lilbrattyteen's reading journal, part two.
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1JDHomrighausen
Introducing Theologies of Religions by Paul Knitter
Finished 10/10/12
Knitter, one of the major voices in Catholic theology of religions and inter religious dialogue, is a professor at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. He's also an ex-priest and a very nice guy (I met him at a conference). I thoroughly enjoyed his most well-known book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian. So it was with excitement I picked this book up on amazon.
Knitter's book, less of his own research and more of a review of the literature in theology of religions, is designed to be a textbook introduction to the field. He covers four models for how Christians looks at other religious traditions: replacement, fulfillment, mutuality, and acceptance. First, a summary.
The first, replacement, is pretty standard, especially in Evangelical churches. Essentially, all other religions are completely wrong and their members need to be converted to Christ. This doesn't exactly jive with today's pluralistic and postmodern age, but it does have the most New Testament support ("No one comes to the Father but through me," etc.). Knitter holds up Karl Barth as the primary proponent of this position.
Yet the next position, fulfillment, is also found in the Bible. In the Hebrew Wisdom literature (and its echoes in John's Gospel) and Acts 17, we find that other religious traditions do know about God. Though the real God is the Christian triune God, Hindus, Muslims, animists, and Greek pagans are in fact worshipping this God, although they do not know it. Their knowledge of God is partial; not knowing God's true nature, their relationship with Him is limited. The most well-known proponent of this is Karl Rahner, whose "anonymous Christian" concept echoes the Church Fathers' "seeds of the Word" that they believed were strewn about the non-Christian religions. Christ fulfills the partial truth all the religions have. It's even possible anonymous Christians can be saved.
The fulfillment model is the orthodox position of the Catholic Church. It's represented in Vatican II's Nostra Aetate, a declaration that was originally going to cover the Church's relation to the Jews but was expanded to cover all the religions. Essentially: whatever goodness and truth other religions contain is only preparation for the Gospel. Later documents of the Church declare explicitly that members of other religions can be saved, that the Church need be dialogical (including both sides learning), but also that Jesus is the only true Savior and that evangelization is an essential part of dialogue. (Think of evangelization and the mutual learning of dialogue as a two-sided coin.)
Theologians such as Gavin D'Costa and Jacques Dupuis S.J. push the fulfillment model to its limits, pointing out that if the Spirit works in other religions, then Christians committed to following the Holy Spirit must learn from other traditions. Yet critics of the fulfillment model point out that dialogue can never be mutual if Christians believe their truth has the last Word (no pun intended). These critics often find their way to the mutualist mode, which sees all religions as equally true and good. Knitter groups mutualists into three types:
- the "philosophical-historical" mutualists such as John Hick, who take a kind of Kantian turn and say that no humans can know Divine Reality in itself, but that all religious traditions point to it/him/her;
- the "religious-mystical" types such as Raimon Panikkar, who see a core mystical experience at the heart of all religions, and each religion as only touching one aspect of that Ultimate Mystery
- the "ethical-practical" bridge between religions, which says that doctrinal dialogue should take a back seat to constructively helping one another heal the world. All religions have an equal role in helping heal the world.
While the mutualists seek to make bridges between religions in humility and well-intentioned love, the acceptance model's proponents find themselves frustrated with its fluffy and mushy blending of all religions into one. These thinkers, galvanized by postmodern critiques of Grant Narratives, respect the diversity of the religions and do not try to blend them into One Truth. The groundwork for this model was laid by George Lindbeck, whose "postliberal theology" takes a cultural-linguistic model of religions as being totally different linguistic systems. Even pointing out that all religions speak of "love," he writes, is pointless because "love" is conceptualized in different ways and caught in different webs or words in different traditions. There is no common ground in religion, neither in doctrinal truth nor mystical experience.
And here is where I go from summary to polemic. Because reading Knitter's book was a complete eye-opener for me. I, too, have become sick of mutualist fluff, of the nonsensical search for some "common core" of the world's religions, which is always so vacuous as to be a mockery of deep traditions! Knitter points out that the mutualists, in their effort to find common ground, in fact create a quite elaborate set of dogmas. The biggest: no religious tradition has the full truth, something which many religious traditions would deny (including the first two models discussed here, which cover almost all mainstream Christians). Mutualist dialogue become banal, a common affirmation of bland truths about the importance of dialogue and peace. What's more, it's not even pretending to be resonant with Scripture.
So yes, I subscribe to the fulfillment model. But while that model, and the Catholic Church, teach that there must be mutual learning in dialogue, they don't describe any praxis for this. That is where the acceptance model comes in. Once we can accept that religious traditions truly are different, we can appreciate both ways of looking at other religions. First, as Christians committed to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in history and salvation, we naturally view other religions from the perspective of our own as lacking full truth. This is similar to how the New Testament "history of salvation" views Jews and Greeks, only this new history of salvation must include Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the other "isms," while recognizing that the idea of a religious "ism" is largely an essentializing Western construct. But secondly, we can try in humility to set aside our presuppositions about other religions and view them as they view themselves. The first and second ways can be brought into a creative tension.
What kind of activities does this lend itself to? First, apologetics (which I used to have a strong distaste for), which if done in a spirit of kindness can be a great dialogue tool. I learn much more from debating and arguing than I do from bland affirmation of shared beliefs. Second, comparative theology seeking to bring into dialogue specific strands of two traditions, as Francis Clooney does in his Hindu-Christian comparative theology. Third, interreligious work to change the world, to reduce suffering, which would in turn lead to dialogues about the nature of justice and human rights.
Knitter's book is not an easy read, but it does help me contextualize many other books on my shelf. His bibliography is going to be very bad for my already-long amazon wish list. Sigh.
