Kenosis: A Journey of Humility, Forgiveness, and Authentic Love

    Well, it took a while, but I had some downtime during my break from education, and I decided to write a book. A novel. Sure, it’s not a book about the nuances of Catholic Anthropology or the nitty-gritty of Hans Urs Von Balthasar or the theological and mystical parallels between Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, D.T. Suzuki, and Thomas Merton. My educational path deviated from that of your run-of-the-mill academic scholar, and I never had a mentor or an advisor who could vouch for me and support me in the way most scholars get their start as writers, but I’ve been thinking over the last few years, and, if the purpose of academic theology is to articulate theological Truths in a way that makes it easier to encounter said Truths, then why not cut to the chase? Why not use the methodology I have been using for the last twenty years to evangelize, disciple, and educate regarding these Truths?

    I call it Narrative Theology. Think Flannery O’Conner, a fellow Georgian. Maybe Graham Greene, Chesterton, Endo, Percy, or Tolkien? Although, I think they more likely called themselves novelists who happened to be Catholic. Maybe I would call O’Conner, Greene, Tolkien, etc… storytellers who allow their Catholicism to sneak (or barrel) through their text. I wrote this book starting with the theology and then allowing the narrative to follow.

    So, my book? It’s called Kenosis: A Journey of Humility, Forgiveness, and Authentic Love. I will hold off on digging into the actual theology behind this, but I will say that it all starts, ironically, with eschatology (the study of End Times and the Afterlife). Purgatory (or, Purgation, as I prefer to call it)...thanks Monsignor Peter Buchignani) is particularly difficult to “teach”. To be honest, there’s not a whole lot to Catholic dogma surrounding Purgatory…I mean, Purgation. We teach that it exists, there is suffering associated with it, and it is a necessary “purification” process between the earthly life and eternity in Heaven. But that “purification” seems super vague to me. What does it “look like”? What does it feel like? How does suffering actually “purify” us?

    This book is really just a narrative exploration of what Purgation might be, and why it is so essential to human existence…perhaps more necessary than we have ever really explored in Catholic theology. At the very least, this book is a narrative, and, Hopefully, can be enjoyed at least on that, alone. It is the kind of narrative story that I could have read when I was in fourth or fifth grade; that means most others could have read it in second or third! Maybe you can get something more out of it. I Hope so.

    Kenosis: A Journey of Humility, Forgiveness, and Authentic Love is available on Amazon.com right now in paperback or eBooks. If you have Kindle Unlimited, it’s a free read!





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