If there’s one book you’ll give this year to a friend who’s questioning their religion, make it this one. Michael Morwood is an adult faith formation professional with the rare gift of being able to speak to adults with honesty, simplicity, and candor. In God is Near, Morwood sums up the frustration so many us of have with organized religion by stating that the God we’ve been taught to worship is a distant God and not the God that Jesus Christ knew, loved and told the world about. In straightforward, non-technical language, Morwood shows how a felt-presence of God and God’s love for us are not only the true message of Jesus and the Scriptures, but our very birthright as Christians. God is Near is both a mission statement for adult Catholics frustrated with the hierarchical model of the church and a program for life-long growth in the Christian essentials of prayer, communal worship, social justice, and evangelization.
If there’s one book you’ll give this year to a friend who’s questioning their religion, make it this one. Michael Morwood is an adult faith formation professional with the rare gift of being able to…
“Michael Morwood is raising … the right and obvious questions that all Christians must face. In his response he provides fresh and perceptive possibilities for a modern and relevant faith.”—Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong
“Michael Morwood is raising … the right and obvious questions that all Christians must face. In his response he provides fresh and perceptive possibilities for a modern and relevant faith.”—Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong
Michael Morwood has an extensive background in spirituality and adult faith formation. He is internationally acclaimed for his clear and accessible writing, workshops and lectures on the need for Christians to reshape religious thinking and imagination. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife, Maria.
God Is Near is undeniably a significant success in Australian publishing. Michael Morwood, however, deserves thanks from more than his publishers. His book is a blessing for all those wanting for themselves or others, a simple guide to making sense of the contemporary Catholic Church. …
Through a skilled use of questions, appeals to common sense, and illustrations from biblical scholarship and history, Morwood leads his readers to see that changes are not for their own sake, but are a fundamental rediscovery of the teaching of Jesus and the practices of the early Church. …
This book is suitable not only for those within the Church wanting to develop an adult faith, but also for those “outside”, either considering membership of the Catholic Church or returning to it.
--Catholic Archdiocesan Newspaper
Michael Morwood’s book, God Is Near, is going into its fourth printing in eight months, which shows it must be filling one demand.
It … is full of excellent material that certainly makes you think about the faith you have held for so long and thought you knew all about.
This excellent book has already obviously found a market. I recommend it to others, especially lay people like myself whose place in the Church, Morwood says, has been unjustifiable degraded.
--Catholic Weekly
God Is Near enables the issues of Church and change to be opened up around the coffee table of our homes and work places. This book is full of profound insights in simple, accessible language. Recommended reading for all who journey with the Church and its unfolding.
--Melbourne Catechumenate Office
It is very difficult to do justice to this book in a few lines. It is without doubt the most needed work we have received for a long time … The depth and wisdom of the reflections and questions make it a valuable tool for everyone.
--Central Catholic Library Bookshop
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