Finished 10/10/12
Knitter, one of the major voices in Catholic theology of religions and inter religious dialogue, is a professor at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. He's also an ex-priest and a very nice guy (I met him at a conference). I thoroughly enjoyed his most well-known book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian. So it was with excitement I picked this book up on amazon.
Knitter's book, less of his own research and more of a review of the literature in theology of religions, is designed to be a textbook introduction to the field. He covers four models for how Christians looks at other religious traditions: replacement, fulfillment, mutuality, and acceptance. First, a summary.
The first, replacement, is pretty standard, especially in Evangelical churches. Essentially, all other religions are completely wrong and their members need to be converted to Christ. This doesn't exactly jive with today's pluralistic and postmodern age, but it does have the most New Testament support ("No one comes to the Father but through me," etc.). Knitter holds up Karl Barth as the primary proponent of this position.
Yet the next position, fulfillment, is also found in the Bible. In the Hebrew Wisdom literature (and its echoes in John's Gospel) and Acts 17, we find that other religious traditions do know about God. Though the real God is the Christian triune God, Hindus, Muslims, animists, and Greek pagans are in fact worshipping this God, although they do not know it. Their knowledge of God is partial; not knowing God's true nature, their relationship with Him is limited. The most well-known proponent of this is Karl Rahner, whose "anonymous Christian" concept echoes the Church Fathers' "seeds of the Word" that they believed were strewn about the non-Christian religions. Christ fulfills the partial truth all the religions have. It's even possible anonymous Christians can be saved.
The fulfillment model is the orthodox position of the Catholic Church. It's represented in Vatican II's Nostra Aetate, a declaration that was originally going to cover the Church's relation to the Jews but was expanded to cover all the religions. Essentially: whatever goodness and truth other religions contain is only preparation for the Gospel. Later documents of the Church declare explicitly that members of other religions can be saved, that the Church need be dialogical (including both sides learning), but also that Jesus is the only true Savior and that evangelization is an essential part of dialogue. (Think of evangelization and the mutual learning of dialogue as a two-sided coin.)
Theologians such as Gavin D'Costa and Jacques Dupuis S.J. push the fulfillment model to its limits, pointing out that if the Spirit works in other religions, then Christians committed to following the Holy Spirit must learn from other traditions. Yet critics of the fulfillment model point out that dialogue can never be mutual if Christians believe their truth has the last Word (no pun intended). These critics often find their way to the mutualist mode, which sees all religions as equally true and good. Knitter groups mutualists into three types:
- the "philosophical-historical" mutualists such as John Hick, who take a kind of Kantian turn and say that no humans can know Divine Reality in itself, but that all religious traditions point to it/him/her;
- the "religious-mystical" types such as Raimon Panikkar, who see a core mystical experience at the heart of all religions, and each religion as only touching one aspect of that Ultimate Mystery
- the "ethical-practical" bridge between religions, which says that doctrinal dialogue should take a back seat to constructively helping one another heal the world. All religions have an equal role in helping heal the world.
While the mutualists seek to make bridges between religions in humility and well-intentioned love, the acceptance model's proponents find themselves frustrated with its fluffy and mushy blending of all religions into one. These thinkers, galvanized by postmodern critiques of Grant Narratives, respect the diversity of the religions and do not try to blend them into One Truth. The groundwork for this model was laid by George Lindbeck, whose "postliberal theology" takes a cultural-linguistic model of religions as being totally different linguistic systems. Even pointing out that all religions speak of "love," he writes, is pointless because "love" is conceptualized in different ways and caught in different webs or words in different traditions. There is no common ground in religion, neither in doctrinal truth nor mystical experience.
And here is where I go from summary to polemic. Because reading Knitter's book was a complete eye-opener for me. I, too, have become sick of mutualist fluff, of the nonsensical search for some "common core" of the world's religions, which is always so vacuous as to be a mockery of deep traditions! Knitter points out that the mutualists, in their effort to find common ground, in fact create a quite elaborate set of dogmas. The biggest: no religious tradition has the full truth, something which many religious traditions would deny (including the first two models discussed here, which cover almost all mainstream Christians). Mutualist dialogue become banal, a common affirmation of bland truths about the importance of dialogue and peace. What's more, it's not even pretending to be resonant with Scripture.
So yes, I subscribe to the fulfillment model. But while that model, and the Catholic Church, teach that there must be mutual learning in dialogue, they don't describe any praxis for this. That is where the acceptance model comes in. Once we can accept that religious traditions truly are different, we can appreciate both ways of looking at other religions. First, as Christians committed to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in history and salvation, we naturally view other religions from the perspective of our own as lacking full truth. This is similar to how the New Testament "history of salvation" views Jews and Greeks, only this new history of salvation must include Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the other "isms," while recognizing that the idea of a religious "ism" is largely an essentializing Western construct. But secondly, we can try in humility to set aside our presuppositions about other religions and view them as they view themselves. The first and second ways can be brought into a creative tension.
What kind of activities does this lend itself to? First, apologetics (which I used to have a strong distaste for), which if done in a spirit of kindness can be a great dialogue tool. I learn much more from debating and arguing than I do from bland affirmation of shared beliefs. Second, comparative theology seeking to bring into dialogue specific strands of two traditions, as Francis Clooney does in his Hindu-Christian comparative theology. Third, interreligious work to change the world, to reduce suffering, which would in turn lead to dialogues about the nature of justice and human rights.
Knitter's book is not an easy read, but it does help me contextualize many other books on my shelf. His bibliography is going to be very bad for my already-long amazon wish list. Sigh.
2JDHomrighausen
Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri's Mission to Tibet by Trent Pomplun
Finished 10/13/12
I first heard about Desideri in my summer Buddhist Studies course in Nepal. In the early eighteenth century, he entered Nepal, and was the first missionary to take up extended residence there. (Others had tried, but even killed by disease or the hardship of trekking the Himalayas.) Sadly, much Desideri scholarship and sources are not available in English. Michael J. Sweet and Leonard Zwilling only came out with their mammoth translation of his journals* in 2010, the year this historian's biography was released. Pomplun's website reveals that he is currently working on a book-length study of Desideri's theology and translating his Tibetan works into English (which has never been done). Judging from this book, I have good reason to be excited about these works.
