THE CITIZEN CHRISTIAN

If it is true that religion is not merely a Sunday-morning affair, then it is equally true that believing Christians must -- some of the American clergy and hierarchy to the contrary notwithstanding -- bring to bear a Christian response at every level of their lives; social, economic, political as well as the purely ""spiritual."" This book is a popular plea for the real (i.e., the active, as opposed to the merely oral) involvement of Christians, and specifically of Catholics, on the principle that ""as men of our time, we celebrate the world, but in Christ's spirit. It is ours, we are the stewards of existence. .... Evil is in the world and its workings because we create it."" Ergo, we have an obligation to eradicate that evil, whether it be social injustice, racial oppression, violence in the streets, or the agricultural deficiencies of underdeveloped nations. Andrews speaks for a popular audience and he does so convincingly and forcefully despite a perhaps unconscious adherence to the journalistic formula of ""tell them what you're going to say, tell them what you're saying, then tell them what you said."" The Old Guard will ignore this book, but the ""new Catholic"" will find Andrews' brand of practical Christian humanism both stimulating and workable.