, human emotions, and his description in the next of God as "angry" or "impatient." If even Paul Johnson confounds the human with the godly, no wonder the rest of us are so confused!

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Jewish reader comments, July 27, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage (Paperback)

I do not really have any interest in Catholic doctrine. Many of the subjects Johnson writes about I know little or nothing about.
But what I did find in the book is a deep personal quest of an individual to be in relation with a personal God. I found the story of this quest and of Johnson's faith instructive and illuminating.
I think that anyone who takes the idea of a personal God seriously will be able to learn from this work.
I contrast this work by the way with the much touted work of Karen Armstrong who however much she writes about God reveals only her disbelief.
Johnson is a person of religious faith and this work is one the reading of which will I am certain inspire and deepen the religious faith of others.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not merely food for thought, but a banquet., December 3, 1998

By 

"grandpacurmudgeon" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quest for God: Personal Pilgrimage, A (Hardcover)

'The Quest for God' needs at least two careful readings before judgment can be passed upon it. There is much of C. S. Lewis in it; that is, they share common views upon omnipresent and omnicompetent government, and the follies of those who would bring about Heaven on earth by legislation, but I would be the last man to declare that Mr Johnson either cribbed from Mr Lewis, or was influenced by him. Both men shared a British education; both men, in their respective fields, are (or were) historians of the first rank; both see more clearly than most the need for God and the consequences that devolve upon humanity when God is ignored. Although Mr Johnson has often been excoriated as a 'conservative', many of his views are what might be called 'progressive'. His meditations upon God, His nature, and His interaction with man are steeped in Catholic tradition and reflect his faith. This book is intensely personal, as the subtitle proclaims, and is guaranteed to offend the casual modern reader; I exhort the c. m. r. to read it twice, and see for himself the ineluctable logic behind Mr Johnson's arguments. He might learn something to his benefit.