The chapter on Desideri's young life was perhaps the least interesting. Born in Italy, he entered the Jesuits at a young age. At this time, the missions to Asia and the Americas were the peak aspiration of young Jesuits across Europe. Many applied to their superiors for the privilege of this life; few were chosen. Accounts of violent deaths at the hands of natives (particular in Japan and the Americas) only increased this furor, as novices projected the martyrdom fantasies of early Christianity - a fast track into heaven - onto the exotic faraway lands of the New World and the Orient.
In 1712, Desideri was granted permission to go to Tibet. His trek from Italy to India and up to Tibet took three years. Settling in Lhasa, he found a patron in Tibet's ruler, Lhazang Khan, and rapidly applied himself to learning the Tibetan language. In no time at all he was composing Tibetan catechisms and refutations of erroneous Tibetan doctrines, such as reincarnation and the lack of God. Yet this bright period was short-lived. Within a few years Khan was deposed by invading forces, and Desideri was forced to go into hiding. Simultaneously he was vying with the Caputchin friars, who after arriving a year after him told him that the Pope had given Tibet to their order and not the Jesuits. (This kind of competition between religious orders, with the competing theologies of missions each brought to the foreign land, also happened in Japan and China.) These Capuchins eventually got him expelled from Tibet. Forced to go home in 1721, Desideri was forever embittered, feeling that his talents and calling were being wasted by a relentless bureaucracy.
Yet Desideri was not idle back in Europe. There he published his accounts of Tibet. At this time, missionary accounts were bestsellers in Europe, and the line between sensational storytelling and historical facticity was often blurred. Historians unable to corroborate events he details or locate people he mentions suspect that he may have invented details to bolster the popularity and funding of the missions, and comparisons with his private letters show he omitted some of the hardships and political machineries he faced in order to make the Tibet mission more appealing for young priests.
Most fascinating to me is the final chapter on these published accounts. Connecting to my other recent readings, Pomplun details how theologians confronted with massive numbers of people who had never heard of Christ had to reformulate the question of salvation outside Christendom. Yet this modern sensibility was part and parcel with Desideri's blatantly confrontational views of the Tibetan religion. He saw the Dalai Lama as a Satanic Anti-Pope, described Tibet in ways evocative of a circle of Dante's hell, and interpreted Tibetan texts as pointing toward fulfillment in Christ:
"Called to Tibet for the greater glory of God, the Jesuit missionary met a magnanimous king, wicked minsters, and all manners of black magic. In doing so, he found his position not merely confirmed in the teachings of the Catholic Church but prophecied in the Tibetan tales themselves. I like to imagine that as he followed an ancient sorcerer's footsteps across Tibet, Ippolito Desideri came to think of himself as a second Padmasambava, locked in battle with demons for the land of snows, and intending to repeat his rival's great feats for the Roman Catholic Church." (196)
Not only did Desideri contribute to the Orientalist vogue in Europe, the simultaneous demonization and idealization (but always exotification) of Asia, but also laid the grounds for much modern scholarship. His account of Tibet is heralded by Tibetologists as the beginning of their field. Pomplun has written the best kind of academic book: a concise, well-written study both edifying for the historian and accessible for the public. I look forward to his future work on this Jesuit and his mystique.
* Mission to Tibet: The Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Account of Father Ippolito Desideri, S.J.. The whole thing is 795 pages, including a 62-page introduction and 80 pages of footnotes and bibliography.
Finished 10/13/12
I first heard about Desideri in my summer Buddhist Studies course in Nepal. In the early eighteenth century, he entered Nepal, and was the first missionary to take up extended residence there. (Others had tried, but even killed by disease or the hardship of trekking the Himalayas.) Sadly, much Desideri scholarship and sources are not available in English. Michael J. Sweet and Leonard Zwilling only came out with their mammoth translation of his journals* in 2010, the year this historian's biography was released. Pomplun's website reveals that he is currently working on a book-length study of Desideri's theology and translating his Tibetan works into English (which has never been done). Judging from this book, I have good reason to be excited about these works.
The chapter on Desideri's young life was perhaps the least interesting. Born in Italy, he entered the Jesuits at a young age. At this time, the missions to Asia and the Americas were the peak aspiration of young Jesuits across Europe. Many applied to their superiors for the privilege of this life; few were chosen. Accounts of violent deaths at the hands of natives (particular in Japan and the Americas) only increased this furor, as novices projected the martyrdom fantasies of early Christianity - a fast track into heaven - onto the exotic faraway lands of the New World and the Orient.
In 1712, Desideri was granted permission to go to Tibet. His trek from Italy to India and up to Tibet took three years. Settling in Lhasa, he found a patron in Tibet's ruler, Lhazang Khan, and rapidly applied himself to learning the Tibetan language. In no time at all he was composing Tibetan catechisms and refutations of erroneous Tibetan doctrines, such as reincarnation and the lack of God. Yet this bright period was short-lived. Within a few years Khan was deposed by invading forces, and Desideri was forced to go into hiding. Simultaneously he was vying with the Caputchin friars, who after arriving a year after him told him that the Pope had given Tibet to their order and not the Jesuits. (This kind of competition between religious orders, with the competing theologies of missions each brought to the foreign land, also happened in Japan and China.) These Capuchins eventually got him expelled from Tibet. Forced to go home in 1721, Desideri was forever embittered, feeling that his talents and calling were being wasted by a relentless bureaucracy.
