Rating: 
Summary: A Courageous Seeker of the Truth
Review: A LONG WAY FROM TIPPERARY is aptly titled. Crossan left home for boarding school at the age of eleven in 1945. He sailed from Ireland for America in 1951 to study for the priesthood. He resigned from the priesthood after twenty years in order to get married. Crossan later lost his first wife to heart disease. On top of all of this he embarked on a sometimes lonely journey as a scholar which has left him at odds with mainstream academia much of his career. Crossan seems to have enjoyed his role as a maverick and above all else has proven himself to be resilient. I have enjoyed this book and at the same time have acquired a deeper appreciation of Crossan as a courageous seeker of the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: A Long Way from Tipperary: A Memoir
Review: As a theologian, Crossan's contributions to the birth of Christianity have had a significant intellectual and spiritual impact on me. Indeed, more than an priest in recent times, what he has written and the way he has approached subject have brought me back to my core beliefs. I was, therefore, intrigued to read his memoir. The memoir was quite disjointed, a fact I found a disappointing indication that the various phases of his life have not become integrated for him, but, instead, a series of disjointed phases held together by his boundless exuberance, curiosity, and adventurousness. As a reader, one of the things I ask a memoirist to be is honest, and in explaining his reasons for leaving monastic life and the priesthood, reasons I will not discuss for fear of ruining the read for others, is I think brutally honest. Being American, but having being educated some 15 years later in one of the finest convent girl's schools in Ireland, I can assure the readers of the excellence of the education and the harshness of the life. The "private school" education in no way compares with that of life in England's public school's, or the US's private schools, but the educational opportunities are excellent. I was shocked to read that academics and theologians who oppose his views on the historical Jesus dismiss him as an Irish "peasant." This speaks to the kind of arrogance I experienced upon returning from Ireland in the middle of my junior year in high school and being told that, because I'd been educated in a "third world" country, I would have to take remedial courses. It turned out to be quite the opposite. Even in isolated areas of country, the Irish are an extrememly sophisiticated people who have always placed a great stock in education which is church based for majority of children. Crossan's to how faithful Catholics might respond to the encyclical Humanae Vitae, so unacceptable and threatening to the Bishop of Chicago, had an internal logic and honesty that, to my mind, the Church, as a whole, has come to lack. Crossan dares to address the problem of how can one be a "good Catholic" given the current state of the Church and presents his way he resolved to live with the conflict. There are exceedinlgy powerful passages in the memoir. One concerns the vow of obedience and the manner in which it came to interfer with his relationship with God and the work that had become his mission. The passages about the death of his wife demonstrate that Crossan is not a man to shy from the processes that make us human beings who find, at times, that it is terribly hard, if not impossible to feel the presence of God. Crossan is an academc, a thelogian, who has written his firrst "personal" book that is filled with wit, humor, irony, wisdom, honesty and, I am the better, stronger, wiser for reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, heartfelt, easy reading - recommended!
Review: Book Review
A Long Way From Tipperary: A Memoir by John Dominic Crossan (2000)
Dom Crossan, the world's leading expert and best-selling author on the historical Jesus, has written a witty, hearfelt and easy reading (about 200 pages - you can finish it in an afternoon) memoir of his remarkable life. From the Prologue:
"This book is about a series of transitions, from Ireland to America, from priesthood to marriage, from monastery to university, and from academic scholar to public intellectual. It is especially about the transition from a very traditional Roman Catholic faith...to a self-conscious and self-critical Roman Catholic faith for the next [century]."
Born in 1934 in County Kildare, Ireland to parents of modest means, he entered a monastery at sixteen and remained in the priesthood for some nineteen years, most of which was spent as a professor in seminary. After leaving the priesthood to get married, Crossan taught at DePaul University for nearly twenty years. His memoir is a charming recollection of the very different worlds along his life's journey - interspersed with reminiscences of how each episode shaped his thinking.
