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Chester Gillis, the lead-off batter in the new Columbia Contemporary Religion series, has made a solid hit into left center field with this clear, engaging and reliable introduction to U.S. Catholicism. Columbia University Press wants to provide "well-crafted, thoughtful portraits of the country's major religious groups" for nonspecialists. If the rest of the books in this series meet the standard set by Gillis, they will be an invaluable resource for interfaith understanding and harmony in this religious smorgasbord of a country.

The Protestant responses to the “Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church” recently issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s Office for the Doctrine of the Faith (ODF) have been mostly pained surprise, sometimes anger. Leaders in other world religions had a similar reaction. Even Catholics were taken aback by what seemed like a regressive document.