Yet Desideri was not idle back in Europe. There he published his accounts of Tibet. At this time, missionary accounts were bestsellers in Europe, and the line between sensational storytelling and historical facticity was often blurred. Historians unable to corroborate events he details or locate people he mentions suspect that he may have invented details to bolster the popularity and funding of the missions, and comparisons with his private letters show he omitted some of the hardships and political machineries he faced in order to make the Tibet mission more appealing for young priests.
Most fascinating to me is the final chapter on these published accounts. Connecting to my other recent readings, Pomplun details how theologians confronted with massive numbers of people who had never heard of Christ had to reformulate the question of salvation outside Christendom. Yet this modern sensibility was part and parcel with Desideri's blatantly confrontational views of the Tibetan religion. He saw the Dalai Lama as a Satanic Anti-Pope, described Tibet in ways evocative of a circle of Dante's hell, and interpreted Tibetan texts as pointing toward fulfillment in Christ:
"Called to Tibet for the greater glory of God, the Jesuit missionary met a magnanimous king, wicked minsters, and all manners of black magic. In doing so, he found his position not merely confirmed in the teachings of the Catholic Church but prophecied in the Tibetan tales themselves. I like to imagine that as he followed an ancient sorcerer's footsteps across Tibet, Ippolito Desideri came to think of himself as a second Padmasambava, locked in battle with demons for the land of snows, and intending to repeat his rival's great feats for the Roman Catholic Church." (196)
Not only did Desideri contribute to the Orientalist vogue in Europe, the simultaneous demonization and idealization (but always exotification) of Asia, but also laid the grounds for much modern scholarship. His account of Tibet is heralded by Tibetologists as the beginning of their field. Pomplun has written the best kind of academic book: a concise, well-written study both edifying for the historian and accessible for the public. I look forward to his future work on this Jesuit and his mystique.
* Mission to Tibet: The Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Account of Father Ippolito Desideri, S.J.. The whole thing is 795 pages, including a 62-page introduction and 80 pages of footnotes and bibliography.
3The_Hibernator
I'm number 3!
4avidmom
Congrats on the new thread.
I learn much more from debating and arguing than I do from bland affirmation of shared beliefs. Good point. *tries to think of something to argue about* I think I've learned quite a bit from you already, though. No argument there.
Enjoyed your last (first?) two reviews. That is quite interesting about Ippiloto Desideri. "Tibetologist" - now there's a fun word to say!
I learn much more from debating and arguing than I do from bland affirmation of shared beliefs. Good point. *tries to think of something to argue about* I think I've learned quite a bit from you already, though. No argument there.
Enjoyed your last (first?) two reviews. That is quite interesting about Ippiloto Desideri. "Tibetologist" - now there's a fun word to say!
5janeajones
I've learned much from your last two reviews -- you are absorbing and synthesizing an enormous amount of information. Where does this put you in the world?
6JDHomrighausen
Rachel - when you said you were 3, I thought for a moment you meant you subscribed to the third model Knitter describes, mutualism. Context really is key...
Ms. Mom and Ms. Jones, thank you for your appreciation. I mostly write these so I can remember the main points too. These are books related to my studies, so I focus on them more than books not.
As for where this puts me in the world....what do you mean by that?
Ms. Mom and Ms. Jones, thank you for your appreciation. I mostly write these so I can remember the main points too. These are books related to my studies, so I focus on them more than books not.
As for where this puts me in the world....what do you mean by that?
7baswood
Great review and commentary on Introducing Theologies of Religions. well worth the price of admission to your new thread.
8The_Hibernator
Rachel - when you said you were 3, I thought for a moment you meant you subscribed to the third model Knitter describes, mutualism. Context really is key...
ha! I didn't really think about that. I was going to say "I'm number 1" but then I realized that technically you had visited your thread twice before I had. ;)
ha! I didn't really think about that. I was going to say "I'm number 1" but then I realized that technically you had visited your thread twice before I had. ;)
9rebeccanyc
Enjoying your reviews and your new thread.
10janeajones
6 As for where this puts me in the world....what do you mean by that? -- whatever you want it to mean.
13JDHomrighausen
Sorry for the lack of posts! Midterm season is in full swing. Aced the first one in History of the Jesuits, now only have two more to worry about.
Saturday was a good day. Or a bad one, depending on one's view. Between Recycle Books in San Jose and Green Apple Books in San Francisco:
Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary
Raymond Brown, An Introduction to New Testament Christology
Revelations: Personal Responses to Books of the Bible, including an essay by the Dalai Lama on James
Donald Spoto, Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi
Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers From the Heart: Practical Responses to Life's Burning Questions
Red Pine, The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-Neng
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Walter Wangerin, Jr., Saint Julian
Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Darwin (Norton Critical Edition)
Steven Fanning, Mystics of the Christian Tradition
Ilia Delio, O.S.F., The Humility of God: A Franciscan Perspective
Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ
Saturday was a good day. Or a bad one, depending on one's view. Between Recycle Books in San Jose and Green Apple Books in San Francisco:
Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary
Raymond Brown, An Introduction to New Testament Christology
Revelations: Personal Responses to Books of the Bible, including an essay by the Dalai Lama on James
Donald Spoto, Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi
Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers From the Heart: Practical Responses to Life's Burning Questions
Red Pine, The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-Neng
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist
Walter Wangerin, Jr., Saint Julian
Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Darwin (Norton Critical Edition)
Steven Fanning, Mystics of the Christian Tradition
Ilia Delio, O.S.F., The Humility of God: A Franciscan Perspective
Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ
14JDHomrighausen
P.S. This time of the quarter I console myself with the thought that my lack of reading productivity now will be compensated by a giant cascade of books finished at the end of the term as classes finish. Because last week was the first week my two books per week goal fell through. :(
15mkboylan
Yah - focus on school reading first......but..........I sure hope you post a review of Answers from the Heart because there are NO LT reviews for that one and I'd love to hear from you before I buy it.
