Crossing the Thresholds of Faith, Hope, and Politics

During the sticky, slimy summer months of 1994-the summer of O.J.-there were murmurings afoot that Pope John Paul II was getting a $6 million advance for a mass-market book on faith, social issues, and God. No one in the publishing world knew what to make of it. Another book of his had been published, quietly sold 20,000 or so and that was that. It was the way books by popes were supposed to sell. After all, popes were many things; best-selling authors for the washed and unwashed masses wasn't in the job description. Then again, John Paul II wasn't like other pontiffs.

A few months later, in late October, the book, titled "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," was released simultaneously in 85 countries. Nearly 1.5 million copies were shipped to American bookstores. And they sold. It was what people in the book business call a "publishing event." This little book of essays written in response to questions from an Italian journalist stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks despite reviewers critiques that it was "dense" and "meandering."

Looking back a decade later, what explains its success?

Part of that answer is that it so thoroughly reflected the heart of the man who wrote it. While John Paul II was conservative, uncompromising in his beliefs, and by all accounts very willing to share those opinions, he was also deeply accessible. He was, like the Jesus he served, capable of being both lion and lamb. So while the book dealt with hot-button social issues like abortion, it was his discussion of faith that so moved people. The Pope wrote about the nature of God; how could God allow good things to happen to bad people? What is the nature of salvation, and is it an exclusively Catholic prerogative? What about the Buddha? Does suffering make sense? How about hope? "Be not afraid," he said over and over. People listened.

But there was something else at work. While Catholics bought the book in large numbers so did evangelical Christians. It was tangible evidence that the Catholic-evangelical divide that forced John Kennedy to go before evangelicals during the 1960 presidential campaign to assure them his Catholicism and his politics would be separate was quickly becoming a Catholic-evangelical alliance.

Earlier in 1994, a group of 39 Catholic and evangelical scholars and leaders ranging from John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, to Pat Robertson had issued a document titled, "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" that affirmed both a common faith heritage-the centrality of Jesus-and a common political agenda that included fighting against abortion, for school choice and voluntary public school prayer. As evangelical leader Chuck Colson said at the time, "[O]n the ancient creeds and the core beliefs of Christianity we stand together. Christianity is besieged on all sides by a militant nation of Islam, by pantheists who have invaded many areas of life, including the church through the New Age movement, and by the aggressive secularism of Western life."

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