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Garry Wills

Born: 1934 in Atlanta, Ga.
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Wills lives in Evanston, Illinois and is a professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University.

Biography: Garry Wills, one of our most distinguished historians and critics, is the author of numerous books. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Michigan and Wisconsin. He earned a B.A. from Saint Louis University in 1957. William F. Buckley, Jr. hired him as a drama critic for National Review magazine at the age of 23. He received his PhD in classics from Yale University in 1961. Wills is a distinguished historian and the author of numerous books including the Pulitzer Prize winning ''Lincoln at Gettysburg''. He was awarded the National Medal for the Humanities in 1998. He has twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award, including as a co-winner for nonfiction in 1978 for ''Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence'', a book that also won the Merle Curti Award. Wills joined the faculty of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is currently an emeritus professor. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.


Awards:
  • Pulitzer Prize for ''Lincoln at Gettysburg'' Lincoln Scholar Two National Book Critics Circle Awards - one for ''Inventing America

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: g-wills@northwestern.edu
Garry Wills on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=garry+wills


Selected Titles

A Necessary Evil
ISBN: 9781439128794 OCLC: 1085168772

Simon & Schuster, Riverside : 2013.

A necessary evil :
ISBN: 0684844893 OCLC: 41606289

The author blames American's long-standing mistrust of government on a misreading of history, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers.

  Bomb power :
ISBN: 9781400195084 OCLC: 812876057

Tantor Media, [Old Saybrook] : 2010.

In Bomb Power, Garry Wills reveals how the atomic bomb transformed our nation down to its deepest constitutional roots--by dramatically increasing the power of the modern presidency and redefining the government as a national security state--in ways still felt today. A masterful reckoning from one of America's preeminent historians, Bomb Power draws a direct line from the Manhattan Project to the usurpations of George W. Bush ...

Bomb power :
ISBN: 1594202400 OCLC: 428731352

Penguin Press, New York : 2010.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills comes this groundbreaking examination of how the atomic bomb profoundly altered the nature of American democracy, and why we have been in a state of war alert ever since.--Book jacket.

Certain trumpets :
ISBN: 067165702X OCLC: 29908611

Simon & Schuster, New York : ©1994.

"In his Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills reframed our understanding of Lincoln the leader. Wills breathed new life into words we thought we knew and revealed much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. He showed how Lincoln's personality was less at issue than his followers' values and Lincoln's exquisite ability, in a mere 272 words, to reach them, to give the whole nation "a new birth of freedom," and to weave a spell that has not yet been broken." "Now Wills extends his extraordinary quality of observation and iconoclastic scholarship to examine the nature of leadership itself, perhaps history's most pivotal and emotionally charged topic. Almost the first thing people say about leaders is that we used to have them but now do not. Some blame this on the press, or on television, or on education. Others say we are manipulated, not led. Still others pore over book after book, searching for the perfect exemplar to imitate in order to achieve success." "Wills offers a wide range of portraits drawn largely, but not exclusively, from American history and representing revolutionary, political, religious, business, artistic, sports, and military leaders - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Napoleon, King David, Ross Perot, George Washington, Socrates, Mary Baker Eddy, Carl Stotz, Martha Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesare Borgia, and Dorothy Day - each shown in the act of leading his or her followers. And after each example, Wills also provides an anti-type to help define the type better."

Certain trumpets :
ISBN: 9781439127308 OCLC: 892926385

Simon & Schuster, New York : 2014.

This beautifully written and reasoned (Booklist) narrative by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills examines what constitutes meaningful leadership, and why it is so essential to society. What makes a leader' How do we identify effective leadership, and how should'and shouldn't'that power be used' In Certain Trumpets, Garry Wills presents portraits of eminent leaders including FDR to Ross Perot, King David, Martha Graham, and many others, offering an illuminating lens for studying society and ourselves. Dividing these portraits into sixteen leadership categories ranging from military to charismatic, intellectual, rhetorical, and elected, Wills highlights what makes each of his subjects unique, crafting along the way a distinct and incisive definition of leadership as a reciprocal engagement between two contrasting wills that serves to mobilize us toward a common good, and explaining why leadership is so often a contentious and emotionally charged subject. A stunningly literate and thoughtful examination of what makes a leader'[and] a welcome antidote to some of the more egregious 'management style' drivel, (Kirkus Reviews), Certain Trumpets is an inspiring and edifying tour through the history of an indispensable social art.

