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My religious reading tends to focus on areas of interest to me in the arena of Catholicisim, although I do read a bit more widely than that description might imply. Aside from a couple classes in university and RCIA, I'm largely an autodidact in theological matters, but I'm a well-trained autodidact (sufficiently so, that more than one person had me pegged as a seminary drop-out).
| What I've been read in the past - Religion |
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[Finished 29 August 2010] Frankly, a bit of a disappointment. I had expected a reasoned critique of the “new atheists”, but instead Hedges uses them as a launch pad for a critique of the neocon world view (a box I’m not entirely sure that the new atheists completely fit into). Add into it a rather didactic tone in the writing and I found myself put off from the book a good amount.
There are some good points, although a lot of these come not from Hedges so much as from his sources (his writing in the final chapter on Proust’s view of memories was especially nice, if not entirely on topic).
[Finished 25 June 2010] As someone not especially sympathetic to either capitalism or protestantism, this was an odd book to read. There seems to be a fair amount of assertions made without basis, and assumptions of good in areas where I would argue that the premise is flawed (for instance, his view that a worker who responds to a pay raise by reducing the amount of work being done is acting against his own self-interest).
I remember this book being mentioned as important reading by one of my professors in my undergrad days, but I don’t remember which professor or why they felt that it was important to read, a question that I puzzled over as I read this. I think that I had a vague notion that Weber would be writing in a more critical mode than he was, and while he makes token efforts to establish his correlation does not imply causation bona fides, they remain nothing more than tokens.
Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther by James A. Fischer
[Finished 5 April 2010] A rather dull set of commentaries. The text is from the New American Bible translation, but Fischer finds that translation defective in places.
A big part is a lack of targeting of the commentaries. It seems that Fischer wants to write a scholarly commentary but is constrained by a market demand to make something suitable for the Biblically naïve Catholic layperson, the result being a commentary that doesn’t fit either role and ends up feeling both condescending and inaccessible at the same time.
[Finished 25 March 2010] An interesting book, translated from the Latin produced in the wake of the Council of Trent. The book is explicitly directed at priests in pastoral roles, addressing how matters should be approached in sermons and he confessional. At times sexist views of the times drown out the content, but it’s also amazing how contemporary some of the discussions can seem as well.
[Finished 5 March 2010] This was one of the first books on Catholic theology that I read. Coming back to it a couple decades later, I can see the clear influence of a second hand in the book, that of the American editor and co-translator James Conway who indicates that he felt free to expand, delete and edit many portions of the book as he saw fit. It’s hard at times to determine how much of the book is Wilmers and how much is Conway. The only clearly designated addition is the appendix which contains a list of church councils, the texts of several creeds in Latin and Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors.
It is interesting to note how little of the book is dedicated to questions of moral theology and how much to more abstract theology. There are a few passages which betray a surprising conception of space, time and causality which seem more appropriate to someone writing in the late twentieth century than the mid-nineteenth.
The Mass in Slow Motion by Ronald Knox
[Finished 19 February 2010] A chatty little book adapted from a series of catechetical sermons Knox gave to the students of a girls school evacuated to Shropshire during World War II. It’s an interesting and informal look at the details of the Tridentine mass. An interesting note is that et cum spiritu tuo, which had previously been translated into English as “and also with you,” and has been a bugbear for many liturgical traditionalists, is translated by Knox in his comments as “the same to you.”
I re-read this largely hoping to get some details on the celebration of the mass for use in my current novel, and I got some of that, although a great deal of what Knox focuses on is the inner thoughts of himself as he celebrates the mass and the thoughts he would like the members of his congregation to have as they hear the mass.
[Finished 27 May 2009] (I listened to this book as a free promotional download from audible.com.) Plotz, like many Americans, had never really read the Bible, but only knew it in bits and pieces from Hebrew school and popular culture. What he set out to do here was to provide a naïve perspective on scripture, writing about what someone who didn’t have a strong religious background or access to Biblical scholarship would make of the Bible. When I first read the Bible, I read the New Jerusalem Bible which incorporates significant commentary throughout, which meant, among other things, that I knew about the JEPD theory of the origins of the Pentateuch, and there are many times that I found myself frustrated by Plotz’s naïveté in understanding some of the text, but even so, it was an entertaining read, although Plotz’s tendency to snarkiness was more distracting than entertaining.
Plotz’s big takeaway from reading the Bible was twofold: One was that he became appreciative of how much our culture was dependent on the Bible for many of its references (although I think some of the connections he makes may be spurious), the other was how it made him really address his own Jewish heritage.
[Finished 14 May 2009] A bit disappointingly thin. I felt like there was a great deal more that could be said on the subject than Balmer does, and was left wondering why he couldn’t have written more on the topic.
For example, a single chapter covers religion and presidential politics from Alfred Smith through Kennedy, and it seemed like we were rushing through each presidency thereafter.
[Finished 15 April 2009] I’ve been reading this three volume set off and on again for longer than I’ve been keeping this diary. Mostly off, apparently, since I didn’t find any sign of the previous two volumes as I prepared to write this review. This is a collection of apologetic writing, in question and answer format, from a radio show in the 30s and 40s. The scope is pretty wide ranging, although there’s a fair amount of focus on critiques of the church from an Anglican perspective plus a fair amount of references, sans context, to contemporary controversies. What was especially surprising was the general openness on some topics, such as evolution, which were beyond what one might have expected from the time. Overall, a delightful and grounding read for me.
[Finished 20 February 2009] A wonderfully written accounting of an obscure bit of history. Who knew that Galileo had children (two daughters and a son). The daughters were sent to a convent while the son turned into a bit of a ne’er-do-well. The oldest daughter, though, remained devoted to her father and while his letters to her no longer exist, hers to him have been preserved and Sobel uses the letters for the narrative hook on which she hangs her biography.
There’s a fair amount which was new to me, even having a deeper than the usual paragraph-long summary that came out of my high school history classes. Sobel manages to paint all the characters in the drama with a fair amount of nuance showing exactly what the forces were that led to Galileo’s famed trial and the consequences of the trial in Galileo’s life.
[Finished 9 January 2009] I knew Knuth originally because of TeX and Metafont, which were in many ways my entre into computer science. This book is a collection of Knuth’s lectures centering primarily on the process that he used in writing his book, 3:16, a collection of commentaries on Bible verses.
The Bible: Its Criticism, Interpretation and Use in 16th and 17th Century England by Dean Freiday
[Finished 5 March 2008] Although this book is labeled as being part of the Catholic and Quaker studies series, for the most part it is concerned with the development of Biblical studies in Anglican and Puritan circles (there are, however, some Quaker and Catholic scholars discussed as well).
[Finished 28 February 2008] Back in the 60s, Robert Short managed to parlay the occasional references to Christian theology into a minor publishing empire. The text itself is a pretty straightforward theological treatise, pretty much a low church Calvinist perspective. By illustrating his points with Peanuts cartoons, Short managed to get people who might not otherwise ever read theology to read his texts. It was apparently a successful gambit: My copy was bought used and has the original 1960s cover, but the book is still in print 40 years later (I imagine that his earlier book, The Gospel According to Peanuts is also still in print).
