The Stained Glass Curtain (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

People edit see section history

• Richard John Neuhaus: Quotes are taken from this Catholic priest, author, editor and ecumenicist whom, before his death, US News and World Report called one of the "most influential intellectuals in America".
• Bill McCartney: Quotes are given from, and references made to the work of this former head football coach at the University of Colorado, present Evangelical leader, and chairman/CEO of Promise Keepers. Coach Bill also endorsed the book.
• The saints: The book is filled with quotations from Catholic heroes throughout the ages.
• Pope John Paul II: Quotes are also given from his personal unofficial writings.
• Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa ("The Pope's Preacher"): Various quotations are used from the writings and speeches of this Franciscan priest who is preacher to the papal household.
• Chuck Colson: The book contains an extensive quote from, and references to the work of this recently deceased prolific Evangelical author/speaker, pioneer in ecumenism, and co-initiator of "Evangelicals and Catholics Together".

Quotes edit see section history

• “I am not ashamed to confess that on many points my views have been clarified through my study of Romish theologians.”

  Abraham Kuyper (19th century Calvinist theologian)

• “The relationship between Catholics and Evangelicals is a story of power-plays and politics, misundersandings and bitterness -- all of which have bred a suspicion lasting into our lifetime. Battle lines from past wars -- sometimes literal wars -- are still drawn, even if only in the realm of ideas and beliefs. Like all history, {this} has become an inherited filter through which one group is taught to view the other.”

• “Insofar as the prejudices we've learned from the experiences of history persist in our relationships, we can be sure we will not attain the unity that the Spirit prompts in our hearts.”

• “Information can not only inform our ignorance, it can also provide revelation -- but only if we are willing to suspend our judgments long enough to receive it.”

• “Even Catholics have found it a challenge to approach their faith document-based rather than by what their religious experience of the past has told them.”

• “The Church was not created to be a crooked, bent, historical oddity used to gratify people's curiosities or agendas.”

• “The Churches with a strong dogmatic and theological tradition...run the risk of finding themselves at a disadvantage if underneath the immense heritage of doctrine, laws and institutions, they do not find that primordial nucleus capable of awakening faith by itself.”

  Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa ("The Pope's Preacher")

• “God's purpose in creating us was not simply to get us to go through a set of motions we call "worship" or to follow a set of rules we call "commandments".”

• “God is as approachable as love itself.”

• “The gospel's first Spiritual Truth asserts that religion without relationship is irrelevant, but God is not. Either God is relevant to every person's real lived life, or He's not God at all.”

• “The universal design for the salvation of the human race is not...achieved merely through those multiple endeavors, including religious ones, by which men search for God.”

  The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church

• “Many make the mistake of thinking that salvation amounts to nothing more than a predated ticket to heaven.”

• “Salvation not only confronts evil in each of its existing forms in this world but proclaims victory over evil.”

  Pope John Paul II

• “In my experience the majority who say they're Catholic don't actually expect that being a Christian will amount to a quantum-leap change in their real-lived lives, much less one that can only be described as "new creation" -- even though our own Church teaches these things.”

• “The modern person in general can hardly believe that a historical event some two thousand years ago -- the death and resurrection of Jesus -- radically altered the possibilities of human existence both now and for all eternity. Yet this is exactly what Christianity unashamedly claims.”

• “A gift given is not the same as a gift received.”

• “Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin.”

  The Catechism of the Catholic Church

• “Head faith and surrender are two different realities. The gospel is not interested in the first...it calls for the second.”

• “Yes, this gospel is real. I know so for myself.”

• “The water of baptism alone does not guarantee the change of life Christianity offers.”

• “The leadership of the Catholic Church is under no pretence that people who call themselves Catholics -- even practicing Catholics -- have heard, understood and responded to the salvation message we profess in our official teaching.”

• “...the initial evangelization has often not taken place.”

  Pope John Paul II

• “What is needed is a "new evangelization"....”

  Pope John Paul II

• “Catholic theology recognizes the concept of a valid but bound sacrament.”

  Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa ("The Pope's Preacher")

• “It is, after all, much more important that a person find salvation in Christ than that he or she belong without conviction to any particular community.”

  Cardinal Edward Cassidy (former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity)

• “Faith is born of preaching, and every ecclesial community draws its origin and life from the personal response of each believer to that preaching.”

  Pope John Paul II

• “Indeed, in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.”

  Haldir, the elf (in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring)

• “Justification takes place "by grace alone"; by faith alone the person is justified "apart from works".”

  Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (signed bythe Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church)

• “Catholics must joyfully acknowledge and esteem the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage which are to be found among our separated brethren.”

  The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church

• “Who...would still deny that Martin Luther was a deeply religious person who with honesty and dedication sought for the message of the gospel?”

  Cardinal Johannes Willebrands (former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity)

• “You are to say that we frankly acknowledge that...for many years things deserving of abhorrence have gathered around the Holy See {the Papacy}.”

  Pope Adrian VI (a pope during the time of Martin Luther)

• “The more confident people are of the truth, the more grace they exhibit to those who disagree.”