Crossan, co-founder of the (in)famous Jesus Seminar, has been a public voice proclaiming the need for Christians to revitalize their tradition. Again from the Prologue:
"After a decade of interviews in newspapers and magazines, discussions on radio and television, lectures in parishes and seminaries, colleges and universities, I now recognize a group...who claim a center of the road between secularism and fundamentalism. They are also dissatisfied, disappointed, or even disgusted with Classical Christianity and their denominational tradition...They do not want to invent or join a new age, but to reclaim and redeem an ancient one. They do not want to settle for a generic-brand religion, but to re-discover their own specific and particular roots. But they know now that these roots must be in a renewed Christianity that has purged itself of rationalism, fundamentalism, and literalism, whether of book, tradition, community, or leader. I did not set out to speak to those people, because I did not know they existed until about 80 percent of my mail told me they did."
In the final pages of his memoir, he says:
"In conclusion, this is what I have learned between Ireland and America, monastery and university, priesthood and marriage, scholarship and public discourse. I have learned that God is more radical than we can ever imagine, that a divine utopia on this earth is more subversive than we can ever accept..."
John Dominic Crossan is a monumental figure in the reformation of the Christian tradition underway in the world today. A man of deep faith, profound intellect, and searing vision, this memoir provides a window into the humble origins and very human journey of a great modern sage. His dry Irish wit is ever present, his writing style is clear and conversational and you finish the book with the feeling that you now "know the man". That's what a memoir is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, heartfelt, easy reading - recommended!
Review: Book Review
A Long Way From Tipperary: A Memoir by John Dominic Crossan (2000)Dom Crossan, the world's leading expert and best-selling author on the historical Jesus, has written a witty, hearfelt and easy reading (about 200 pages - you can finish it in an afternoon) memoir of his remarkable life. From the Prologue: "This book is about a series of transitions, from Ireland to America, from priesthood to marriage, from monastery to university, and from academic scholar to public intellectual. It is especially about the transition from a very traditional Roman Catholic faith...to a self-conscious and self-critical Roman Catholic faith for the next [century]." Born in 1934 in County Kildare, Ireland to parents of modest means, he entered a monastery at sixteen and remained in the priesthood for some nineteen years, most of which was spent as a professor in seminary. After leaving the priesthood to get married, Crossan taught at DePaul University for nearly twenty years. His memoir is a charming recollection of the very different worlds along his life's journey - interspersed with reminiscences of how each episode shaped his thinking. Crossan, co-founder of the (in)famous Jesus Seminar, has been a public voice proclaiming the need for Christians to revitalize their tradition. Again from the Prologue: "After a decade of interviews in newspapers and magazines, discussions on radio and television, lectures in parishes and seminaries, colleges and universities, I now recognize a group...who claim a center of the road between secularism and fundamentalism. They are also dissatisfied, disappointed, or even disgusted with Classical Christianity and their denominational tradition...They do not want to invent or join a new age, but to reclaim and redeem an ancient one. They do not want to settle for a generic-brand religion, but to re-discover their own specific and particular roots. But they know now that these roots must be in a renewed Christianity that has purged itself of rationalism, fundamentalism, and literalism, whether of book, tradition, community, or leader. I did not set out to speak to those people, because I did not know they existed until about 80 percent of my mail told me they did." In the final pages of his memoir, he says: "In conclusion, this is what I have learned between Ireland and America, monastery and university, priesthood and marriage, scholarship and public discourse. I have learned that God is more radical than we can ever imagine, that a divine utopia on this earth is more subversive than we can ever accept..." John Dominic Crossan is a monumental figure in the reformation of the Christian tradition underway in the world today. A man of deep faith, profound intellect, and searing vision, this memoir provides a window into the humble origins and very human journey of a great modern sage. His dry Irish wit is ever present, his writing style is clear and conversational and you finish the book with the feeling that you now "know the man". That's what a memoir is all about.
