Donald F. Kilburg
Description
Product Description A timely, provocative, and occasionally irreverent treatise on the centuries-old concept of sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church
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, Neither Virgin nor Martyr: Holiness in the Third Millennium calls for a paradigm shift in our understanding of Christian holiness in the third millennium. Author Donald F. Kilburg, Jr., is a lay Catholic and a businessman who brings his secular world perspective to the application of Gospel principles to everyday life. Noting that traditional models of holiness emphasize martyrdom, virginity, or both as prerequisites for sainthood, the author contends that answering God's call today presupposes neither. This hope-filled book demonstrates that the practice of perfection and Christian virtue is just as relevant to all people of the modern era as it has been during the first two millennia since the birth of Christ. To illustrate his point, Kilburg uses the lives of over two hundred saints, beautiful, and holy people of the Catholic church whose life journeys included sexual experience and a natural death to show that there are many ways to heaven. Neither Virgin nor Martyr is a must-read for anyone aspiring to the Christian ideal, but who does not expect to be called upon to shed blood in witness of their faith or for whom virginity is but a memory. It is also an excellent window into a post-Vatican II layman's view of Christianity as Christ meant it to be lived. It should be read by clergy, religious, and lay Christians alike. About the Author A "Cradle Catholic" author Donald F. Kilburg, Jr., is a business executive for a large metal casting company and has been involved in the metals industry for his entire working career. He is a product of the Catholic school system through grammar school, high school, and college. A two-time graduate of DePaul University, he holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in business administration. Kilburg is a husband, father of three, and grandfather. He has an interest in history, particularly the history of the Catholic church, and has both a pre-and post-Vatican II perspective. In 1990 Kilburg and his family moved to South Carolina from his native Chicago, Illinois. There he found a small but active Catholic minority in the heart of the "Bible belt" and he became involved in a number of parish ministries. He and his wife of thirty years, Pat, have been deeply involved in their parish Order of Christian Initiation of Adults ministry. Many of the thoughts included within Neither Virgin nor Martyr: Holiness in the Third Christian Millennium find their origin in inquiry and discernment discussions with prospective or new Catholics.
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