Closer Walk by Donald L Gelpi

Closer Walk by Donald L Gelpi

This theological autobiography presents the experiences and events that shaped the systematic theology, which author Donald Gelpi has been crafting since 1973. Gelpi's normative theology of conversion discusses five kinds of conversion: affective, intellectual, personal moral, political, and religious. Beginning with his boyhood in New Orleans, Closer Walk describes the early development of his religious perceptions, how his formation as a Jesuit taught him how to think and instilled a passion for the U.S. philosophical tradition, his major philosophical influences, and the influence of charismatic piety on his thought. This passionate, detailed, and humorous memoir also explores the history of the John Courtney Murray Group-a research seminar in inculturated philosophical and theological thinking-and how participation in the group helped him lay the systematic foundations for his theology that was crafted during his years at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

[Closer Walk] points to the [path] Catholic Theologians will have to follow if they hope to be in fruitful ecumenical dialogue and address effectively the educated American CatholicTheologians will find this account of an intellectual development…clear, passionate, and at times, as the title might suggest, entertaining. This book will have to be on the reading list of any serious course in twentieth-century American theology. -- Joseph A. Tetlow, S.J., author of Choosing Christ in the World and Ignatius Loyola: Spiritual Exercises
The experiential context in which we come to understand the scope and significance of Donald Gelpi's work gives this volume a haunting power…. [resulting in] a work that illuminates the whole of human experience. -- Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi, Stanford University
[If] you wonder whether there is a Holy Spirit…Gelpi's study will leave you with no doubts. He tells his life story with its amazing mix of the Spirit's touches-sometimes pushes-that rescue him, spur him to grasp American thinkers more thoroughly, safeguard the Catholic charismatic renewal, and much more…. A truly wondrous story. -- Frank Oppenheim, S.J., Xavier University
Gelpi's struggle to inculturate theology in a North American context allows us to see the task of theology today; one in which an individual story is?one with a community's story?[and both are] one with the Big Story. [Closer Walk] does this with unparalleled humanity, charm, and, above all, great insightttt -- Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, author of The Community of the Beautiful; associate professor, The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
[Closer Walk] takes us from a colorful childhood on the tree-lined streets of New Orleans through [Gelpi's] confrontation with racism…to his encounters with the most important theologians, philosophers, literary figures, and events of the last half century…. [His] story reveals the inner faith, personal struggles, deep friendships, and often humorous insights of a true American Catholic intellectual. -- Robert Lassalle-Klein, Holy Names University
Good theology is not the repetition of timeless truths or even the interpretation of some kind of abstract, pre-rational personal / communal faith. Theology is always about reinterpreting the written and socially enacted tradition of a God who acts through history…. No American theologian in the Twentieth Century has made a greater contribution to this process than Donald Gelpi….. Very soon, his work will either be required reading in every [U.S.] theological program…or the discipline will hasten its steady descent into pastoral and theological irrelevance. -- John J. Markey, O.P., Ph.D., author of Creating Communion: The Theology of the Constitutions of the Church
Gelpi's struggle to inculturate theology in a North American context allows us to see the task of theology today; one in which an individual story is…one with a community's story…[and both are] one with the Big Story. [Closer Walk] does this with unparalleled humanity, charm, and, above all, great insight -- Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, author of The Community of the Beautiful; associate professor, The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley