View
Anatomy of a Conversion
Paula Huston on Becoming a New Kind of Human Being
During Thanksgiving dinner at our house, eaten outside in the sharp, rain-washed, brilliant air you can only find in California on a perfect fall day, I had a conversation with someone I barely knew, a young man of thirty, a husband and father of two, handsome, out of work, very likely despairing but hiding it under a practiced if weary smile (years in the “hospitality industry,” as he put it). The only thing I knew about him prior to our talk was that his three-year-old son and baby daughter had just been baptized into the Roman Catholic Church—this, despite his not being Catholic or even able to say whether he was a believer.
I told him I found that both admirable and puzzling. Why had he agreed to do it? He admitted he never would have thought of it on his own—he’d been raised like most of his generation, without religion—but he himself had at least been baptized as an infant and it seemed important for him not to stand in the way of his wife’s desire that their children should be, too. “But the whole thing was nice,” he assured me, still sounding surprised though the event had taken place some days ago. “Really nice. I’m glad I was there.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Paula Huston is the author of two novels, short fiction, and seven works of spiritual non-fiction, her most recent title being One Ordinary Sunday: A Meditation on the Mystery of the Mass (Ave Maria). She is also an NEA Fellow in Creative Writing, the president of the Chrysostom Society, and a Camaldolese Benedictine oblate.
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!
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 conversion from the online archives
more from the online archives
17.6—July/August 2004
Old Science Confronts a Formidable Challenge in the Scientific ID Movement by Jay W. Richards
32.5—September/October 2019
Some Trivial Thoughts on the Study of Philosophy by Graeme Hunter
29.4—July/August 2016
Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley J. Birzer by Hunter Baker
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
