Ordained 1954 in Rome. Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the PontificalGregorian University, Rome.  Assistant Chancellor seven years, Pastor five years in Harrisburg, PA. Activist in anti-war and anti-poverty movements ten years. Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Notre Dame, Maryland,  twenty years. Married twenty-eight years.

Belief in God as an almighty presence on planet earth is terrifying when the almighty is seen at “his” almighty best as the architect and CEO of hell. But belief in God as an almighty presence is most disturbing when seen in light of the parable of the Last Judgment told by Jesus shortly before his death. In it God sends to hell all who do not treat the least as if they were Jesus, accepting no excuses such as “I did not know that bum was you.” That is one mighty almighty judgment.

What’s a believer to do? This memoir tells how one believer escaped from his fear of  hell, a fear drilled into him when he was a child and young man. It is also the story of how the Last Judgment parable radically changed his life for about ten years, and how he finally settled for taking this parable as a kick in the butt given to help him get his priorities straight, not as a threat to be taken literally.

Though the author was trained to be a theologian, the voice used is that of a friend talking to friends. He tells how his escape from the fear of hell began with a radical change in his life style. He rejected the offer of a bigger parish and accepted his bishop’s permission to work with the poorest of the poor in any territory he found acceptable. His search for such work took him to the slums, to Indian reservations, to the mountains and jungles of Peru, to living and working with the poor in Washington, D.C. as an anti-Vietnam War activist. On the road he came to believe that Jesus gave his life and ministry to put an end to hell on earth, to our wrath and our cruelty, not to save us from a supposed divine wrath and cruelty that would blaspheme the name of God as loving Father.

His decade on the road ended in twenty years of teaching Religious Studies on a college campus. It was here he worked on some key concerns:

Christianity cannot dismiss the two-millenia threat of hell simply by no longer preaching it from the pulpit or by just saying "Fuhgedaboutit":

Nothing has robbed the poor more than the church's threat of hell for every serious sin except that of not treating the least as if they were Jesus:

Christianity has not served us well by focusing on the divinity rather than the humanity of Jesus.

For help in dealing with these concerns he thanks his students. He claims that because of them he taught more than he knew.

His mother died as he was retiring from teaching. His retirement pondering, the source of this book, began as that of a bereaved son not as a probing theologian.