Rating: 
Summary: Johnny, We Hardly Know You
Review: Crossan is far better a scholar (brilliantly incisive) than an autobiographer. The facts are here, but quite often the tone tends to be flat. To be sure, there are entertaining anecdotes and opportunities to make additions to one's own list of quotable Crossanisms (see what he says about guilt!), but Crossan is often quite guarded in revealing his emotions. Many of Crossan's readers, I think, are most interested in what the crisis was that led him to leave the priesthood, but the reader will find no anguish, no dark night of the soul here-(was the problem really just intellectual freedom?). The only anxiety expressed is about finding subsequent employment. Nor does one really know how Crossan's researches have affected his spirtuality- much of C's agenda in popularizing his scholarly work is to promote a revivified Christianity. Crossan has shown us a Jesus who is a radical egalitarian; who are the people who surround Crossan at his table, academics, yes, but who else? Rather than fulminating against fundamentalist types who are trying to promote God's vengeance on the wicked in his final chapter (already a cliche among writers on religion), Crossan might have told us how his work contributed to forming his personal views on social justice. An interview by a skillful journalist could pose the questions that Crossan doesn't ask or eludes answering in his autobiography. There needs to be one.
Rating:
Summary: Anything but dry
Review: Crossan writes an intellectual biography that walks through many twists and turns in his life. But unlike other theological books it has a dramatic aspect. He first places in context criticisms of his views of the historical Jesus, and asks, in essence: How did I get there? What brought me to this point in my career? In the process of reading his memoir we read about various influences in his life, both personal and academic, as well as his methodology. It is a glimpse into the person of Crossan even as he wants us to glimpse into the person of Jesus. Admittedly, his views are not as elaborately explained as they are in his other works, so don't read this book if that is your goal. But if you want a book on the life of ideas and the life of a unique theologian, this book will be anything but dry.
Rating:
Summary: Moving, but often infuriating
Review: Crossan's memoir can be deeply affecting--his personal story is a compelling one, and the evident sincerity with which he writes about his faith leaves you with no choice but to admire and respect him. The actual journey his faith has made, however, left me a bit uneasy. He seems to be endorsing a stone-age Christianity, in which efforts at understanding anything except the direct experience of God are to be condemned as rationalism or literalism. Still, his ideas are vibrant and his writing is of the highest quality, and even those who disagree will find their own faith refreshed through the dialogue.
Rating:
Summary: An Enligtening and Truly Enjoyable Memoir - A MUST READ
Review: First, I will share my bias. I like, respect and enjoy both the person and the works of John Dominic Crossan; having discovered the former a couple of years ago by chance and good fortune, and the latter in 1993 by way of his seminal work: Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. It has been, therefore, with great anticipation that I have awaited this memoir and, as the old saw goes, it was definitely worth the wait. It was a one sitting read and this autobiography of one of the world's preeminent scholars on the Historical Jesus and early Christianity will be read again, recommended to all and assume a cherished place upon the bookshelf. I laughed (often aloud), teared-up (some would say cried), and more than once re-read a sentence or a page to ensure I left nothing undigested as there is much here to savor (prose that borders on poetry); much here to ponder ("What is the character of your God?"); and much here to entertain (The consequences of literally interpreting every passage in the Bible... "If Jesus is the Lamb of God, did Mary have a little lamb?"). In reading this memoir no one can deny that Professor Crossan has had anything but a life well lived (thanks in no small measure to a wonderful lady named Sarah) and for the reader who puts down a schilling and opens this book he will, no doubt, have his spirit enobled, his heart warmed and his mind enlightened....and thoroughly enjoy himself throughout the process. What else could one ask from a book? May the fates smile upon us and allow many many more years of (and thousands of more words from) John Dominic Crossan. He has, indeed, come a long way from Tipperary and I, for one, am thankful that his journey and mine have crossed paths; for in doing so my life has been profoundly enriched.
Rating:
Summary: A Wounded Cynic
Review: I have great respect for the intellect of Crossan and never fail to be impressed by his many insights about the historical Jesus and the birth of Christianity. In this regard A LONG WAY FROM TIPPERARY does not disappoint but I cannot shake the impression that Crossan is at heart a wounded cynic.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: I highly recommend this enjoyable memoir to everyone who believes life has as much to teach us about faith as religion. Crossan went further in his pursuit of God and adventure than most of us will ever go (from an Irish monastery to a vivid and scientifically acurate understanding of the historical Jesus). This is the story of those adventures and it's a delight to read.
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