A familiar figure from his long career as one of the world's most prominent theologians, this account of his midlife journey provides a fascinating insight into one of the most momentous decades of the Church's history. Against the background of the events that swept the world from the death of President Kennedy to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and of the spiritual revolution caused by Vatican II, in this timely volume, Fr Gerald O'Collins provides a personal counterpoint to those turbulent times inside and outside the Catholic Church. 'Gerald O'Collins journey coincided with all the dramatic events of post-war European reconstruction, the demise of the British Empire, May 1968 in France, the Beatles generation, and, perhaps as significant as any of them, the revolution in world Christianity caused by the Second Vatican Council. With remarkable honesty and lucidity, Gerald describes the impact of the Council on his generation of young priests. He pulls no punches as he narrates the challenge to his thinking and calling to celibacy. The story could easily have been sanitized. Thankfully he has not given in to that temptation. He has presented a fascinating and detailed autobiography of a fruitful and fulfilled life.' Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury Gerald O'Collins, SJ is one of the best- known theologians and spiritual writers in the English-speaking world, and is the author or co-author of sixty books. Australian-born, he has lectured and taught in England and Ireland as well as the United States and Australia, and for many years at the Gregorian University in Rome.