Explaining America :
ISBN: 0140298398 OCLC: 47690744

Penguin Books, New York : 2001.

  Head and heart :
ISBN: 9781429546720 OCLC: 436288549

Penguin Press, New York : 2007.

An examination of Christianity's place in American life through history, from the Puritans to the administration of George W. Bush. The struggle within American Christianity, historian Wills argues, has been between the head and the heart: reason and emotion, Enlightenment and Evangelism. 18th century America saw a religious revolution--an Enlightenment culture emerged whose hallmarks were tolerance for other faiths and a belief that religion was best divorced from political institutions. Wills shows how radical a departure this was, and shows the steps by which church-state separation was enshrined in the Constitution. He shows a repeating pattern in our history: a cooling of popular religious fervor, followed by an explosion in evangelical activity--generally during times of social transformation and anxiety--and then a backlash. Wills's message is to be vigilant against the triumph of emotions over reason, but to know that the tension between them is necessary, inevitable, and unending.--From publisher description.

Head and heart :
ISBN: 1594201463 OCLC: 122309283

Penguin Press, New York : 2007.

An examination of Christianity's place in American life through history, from the Puritans to the administration of George W. Bush. The struggle within American Christianity, historian Wills argues, has been between the head and the heart: reason and emotion, Enlightenment and Evangelism. 18th century America saw a religious revolution--an Enlightenment culture emerged whose hallmarks were tolerance for other faiths and a belief that religion was best divorced from political institutions. Wills shows the steps by which church-state separation was enshrined in the Constitution. He shows a repeating pattern in our history: a cooling of popular religious fervor, followed by an explosion in evangelical activity, and then a backlash. --From publisher description.

Henry adams and the making of america
ISBN: 9780547959405 OCLC: 864310714

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York : 2007.

One of our greatest historians offers a surprising new view of the greatest historian of the nineteenth century, Henry Adams. Wills showcases Henry Adams's little-known but seminal study of the early United States and elicits from it fresh insights on the paradoxes that roil America to this day. Adams drew on his own southern fixation, his extensive foreign travel, his political service in Lincoln's White House, and much more to invent the study of history as we know it. His nine-volume chronicle of America from 1800 to 1816 established new standards for employing archival sources, firsthand reportage, eyewitness accounts, and other techniques that have become the essence of modern history. Adams's innovations went beyond the technical; he posited an essentially ironic view of the legacy of Jefferson and Madison. As is well known, they strove to shield the young country from foreign entanglements, a standing army, a central bank, and a federal bureaucracy, among other hallmarks of big government. Yet by the end of their tenures they had permanently entrenched all of these things in American society. This is the American paradox that defines us today: the idealized desire for isolation and political simplicity battling against the inexorable growth and intermingling of political, economic, and military forces. As Wills compellingly shows, the ironies spawned two centuries ago still inhabit our foreign policy and the widening schisms over economic and social policy. Ambitious in scope, nuanced in detail and argument, Henry Adams and the Making of America throws brilliant light on how history is made -- in both senses of the term.

Henry Adams and the making of America /
ISBN: 0618872663 OCLC: 232860509

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : [2007], 2005.

A profile of nineteenth-century historian Henry Adams assesses his influence on the study of history, discussing his use of archival sources, firsthand reportage, and eyewitness accounts that transformed historical study.

Inventing America :
ISBN: 0525435972 OCLC: 999443979

A celebrated re-appraisal of the meaning and the source of inspiration of The Declaration of Independence, based on a reading of Jefferson s original draft document.

Inventing America :
ISBN: 0618257764 OCLC: 51177444

Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston : 2002.