It’s an interesting approach, and while some of the cartoon references are a bit of a stretch (and he has many instances of describing a cartoon without showing it), but he does manage to provide an interesting and compelling framework for his theological exposition, even if I don’t always agree with all of his conclusions.
[Finished 20 February 2008] When I was an undergrad, there was always that person in class who would write their essays in story form. I never did it because it seemed that it was always the worst of both worlds, as fiction, it suffered because it was being forced to conform to the requirements of an essay and as an essay it suffered for being forced to conform to the requirements of fiction.
This book is a prime example of this at work, with the added bonus of it not being a very good argument to begin with. The characters are two-dimensional with their only purpose being to represent viewpoints, and those not very well.
Chamberlain presents his Ted the Christian (as a note in how bad the fiction is, this is, in fact, how the character is described, and the others are similarly named) character as a smug know-it-all who manages to easily demolish the straw man arguments which represent the opposing viewpoints. Each person ends up being quickly convinced of the correctness of Ted’s perspective.
Alas, what this book ultimately does is unintentionally provide a good argument for the deconstructionist view of morality, that there is no way of pinning down an objective system of morals from within the system. There ends up being a choice as arbitrary as “arbol” meaning “tree” and while it may not be aesthetically pleasing, it does carry its own logic.
[Finished 13 February 2008] I’ve been dipping into this book a little at a time for a few years now. There are a total of 47 exercises in the book, drawing on Jesuit and eastern traditions as a means of developing spirituality. This is really the sort of book to keep on a table in your prayer space, more than one to sit down and read. There are places where it really feels like it would be helpful to have someone acting as a facilitator for the exercise (perhaps doing these in a group context would be a good idea so that a facilitator can read the instructions). As it was, some of the exercises didn’t really work as individual exercises. But overall, it seems a useful tool for one’s spiritual development.
Five Cries of Youth by Merton P. Strommen
[Finished 8 February 2008] An interesting book. It’s a bit dated in that much of the book is based on surveys done between the late 60s through early 80s (what’s more, it feels as if most of the book was written in the early seventies then lightly edited to reflect societal changes in the early 80s).
While the work is based on good hard data, there does seem to be a bit of an a prioristic slant to the interpretation, where the five cries were pre-determined, rather than emerged from data clusters. But even with that, it does provide an interesting framework for working with youth, and a pointer, if not a model, for how to do research in psychology of religion
[Finished 15 January 2008] I love A. J. Jacobs’s books. At least in part because he engages in the sort of quixotic enterprises that I enjoy myself. He reads the Encyclopedia Brittanica, I watch the IMDB Top 250.
For his latest book, I realized that what Jacobs is doing is a more extreme version of the kind of thing that I do for my lenten sacrifice. I’m actually a bit jealous of the extent to which Jacobs was able to take things, as well as that initial journey of spiritual discovery. In his year of taking the Bible literally, he found that religion is not merely self-delusion, but does speak to something transcendent, even if the Bible is not quite the perfect guide that many claim it is.
[Finished 13 December 2007] After hearing Auslander interviewed on Fresh Air, I thought that this might be an interesting book to read. Auslander has an interesting relationship with God, one which is both complex and juvenile at the same time.
I don’t always find Auslander to be a sympathetic character although he is refreshingly honest in his depictions of his struggles with responding to his sexuality and the temptations to spend the day with porn and pot instead of writing.
In all, it’s an interesting memoir of struggles with belief and the consequences thereof, good enough to suggest that his collection of short stories about God would be worth reading.
[Finished 13 December 2007] It’s interesting to note that the later editions of this book identify it as being part of the Anchor Reference Library (I have a first edition hardcover which does not do so). The style and organization is very much that of the Anchor Bible Commentary series.
Layton provides copious background and commentary on the texts he discusses, some of which only exist as fragments quoted in anti-Gnostic polemic texts or as summaries of the matter in the same. Enough intact manuscripts exist, however, to attest to the accuracy of the manuscripts.
For those who think that The Da Vinci Code presented anything like an accurate account of Gnosticism, reading this book will be a shock. The philosophical and cosmological understandings of the Gnostics come across as distinctly bizarre, albeit familiar at times to those who know their way through Plato’s dialogues (the concept of the androgynous original humans of The Symposium is fundamental to some of the concepts of Gnostic thought).
The texts themselves tend to be painfully dense and twisted and most of the time, I found that Layton’s introduction essential to being able to follow the text.
The Holy Bible translated by Ronald Knox
[Finished 19 November 2007] Ronald Knox was a polymath whose path took him from the Anglican priesthood to the Catholic priesthood. This was probably what he considered his greatest work, but courtesy of changing standards of Catholic biblical scholarship has ended up a footnote. What we are presented with is a translation of the Vulgate Bible with reference to the Hebrew and Greek originals, finished just in time for the Catholic church to declare that it was no longer necessary for Catholic Bibles must be based on the Vulgate.
The New Testament translation seems to me to be superior in its use of the English language than does the Old Testament, perhaps at least partly because the latinized spellings of NT names are generally close to the anglicized spellings as opposed to the frequently bizarre spellings of the Vulgate OT (e.g., Noe for Noah or Osee for Hosea).
44 Lectures Complete by Robert G. Ingersoll
[Finished 19 July 2007] This is one of those books that I’ve been moving around with me for twenty years without reading. It had previously belonged to my great uncle and I suspect may have had an owner before him.
Ingersoll made his fame as an advocate of atheism and the Republican party (a combination which seems essentially unthinkable today) and the lectures here are on those two topics, primarily the former.
There is a high level of repetition in the lectures as these appear to have been occasional speeches, not intended to form a comprehensive whole and I found myself skimming over portions that I had seen previously.
Ingersoll’s greatest weakness as a polemicist against religion is that he is unwilling to allow religion to define itself on its own terms and he took the most radical fundamentalists as his baseline in his attack and discounted the representativeness of anyone who took a moderate stance. In his mind, to allow for a historical-critical approach to the Bible was tantamount to denying the Bible. His interpetative approach was in many ways more fundamentalist than the fundamentalists he attacked.
His Republican speeches reflect the social progressive wing of the Republican party which was still on the ascendency in the late nineteenth century, but which gradually weakened until becoming almost entirely extinct in the era of George W. Bush. The attitudes in the democratic party that he railed against have become the province of the modern Republican party which embraced southern segregationists into its bosom in the 50s and 60s.
In all, the interest here is primarily historical, providing an interesting window into a mindset which seems to have disappeared. Ingersoll’s prediction of the imminent demise of religion in particular has failed to materialize: Today, in fact, it’s difficult to imagine the kind of large crowds described in this book gathering to hear any prominent atheist speak on the topic of atheism.
