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The Catholic Press Association honored Ascend with first place in Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith in its 2010 awards program. Here's what the judges had to say:

"Everything about this book - the design, structure, content, style - is geared to an audience nurtured on visual appeal, technology and rapid assimilation. The content succeeds extremely well in the premise of its subtitle. Anyone who picks it up will find it hard to resist, given its broad scope and lively writing coupled with a solid grounding in Scripture."

Christianity gets something of a bad rap today. Those who scramble to be interviewed in the media as representing Christianity are sometimes the least Christian of all. They often list rules or spew hatred. As more and more news formats are designed not around "talking heads," but around "shouting heads," this is perhaps inevitable if lamentable.

So when one hears of "Christians" doing something, one might assume it involves some sort of intolerance. Fundamentalists have arrogantly insisted that the term Christian applies only to them. Unfortunately, the media have accommodated them. A comparable scenario would be for Rhode Island to rename itself "The United States of America" and tell you, "We're Americans. You're Californians."

Such statements show not only intolerance, but also ignorance of history and theology!

Unfortunately, we ourselves must sometimes admit to some deficiency in our knowledge of history and theology. This book is one way you can be a part of the solution: by advancing your own understanding of Christianity. Maybe you had religious education classes as a child, but you realize you need a better understanding of what Christianity teaches for your life today.