Haven't been posting much lately but still enjoying your posts. Thanks.
Haven't been posting much lately but still enjoying your posts. Thanks.
16RidgewayGirl
You're storing up riches for the lean years, there. Or a really, really good vacation.
17avidmom
Hey, nice to see you posting again. Scrolled through your list (goodness!) and am very interested in The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity and Jesus the Christ. Looking forward to your comments on 'em ..... even if I do have to wait. :)
18JDHomrighausen
Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. I wish I had more time, but this is still midterm week!
Greek midterm went well. "Religions of the Book" midterm is Thursday, and despite having studied scripture quite a bit the study guide leaves me mystified.
I'm especially excited to read The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, especially since I will be able to read it in Greek in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately I am having a hard time finding resources for early Christianity and Greek language; there are a lot of commentaries and walk-throughs and nice bilingual editions of Classics texts and the New Testament, but it seems much less for patristics. Loeb Classical Library, one of the go-tos in the field, has very few volumes of Greek Fathers, and nothing for such biggies as Origen and Ireneaus.
Greek midterm went well. "Religions of the Book" midterm is Thursday, and despite having studied scripture quite a bit the study guide leaves me mystified.
I'm especially excited to read The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, especially since I will be able to read it in Greek in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately I am having a hard time finding resources for early Christianity and Greek language; there are a lot of commentaries and walk-throughs and nice bilingual editions of Classics texts and the New Testament, but it seems much less for patristics. Loeb Classical Library, one of the go-tos in the field, has very few volumes of Greek Fathers, and nothing for such biggies as Origen and Ireneaus.
19JDHomrighausen
Hello all. Midterm season is finally over. Finished the St. Therese book and am on track to finishing another. Life is good.
Went to Goodwill with my girlfriend. This Goodwill has one of the best book selections I've ever seen at a Goodwill. My finds:
The Christian Commitment by Karl Rahner
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann
Biblical Reflections on Crises Facing the Church by Raymond E. Brown
Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill
The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. Dino Bigongiari
Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer by Brother David Steindl-Rast
What Are They Saying About Wisdom Literature? by Dianne Bergant
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
The Harlot By the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible by Jonathan Kirsch
Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code by Bart D. Ehrman
Overall a nice catch.
Went to Goodwill with my girlfriend. This Goodwill has one of the best book selections I've ever seen at a Goodwill. My finds:
The Christian Commitment by Karl Rahner
Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann
Biblical Reflections on Crises Facing the Church by Raymond E. Brown
Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill
The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas, ed. Dino Bigongiari
Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer by Brother David Steindl-Rast
What Are They Saying About Wisdom Literature? by Dianne Bergant
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
The Harlot By the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible by Jonathan Kirsch
Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code by Bart D. Ehrman
Overall a nice catch.
20avidmom
>19 JDHomrighausen: Congrats on getting half-way there! You certainly did haul in a lots of interesting reads (the Kirsch book sounds very interesting!). It inspired me to hit our library's $2 a bag used-book sale. Granted, my haul wasn't nearly as interesting as yours - but still - book shopping on the cheap! Happy happy joy joy! XD
21The_Hibernator
Wow. That is quite a haul for a Goodwill. You must have gone to a classy Goodwill. ;)
ETA: I've been eyeballing both the Kirsch book and the Ehrman book because I have easy access to them. Hopefully you like them!
ETA: I've been eyeballing both the Kirsch book and the Ehrman book because I have easy access to them. Hopefully you like them!
22JDHomrighausen
Ms. Mom, I've never seen you so hyper. Yes, I've built up much of my library from book sales. Anything else is too expensive. New books are anathema.
Rachel, I understand that by "hopefully you like them" you also mean "I will wait for you to try them out before I do." See, we avid readers know how to farm out our recommendations so we can avoid lackluster books.... I know the tactic well. :P I especially want to try Ehrman because he's such a well-known scholar, and just yesterday at a dinner party the da Vinci code and Mary Magdalene theories came up and I wished I was better able to discuss them.
Rachel, I understand that by "hopefully you like them" you also mean "I will wait for you to try them out before I do." See, we avid readers know how to farm out our recommendations so we can avoid lackluster books.... I know the tactic well. :P I especially want to try Ehrman because he's such a well-known scholar, and just yesterday at a dinner party the da Vinci code and Mary Magdalene theories came up and I wished I was better able to discuss them.
23JDHomrighausen
Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux
Finished 10/24/12
Like many of the autobiographies of great Catholic saints, Therese never intended the short manuscripts she wrote for her sisters in Carmel to be collected and published. Consequently, she writes in an entirely unpolished style, with none of the artifice or poetry of her predecessor John of the Cross. Instead, like her spiritual mother (and namesake) Teresa of Avila, she was an intelligent but less-educated woman whose personality shines through in her writing. I read this work - the work which made Therese into a saint and Doctor of the Church - in honor of her October 1 feat day.
Therese's life story is short: she is born into a large, middle-class French family, her mom dies when she is a small girl, she and her remaining sisters (five girls total, no boys) move to the small country town of Lisieux. She was a shy girl who experienced bouts of loneliness and emotional turbulence as a result of the grief caused by her mom's death. She had few friends at school, and almost all of her socialization came from time spent with siblings. So we can imagine her sorrow when Marie and Pauline join the Carmelites, a cloistered order, effectively ending their ability to spend time together.
Therese, following a call she felt since two, attempted to join the convent at 14, and was told she was not old enough by the superior and the bishop. Even visiting the pope himself did not further her cause. Eventually the bishop gave in, and at 16 she became a nun. Eventually her younger sister would follow, and the fifth girl would also be a nun. (Her father's loneliness at losing both his wife and five daughters made him mentally ill and unable to take care of himself.) A very precocious girl, it seemed Therese did everything early, so sadly and fittingly she died at 25 after a painful bout with tuberculosis.
The main thing that struck me about Therese was the flowery emotionalism with which she described her relationship with God. At times this bordered on the sickeningly coy, while at other times it was refreshing to have a candid love and devotion to God. Therese grew up in the milieu of Jansenism, a form of piety popular in France that emphasized man's depravity and the need for rigorous penance. This doctrine was responsible for much of the turmoil of Therese's cloistered life. She became scrupulous, needing to confess everything and constantly focusing on her sins. Her emphasis on God's mercy and love is a credit to the openness she had to the true nature of God's grace. If it seems exaggerated that is only because of what it responds to.
Therese's "little way" has attracted millions. The "little way" is, in part, understanding as Therese did - "My vocation is LOVE" - that we need not be great apostles or missionaries or bishops to have a Godly vocation. While reflecting on scripture in the final years of her life, Therese felt despondent at not having a great calling to do any of these things. What could she, a meek little woman, cloistered in a convent, do for the glory of the Church? She came to realize that behind all these great do-ers is the vocation to love. Anyone can do this. And while Therese felt toward the end of her life that her true vocation would be through her posthumously published life story, she would smile at the irony of just how true that became.
Most of us are like Therese: little, living our Christian lives in small ways unnoticed by the world. In this way we imitate Jesus, who in his time was largely unnoticed (how many non-Christian historical sources from the first century mention Jesus?). A great book about a woman finding herself and her vocation in Christ, definitely worth reading for non-Catholics too.
Finished 10/24/12
Like many of the autobiographies of great Catholic saints, Therese never intended the short manuscripts she wrote for her sisters in Carmel to be collected and published. Consequently, she writes in an entirely unpolished style, with none of the artifice or poetry of her predecessor John of the Cross. Instead, like her spiritual mother (and namesake) Teresa of Avila, she was an intelligent but less-educated woman whose personality shines through in her writing. I read this work - the work which made Therese into a saint and Doctor of the Church - in honor of her October 1 feat day.
Therese's life story is short: she is born into a large, middle-class French family, her mom dies when she is a small girl, she and her remaining sisters (five girls total, no boys) move to the small country town of Lisieux. She was a shy girl who experienced bouts of loneliness and emotional turbulence as a result of the grief caused by her mom's death. She had few friends at school, and almost all of her socialization came from time spent with siblings. So we can imagine her sorrow when Marie and Pauline join the Carmelites, a cloistered order, effectively ending their ability to spend time together.
Therese, following a call she felt since two, attempted to join the convent at 14, and was told she was not old enough by the superior and the bishop. Even visiting the pope himself did not further her cause. Eventually the bishop gave in, and at 16 she became a nun. Eventually her younger sister would follow, and the fifth girl would also be a nun. (Her father's loneliness at losing both his wife and five daughters made him mentally ill and unable to take care of himself.) A very precocious girl, it seemed Therese did everything early, so sadly and fittingly she died at 25 after a painful bout with tuberculosis.
The main thing that struck me about Therese was the flowery emotionalism with which she described her relationship with God. At times this bordered on the sickeningly coy, while at other times it was refreshing to have a candid love and devotion to God. Therese grew up in the milieu of Jansenism, a form of piety popular in France that emphasized man's depravity and the need for rigorous penance. This doctrine was responsible for much of the turmoil of Therese's cloistered life. She became scrupulous, needing to confess everything and constantly focusing on her sins. Her emphasis on God's mercy and love is a credit to the openness she had to the true nature of God's grace. If it seems exaggerated that is only because of what it responds to.
Therese's "little way" has attracted millions. The "little way" is, in part, understanding as Therese did - "My vocation is LOVE" - that we need not be great apostles or missionaries or bishops to have a Godly vocation. While reflecting on scripture in the final years of her life, Therese felt despondent at not having a great calling to do any of these things. What could she, a meek little woman, cloistered in a convent, do for the glory of the Church? She came to realize that behind all these great do-ers is the vocation to love. Anyone can do this. And while Therese felt toward the end of her life that her true vocation would be through her posthumously published life story, she would smile at the irony of just how true that became.
Most of us are like Therese: little, living our Christian lives in small ways unnoticed by the world. In this way we imitate Jesus, who in his time was largely unnoticed (how many non-Christian historical sources from the first century mention Jesus?). A great book about a woman finding herself and her vocation in Christ, definitely worth reading for non-Catholics too.
24JDHomrighausen
P.S. All midterms done! This week is definitely less hectic. Just finished Donald Spoto's Reluctant Saint, about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Also on the radar is finishing my professor's book for my History of the Jesuits class: Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 by Gerald McKevitt, a much more interesting and readable book than its academic title led me to think. Also for a class: Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome by Per Bilde. Yikes.
25streamsong
My response to your Goodwill haul was pretty much the same as Rachel's--Wow! I want to go to that Goodwill!
Have you come across The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell? I'm going to be reading it with an online book group this month but I have little background on the Jesuits except for what I know from local Montana history.
Have you come across The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell? I'm going to be reading it with an online book group this month but I have little background on the Jesuits except for what I know from local Montana history.
26mkboylan
I especially appreciate the way you put Therese of Lisieux in perspective regarding the thinking of her time. Very helpful. Thanks.
27avidmom
>23 JDHomrighausen: Story of a Soul is a book I'll look forward to reading. I feel sorry for St. Therese's father, though. Poor guy.
28JDHomrighausen
> 25
We've gone over those Jesuits, in fact! During the rise of the nation-states in the mid-1800s in Europe, many Jesuits were expelled from different countries by political movements opposed to the perceived pro-monarch, anti-modern Jesuits. After being kicked out of most of Europe (and having no papal states to go home to!) many Jesuits found their way to America. The American West was especially settled by Italian Jesuits. Montana was part of the "Rocky Mountain Mission." This has a map and some info: http://www.rockymtnmission.org/index.php?page=about-us
Thanks for the other comments. Already mostly through the Josephus book!
We've gone over those Jesuits, in fact! During the rise of the nation-states in the mid-1800s in Europe, many Jesuits were expelled from different countries by political movements opposed to the perceived pro-monarch, anti-modern Jesuits. After being kicked out of most of Europe (and having no papal states to go home to!) many Jesuits found their way to America. The American West was especially settled by Italian Jesuits. Montana was part of the "Rocky Mountain Mission." This has a map and some info: http://www.rockymtnmission.org/index.php?page=about-us
Thanks for the other comments. Already mostly through the Josephus book!
29JDHomrighausen
Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto
Finished 10/28/12
This book, recommended to me by a Franciscan friar, chronicles the life of Francis of Assisi in legend and history. The line between the two is blurred, with wildly different hagiographies behind written about Francis very shortly after his death. For the last century and change, scholars have applied the methods used in higher Biblical criticism to better understand "the Franciscan question."
So what are the basic facts? Francis is born in 1181, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He spends his youth in riotous partying and violence, and after a failed attempt to find chivalric honor at the Crusades returns to Assisi in a slump of depression. He walks into an abandoned Church, hears a voice telling him to rebuild it, and immediately starts trying to serve God in some very naive and embarrassing ways. His furious dad takes him to the bishop for an adjudication, and Francis strips himself naked in the cathedral as a sign that he rejects his family for Christ. He begins living an itinerant life, preaching and doing good works, and other men (many of them also high-born) begin to join him. The order eventually must be legitimated by Rome, though Francis refuses to be an ordained clergyman, and grows at an astonishingly fast rate until Francis himself abdicates his position as superior. Francis spends the last few years of his life bedridden, beset by malaria, blindness-inducing trachoma, and severe digestive problems marked by a swollen abdomen and parasite-ridden internal organs. (He died at 44!) He dies forgotten by his order, a man who wanted to lead others into an itinerant life of service and charity, instead being cast away by an order squabbling over its identity and wishing to pursue worldly fame, property, education, and ordination.
Such a sad tale.
Some key vignettes stand out: Francis' preaching to the birds, his depression after his inability to convert the Muslims, his companion Clare's dogged determination to found a Franciscan womens' order, his composition of his "Canticle of the Sun" while bedridden. Like Therese of Lisieux, Francis lived in a time when God was seen as an austere judge, but he preached a Lord who is charity and love. He lived in a time when the priesthood was a track to worldly power and success, yet eschewed these things in favor of a simple life. Numerous times he toed the line between inspired sainthood and blatant insanity. Yet his charism and his orders live on (there are an uncountable number of Franciscan orders: the Order of Friars Minor, the Conventuals, the Capuchin, the Poor Clares, and not to mention the Secular Fransicans). Spoto has written a great light read about this saint accessible to both the spiritual and those wishing to avoid pious speech.
Finished 10/28/12
This book, recommended to me by a Franciscan friar, chronicles the life of Francis of Assisi in legend and history. The line between the two is blurred, with wildly different hagiographies behind written about Francis very shortly after his death. For the last century and change, scholars have applied the methods used in higher Biblical criticism to better understand "the Franciscan question."
So what are the basic facts? Francis is born in 1181, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant. He spends his youth in riotous partying and violence, and after a failed attempt to find chivalric honor at the Crusades returns to Assisi in a slump of depression. He walks into an abandoned Church, hears a voice telling him to rebuild it, and immediately starts trying to serve God in some very naive and embarrassing ways. His furious dad takes him to the bishop for an adjudication, and Francis strips himself naked in the cathedral as a sign that he rejects his family for Christ. He begins living an itinerant life, preaching and doing good works, and other men (many of them also high-born) begin to join him. The order eventually must be legitimated by Rome, though Francis refuses to be an ordained clergyman, and grows at an astonishingly fast rate until Francis himself abdicates his position as superior. Francis spends the last few years of his life bedridden, beset by malaria, blindness-inducing trachoma, and severe digestive problems marked by a swollen abdomen and parasite-ridden internal organs. (He died at 44!) He dies forgotten by his order, a man who wanted to lead others into an itinerant life of service and charity, instead being cast away by an order squabbling over its identity and wishing to pursue worldly fame, property, education, and ordination.
Such a sad tale.
Some key vignettes stand out: Francis' preaching to the birds, his depression after his inability to convert the Muslims, his companion Clare's dogged determination to found a Franciscan womens' order, his composition of his "Canticle of the Sun" while bedridden. Like Therese of Lisieux, Francis lived in a time when God was seen as an austere judge, but he preached a Lord who is charity and love. He lived in a time when the priesthood was a track to worldly power and success, yet eschewed these things in favor of a simple life. Numerous times he toed the line between inspired sainthood and blatant insanity. Yet his charism and his orders live on (there are an uncountable number of Franciscan orders: the Order of Friars Minor, the Conventuals, the Capuchin, the Poor Clares, and not to mention the Secular Fransicans). Spoto has written a great light read about this saint accessible to both the spiritual and those wishing to avoid pious speech.
30SassyLassy
I enjoy reading your reviews, but I'm having some difficulty with the idea of Jesuits as anti-modern, given their role in the exploration of worlds not known to the Europeans, recording indigenous histories and languages, scientific discovery and liberation theology.
31rebeccanyc
I too enjoy reading your reviews; they're an education for me.
32baswood
Excellent review of Reluctant saint. Saint Francis is claimed to be a figure fundamental to the Italian Renaissance by some modern historians and I have been thinking of reading a biography - I think the Spoto book will serve that purpose nicely.
33JDHomrighausen
but I'm having some difficulty with the idea of Jesuits as anti-modern, given their role in the exploration of worlds not known to the Europeans, recording indigenous histories and languages, scientific discovery and liberation theology.
