c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) This is the time of year when the Catholic Church enjoys the greatest growth spurt of the entire year _ an estimated 150,000 adult converts who were baptized or confirmed into the church on Easter.

A recent survey shows 44 percent of Americans now profess a religious affiliation that’s different from the one they were born into.

But not everyone who flirts with change actually makes the leap, as a bumper crop of recent spiritual memoirs shows. Some who start the journey end up in new and unexpected places, while others end up exactly where they started, thankful for lessons learned.

Still others, after years of searching, end up with nothing at all.

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For Jon M. Sweeney, a former missionary in the Philippines and now an Episcopalian, Catholicism has a lot to offer. His new book, “Almost Catholic: An Appreciation of the History, Practice, and Mystery of Ancient Faith,” acknowledges the long-standing criticisms of the Catholic Church held by Protestants, but maintains it can be of spiritual service to all.

“There is so much beauty to be uncovered there, and there are many elements of Catholicism that (even unbidden) have potency for non-Catholics and for people who are not `Catholics in good standing’ as the Roman Catholic Church would define it.

“You need to be willing _ whether you were born into the Church and would call yourself `lapsed’ or whether you have always been suspicious _ to open your mind and heart,” Sweeney writes.

Sweeney takes a thematic and historical approach to Catholicism, beginning by defining terms (such as the meaning of the word “catholic”) and discussing topics like the Catholic imagination, prominent Catholics and the sacraments. He ends by emphasizing the physicality of Catholicism and the appeal of its history, practice and mystery.

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In “Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding,” author Heather King describes her journey from growing up Protestant in rural New Hampshire through a dissolute life of heavy drinking to becoming a lawyer.

She eventually leaves her financially secure but soul-sucking job to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a writer. Along the way, she hits bottom and finds herself praying and awakening to a newfound faith.

“I have a theory that all addiction is, at bottom, a search for God. Think about it: the blackout _ a crude form of mystical union; the willingness to sacrifice reputation, family, money, health, one’s very life _ a twisted martyrdom. Sometimes I think anyone as drawn as I am to suffering would have had to become a Catholic,” King writes.

King makes the rounds of Protestant denominations, which she finds lacking, before recognizing her need for the embodiment and experience of Catholicism. King’s spirituality is woven into her daily life _ trying to find a new apartment, fighting with her sister, dealing with the death of her father. With a wry but poignant tone, her memoir delves into the mundane to engage with the transcendent.

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Andrew Krivak, in “A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life,” writes about the opposite journey _ from engaging seriously with Catholicism to rejecting a life in the priesthood.

Raised Catholic, Krivak leads a meandering life after college in various jobs before entering the Jesuits.

For eight years, he describes his spiritual development which takes him to the Dominican Republic, Russia and finally Cambridge, Mass. Although drawn to the radical simplicity of the Jesuit lifestyle, Krivak struggles with leaving friendships and flirting behind and periodically doubts his calling.

He tries to break away from being a Jesuit college professor one summer in order to write, but is discouraged. Then, unwanted attention from a superior and falling in love with a woman culminate in a decisive moment.

“Chastity, in the end, was the most difficult vow for me to live as a religious. But obedience was the most terrifying, because while it offered a peaceful freedom that came as a result of a faithful and radical trust, it came, too, at a cost as great as, if not greater than, the one that chastity exacted,” Krivak writes.

Ultimately, he leaves for love, but remains “a man of prayer in the Church that still guides me.“

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John Marks also experienced a distancing from his childhood faith _ only to re-engage with it as a journalist researching a story for CBS’ “60 Minutes.” In “Reasons to Believe: One Man’s Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind,” Marks’ quest to explore the evangelical world of his Texas youth begins with an encounter while reporting a story on the “Left Behind” book series.

When a interview subject asks Marks if he will be left behind during Jesus’ Second Coming, Marks criss-crosses the country to interview a broad swath of evangelical America. He examines the differences between fundamentalism and evangelicalism, what a personal relationship with Jesus means, and attitudes about race, homosexuality and intelligent design.

Sometimes, Marks’ secularism manages to co-exist with echoes of childhood belief, but he ultimately rejects the evangelical worldview with its exclusive ideas of salvation in favor of his relationships with his Jewish wife and child. In the end, he chooses to be left behind at the moment of judgment.

KRE/RB END CRABTREE 925 words Photos of Sweeney, King, Krivak, Marks and their books are available via https://religionnews.com.