PODCAST · religion

NCR Podcast - Author interview: Fr. Richard McBrien

by Tom Fox

David Gentry-Akin, associate professor of theology at St. Mary’s College of California, writing in the Oct. 3 issue of NCR, called Fr. Richard McBrien’s new book, The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism, "breathtaking in its scope and yet manageable in its presentation." "The book," published by HarperOne, the religious books division of HarperCollins, he said, "is not strictly a history of the church, though of course a great deal of history is to be found between its covers. Rather, it’s a focused study of ecclesiology, literally, the study of the church."McBrien is a priest of the archdiocese of Hartford, Conn. He is the author of a number of other books, including his best-selling Catholicism, Lives of the Popes, and Lives of the Saints. He is general editor of the one-volume HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. McBrien is past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and winner of its annual John Courtney Murray Award for "distinguished achievement in