Ridiculous Prodigal eviewed by Ian Hunter

Book Review

Ridiculous Prodigal

Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Roman Catholic Church
by Kaya Oakes

Counterpoint, 2014
(256 pages, $15.95, paperback)

How and why and when stragglers slog their solitary path to the Church of Rome is a fascinating topic. Some, like me, become convinced of the validity of the ecclesial claims Rome asserts. Others come in following a traumatic life event. Still others turn up at a parish church because of a genuine curiosity as to just what goes on inside those doors. Fortunately, the Church is immense, capacious enough to handle all who come, whoever they are and whatever their motive. Kaya Oakes is a middle-aged Californian who teaches writing courses at the University of California at Berkeley. Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Roman Catholic Church is her conversion story.

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of biographies of Robert Burns, Hesketh Pearson, and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Print &
Online Subscription

Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!

Online
Subscription

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!

bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more on Catholic from the online archives

31.6—November/December 2018

Enduring Sacrilege

The Slow Vindication of Leon Podles by S. M. Hutchens

32.6—November/December 2019

Reformation Redux?

on Taking Heed of the Parallels Between the Crises of Yesterday & Today by Korey D. Maas

29.3—May/June 2016

Health of the Nation

A Deathbed Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching & Our Future Prospects by Karl D. Stephan


more from the online archives

18.2—March 2005

Long Shadows of Eden

On Conservatism as Vexation, Vanity & Near Impossibility by Graeme Hunter

37.5—Sept/Oct 2024

Great & Wonderful Days

The Death of Conservatism & the Negative World by J. Douglas Johnson

36.1—Jan/Feb 2023

Contraceptive Cons

A History of the Protestant Debate over Contraception by James A. Altena

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00