"From one of America's foremost historians, Inventing America compares Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence with the final, accepted version, thereby challenging many long-cherished assumptions about both the man and the document. Although Jefferson has long been idealized as a champion of individual rights, Wills argues that in fact his vision was one in which interdependence, not self-interest, lay at the foundation of society."--Jacket.

James Madison /
ISBN: 0805069054 OCLC: 49335842

In this examination of the life of a founding father, renowned historian Wills takes a fresh look at the life of James Madison, from his rise to prominence in the colonies through his role in the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the first Constitutional Congress.

John Wayne's America :
ISBN: 0684808234 OCLC: 35830182

Simon & Schuster, New York : ©1997.

Eighteen years after his death, John Wayne is still America's favorite movie star. He was less an actor than a symbol, the most popular pop icon of the twentieth century, and one of the most important political figures in America. People shaped their lives or adopted political stands to conform to him as a template of authentic Americanism. Wayne became the lens through which people saw their own and their country's history. In this brilliant, groundbreaking study of the relationship between politics and popular culture, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills focuses on the manufacture of "John Wayne" from the raw materials of Marion Morrison, the person born in Iowa who became a myth, his own reality swallowed up in his meaning as master directors such as John Ford crafted films that made him the personification of America's frontier myth.

  John Wayne's America :
ISBN: 9780743589499 OCLC: 458534373

Simon & Schuster Audio, [New York, N.Y.] : [2009?]

Portrait of a favorite movie star who came to symbolize the virile American frontiersman. Traces Wayne's film career, the development of his public image, and his evolution as a model of patriotism, responsibility and self-reliance.

Lincoln at gettysburg :
ISBN: 9781439126455 OCLC: 892933912

Simon & Schuster, New York : 2014.

The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead, he gave the whole nation a new birth of freedom in the space of a mere 272 words. His entire life and previous training, and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece. By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world and to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns, and how Lincoln wove a spell that has not yet been broken.

Lincoln at Gettysburg :
ISBN: 0743299639 OCLC: 25281810

Simon & Schuster, New York : ©1992.

Examination of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame breathing new life into the words and revealing much about the President.

Martial's Epigrams :
ISBN: 9780143116271 OCLC: 318411458

Penguin Books, London : 2009.

Martial's Epigrams :
ISBN: 0670020397 OCLC: 262368001

Viking, New York : ©2008.

Bawdy and biting epigrams, freshly translated, ready for enjoyment.

Mr. Jefferson's university
ISBN: 9780792255604 OCLC: 70997972

National Geographic, Washington, D.C. : 2006.

Mr. Jefferson's university /
ISBN: 0792265319 OCLC: 50645802

National Geographic, Washington, D.C. : ©2002.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, at the University of Virginia, there is today-beneath the irregular rhythms of modern student comings and goings-a severely rhythmic expression of the Enlightenment, a philosophy concretized in brick and timber. The play of one architectural element into another is meant to express the interconnectedness of all knowledge. It is Jefferson's last but not his least achievement, and one of the three things that he put on his own tombstone to be remembered by. In important ways, this architectural complex is a better expression of Jefferson's mind than is his home on the hill overlooking the campus. Chance had a great deal to do with the way Monticello grew up over the years. But everything in the university's structure was planned, to the last detail-a meticulous ordering that is both romantic and quixotic. It is a place of study that itself repays study, and makes on lost world of the 18th century only half lost after all.

Negro president :
ISBN: 0786261196 OCLC: 53443214

Thorndike Press, Waterville, Me. : 2003.

Negro president :
ISBN: 0618485376 OCLC: 62511870

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : 2005.

"In "Negro President" historian Garry Wills explores a pivotal moment in American history through the lens of Thomas Jefferson and the now largely forgotten Timothy Pickering, and "prods readers to appreciate essential aspects of our distressed but well-intentioned representative democracy" (Chicago Tribune)."

Nixon agonistes :
ISBN: 1504045408 OCLC: 988758543

With a new preface: A stunning analysis of the troubled Republican president by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg (The New York Times Book Review). In this acclaimed biography that earned him a spot on Nixon's infamous enemies list, Garry Wills takes a thoughtful, in-depth, and often very amusing look at the thirty-seventh US president, and draws some surprising conclusions about a man whose name has become synonymous with scandal and the abuse of power (Kirkus Reviews). Arguing that Nixon was a reflection of the country that elected him, Wills examines not only the psychology of the man himself and his relationships with others-from his wife, Pat, to his vice-president, Spiro Agnew-but also the state of the nation at the time, mired in the Vietnam War and experiencing a cultural rift that pitted the young against the old. Putting his findings into moral, economic, intellectual, and political contexts, he ultimately paints a broad and provocative landscape of the nation's-and Nixon's-travails (The New York Times). Simultaneously compassionate and critical, and raising interesting perspectives on the shifting definitions of terms like conservative and liberal over recent decades, Nixon Agonistes is a brilliant and indispensable book from one of America's most acclaimed historians.

Nixon agonistes :
ISBN: 0618134328 OCLC: 51478001

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : 2002.

From one of America's most distinguished historians comes this classic analysis of Richard Nixon. By considering some of the president's opinions, Wills comes to the controversial conclusion that Nixon was actually a liberal. Both entertaining and essential, Nixon Agonistes captures a troubled leader and a struggling nation mired in a foolish Asian war, forfeiting the loyalty of its youth, puzzled by its own power, and looking to its cautious president for confidence. In the end, Nixon Agonistes reaches far beyond its assessment of the thirty-seventh president to become an incisive and provocative analysis of the American political machine.

Outside looking in :
ISBN: 9781101444412 OCLC: 759841503

Viking, New York : 2010.

Prolific journalist, historian, political columnist, and practicing Catholic Wills (now 76) writes an intensely opinionated re-evaluation of leaders and celebrities he has encountered, among them Studs Terkel, Beverly Sills, William Buckley, Richard Nixon, and more.

  Outside looking in :
ISBN: 0670022144 OCLC: 544287360

Viking, New York : 2010.

Prolific journalist, historian, political columnist, and practicing Catholic Wills (now 76) writes an intensely opinionated re-evaluation of leaders and celebrities he has encountered, among them Studs Terkel, Beverly Sills, William Buckley, Richard Nixon, and more.

Papal sin :
ISBN: 0385494106 OCLC: 42810704

Doubleday, New York : 2000.

Chronicles the history of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the Church's devious practices and stubborn resistance to the truth.

Papal sin :
ISBN: 0385494114 OCLC: 48067040

Image Books/Doubleday, New York : 2001, ©2000.

New in paperback: from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wills comes a bestselling and occasionally stinging critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the 19th century to the present.

Reagan's America /
ISBN: 0140296077 OCLC: 45129514

Penguin Books, New York : ©2000.

"In Reagan's America, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Garry Wills seeks to understand Reagan's appeal through understanding his audience, the Americans who found in him everything they wanted to believe about themselves." "From the Mississippi Valley culture of Reagan's youth to the dreamland of midcentury Hollywood, from the California governor's office to the White House, Wills shows how Reagan's environment and quintessentially American careers - lifeguard, athlete, actor, union leader, and businessman - informed his values and ultimately contributed to his success as a politician." "An authoritative biography and a fascinating cultural history, Reagan's America reveals how this savvy, charismatic leader succeeded in restoring a nation's nearly lost sense of innocence and faith in itself."--Jacket.

REAGAN'S AMERICA :
ISBN: 1504045416 OCLC: 985681681

OPEN ROAD MEDIA, [Place of publication not identified] : 2017.

New York Times Bestseller: A remarkable and evenhanded study of Ronald Reagan from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg (The New York Times). Updated with a new preface by the author, this captivating biography of America's fortieth president recounts Ronald Reagan's life-from his poverty-stricken Illinois childhood to his acting career to his California governorship to his role as commander in chief-and examines the powerful myths surrounding him, many of which he created himself. Praised by some for his sunny optimism and old-fashioned rugged individualism, derided by others for being a politician out of touch with reality, Reagan was both a popular and polarizing figure in the 1980s United States, and continues to fascinate us as a symbol. In Reagan's America, Garry Wills reveals the realities behind Reagan's own descriptions of his idyllic boyhood, as well as the story behind his leadership of the Screen Actors Guild, the role religion played in his thinking, and the facts of his military service. With a wide-ranging and balanced assessment of both the personal and political life of this outsize American icon, the author of such acclaimed works as What Jesus Meant and The Kennedy Imprisonment elegantly dissects the first U.S. President to come out of Hollywood's dream factory [in] a fascinating biography whose impact is enhanced by techniques of psychological profile and social history (Los Angeles Times).

