Books with author John Coldwell

Confession is a crucial ritual of the Catholic Church, offering absolution of sin and spiritual guidance to the faithful. Yet this ancient sacrament has also been a source of controversy and oppression, culminating, as prize-winning historian John Cornwell reveals in The Dark Box, with the scandal of clerical child abuse. Drawing on extensive historical sources, contemporary reports, and first-hand accounts, Cornwell takes a hard look at the long evolution of confession.The papacy made annual, one-on-one confession obligatory for the first time in the 13th century. In the era that followed, confession was a source of spiritual consolation as well as sexual and mercenary scandal. During the 16th century, the Church introduced the confession box to prevent sexual solicitation of women, but this private space gave rise to new forms of temptation, both for penitents and confessors. Yet no phase in the story of the sacrament has had such drastic consequences as a historic decree by Pope Pius X in 1910. In reaction to the spiritual perils of the new century, Pius sought to safeguard the Catholic faithful by lowering the age at which children made their first confession from their early teens to seven, while exhorting all Catholics to confess frequently instead of annually. This sweeping, inappropriately early imposition of the sacrament gave priests an unprecedented and privileged role in the lives of young boys and girls?a role that a significant number would exploit in the decades that followed.A much-needed account of confession’s fraught history, The Dark Box explores the sources of the sacrament’s harm and shame, while recognizing its continuing power to offer consolation and reconciliation.

Would you tell your deepest secrets to a relative stranger? And if you did, would you feel vulnerable? Cleansed? Or perhaps even worse than you did before? Confession has always performed a complex role in society, always created mixed feelings in its practitioners. As an acknowledgement of sinfulness, it can provide immense psychological relief; but while aiming to replace remorse with innocence, its history has become inextricably intertwined with eroticism and shame.The Dark Box is an erudite and personal history; Cornwell draws on his own memories of Catholic boyhood, and weaves it with the story of confession from its origins in the early church to the current day, where its enduring psychological potency is evidenced by everything from the Vatican's 'confession app' to Oprah Winfrey's talk shows. Since the 16th century, seclusion of two individuals in the intimate 'dark box', often discussing sexual actions and thoughts, has eroticised the experience of confession. When, in 1905, Pius X made confession a weekly, rather than yearly ritual, the horrific cases of child abuse which have haunted the Catholic church in the twentieth century became possible.John Cornwell's impassioned treatise on the dangers of confession is now available in paperback.

“Full of sense and humor, plenty of anecdotes well given, sensibly used.” -The United Methodist Free Churches Magazine Insightful, biblical thoughts that build a reader's personal day-by-day relationship with Jesus and create a deeper understanding of faith while navigating through the highs and lows of life. Through the whimsical prose, your little ones will discover that God seeks to know us with an amazing and grace-filled love. "There are sublime and magnificent scenes of unparalleled grandeur before us!” "Catch the foxes--the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes!" Song of Songs 2:15 The grumbling fox is known by his constant growl and discontent. An old countryman once gave me some good advice which I have never forgotten. "There are two things," said he, "at which you should never grumble: First, at things which you can change. Secondly, at things which you cannot change. If you can change them--then change them. And if you cannot change them--then leave them alone." "Why, then, we shall never grumble at anything," I replied. "Exactly so!" said he. "He has heard your grumbling against Him. You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD!" Exodus 16:8 "Do not grumble!" James 5:9

In the year 2024, a secret government agency is cloning astronauts for a NASA deep space program. Little thought is given to the clone's survivability, much less the moral issues.When the scientist who is working on the program realizes he has just cloned the President of the United States, he believes there will be an attempt to assassinate the president. When he threatens to blow the whistle he is killed.His 17-year-old son, as brilliant as his father and who is also working on the clone program, witnesses his father's murder and must run for his life and try to save the president too.The boy lives near Deadwood, SD, and his hero is Wild Bill Hickok, who was killed there in 1876. He figures that if he can clone Hickok, the famous lawman might be able to save him and the president.When Wild Bill wakes up on a lab table in the future, he is not happy about the idea of being brought back more than 150 years after he died. The kid gets more than he bargained for because Hickok proves to be as unpredictable and dangerous as he was when he roamed the west as a scout, spy and gunfighter.Wild Bill agrees to help the kid and they get involved in a wild, dangerous adventure when they go up against mercenaries and men intent on replacing the president with a clone that they can control.

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