CONVICTION

Told through stories and anecdotes from biblical times to the present day, and in Father Jenkins’s humane and engaging voice, CONVICTION will be a major statement about the great divisions of our time, a cri de coeur that will be widely read and discussed.

Question for you: What if a book could help heal the profound malice that divides our civic lives? Would you be interested??? In 2009, Reverend John I. Jenkins, President of the University of Notre Dame, created a firestorm when he invited newly elected President Barack Obama to be the commencement speaker at Notre Dame. In introducing the President that day, the Notre Dame President said: "easing the hateful divisions between human beings is the supreme challenge of this age. If we can solve this problem, we have a chance to come together and solve all the others." That experience was the genesis for the forthcoming Random House book, CONVICTION: The Power and Peril of Passionate Belief. CONVICTION will show how deep, unwavering belief has lead to some of the noblest and most inspiring achievements of man. But it also has the potential to be corrupted by greed and pride, leading to hatred. Jenkins seeks to find the dividing line that distinguishes a conviction that is moral from one that is not. And he grapples with the question of how to make deep conviction compatible with order in a diverse and democratic society. How can we solve this moral riddle so that opposing convictions won’t tear society apart as it seems they are in danger of doing all across the world? Told through stories and anecdotes from biblical times to the present day, and in Father Jenkins’s humane and engaging voice, CONVICTION will be a major statement about the great divisions of our time, a cri de coeur that will be widely read and discussed.