A History of the English Church in the Sixteenth Century from Henry VIII to Mary by James Gairdner
[Finished 23 April 2007] Yet more leftover research books from my undergrad thesis (you’d think that nearly two decades later, I’d have finished these). At this point, the nominal topic of the book is not especially the most interesting point to me. I’ve read enough religious histories of the period that I’m really not learning anything new about the time. Instead, what I find interesting is trying to tease out exactly what perspective the author is writing from.
At first, I imagined that it was a typically Anglo-Catholic position, asserting that the church founded by Henry VIII was the same church as existed previously in England, but as I continued reading, I was struck by the harsh stance the author took towards Henry’s innovations, and his general disdain for the protestants. At the same time, however, the book lacks the tendency to whitewash the Catholic actions of the period common to most Catholic-written histories of its time (it was first published in 1902), almost lends it the more objective tone common to the late twentieth century. In the end, I’m left with a book more fascinating as a study of the history of history-writing than as a study of the history being written about.
The New Testament for Spiritual Reading: The Epistle to the Philippians, The Epistle to the Colossians edited by John L. McKenzie
[Finished 2 April 2007] This was one of a pair of books that I was given by a friend who found them in a library book sale. I was a bit surprised to see that it’s been 12 years since I read the other book from the pair, although my overall impression is the same: They’re largely forgettable Catholic interpretations of the New Testament. There were a few bits where I found the commentary stretching a bit to be orthodox without providing sufficient justification (say citations of other biblical texts or patristic writing) to support the stretches. There were a smaller number of intriguing readings of the text, but nothing which grabbed me.
The Episcopal Church and Its Work by P. M. Dawley
[Finished 30 March 2007] A book I bought in a bout of not terribly selective research buying for my undergrad thesis. In this case, I bought something which would have been completely useless had I taken the time to read it.
It’s an interesting read, less for what it says about the contemporary Episcopal church than for its being a snapshot of a time in intellectual history. Dawley writes from a perspective of unquestioningly assuming the rightness of the Episcopalian position, something which the intellectual upheavals of the last half of the twentieth century make a more difficult position to take for most writers (only the fundamentalists of whatever stripe are still able to do this).
The snapshot of the church at the time of its writing (my copy dates from 1955) is interesting from a historical perspective, and contains a few interesting surprises, most notably that social conservatism was considered to naturally be in opposition to Christian values, something which has been lost as anti-abortion stances, social conservatism and Christian stands have managed to be conflated into a single thing in too many peoples’ minds.
[Finished 26 March 2007] I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised to find that a book with this title is written from the Orthodox perspective rather than the Catholic one. The Catholic tradition recognizes very few married saints, mostly couples who decide to live together chastely (or as this book puts it, “as brother and sister”).
Since the Orthodox tradition allows for married clergy, and clergy and religious tend to be disproportionately represented in the canon of Saints, it’s not too surprising that there would be a larger number of married people in the Orthodox canon.
The introduction to the book is perhaps the most interesting part, with a good explanation of the Orthodox understanding of the sacrament of marriage. The lives of the saints themselves, on the other hand, are somewhat less interesting. As mentioned earlier, there are a large number of those who lived together as brother and sister, along with a number of married priests of note (for example, the Russian priest who lead the evangelization efforts in Russian Alaska). A bit more disappointing are the national heroes named as saints. The erastian nature of Orthodoxy leads to such oddities as naming the founders or early defenders of various countries as saints, a decision which is difficult to defend on the basis of the lives as presented here.
Perhaps the most interesting story had a wife encouraging her husband on his way to martyrdom.
But in the end, I found that the lives of the saints did not really meet the title of the book, showing marriage as a path to holiness. There were really few if any cases where the fact that saints were married had anything to do with their holiness.
[Finished 15 March 2007] The last of the unread volumes in my Anchor Bible collection. This one is written by a theologian, so it as much less of a focus on the minutiae of the language and is more focused on the interpreation, but Markus Barth, the son of famed theologian Karl Barth, writes from a polemical low-church Calvinist position. I think that it would have been more interesting to read what a Catholic theologian had to say on the material on ecclesiology, or, when we get to the part about women being subject to their husbands, perhaps a liberal feminist theologian. It’s an interesting read, but not especially remarkable in the corpus of works that make up the Anchor Bible.
[Finished 4 March 2007] I picked this up as an undergrad thinking that I should counterbalance the Catholic perspectives on the English reformation that were my primary source of religious history.
Reading this (at last) I find that the arguments presented are a bit unconvincing and rather a prioristic: Avis has a motivation to justify the status quo in the Anglican church, and he does what he can to do so, trying to make the case that the post-Henrician church did not represent a break with the pre-Henrician church, all while trying to also make a case for the validity of the more protestant expressions of the church. There’s some interesting history included (including an awful lot on Coleridge’s theological writing, of which I had not previously been aware), but in the end it was not a book I found particularly interesting or useful.
[Finished 26 December 2006] Another research book. One nice thing about Catholicism before Vatican II is that things tended to be somewhat static and unchangeable, so an account of a minor seminary in 1950s England is useful in understanding life in the minor seminary in Prague in 1900.
It was somewhat amusing to discover that their was interplay between this memoir and the biography of Graham Greene that I was reading at the same time.
[Finished 20 June 2006] Whatever preconceptions I had when I picked up this book and what form it would take were nowhere near what the reality was.
The book is largely a narrative of discussions between scientists and the Dalai Lama about scientific and Buddhist perspectives on destructive emotions. This part of a continuing series of meetings/books. The discussions themselves were often a bit shallow, but hinted at some tantalizing deeper ideas and discoveries.
If that was all there was to the book, it would be a disappointment indeed, but the final section, offered just what I hoped it would: Some pointers to the research that had come out of the meeting and even better, there’s a website which presumably includes some live updates on the material.
It almost makes me wish I were a psychology or neuroscience graduate student (or better still, PhD).
[Finished 2 June 2006] I began collecting and reading volumes of the Anchor Bible some 15 years ago. But it’s only recently that I’ve realized the key difference between my favorite volumes and those that I’m not that crazy about: The interesting ones are written by theologians, the dull ones by linguists.
The theologian-written volumes tend to follow a format of text-commentary-notes on each section of the text. Since I’m usually not that interested in the hairy details of the translation, I skip the notes unless something really odd is happening in the text.
On the other hand, the linguist-written volumes tend to be text-notes for each section. What little commentary is offered (and it’s usually minimal) is intermixed with a detailed description of textual issues.
Job is a linguist-written volume.
That said, there’s still some very interesting detail here. I do intend to read the bible in Hebrew at some point although this comentary makes reading Job seem a rather daunting prospect.
Also interesting here is the survey of other near-eastern texts which may have served as inspiration for, if not sources of, the story of Job. And the translation itself is very clearand well-formed.
[Finished 12 April 2006] I first learned of this book, like (I assume) most Americans, from J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey. The first of those two stories does a pretty good idea of conveying the gist of the book’s message and long before I read it, I’d been employing the Jesus prayer as a means of devotion.
