The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996, hardcover, index, 215 pages, condition: new.

Though a spate of religious quest books have appeared in recent years, Johnson's book is neither a search for the historical Jesus nor a quasi-mystical personal odyssey. Johnson, it seems, is perfectly happy with the faith of his father and as accustomed to the Catholic Church "as a much-loved old teddy bear or a favorite armchair or a smelly old favorite dog." A journalist and historian, Johnson has written an apologia in which he answers such basic questions as "What is God, then?" and "Is there an alternative to God?" His answers surprise, provoke, and even provide comfort.

Paul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe.

Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979), A History of the English People (1987), Intellectuals (1988), The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 18151830 (1991), Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999), A History of the American People (2000), A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974), Napoleon (2002), George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982).