  Saint Augustine
ISBN: 9780786508563 OCLC: 793231173

Penguin Books, New York, N.Y. : 2005.

Saint Augustine /
ISBN: 0670886106 OCLC: 40452959

For centuries, Augustine's writings have moved and fascinated readers. With the fresh, keen eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis has won him a Pulitzer Prize, Gary Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his influential interpretation of the Christian doctrines of mind and body, wisdom and God. Saint Augustine explores both the great ruminator on the human condition and the everyday man who set pen to parchment. It challenges many misconceptions, among them those regarding his early sexual excesses. Here, for students, Christians, and voyagers into the new millennium, is a lively and incisive portrait of one who helped to shape our thoughts.

The Kennedy imprisonment :
ISBN: 1504045394 OCLC: 988756984

With a new preface: An irreverent [and] entertaining portrait of JFK, the Camelot mystique, and the politics of charisma (The Christian Science Monitor). Described by the New York Times as a sort of intellectual outlaw, Garry Wills takes on the romantic myths surrounding the Kennedy clan in this thought-provoking examination of electoral politics and the power of image in America. Wills argues that the much-admired dynasty, beginning with patriarch Joe Kennedy, created a corrupt climate where appearances were more important than reality, truth was discarded when it wasn't convenient, and an assortment of devoted loyalists sacrificed integrity for the sake of reflected glory. Touching upon topics ranging from the manipulation of the PT-109 story in the media to the authorship of Profiles in Courage to the handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis to persistent rumors of extramarital affairs, Wills offers a persuasive look not only at President John F. Kennedy and his brothers Robert and Edward, but also at the bubble that existed around them and lured in some of the best and brightest of the era. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg and Why I Am a Catholic, The Kennedy Imprisonment is a brilliant and troubling study of the Kennedy era in American politics (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

The Kennedy imprisonment :
ISBN: 0618134433 OCLC: 51274839

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : 2002.

"From one of America's Foremost Historians, The Kennedy Imprisonment is the definitive historical and psychological analysis of the Kennedy clan. The winner of a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Wills reveals a family that enjoyed public adulation but provided fluctuating leadership, that experienced both unparalleled fame and odd failures, and whose basic values ensnared its men in their own myths of success and masculinity. In the end, Wills demonstrates, the Kennedys' crippling conception of power touched every aspect of their public and private lives, including their relationships with women and world leaders. Sometimes gossipy, sometimes philosophical, The Kennedy Imprisonment is a book that is as true, insightful, and relevant as ever."--Jacket.

The rosary :
ISBN: 9781101118092 OCLC: 722887934

Penguin Books, New York : 2006, ©2005.

The rosary :
ISBN: 0143037978 OCLC: 76827327

Penguin Books, New York : 2006, ©2005.

"The Christian rosary arranges beads so that one can contemplate different episodes in the life of Christ. Though some think of the rosary as a form of piety, sentimental if not superstitious, Wills argues that it is deeply grounded in the life of Christ's mystical body. He supplies the texts from the gospels that are meditated on, with some suggested reflections and a series of exquisite Tintoretto paintings to concentrate the mind."--Page 4 of cover.

Under God :
ISBN: 141654335X OCLC: 173847187

Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, New York : 2007.

In Under God, Garry Wills, one of our liveliest and most eminent political observers, moves through the tapestry of American history, illuminating the instances where American politics and American religion have collided. Beginning with the 1988 presidential contest, an election that included two ministers and a senator accused of sin, Wills surveys our history to show the continuity of present controversies with past religious struggles and argues that the secular standards of the Founding Fathers have been misunderstood. He shows that despite reactionary fire-breathers and fanatics, religion has often been a progressive force in American politics and explains why the policy of a separate church and state has, ironically, made the position of the church stronger. Marked by the extraordinary quality of observation that has defined the work of Garry Wills, Under God is a rich, original look at why religion and politics will never be separate in the United States.