The text, in some ways, is more interesting as a document of life in Tsarist Russia than as a spiritual document. Perhaps it was because of reading Franny and Zooey, but I was not really captivated in quite the same way that Franny was by the book. Instead, I found myself imagining the Russian landscapes of Doctor Zhivago (anachronistic, I know), and periodically finding myself employing the Jesus prayer as I learned it from Salinger.
Stations of the Cross: A Latin American Pilgrimage by Dorothee Soelle
[Finished 27 March 2006] It startles me to think how much the concerns of the late 80s and early 90s have melted away. Which is not to say that the underlying problems have disappeared, but rather that they no longer demand our attention in the same way that they did 10-20 years ago.
Reading this book was a reminder of this sort of shift in attention. When I bought this (1992 or 1993, I think), Latin America was a big issue for me. Now, I rarely think about it, unless Hugo Chavez is mentioned in the news (which seems reasonably frequently), it having been pushed out of the forefront of my consciousness by such horrors as the current war in Iraq, or the problems of Africa. This is not to say that the problems are gone away, however, and this book is a good reminder of just what was and is at stake in Latin America.
The book provides a good ground-level view of the issues facing the poor of South and Central America, and while Soelle falls into the bad habit of glamorizing the pre-Columbian native American lifestyle, a fault which conservative critics would likely use as ammunition to attempt to discredit the whole of her work, it’s a compelling read. It’s a pity that it’s fallen out of print, showing that I’m not the only one whose attention has been diverted from Latin America.
[Finished 20 June 2005] My first real look at systematic theology, at least formally. After reading this book, my sense is that systematic theology is a sort of meta-catechism: A way of organizing theology around central questions (and determining just what those central questions are).
In this book, Neville’s outline isn’t terribly different from that of the assorted Catholic Catechisms which I have read, which follow the creed as an outline (although generally following that up with the Our Father, perhaps Hail Mary and the list of Sacraments).
Neville’s presentation is (protestant) Christian in its orientation, but not exclusively so, and he considers perspectives from Judaism, Islam, Confucianism and Buddhism along the way, although not in any great depth.
Each chapter ends in a list of suggested readings which allows the reader to consider the questions even more deeply: I can see this book being used for a year-long graduate introduction to systematic theology (and were I younger, I would have gone out and obtained the referenced works in order to read it as intended).
A subtle humor pervades much of the book, providing some relief to the heavy subject matter.
Reading this, I do get a sense that part of what Neville was aiming for (and perhaps failed to reach), was a sort of axiomatics of theology. I suspect his lack of rigorous training in mathematical logic is both what resulted in his grasping for the goal and also his ultimate failture to reach it.
Books of Hours
[Finished 6 May 2005] A beautiful miniature book from Phaidon Press which provides a nice selection of pages from miniature books of hours reproduced as closely as possible to the original size. The texts are often illegible because of the attack of time, but the images remain brilliant and beautiful.
The English Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth: A Study of their Politics, Civil Life and Government 1558-1580 by John Hungerford Pollen, S. J.
[Finished 29 March 2005] Published just after the first world war, this is apparently the first of two (planned?) volumes as it ends just after the arrival of the Jesuits Persons and Campion in England. Having as read as much as I have about the English Counter-reformation, there was little in here that was new. It was more like reading a review of familiar facts. The tone of the book is distinctly apologetic as the emancipation of Catholics in England was still relatively new and there was a strong need to defend the actions of the Catholic missionaries in England during the reformation.
[Finished 16 March 2005] I tend to think that the Anchor Bible gets most interesting when the translator-commentators take risks in what they do, and Mann certainly fills that bill here. Some of it is a bit jarring, like his translation of “The Son of Man” as “The Man” (I keep imagining the apostles saying, “You The Man, J-Dawg” whenever I read that). Perhaps more interesting is Mann’s argument for the idea that Mark is not the earliest gospel, but rather is a digest of Matthew and Luke with some additional detail added from eyewitness reminiscences (which Mann attributes largely to Peter).
The lengthy introduction makes for an interesting summary of the theories about the sources and order of writing of the synoptic Gospels.
It’s worth noting that apparently later editions of the Anchor Bible have replaced this volume with a 2-volume commentary by Joel Marcus
[Finished 16 March 2005] Written in 1937, Pius’ primary concern is the anti-Catholic activities of the Communists in Russia, Spain and Mexico. And certainly from this perspective a harsh perspective on communism is well-granted, but I question the doctrinal foundations of a Christian right to private property. Perhaps more interestingly, though, the politics of this letter seem to be pretty much aligned with American liberalism (which is not to be confused with Liberalism as it is referred to in the book, which in many cases, is not what a contemporary reader would recognize as liberalism at all). Pius goes to great lengths to speak of the importance of workers receiving a just wage and fair conditions, and ultimately that the most important Good is spiritual and not materialistic.
[Finished 25 February 2005] The first epigram I ever put on a paper in college was a paraphrase from Fielding’s Joseph Andrews, “The age is so wicked that no one reads sermons any more.” Certainly, I really hadn’t prior to this volume (unless you count the catechetical sermons by Ronald Knox which were converted into a book on the mass). It’s been a delightful way to begin Lent, especially as I managed to time things so that I read the first and second Sunday of Lent sermons close to the first and second Sundays of Lent.
Newman’s style is clear and lucid and he tends to write in an almost mathematical style: Each statement leads inexorably to the next to create the sense that his conclusions are inevitable.
[Finished 1 October 2004] The first half of this book is probably one of the best spiritual autobiographies of late years. Tony Hendra does an outstanding job of recreating the process of falling in and out of love with God as a youth. I’m almost thinking forget the late years part.
As the narrative moves into Hendra’s adult life, however, the glamor of sin really doesn’t carry much luster. I think that it’s the curse of the autobiography: Once a person becomes an adult, his life story loses its appeal. The final sections where Hendra turns back to the church brings back some of the interest of the story, with a truly devastating conversation between Fr Joe and Hendra.
[Finished 27 May 2003] I’d been meaning to read Bonhoeffer for some time but the confluence of a couple events finally got me to read this book. The first was a song that I was writing, “Salvation at a Discount,” which I’d been stuck on the lyrics for a while. Then at a mass at Holy Name Cathedral, the priest mentioned Bonhoeffer and The Cost of Discipleship and talked about Bonhoeffer’s idea of “cheap grace”. Then not too much longer I started dating Nalleli and noticed that she had the book on her shelves. On a recent trip to visit her in Tucson, I borrowed the book and read it on the plane ride back.
Of course I’m writing this two years later, I no longer live in Chicago, Nalleli no longer lives in Tucson, we’re married and I don’t remember the book well enough to write something inciteful. Click on the link and read the reviews at amazon instead.
[Finished 18 May 2003] An amusing and interesting little book, taking the religious themes in Peanuts (which is a remarkably religious comic strip, but not obsequiously so) and using them as a starting point for a discussion about theology.
