What is the Catholic Church? It seems everybody has an opinion.

It’s a dictatorship! say liberal secularists. Indifferent observers may glance over and conclude it’s some sort of club. Ask a Catholic and he’ll probably explain that, no, it’s a religion.

But, in fact, Catholicism isn’t any of these things. It doesn’t perfectly fit those convenient “boxes”—or many others that people try to put it in.

In The Faith Unboxed, Andrew Petiprin tries to answer the question of what Catholicism is by examining and straining out what it is not. Using a blend of everyman’s theology, personal testimony, and thoughtful dives into pop culture, he breaks open those ill-fitting boxes and casts them aside, revealing the full truth of Catholic identity within. With every label he peels off—whether it’s Denomination, or Institution, or Escape from Reality—he brings us closer to the real faith, the genuine Church that Christ founded and wants us to see with clarity.

Part memoir, part travelogue, part time capsule, and on every page a compelling and accessible popular ecclesiology, The Faith Unboxed moves us past false or inadequate descriptors, allowing to recognize this Catholic “thing” as it really is: the big, the one, the only thing.