  Charles Colson

• “Our teaching no longer allows us to play the "Counter Reformation trump card" when confronted by Evangelicals. In other words, we can no longer hide behind the defensive superiority or triumphalism that once characterized many sectors of our Church in the face of Protestantism. That posture was buried at the Second Vatican Council and is no longer in service.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Chicago IL
• Pisa, Italy
• "The matrix"
• 1830 Philadelphia PA
• Osaka, Japan

Organizations edit see section history

• Protestants: Add a description of this organization.
• Catholics
• Evangelicals: Movement begun by Protestant Christians centered on the "evangel", or gospel-message of salvation; often called "born-again Christians"
• Lutheran World Federation
• Leadership of the Catholic Church
• Promise Keepers: Evangelical men's movement dedicated to, among other things, reconciliation in the Christian Church
• The Franciscan Order: A movement started in the 13th century, still existing today, of male celibate followers of Saint Francis of Assisi
• The Barna Group: A Christian version of the Gallup Poll, charting trends and movements within Christianity and culture

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• justification: the way a person can say he or she is "OK with God"; also called "righteousness"
• grace: unmerited favor; often spoken of in relation to God
• ecumenism, ecumenical: having to do with Christian unity across our present-day divisions
• denomination, denominationalism: a church communion separate from all others in Christianity; the fact that there are separate church groupings in Christianity that don't relate to one another
• Curia: The Vatican's administrators over the Universal Catholic Church
• Counter Reformation: the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Movement, The Reformation
• celibates: unmarried people
• clericalism: viewing or acting like my official leadership position makes me superior to others
• evangelization: sharing the basic gospel (a word that means "Good News") of who Jesus Christ is and what he came to do for the world
• clarion call: the sound of a trumpet
• primordial: first in order; more important than anything else that follows
• matrix: a place or a state of being which determines the nature of everything else in it
• genetically engineered humans: in the world of science fiction, a new breed of humans produced by direct scientific altering of genes and hereditary traits
• revelation: God communicating to us His very Person or the way He sees things
• righteousness: right standing with God
• New Age: A popular Western spiritual movement and philosophy started in the late 20th century; borrowing from psychology, older Eastern religions, and various other sources, it proposes that all truly spiritual paths lead the same direction, and that humans are merely underdeveloped spiritual beings who need to free themselves through whatever spiritual paths we choose
• self-actualized: reaching one's fullest potential as a human
• interior integration: all parts of the inner self working together in harmony
• deism: a belief in a God that says little more about Him than that He exists
• paschal mystery: the core of Christianity: the meaning and impact of the death and resurrection of Jesus
• satisfaction (for our sins): making up what was lost because of wrongdoing
• redemption: being freed from the bondage wrongdoing causes in us
• reparation: repairing the damage done in our relationship with God because of our wrongdoing
• atonement: reconciliation and peace needed with God because of our wrongdoing
• Latin Rite/Roman Rite: the way of worship in most of the Western part of the Catholic Church
• liturgy: rites of worship and sacraments
• salvific: saving; able to save
• universality: "universal-ness"; the ability to apply to all things or people
• relativism: the stance that there is no absolute truth and that all points of view are equally valuable
• salutary: beneficial
• credal: "of the creed", or having to do with the ideas one believes
• "the flesh"/"the old flesh": a biblical term for our thoughts and actions not under complete submission to God
• inner healing: a spiritual work of healing internal emotional pain
• sacralized: having had a ritual or sacrament performed over one's self
• evangelistic: containing some sharing of the basic Good News of who Jesus Christ is and what he came to do for the world
• Pontifical: having to do with, or sponsored by, the Pope
• Eucharistic: from the Communion Table
• dispensation: everything making it possible to live in a certain way

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• a fishbowl: Describe this theme.
• the relationship, unity, and reconciliation of Evangelicals and Catholics
• popular misconceptions about what the Catholic Church officially teaches
• the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• the foundational Message of Christianity: that upon which everything else in Christianity (including the Catholic Church) is supposed to be based
• Christianity: just a religion, or truly a relationship?
• the movie "The Matrix"
• Who really is Jesus, and what real difference did he make?
• the conviction of George Wilson in 1830: a very unique case in Philadelphia that made it all the way to the Supreme Court
• what real Christianity -- and the Catholic Church -- say about salvation: Salvation addresses the questions, "How do I know if I'm really right with God?", "Where is my life ultimately headed?", and "How can this world be made a better and different place?" The book also presents what the Catholic Church teaches in response to the question, "Do Catholics have to be 'born again'?"
• how the sacraments do and don't relate to the foundational Message of Christianity
• affirmation for Martin Luther and Protestants in official Catholic teaching: one of the biggest surprises in the book; most Evangelicals AND Catholics are unaware of what the Catholic Church actually says on this subject

Errata edit see section history

p. 31, 2nd paragraph: "On Evangelization in the Modern World, 11" should read "52"

p. 89, ftnt., 7th line: should read “all through life constantly….”

p. 115, last paragraph, first sentence should read, “As surprising as this may sound....”

p. 123, indented quote beginning with "Today it is more important..." leaves out the last word, "reflection.”

p. 125, last line: "Ecumenism, 7" should read "4"

p. 128, indented quote should end “…the more grace they exhibit to those who don’t agree.”

p. 136, Chapter 2/ftnt. 1 & 3: the title should read "Break Down the Walls"

p. 136, Chapter 3/ftnt. 7: the date citation should read "December 2, 2005"

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Dimitri Sala (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: BV 601.3 .S25 2010
• Dewey: 230

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Religion & Spirituality › Christianity › Theology

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Facebook
• The Stained Glass Curtain website
• Transform Our World: website of Harvest Evangelism, an international ministry in which the author participates as a facilitator for reconciliation between Evangelicals and Catholics, and as a faculty member for its annual International Institute for Nation Transformation; Harvest Evangelism is led by the writer of the book's forward, Ed Silvoso

Movie Connections edit see section history

• The Lord of the Rings
• The Matrix
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Jesus of Nazareth: A 1977 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, starring lots of know film actors.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history