There can be no denying that in the past the Catholic Church in Ireland exerted an undue influence on affairs of state. It was also intrusive in its attempts to control the sexual lives and practices of its members. Similarly, a tiny minority of priests and religious abused their power and indulged in what were heinous crimes against innocent and vulnerable children. Nevertheless, the great work the Church did in the realms of education, health and culture is often conveniently forgotten. The strong social justice agenda of the Church has the potential to run contrary to the tide of consumerist values that have come centre stage since the advent of the Celtic Tiger. In our blind pursuit of the pleasures of this world, is there not a danger that we have lost sight of some of the positive aspects of religion?

The question of what we've lost and what has emerged to replace some of the vital roles the church played in Irish society is what prompted John Littleton and Eamon Maher to edit a collection of essays that would tease out in a critical and detached manner the state of contemporary Irish Catholicism.

Patsy McGarry ('Of Scribes and Pharisees') supplies a moving and at times impassioned account of how certain female members of his family fell foul of the hypocritical and Pharisaic attitudes prevalent in the Ireland of the recent past. Catherine Maignant ('The New Prophets: Voices from the Margins') believes that genuine Christian witness and spiritual vibrancy in Ireland are most often situated among marginal figures like Sr Stanislaus Kennedy and Fr Peter McVerry. John F. Deane ('The Jesus Body, The Jesus Bones') provides a poetic interpretation of his personal experience of Catholicism while Colum Kenny ('Reporting Religion') examines the proper business of a journalist writing or making programmes about religion.

John Littleton ('Being a Catholic in Ireland Today') expresses an insider's view of the debasing of certain religious practices and sacraments in contemporary Ireland. Larry McCaffrey ('From Devotion to Dissent: Irish-American Catholicism, 1945-2006') draws some extremely interesting parallels between the problems besetting Irish-American Catholicism and those visible on the other side of the pond.

There are also chapters on education, art and popular culture, Church-State relations, as well as on literary figures such as Dermot Bolger, EilŽan N’ Chuilleanáin and the French priest-novelist, Jean Sulivan, whose poignant memoir is compared to that of the late John McGahern.

Note The editors are available for interview. For further information contact Teresa Daly, Tel. 01 2942556 ext 222, Email. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Editors John Littleton, Head of Distance Education, The Priory Institute, Tallaght, was President of the National Conference of Ireland (NCPI) for a number of years.

Eamon Maher is Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies in ITT Dublin (Tallaght) and the author of a number of books (on John McGahern and the French priest-writer Jean Sulivan among others).

Contemporary Catholicism in Ireland: A Critical Appraisal is published by The Columba Press, priced at EUR 16.99.