Rating: 
Summary: What you want to show people...
Review:
I first read this AJ Cronin novel some 30+ years ago. While pondering what book I should read next I happened to pull this one out of my bookcase. I remembered liking the book so I gave it another read. And like a fine wine I found that it has much improved with age.
Author AJ Cronin tells a wonderfully moving and inspiring story of a young Scottish priest who sets out to China and spends the better part of his life overcoming many hardships to establish a Catholic mission there. Father Chisholm is a protagonist to be admired by both secular and non-secular readers because he is a man who dedicates his life to a faith and to a cause and achieves not by doctrine but through personal example. This culminates in a very moving passage which should be left to those who have not yet read book to enjoy.
The Keys of the Kingdom is still a 5-star read after all these years.
Rating:
Summary: Catholic Missionary to China
Review: AJ Cronin (author of Citadel and Hatters Castle), tells the story of a Catholic Missionary to China. If you're not Catholic and, therefore, think this book is not for you, guess again. Father Francis Chisholm is an exemplary Christian of any genre. Though he faces trial, tribulation and persecution from early childhood through late adulthood, he stands firm and unwavering in his faith. As is always the case, AJ Cronin makes his characters come alive right off the page.
Rating:
Summary: it is about faith, not religion
Review: Beautiful, touching, timeless.
As a non-believer (forgive me) I was touched by this book. I have read it several times and I keep recommending it to Christian friends who easily confuse faith and religion. Faith is about love, religion is about the institution around, not worse nor better than all other institutions, ie a machine with its own robotic logic that can brainwash and destroy.
This book is about dedication, humility, respect and tolerance. These values that the Bible, the Quran and other holy books mention but that religions forget.
Long live faith, any faith as long as it promotes these values. Down with religions as mind crushing systems.
One of the 10 books I would take on a desert island.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: I first read this AJ Cronin novel some 30+ years ago. While pondering what book I should read next I happened to pull this one out of my bookcase. I remembered liking the book so I gave it another read. And like a fine wine I found that it has much improved with age. Author AJ Cronin tells a wonderfully moving and inspiring story of a young Scottish priest who sets out to China and spends the better part of his life overcoming many hardships to establish a Catholic mission there. Father Chisholm is a protagonist to be admired by both secular and non-secular readers because he is a man who dedicates his life to a faith and to a cause and achieves not by doctrine but through personal example. This culminates in a very moving passage which should be left to those who have not yet read book to enjoy. The Keys of the Kingdom is still a 5-star read after all these years.
Rating:
Summary: Good lesson
Review: I think this is the most wonderful book I've ever read. I found it very interesting and also helpful, I think is a good lesson of faith and love. There are a lot of things to learn from Father Chisholm. I recommend to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Work of Love, Crafted From the Heart!!!
Review: I've been an admirer of A.J. Cronin since I was a teenager in the early 1960's. He was an author who knew the meaning of his craft. Starting with Hatter's Castle in the early 1930's and concluding many books later in the 1970's, Cronin just kept improving and expanding as a writer. The Keys to the Kingdom is one of my favorites of his works. It is the story of Francis Chisholm, son of Alec Chisholm a Catholic in Presbyterian Scotland. Francis is orphaned at a young age when his father and mother are killed in a wave of anti-Catholicism. After his boyhood love commits suicide, young Francis decides to be a priest. His vocation is an example of humility, love, compassion and tolerance--virtues which are contrasted with the worldliness and superficiality of the ambitious clergyman, Anselm Mealy. Cronin is a master at portraying the character of Scottish people whom he loves in spite of his succint insight and commentary on their faults and foibles. I highly recommend this book to those who want to know more about Catholicism at its best.
Rating:
Summary: A Work of Love, Crafted From the Heart!!!
Review: I've been an admirer of A.J. Cronin since I was a teenager in the early 1960's. He was an author who knew the meaning of his craft. Starting with Hatter's Castle in the early 1930's and concluding many books later in the 1970's, Cronin just kept improving and expanding as a writer. The Keys to the Kingdom is one of my favorites of his works. It is the story of Francis Chisholm, son of Alec Chisholm a Catholic in Presbyterian Scotland. Francis is orphaned at a young age when his father and mother are killed in a wave of anti-Catholicism. After his boyhood love commits suicide, young Francis decides to be a priest. His vocation is an example of humility, love, compassion and tolerance--virtues which are contrasted with the worldliness and superficiality of the ambitious clergyman, Anselm Mealy. Cronin is a master at portraying the character of Scottish people whom he loves in spite of his succint insight and commentary on their faults and foibles. I highly recommend this book to those who want to know more about Catholicism at its best.
Rating:
Summary: The heart of the thing
Review: Religious people can be particularly difficult to live with because many come to believe they are "god Jr." Their attitude comes over as "I am right so you must be wrong." Cronin's book is a repudiation of this attitude and shows the quiet strength of humility and tolerance. Some Catholics, as well as some Protestants, can be so insufferably self righteous and arrogant; it is a blessing to finally meet a clergy type person, at least in the novel, who is not aware of their spiritual superiority to all of the other sub optimal Christians. The focus of the book is the sense of humility of Father Chisholm in great contrast to the pseudo spirituality of his church leaders. It is a poignant reminder that the church on earth is not an institution vertically connected to God, but a horizontal group of fallible human beings trying to serve the infallible One. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is burned out on the church, whether Protestant or Catholic, and longs for the true message of practical Christian living. The Gospel is fleshed out to illustrate Jesus' words: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." This one is should be read once a year.
Rating:
Summary: The heart of the thing
Review: Religious people can be particularly difficult to live with because many come to believe they are "god Jr." Their attitude comes over as "I am right so you must be wrong." Cronin's book is a repudiation of this attitude and shows the quiet strength of humility and tolerance. Some Catholics, as well as some Protestants, can be so insufferably self righteous and arrogant; it is a blessing to finally meet a clergy type person, at least in the novel, who is not aware of their spiritual superiority to all of the other sub optimal Christians. The focus of the book is the sense of humility of Father Chisholm in great contrast to the pseudo spirituality of his church leaders. It is a poignant reminder that the church on earth is not an institution vertically connected to God, but a horizontal group of fallible human beings trying to serve the infallible One. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is burned out on the church, whether Protestant or Catholic, and longs for the true message of practical Christian living. The Gospel is fleshed out to illustrate Jesus' words: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." This one is should be read once a year.
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable story
Review: This is an unforgettable story whose message will stay with you long after the last page has been turned. Father Francis Chisolm is truly the epitome of someone living their faith. This was a beautiful book with a main character that I came to love.
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