[Finished 18 June 2002] A sort of meta-history, O’Day focuses not so much on the English reformation as on how it’s been interpretted historically.
[Finished 6 April 2002] An overview of the history of Liberation Theology followed by an outlook of where it’s going. I’ve kind of lost touch with what’s happening in Latin American Liberation Theology, so I’m not sure how accurate Sigmund’s prognoses are.
[Finished 21 March 2002] The edition I’ve read is an older unrevised edition, but still a fascinating account of Catholic doctrine, written from the somewhat defensive stance of the apologist for the faith rather than as a strict catechesis. But this, perhaps, makes for a stronger presentation. Certainly, I’ve always prefered apologetics to catechesis.
[Finished 10 March 2002] A great account of contemporary Christology in the context of Latin American Liberation Theology.
Vatican Council II: More Post-conciliar Documents edited by Austin Flannery, O. P.
[Finished 5 March 2002] An interesting collection of documents promulgated by the church in the wake of Vatican II. I’m kicking myself for not having purchased the first volume of Vatican II documents while it was still in print.
[Finished 21 February 2002] A rather amazing book. Written in the early days after Vatican II, Pennington attempts to get to the core of the Eucharistic liturgy and provides a fascinating transcription of a Eucharistic liturgy from India. It’s not a big surprise that I saw this book on the shelves of a lot of Catholics of my acquaintance.
The Footprints of the Jesuits
[Finished 17 February 2002] A distressingly anti-Catholic history of the Jesuits.
[Finished 17 September 2001] A collection of documents beginning well before the reformation and continuing through the 19th century that attempts to provide an outline of English church history through primary source material.
[Finished 2 July 2001] Not entirely sure why I bought this. I guess it’s because of the Terry Eagleton-Walter Benjamin connection, but having not actually read any Benjamin, this came across as amazingly opaque.
[Finished 1 July 2001] Campbell is a frequent visiting priest at my old parish in Claremont, and he wrote this book apparently while spending the New Zealand summer in California which made it a favorite among the parishioners and eventually a present for me.
In this short book, Campbell explores just how radical the concept of being unconditionally loved is, and just what it demands of us as the ones being so loved. Thought-provoking and inspiring.
[Finished 15 June 2001] I stumbled upon the Sufi mystic and poet looking over the shoulder of a girl I sat next to on the bus one morning heading in to work. We both got off at the same stop, she went right to art school, I went left to my computer job. Something significant there.
The poems come from the Sufic mystic tradition of Islam, although I find that mysticism tends to be fairly uniform regardless of the underlying theology. A great read and one that I’ll doubtless return to.
[Finished 12 June 2001] A not particularly memorable accounting of the English reformation
Chicanos, Catholicsm And Political Ideology by Lawrence J. Mosqueda
[Finished 14 April 2001] Heavy number crunching looking at the patterns of religiosity and political belief among Mexican immigrants in the American southwest. Much of what the mainstream media seems to find surprising (they’re not all Catholics and they’re not all democrats) is quite clearly outlined here.
Catholics in England 1559-1829: A Social History by M. D. R. Leys
[Finished 3 April 2001] A pretty good history of English Catholics under the penal laws.
Life is Worth Living by Fulton J. Sheen
[Finished 18 March 2001] A collection of essays adapted from Sheen’s television program of the same name. Pleasant reflections on spiritual living.
Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion by Bob Altemeyer and Bruce Hunsberger
[Finished 28 January 2001] I’m always happy to read books which try to scientifically study religious phenomenon. In this particular case, Altemeyer and Hunsberger attempt to address the question of what the factors are which lead some young adults to turn to religion while their peers abandon their childhood faiths. It’s a difficult question to address because it’s looking at the outliers on the question of religious belief (the vast majority of young adults don’t go through any change in religious belief either towards or away). Definitely worth a read for those interested in the topic.
Decadence and Catholicism by Ellis Hanson
[Finished 26 January 2001] When I saw the title, I was intrigued enough to want to read it so I picked it up at Border’s (using my discount card). By “decadence” Hanson is referring particularly to a late 19th-century literary and artistic movement which was fascinated by decay. And what better source for decay than the Catholic church in England, finally coming out from under the weight of severe penal laws prohibiting Catholicism and divested of much of its historical wealth? Yet the reading remained relatively dry, even with Oscar Wilde as a central figure in the book. I suppose it would have been far more interesting to me as a college student.
Structures of the Church by Hans Küng
[Finished April 2000] A fascinating look at church hierarchy and its relationship to the laity. Küng argues for a greater role for the laity in the church, a call which was only partly heeded by the second Vatican council.
The Mass of the Roman Rite by Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J.
[Finished March 2000] A massive tome detailing the history of the Roman mass. Written on the eve of Vatican II, it was an essential background for those working to revise the liturgy for the modern era.
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Cardinal Newman
[Finished 28 November 1999] I selected this particular edition to link to because it’s the one
that I read and it includes some vital context for understanding
Newman’s autobiography. Should you actually read it for yourself, I
would encourage you to read the exchange between Newman and Kingsley
at the end of the book before reading the main text. The critical
essays can largely be skipped unless you really enjoy that sort of
thing (and perhaps even if you do).
The Prey of the Priest Catchers: The Lives of the Forty Martyrs by Leon Knowles
[Finished 24 September 1999] A popularized history, but nice outline of the English saints.
Markings by Dag Hamerskjold
[Finished 8 September 1999] One of the most impressive accountings of the inner life, if not the
most impressive accounting. This book by far deserves its place in the
recently published list of the 100 top spiritual books of the century.
On the Dignity and Vocation of Women by John Paul II
[Finished 1 April 1999] An intriguing mix of progressive and conservative ideas. The Catholic
position on women is far more nuanced than its critics and supporters
sometimes see.
On Social Concern by John Paul II
[Finished 31 March 1999] Even more progressive than “On the Hundredth Anniversary” which came
later.
On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum by John Paul II
[Finished 30 March 1999] Given JP2’s conservative reputation, surprisingly progressive.
Pacem in Terris by John XXIIII
[Finished 27 March 1999] While it’s primarily about peace matters, this encyclical is an
important work in the corpus of Catholic teaching on social justice.
The Story of the English Cardinals by Charles Isaacson
[Finished 26 March 1999] A surprisingly readable book. Isaacson’s dilemma over figures like
Newman is rather entertaining.
A Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutierrez
[Finished 24 March 1999] I wasn’t prepared for the rigorous philosophical bent of this book,
but can see the value of it as it provides a solid grounding for the
various liberation theologies which followed this work.
Who will Teach Me? A Handbook for Parents by Joseph Girzone
[Finished 18 March 1999] A handy book. Girzone is a mostly liberal Catholic, although in some
areas he’s surprisingly conservative.
The Respectable Murderers: Social Evil and Christian Conscience by Paul Hanley Furfey
[Finished 17 March 1999] An interesting, but dated book, arguing that Christians must
take a stand against social injustice, despite (or even because of)
the personal cost of doing so.
