God Is Young

Starred review from August 27, 2018
Pope Francis speaks frankly about problems facing the young and the elderly, Catholic and non-Catholic, throughout the world in this brief treatise. Francis begins by insisting that God is young because he dreams and makes things new again. During his conversation with Leoncini (Born Liquid), he discusses the problems (mostly moral and economic) that ordinary people face. He indicts a global culture that fails to put people first, and condemns treating both youths and the aged as “disposable.” He blames problems within those demographics, such as high youth unemployment, squarely on a world “too powerfully and compellingly dominated by an economic crisis” that primarily concerns itself with loss of “bank shares” before loss of human lives. Interwoven with his analysis is discussion about his own youth, and the hope that Christianity can provide a “revolution of tenderness.” Francis states his truths plainly and unequivocally—“nuclear weapons should be destroyed immediately”—and repeatedly asserts the need for a compassionate, harmonious social order. While not sugarcoating problems, Francis’s simple, humane voice emerges clearly in this beautiful book of hope and inspiration.