Venice - Lion City
ISBN: 9781439122129 OCLC: 1085227750

Washington Square Press, New York : 2013.

Venice: lion city :
ISBN: 0684871904 OCLC: 46992006

Simon & Schuster, New York : ©2001.

A historical perspective on Venice during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is told through its relationship with art and its connection to religion, and details the labor, warfare, prayer, and discipline of the time.

  What Jesus meant
ISBN: 9781615747139 OCLC: 496960367

Playaway Digital Audio : [Solon, Ohio] : [2010], ℗2006.

In a time of national debate about what the Bible says on social issues Wills a distinguished historian and writer on religion examines what Jesus actually said about how we should live our lives -- and how he chose to live his own.

What Jesus meant /
ISBN: 014303880X OCLC: 61684207

Viking, New York : 2006.

In what are billed as "culture wars," people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program--He was far more radical than that. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the working class, and he spoke to and for that class. This book will challenge the assumptions of almost everyone who brings religion into politics--"Christian socialists" as well as biblical theocrats. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity--Jesus without the Resurrection is simply not the Jesus of the gospels. He argues that this does not make people embrace an otherworldliness that ignores the poor or the problems of our time.--From publisher description.

  What Paul meant
ISBN: 9781441716149 OCLC: 472425100

Playaway Digital Audio : [Solon, Ohio] : [2009], ℗2006.

Throughout history, Christians have debated Paul's influence in the church. Though revered, Paul has also been controversial. Apocryphal writings by Peter and James charge Paul with being a tool of Satan. In later centuries, Paul was scorned by such writers as Thomas Jefferson, George Bernard Shaw, and Nietzsche. In this masterly analysis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills chronicles Paul's tremendous influence on the first explosion of Christian belief, the controversy surrounding Paul through the centuries, and the meaning of his words. He argues eloquently that what Paul meant was not contrary to what Jesus meant. Rather, the best way to know Jesus is to discover Paul. Unlike the Gospel writers, who carefully shaped their narratives many decades after Jesus' life, Paul wrote in the heat of the moment, offering the best reflection of those early times.

What Paul meant /
ISBN: 0143112635 OCLC: 66393767

Viking, New York : 2006.

All through history, Christians have debated Paul's influence on the church. Though revered, Paul has also been a stone on which many stumble. Unlike the Gospel writers, who carefully shaped their narratives many decades after Jesus' life, Paul wrote in the heat of the moment, managing controversy, and sometimes contradicting himself, but at the same time offering the best reflection of those early times. This interpretation of Paul's writing examines his tremendous influence on the first explosion of Christian belief and chronicles the controversy surrounding Paul through the centuries.--From publisher description.

What the Gospels meant
ISBN: 9780143142997 OCLC: 192215840

Penguin Audio, New York : ℗2008.

Examines the goals, methods, and styles of Jesus' disciples and illustrates how each follower's unique approach shaped the message of the Gospels. The earliest book, Mark, emphasizes Jesus the sufferer; in Matthew, Jesus the teacher; in Luke, Jesus the reconciler; and in John, Jesus the mystic.

What the Gospels meant /
ISBN: 014311512X OCLC: 141483750

Viking, New York : 2008.

Examines the goals, methods, and styles of the evangelists and how these shaped the gospels' messages. The earliest book, Mark, emphasizes Jesus the sufferer; in Matthew, Jesus the teacher; in Luke, Jesus the reconciler; and in John, Jesus the mystic.

Why I am a Catholic
ISBN: 0618380485 OCLC: 52493683

Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston : ©2003.

