This remarkable collection includes: "Living with Furious Opposites," Phillip Yancey's penetrating examination of the distance between the faith we champion and the way we really live. "Confessions of a Reluctant Catholic," Alice McDermott's ironic reflections on the tensions between her roles as novelist and believer. Stephen L. Carter on the dominant culture's threat to religion as an alternative, prophetic voice in "Religion, Resistance, and the Curious History of America's Public Schools." Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's sensitive, literate look at joining the church and the reaction of her academic colleagues in "A Conversion Story." Richard John Neuhaus on the paradox of the profound yet commonplace nature of death in "Born Toward Dying."