Following "Aquinas and Girard", Alison plumbs the depth of human nature to demonstrate that religious truths are truths we must experience in our own lives. No Catholic writer has created more excitement in recent years than James Alison. His readings of Scripture and his explorations of the great themes of systematic theology have refreshed, moved and astonished readers inside and outside the church. This new book is about religion and violence, God and desire, and the recovery of an authentically Catholic vision of life. It includes a series of brilliant biblical commentaries - including a striking reinterpretation of the parable of the prodigal son - and reflections on the 'terrifying and risky business' of being a gay Catholic. 'I am a priest, but, as far as I can tell, of no juridical standing' and 'a theologian, but I effectively work as a freelancer. This too is an anomaly, since theology is an ecclesial discipline, presupposing structure, collegiality and oversight, so to be a 'freelance theologian' sounds to me very much like a contradiction in terms.'
In God, desire and the endgame, Catholicism becomes an earthquake that overturns all our self-understandings and all our pattern of desire.