Wellsprings: A Book of Spiritual Exercises by Anthony De Mello
[Finished 15 March 1999] A delightful book, although best dipped into than read. One could use
it as a sort of sorties, I suppose.
Way of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in the Americas edited by Virgil Elizondo
[Finished 8 March 1999] Somewhat uneven collection of essays linking the Passion of Christ to
opression of native Latin Americans. When it’s good, it’s excellent,
but when it’d bad, it’s awful.
The Mass and the English Reformers by C. W. Ducmore
[Finished 4 March 1999] Another book typical of the era in which it was written (interbellum
England). Ducmore works to claim that the Anglican liturgy is in fact
part of an unbroken tradition, but ultimately fails.
English Catholic Worship: Liturgical Renewal in England since 1900 by J. D. Crichton, H. E. Winstone and J. R. Ainslie
[Finished 1 March 1999] I have to admit that before I read this book, I’d not put a lot of
thought into the origins of contemporary Catholic liturgical
practice. Actually, it’s very amazing indeed. It’s also interesting to
note the fairly sizable chasm between English and American liturgical
practices, which makes some other books that I’ve read a bit more
lucid.
Priest of the Plague: Henry Moore, S. J. by Philip Caraman
[Finished 27 February 1999] Caraman was a writer of some skill who wrote, translated or edited a
large number of the books that I’ve read on the Catholic mission to
England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has a good
touch and writes very readable works. I may well hunt down some of his
other books on other topics.
English Monks and the Supression of the Monasteries by Geoffrey Baskerville
[Finished 25 February 1999] More illuminating about the state of religion in the 1920s than in the
early sixteenth century.
Defence of English Catholics by William Cardinal Allen
[Finished 20 February 1999] A rather dreary bit of 16th century prose. Of minor historical
interest; I suppose I’ve read too much material on the Elizabethan
Catholics, because this seemed all old hat and more than a little
dull.
Catholic and Christian: An Explanation of Commonly Misunderstood Catholic Beliefs by Alan Schreck
[Finished 18 February 1999] Out of the “if you really understood it, you’d have nothing to argue
about” school of apologetics. Schreck downplays the fact that many
Catholics don’t get some beliefs and that many folk practices
are in conflict with official orthodoxy. However, as it goes, it’s a
good book, although I prefer Karl Keating’s Catholicism and
Fundamentalism.
Religion and Contemporary Western Culture edited by Edward Cell
[Finished 3 February 1999] I’ve been puzzling through the meaning of modernity for the past
decade or so and this fills in a few more pieces while opening up
other questions at the same time. Some context would have been helpful
with some of the essays whose time frame spans about forty years, from
the twenties to the sixties. The optimism about being able to address
religion and culture is kind of stunning really coming at it from the
perspective of someone educated at the end of the twentieth century
when the whole concept of meaning is under question.
Heterosexism: An Ethical Challenge by Patricia Beattie Jung and Ralph F. Smith
[Finished 15 January 1999] While some of their arguments fail to persuade me, valuable if only for its taxonomy of religious views of homosexuality.
Spirituality and Religion in Psychotherapy: Diversity in Theory and Practice by Eugene W. Kelly, Jr.
[Finished 8 January 1999] A practical examination of how and why to bring spiritual issues into counseling practice.
Readings in Moral Theology No. 8: Dialogue about Catholic Sexual Teaching edited by Charles E. Curran and Richard McCormick, S. J.
[Finished 18 December 1998] Outstanding. Curran and McCormick come from the progressive side of
the theological spectrum, but manage to still provide a creditable
selection of conservative voices (the Siker book, below, seemed to
have more straw-man type conservative voices, which does credit to
neither side). I especially liked Curran’s essay comparing Catholic
social and sexual teaching.
Homosexuality in the Church: Both Sides of the Debate edited by Jeffrey S. Siker
[Finished 25 November 1998] A very interesting collection of essays, surprisingly well-balanced
and essential reading for anyone interested in religious implications
of homosexuality.
The Jesuits 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from its Foundation to the Present Time by Thomas J. Campbell
[Finished 18 November 1998] A bit cheerleader-ish and occasionally racist. Notable primarily
because it was the first history of the Jesuits written in English by
a Jesuit.
English Catholicism 1558-1642 by Alan Dures
[Finished 2 November 1998] A great introduction to the subject. Unfortunately, I learned most of
this years ago when I first began reading about 16th C. English Catholics.
The Power and Secret of the Jesuits by René Fülöp-Miller
[Finished 30 October 1998] A rather curious book. Fülöp-Miller feels compelled to
grant a sort of grudging respect to the accomplishments of the Jesuits
despite what seems to be his desired tendency to deride them as
morally suspect. Lack of time context in some passages was unfortunate
(e.g., when were the Jesuits teaching the Copernican system to the
Chinese?) but overall, it’s a good an interesting read (even if
Fülöp-Miller does believe that the Copernican system
is merely the most plausible hypothesis of the solar system).
Body, Sex and Pleasure by Christine Gudorf
[Finished 29 October 1998] When I first started reading this book, I though Gudorf was way off
base on a number of her conclusions. I still think that she is, but
she does a much better job of explaining why she’s reached her
conclusions than other theologians have and is much less likely to
argue by handwaving.
Meanings of Life by Roy F. Baumeister
[Finished 17 September 1998] A systematic exploration of where people derive the meanings in their
life from a primarily social psychological standpoint. Baumeister
tends to be rather dismissive of religion in general and Christianity
in particular and occasionally dramatically demonstrates his lack of
knowledge in the subject area (“Damn it Jim, I’m a psychologist, not a
theologian!”), but still manages to provide a well-written, thoughtful
exploration. His defining meaningfulness in terms of its objects
rather than its loci is especially interesting to me.
A Sense of Sexuality: Chrstian Love and Intimacy by Evelyn Eaton Whitehead and James D. Whitehead
[Finished 10 September 1998] The Whiteheads provide a generally thoughtful analysis of sexuality
(from a primarily Catholic Christian standpoint) supported by
anecdotes. They’re a bit too dismissive of certain classical concepts,
such as original sin, and I question their rather dismissive portrayal
of St Augustine (if nothing else, they should have been willing to dig
a little deeper than they did), but still not too bad of a book.
Love Does No Harm: Sexual Ethics for the Rest of Us by Marie M. Fortune
[Finished 1 September 1998] I believe that Fortune may see sexual violence as more pervasive than
it is (probably as a result of her work with women who are victims of
sexual violence). Certainly, her world bears little resemblance to the
one in which I live.
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Á Kempis
[Finished 22 August 1998] The contrast between mediaeval spirituality and its denial-of-self
center and contemporary spirituality and its service-of-others center
is quite striking. I have to admit that I found the mediaeval
spirituality to really be rather self-centered, despite (or perhaps
because of) its denial-of-self center.
Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence by Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan
[Finished 7 August 1998] The thing that struck me the most was the sameness of so many of these
stories. It seemed like a large portion of the women who were
interviewed followed exactly the same path: They realized that they
had no desire to get married, entered the convent (frequently to the
objections of their families), had an affair or two with other
sisters, maybe were disillusioned by the changes with Vatican II, then
left the convent and then left the church. Not always, but that’s a
capsule summary of most of the stories. The church bears some
culpability for this in its treatment of homosexuals, but so do the
women for blaming the church for their own naivete.
It’s kind of interesting to note that, while this book was published originally in the late 70s (or early 80s?), there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of follow-up writing on the issue of lesbian nuns. That says something, I’m not sure what.
A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church edited by Robert Nugent
[Finished 3 August 1998] An interesting collection of essays with a surprisingly diverse set of
viewpoints (usually given a hot-botton issue like this, we’ll only get
one side of the argument). The essays were all over the place and I
found Matthew Fox’s contribution to be unreadable, but well worth the
time spent.
The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach by Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Bernard Spilka, Bruce Hunsberger and Richard Gorsuch
[Finished 24 July 1998] Absolutely fascinating. This book has already sparked some other
reading. Which brings up my lone complaint: It’s hard to use this as a
starting point for further reading because of the use of footnotes to
get to APA-style citations which must then be located in the
bibliography. In-text citations and perhaps a further reading section
at the end of each chapter--or at least a chapter bibliography--would have been welcome.
Gay Priests by James G. Wolf
[Finished 14 July 1998] Wolf’s empirical study was unfortunately too flawed to be scientific,
a fact which he at least readily admits, but the results are still
interesting. The response biases in the results can be readily seen
(using a network sample to find gay priests will naturally lead to a
sample which is more sexually and socially active than a true random
sample would find). The personal statements that make up the second
part of the book are also interesting. I have some ideas about
replicating the study in a way that should eliminate the response
biases that occurred the first time around which I may see if I can
put into action.
The Life of Eric Gill by Robert Speaight
[Finished 5 June 1998] Focused largely on the religious side of Gill’s life, Speaight does
not complete whitewash Gill’s sexuality, although it’s easier to catch
the references if you know about Gill’s proclivities before you read
the book.
The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery by Janwillem van de Wetering
[Finished 17 February 1998] An often humorous account of life in a Zen Monastery. Well worth the
time it takes to read.
From Image to Likeness: A Jungian Path in the Gospel Journey by W. Harold Grant, Magdala Thompson and Thomas E. Clarke
[Finished 20 November 1997] Perhaps it’s a lack of background, but I found myself frequently
thinking as I read this book that I didn’ buy some of their basic
premises. The developmental stuff, especially didn’t ring true to me
although it is an interesting idea.
Personality Type and Religious Leadership by Roy M. Oswald and Otto Kroeger
[Finished 2 November 1997] Despite being rather painfully dependent on the work of others, this
is a relatively useful book insofar as it presents a new presentation
of the ideas underlying the MBTI as regards religious issues. The book
is a bit too focused on clergy and too little on lay leadership and
seems to often fall trap to a conception that all religious leadership
is in the hands of protestant parish clergy (even though the authors
clearly recognize that this is not the case in reality).
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
[Finished 7 October 1997] An interesting book, marred by the surprisingly strong prejudices of
turn-of-the-century liberal protestantism. I can see why it’s not
universally assigned reading in psychology of religion courses.
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
[Finished 6 October 1997] Sometimes it takes an outsider to really see. Norris, a married
protestant poet has a better idea of what celibate monastic life is about than
most Catholics that I know. At times it gets a bit rambly, at times a
bit academic, but it’s worth working through that to get to the
amazing insights into Benedictine spirituality. The chapter on
celibacy is the best writing I’ve read on the subject.
The Jesuits: 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time by Thomas Campbell S. J.
[Finished 21 March 1997] A highly sympathetic portrayal of the society. There was an
interesting discussion of Irish slaves in the British West Indies
which was something that I’d never heard of before.
Also rather disturbing was the racist and anti-Semitic tone that Campbell often took. The anti-Semitism was never curbed and the racism at best became mere paternalism.
The Jesuits: History & Legend of the Society of Jesus by Manfred Barthes
[Finished 14 March 1997] When I was young I used to get Luther and Lucifer confused since the
two names were generally spoken in the same tone of voice in the
highly Catholic neighborhood where I grew up. I get the sense that
Barthes, a German Lutheran, has much the same attitude towards
Catholics despite a promising forward. A subtle anti-Catholic
prejudice (fueled by a corresponding anti-Lutheran prejudice on the
part of his Catholic neighbors) pervades the book which is a largely
negative view of the Jesuit order although not quite at the paranoid
fantasy level of a Jack Chick publication.
The Works of Saint John of the Cross by Saint John of the Cross
[Finished 6 March 1997] Great stuff. It’s a rather different perspective on the world than is
typical for contemporary society, but one that I find rather compelling.
Grace in Action by Richard Rohr and Others
[Finished 3 December 1996] Radical Grace is the name of the newspaper published by
the Center for Action and Contemplation, an institute established by
Rohr in New Mexico. The essays in this collection are taken from that
newspaper and are of varying interest. Rohr’s contributions in general
stand head and shoulders above the rest of the offerings in the book
although there are a couple of moments of inspiration from the laity.
Christian Counseling: A Comprehensive Guide by Gary R. Collins
[Finished 22 October 1996] Generally a very good book. The theological orientation is a bit “low
church” (a perception doubtless colored by my own Catholicism) and the
chapter on homosexuality is of dubious validity in its claims of
the origins of homosexuality (its perspectives are determined more by
wishful thinking than by clinical research). Still, it’s an
interesting overview of issues in pastoral counseling. Not for those
without at least some training in counseling issues, but for those who
feel that counseling has an imperative to have a spiritual basis, this
is a good resource.
Making All Things New by Henri Nouwen
[Finished 30 September 1996] A short guide to living the spiritual life, a life that doesn’t
require withdrawing from the world, but rather reevaluating one’s
priorities.
Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown
[Finished 14 April 1996] A surprisingly interesting biography of St Augustine. It was a book I
got for free when I bought my BHS in Boston six years ago. My shelves
are full of books like this which I had bought at some date in the
past thinking they might be interesting and only later do I get around
to reading them. Especially interesting is Brown’s characterization of
the actual circumstances and issues behind the Pelagian-Augustinian
controversy, which is almost directly opposed to the conception one
would have gotten from the characterization of the issues given by
Anthony Burgess in The Wanting Seed.
Sefer Otiyot: The Book of Letters--A Mystical Alef-Bait by Lawrence Kushner
[Finished 14 April 1996] This is the sort of playful look at language and religion that I
really enjoy, and one of the most wonderful things about the Jewish
tradition since this sort of play is not a modern invention but can be
found even in the early midrashim. The calligraphic content is a bit
lower than one might have liked but it’s a very fun book nevertheless.
