A self-described "faintly comic Celtic Lancelot" and "perennial dissident priest," Catholic priest, sociologist, and writer Andrew Greeley has stirred frequent controversy within and outside the Church and produced enormous amounts of written work in widely different fields. Beginning late in the 1950s and continuing at a relentless pace thereafter, the water-skiing, celibate priest published countless articles in newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, as well as more than 100 books. These range from obscure sociological tracts on religion and ethnicity in the United States to racy bestselling novels filled with sex and corruption, as well as works on relationships, photography, and mysteries. If a central theme ties his work together, it may be his possibly quixotic crusade to "free the riches of the Catholic tradition from the stranglehold of a decrepit and corrupt bureaucracy" and to bring a sense of "God's merciful love" to readers.

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