Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life (Paperback)

Richard Chartres has a distinctive and original voice. The bishop of one of the richest dioceses in the world, Chartres is passionately concerned with preaching the Christian gospel--not through watered down sociology or psychobabble, but by conveying the truth of the wisdom of the Gospel. Wisdom for the author is a way of being in the world, aware of the deep structure of life, respectful of other human beings, taking life, not for granted, but with thanksgiving to its Author. Bishop Chartres reflects on these themes in a book that begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes with Epiphany. At each turn he addresses the human condition in the world now. Today there is a cocktail of alarming terrorists with the lethal knowledge of poison now so easily and ironically accessible through one of our greatest technical achievements, the Internet, he writes. Fear at root is disconnection with the source of life, a sense of being profoundly at risk. Thus the business of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit.