“This grittily realistic and sharply observant account of a life, moving as it does through experience on six continents, is equally attuned to the personal, the political, and the intellectual.”—AIDAN NICHOLS OP, author of The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI and The Shape of Catholic Theology
“In an age of fractured identities and moral disorientation, All of a Piece dares to ask whether a life can be—not seamless—but meaningfully whole. Rich in historical witness, philosophical insight, and cultural critique, this remarkable memoir offers a compelling portrait of a lifelong pursuit of truth and integrity.”—FR. ANTONIO MALO, professor of Philosophical Anthropology at the Pontifical Università della Santa Croce (Rome)
“In a series of vivid sketches, John Rist recalls a childhood in blitz-battered London, the decidedly mixed blessings of life at a ‘minor’ British public school, national service duty in Iraq as an electronic snoop, running the gauntlet set by post-war Cambridge classicists, a lightning climb up the rungs of the academic ladder in Toronto, and subsequent academic appointments in Aberdeen, Jerusalem, Rome, and Washington, not to mention an induction as a tribal chieftain in Nigeria and dozens of other such adventures around the globe.”—JOHN C. MCCARTHY, associate professor and dean emeritus at Catholic University of America, Department of Philosophy
“The author exemplifies those who have fought unceasingly against the present malaise in academe, which he identifies as ‘an ideological denial of truth.’ His own development can be traced primarily through two classical figures, Plato and Plotinus, and their witness to the solidity of moral judgment. This led him on from a non-religious humanism to the transcendent in its personal form, and thereby to the Catholic Church. From this perspective he has taken on many unpopular subjects in the secular and religious worlds. This is a book to be very highly recommended.”—JOHN BEAUMONT, author of The House With a Hundred Gates: Catholic Converts Through the Ages