The Catholic Reformation by Pierre Janelle
[Finished 1 April 1996] Janelle provides a rather ultramontanist (typical of French
Catholicism of the first part of this century) view of the events
around the counter-reformation. An interesting counterpoint to the
typical histories of the time which are clearly biased towards a
protestant viewpoint.
A Piece of My Mind (On Just About Everything) by Andrew Greeley
[Finished 24 March 1996] Greeley is a fascinating author. Thusfar, I’ve only read his
sociology. This is a collection of his columns for syndication in
which he attempts (with varying success) to be an ordained Mike Royko.
It’s tough to tell exactly what Greeley thinks on a lot of subjects because his writing tends towards self-contradiction, sometimes even in the same column. In general, though, it seems that he espouses the sort of comfortable suburban Catholicism that I’ve come to reject myself (it was only in reading this book, the first Greeley I’ve read in two years, that I realized how radically my views have changed in that time and to what extent I continue down my path towards a much more radical form of Catholicism than even what I hold now).
Counseling in Catholic life and Education by Charles Curran
[Finished 20 March 1996] Curran is both a psychologist and a theologian. This work focuses
primarily on the counseling side of life and less on the theological,
although the implicit connections are really quite profound. The
premise of Curran’s counseling is quite the opposite of the stereotype
of the counseling process as portrayed, say, on Frasier. Rather
than being an interventional presence in the life of the person being
counseled, the counselor’s role is to be an objective mirror to help
the person see what they should do more clearly on their own.
Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis
[Finished 16 March 1996] I think nearly any person’s account of their childhood could be
interesting, assuming that it’s well written. Lewis’ is no exception.
I have to admit, though, that I didn’t find it a particularly
spiritually compelling work.
A Harsh and Dreadful Love: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement by William D. Miller
[Finished 14 March 1996] I first learned about the Catholic Worker when I stumbled across a
copy of the newspaper in a dorm lounge while I was still in college.
The front page included a story about St Julian of Norwich and how she
was one of the first mystics to view God as both Father and Mother. I
don’t remember if this was before or after I had made the decision to
become Catholic, but it stuck with me.
The Catholic Worker has managed to continue to haunt my life. The priest who welcomed me into the church was/is deeply involved with the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, although I found my way there independently of his influence--in fact the first time I met him there was a bit of a surprise. My first visit to the LACW also turned up a friend from college, surprisingly enough.
The Catholic Worker differed from other liberal Christian movements in that for them, religion was not merely something on which to hang a liberal doctrine. Rather, there doctrine flowed out of the spring of religion, and has a depth that other groups which I have worked with lacked.
This book gives an accounting of the history of the movement from its founding by Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day until the early seventies. Always a fascinating story, this accounting is a bit drier than the others since it places a bit of distance between itself and its subject (as opposed to Rosalie Troester’s Voices from the Catholic Worker which is as close to the subject as can be accomplished). Still, as a comprehensive account, it does a lot to help establish the broader contexts of many of the events in the history of the Catholic Worker.
An interesting note for the hagiographers: The parallels between the development of the Catholic Worker and the early years of the Franciscans are astounding.
Journal of a Soul by Pope John XXIII
[Finished 13 March 1996] Selections from the journals of John XXIII, it looks to be a
fascinating read. The development of religious thought from the
overpious youth at the beginning of the book to the much wiser old man
is fascinating. It’s almost entirely reflections from retreats, which
is a bit of a disappointment since I was hoping for some ordinary
day-to-day reflections, but still, a wonderful book. The spirituality
seems, at times, out of touch with today’s life, but there’s still
much to be learnt. The frequent attempts at self-mortification through
even small things like avoiding the use of the first person in
conversation really intrigue me.
Catholicism by Richard P. McBrien
[Finished 9 March 1996] A comprehensive accounting of Catholic thought, giving a historical
background and a synthesis of the various perspectives on each
doctrinal point. A very interesting synthesis of liberal and
conservative religious thought. McBrien tends to take a very
ecumenical view towards many issues and is a bit too liberal on some
issues relating to the sacraments than I care for, but it’s still a
wonderful compilation of Catholic teaching with a much broader base
than the Universal Catechism put out last year (although this latter
does effectively provide the definitive state of the magisterium on
many issues).
The Little Flowers, Legends and Lauds of Saint Francis of Assisi by St Francis of Assisi
[Finished 5 March 1996] A compilation of writings by and about the saint. It’s a reprint of a
volume originally published in 1947 and is especially interesting in
that it seems to be the beginnings of a historico-critical approach to
religious matters in the Catholic church. St Francis is a reasonable
starting point for such a thing since he’s both fairly central to the
concept of the church without being a point of dogma.
Little by Little: Selected Writings by Dorothy Day
[Finished 25 February 1996] A collection of Day’s writing, it’s a fascinating read, and one would hope a call to conversion for those who fail to see Christ in all around them, especially in the poor. Remember, we are told not to judge and to give freely to all who ask. Think about that the next time you’re approached by a panhandler.
Note that the title was changed somewhat when it was re-released by Orbis
Autobiography of a Saint by St Thèrése of Lisieux
[Finished 13 February 1996] Perhaps more meaningful to the Catholic than the non-Catholic, but the
appeal of this saint becomes increasingly apparent as one reads this
book. While some reviewers are appalled by her simplicity, I think
that it points correctly down the path to true spirituality.
The amazon.com link is to a different translation as the Knox translation is out of print.
Landmarks in Christian History by Henry K. Rowe
[Finished June 1995] When I started buying books for my thesis research back in 1989, I decided that I needed a protestant account of the reformation. This is what I found in a second-hand bookshop in St Louis. As it turns out, the scope is somewhat broader and attempts to be a history of Christianity from Jesus’ ministry up to the time of its writing at the beginning of the twentieth century. While reading this book, I found myself continually trying to figure out what the author believed. He was vehemently anti-Catholic, but otherwise rather liberal. While there was general praise of John Calvin and an association with the Calvinists, the author’s view point tended more towards a strong concern towards social justice I tend not to associate with Calvinists.
The New Testament for Spiritual Reading: The Epistle to Titus, The Epistle to Philemon edited by John L. McKenzie
[Finished June 1995] McKenzie was a Jesuit who lived his last years in the parish to which I belong. He died not too long after I arrived and I never had the opportunity to meet him, but his reputation survived him. I was given this volume and one other as a gift from a friend who’s now working at Southern Illinois University. He found these two volumes in a library book sale for a quarter each.
As for the text itself, it tends to be a relatively mainline Catholic interpretation of the two named epistles by a pair of German theologians. I must say that I found little of memorable interest.
Anchor Bible, vol. 4: Numbers 1-20 by Baruch Levine
[Finished May 1995] Part of the Anchor Bible series, a collection of translations and commentaries on individual books of the Bible by Jewish, Protestant and Catholic scholars. The quality and approach of the volumes vary widely. This particular book is written from a rather secular world view: Levine makes an attempt to demythologize the text wherever possible. I’m not certain I like that approach. I have yet to find anything gained from the demythologization process. People need myths.