"Priests and preachers have returned to haunt Australian politics. The mission is to get us all to heaven by banning drugs, chopping movies and turning criminal law against sex. The High Price of Heaven is about the politics of salvation - and the cruelty, comedy, and pain inflicted by the enemies of freedom and pleasure.

This is also a book of stories - of murder and chicanery, suicide and savvy bishops, of the Methodist childhood of John Howard and the ruthless Christian warriors who fight the drugs war, of bizarre censorship and bigotry on the High Court, brawls behind the closed doors of elite church schools, the endless Crusade against sodomy and the devout life of Brian Harradine.

David Marr's aim is to make sense of what's happening as this country drifts back in time, by disentangling the theology from the politics.

Provocative and quirky, The High Price of Heaven is an illuminating book from one of Australia's finest writers."