In This Provocative Work, Which Could Not be Timelier, Garry Wills, one of our country's most noted writers and historians, offers a powerful statement of his Catholic faith. Beginning with a reflection on his early experience of that faith as a child and later as a Jesuit seminarian, Wills reveals the importance of Catholicism in his own life. For wills, a Catholic can be both loyal and critical, a loving child who stays with his father even if the parent is wrong. Wills turns outward from his personal experiences to present a sweeping narrative covering two thousand years of church history, revealing that the papacy, far from being an unchanging institution, has been transformed dramatically over the millennia -- and can be reimagined again. At a time when the church faces one of its most difficult crises, Garry Wills offers an important and compelling entree into the discussion of the church's past -- and its future. Intellectually brisk and spiritually moving, Why I Am a Catholic poses urgent questions for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike. Book jacket.--Jacket.

Why I am a Catholic /
ISBN: 0618134298 OCLC: 50059695

Houghton Mifflin, Boston : ©2002.

The author recounts his own experiences as a Jesuit seminarian and a Catholic layman, traces the origins of the papacy and explains why this often fallible institution is not the same as the Church, and discusses the Apostle's Creed.

  Why priests? :
ISBN: 9781452690193 OCLC: 918239759

Tantor Media, Old Saybrook, Conn. : ℗2013.

Bestselling author of Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic, Garry Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need priests at all' Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the priesthood, as it was at its outset? Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests' asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of Peter and Paul with notable success. Wills concludes with a powerful statement of his own beliefs in a book that will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike and stand for years to come as a towering achievement.

Why priests? :
ISBN: 0670024872 OCLC: 796756350

In his most provocative book yet, Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills asks the radical question: Why do we need priests? Author Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need priests at all? Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the priesthood, as it was at its outset? Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests? asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of Peter and Paul with notable success.--From publisher description.

Witches and Jesuits :
ISBN: 0195102908 OCLC: 30076765

New York Public Library ; New York : 1995.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1993 book Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills showed how the Gettysburg Address revolutionized the conception of modern America. In Witches and Jesuits, Wills again focuses on a single document to open up a window on an entire society. He begins with a simple question: If Macbeth is such a great tragedy, why do performances of it so often fail? The stage history of Macbeth has created a legendary curse on the drama. Superstitious actors try to evade the curse by referring to Macbeth only as the Scottish play, but production after production continues to soar in its opening scenes, only to sputter towards anticlimax in the later acts. By critical consensus there seems to have been only one entirely successful modern performance of the play, Laurence Olivier's in 1955. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of the vivid intrigue and drama of Jacobean England, Wills restores Macbeth's suspenseful tension by returning it to the context of its own time, recreating the burning theological and political crises of Shakespeare's era. He reveals how deeply Macbeth's original 1606 audiences would have been affected by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a small cell of plotters came within a hairbreadth of successfully blowing up not only the King, but the Prince his heir, and all members of the court and Parliament. Wills likens their shock to that endured by Americans following Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination. Furthermore, Wills documents, the Jesuits were widely believed to be behind the Plot, acting in conjunction with the Devil, and so pervasive was the fear of witches that just two years before Macbeth's first performance, King James I added to the witchcraft laws a decree of death for those who procured the skin, bone, or any other part of any dead person - to be employed or used in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment. We see that the treason and necromancy in Macbeth were more than the imaginings of a gifted playwright - they were dramatizations of very real and potent threats to the realm. In this new light, Macbeth is transformed. Wills presents a drama that is more than a well-scripted story of a murderer getting his just penalty. It is the struggle for the soul of a nation. The death of a King becomes a truly apocalyptic event, and Malcolm, the slain King's son, attains the status of a man defying cosmic evil. The guilt of Lady Macbeth takes on the Faustian aspect of one who has singed her hands in hell. The witches on the heath, shrugged off as mere symbols of Macbeth's inner guilt and ambition by some interpreters, emerge as independent agents of the occult with their own (or their Master's) terrifying agenda. Restoring the theological politics and supernatural elements that modern directors have shied away from, Wills points the way towards a Macbeth that will finally escape the theatrical curse on the Scottish play. Rich in insight and a joy to read, Witches and Jesuits is a tour de force of scholarship and imagination by one of our foremost writers, essential reading for anyone who loves the language.

 

 

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