Passion for the Inner City

<p><strong>There is little credibility in healing a privileged world. If the Church is failing the powerless of this world it is failing the Gospel totally.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>In 1971 two priests from a Catholic order left their monastery in order to reinvent the contemplative life amid a Liverpool community oppressed by poverty and systemic racism. Foreshadowing the 'new monastic' movement the members of a 300-year-old religious order began to translate the radical self-sacrificial values of monastic living into an open hospitable practical life on the margins of society.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Passion for the Inner City </em>is a probing spiritual reflection on the first twelve years of Austin Smith's life in the inner city. He describes a new model of faith<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-</span>not just giving up his possessions but letting go of assumptions dependencies all his rationalisations<span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-</span>until he sees the poorest in society outside of his own agendas. By living and suffering alongside them he calls out the deep offensiveness of the inequality we daily permit.</p><p><br></p><p>With stories insights and reflections <em>Passion for the Inner City </em>is a fascinating account of 'old' monasticism embracing the challenges of the present and also a trove of wisdom and challenges that still have sharp questions to ask anyone pursuing their faith today.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>I have gone on marches in the inner city; I have fought for better housing; I have been part of the struggle for better education for our children; I have stood on the street in riots; I have been part and parcel of the struggle for community power; I have set my face against my own racism and the racism of others. Why? Because I believe where creation is sinned against where human beings suffer Jesus is being crucified.</strong></p>