Christ in Eclipse / Frank Sheed

Too many of the people sitting in the pews of today’s churches have been unchanged by their relationship with Christ, says the urbane, astute, and provocative Frank Sheed. The same goes for Church leaders, he asserts. Yet neither clergy nor laity are blind to, or silent about, the others’ weaknesses.

Sheed charges that both share a common failure to consider Christ as they propose both radical change and a return to old ways in order to correct the problems they see. Says Sheed, “I have fallen into a way of reminding the objectors that . . . an administration is necessary if the Church is to function, but Christ is the whole point of that functioning.”

From the perspective of a half-century preaching career, which began on a corner soapbox in London, Sheed observes that “people, more than ever, don’t find God interesting”, and he sets out to demonstrate in this book that God’s transformative power in Christ is the most interesting reality of all.