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This has to be one of the most boring books I have ever read. Unless you are into statistics & survey results, forget it. The book had very little flow or continuity to it. It was redundant & repeated itself in several instances. It had flashes of readability but were few & far between. I was under the impression that it would be a little more "light hearted" & entertaining by the use of subtle humor etc. Again, in short, pass on this book unless you are a statistician.
Let's face it: before his untimely death, Catholic priest Fr. Andrew Greeley wrote many books. A LOT of books. Dozens and dozens. Fiction and non-fiction. It is sometimes said, "he never had an unpublished thought." But this book, "The Catholic Myth," is in my opinion his magnum opus. It is the total distillation of his thoughts and opinions, backed up by research and statistics. Fr. Greeley contends that Catholics "think" differently than people of other faiths (Christian, Jewish, Islam) because they see the world and all Creation differently. And they see God differently. Catholics see God as immanent in the world, while non-Catholics see God as utterly "Other." And this different worldview has amazing real-world consequences and explains so much about Catholic beliefs (religious, political, etc.) and behavior. As has been stated by other reviewers, this book is loaded with social science statistics. Fr. Greeley is a sociologist, after all, and on the faculty of two universities. (One would HOPE that he does actually do research, and here he proves it.) While the recitation of statistics may slow the reading in this book somewhat, it goes a long way to "prove" that Fr. Greeley's findings and assertions are FACT, and not merely his own opinions. However, if you hate statistics and and are willing to take Greeley's assertions "on faith" (as it were), then I would recommend his somewhat slimmer book "The Catholic Imagination" published about a decade later (in 2000), which omits the statistics but makes the same general points. Both are revelations to Americans of all faiths.Read full review
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