You make a good point. More specifically, the Jesuits in nineteenth-century Europe were opposed to the rise of nation-states and the weakening power of the Church in political affairs. For example, they were prolific educators in many European nations, but those countries wanted governmental control of schools. Successive political revolutions forced these supposedly-reactionary men off the continent.
You make a good point. More specifically, the Jesuits in nineteenth-century Europe were opposed to the rise of nation-states and the weakening power of the Church in political affairs. For example, they were prolific educators in many European nations, but those countries wanted governmental control of schools. Successive political revolutions forced these supposedly-reactionary men off the continent.
34JDHomrighausen
Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome by Per Bilde
Finished 10/30/12
I read this in preparation for a Hebrew course I'm taking focusing on Josephus' interpretation of his Bible, diving into the Hebrew and Greek translation differences. (It is less difficult than it sounds.) Though it's written ina very academic style, I found myself captivated by Josephus' life.
Many of us have heard of Josephus as the Jewish historian who mentions Jesus' resurrection. There is a kernel of truth to this. While Josephus does mention Jesus as an itinerant preacher who gets crucified by the Romans, most scholars agree that the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage where Josephus refers to Jesus as the ressurected messiah, was inserted by later Christian scribes. And Josephus is our main (often our only) source of information about the Judaism of Jesus and Paul. Without Josephus we would have a lot less understanding of Roman politics in Judea, the Jewish revolt, and the sects of Judaism Jesus encounters in the Gospels.
Josephus (36/7 - ~100) was a highly-educated Jewish priest. After a lengthy education and three years spent as an ascetic, He was captured by the Romans during the Jewish war, and after getting an audience with the Roman general Vespasian he told Vespasian that he would someday be emperor. Luckily, Vespasian did, and he became Josephus' patron, giving him a lush Roman villa and financing his scholarly work. After his seven-volume history of the Jewish war, he wrote a twenty-volume history of the Jews, retelling the Tanakh's stories and adding pieces from oral tradition and Roman historians. In these and other smaller works, Josephus is presenting and defending Judaism to the Graeco-Roman world as a cultured religion of lofty ethical principles. Although this does not invalidate his history, it does help us read it in context.
Yet Josephus was seen as a traitor by the Jews, a view which stayed in place for centuries. His view of the Roman oppression as God's wrath poured out on Israel (and Vespasian as the instrument of God) did not help his reputation. Christians, meanwhile, avidly read Josephus, pointing to his "Testimonium" as evidence of Christ's resurrection. Now scholars have converged on a more nuanced view of Josephus, seeing him as a valuable historian as well as a man caught in the crux of Judaism and the Gentile world.
I found Josephus' story interesting because like so many Christians today, he tried to make sense of his religion to a world that didn't understand it. So when he compares Jewish sects to Greek philosophical schools, he is only doing what a good exegete does. Was he a devoted apologist or an anti-Israel traitor? I do not know, but the debate is interesting.
Finished 10/30/12
I read this in preparation for a Hebrew course I'm taking focusing on Josephus' interpretation of his Bible, diving into the Hebrew and Greek translation differences. (It is less difficult than it sounds.) Though it's written ina very academic style, I found myself captivated by Josephus' life.
Many of us have heard of Josephus as the Jewish historian who mentions Jesus' resurrection. There is a kernel of truth to this. While Josephus does mention Jesus as an itinerant preacher who gets crucified by the Romans, most scholars agree that the Testimonium Flavianum, the passage where Josephus refers to Jesus as the ressurected messiah, was inserted by later Christian scribes. And Josephus is our main (often our only) source of information about the Judaism of Jesus and Paul. Without Josephus we would have a lot less understanding of Roman politics in Judea, the Jewish revolt, and the sects of Judaism Jesus encounters in the Gospels.
Josephus (36/7 - ~100) was a highly-educated Jewish priest. After a lengthy education and three years spent as an ascetic, He was captured by the Romans during the Jewish war, and after getting an audience with the Roman general Vespasian he told Vespasian that he would someday be emperor. Luckily, Vespasian did, and he became Josephus' patron, giving him a lush Roman villa and financing his scholarly work. After his seven-volume history of the Jewish war, he wrote a twenty-volume history of the Jews, retelling the Tanakh's stories and adding pieces from oral tradition and Roman historians. In these and other smaller works, Josephus is presenting and defending Judaism to the Graeco-Roman world as a cultured religion of lofty ethical principles. Although this does not invalidate his history, it does help us read it in context.
Yet Josephus was seen as a traitor by the Jews, a view which stayed in place for centuries. His view of the Roman oppression as God's wrath poured out on Israel (and Vespasian as the instrument of God) did not help his reputation. Christians, meanwhile, avidly read Josephus, pointing to his "Testimonium" as evidence of Christ's resurrection. Now scholars have converged on a more nuanced view of Josephus, seeing him as a valuable historian as well as a man caught in the crux of Judaism and the Gentile world.
I found Josephus' story interesting because like so many Christians today, he tried to make sense of his religion to a world that didn't understand it. So when he compares Jewish sects to Greek philosophical schools, he is only doing what a good exegete does. Was he a devoted apologist or an anti-Israel traitor? I do not know, but the debate is interesting.
35JDHomrighausen
Also, because I want everyone to know how crazy I am..... my winter quarter class schedule! And accompanying textbooks!
TESP 50: Catholic Theology: Foundations
The World is Charged: The Transcendent With Us by Francis R. Smith
An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective by Stephen B. Bevans
TESP 71: Mysticism in Catholicism
Mystics of the Christian Tradition by Steven Fanning
Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism ed. Louis Dupre
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
RSOC 130: East Asian Buddhism
Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan by William R. LaFleur
Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices by Martine Batchelor
Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Red Pine
The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng
Never Die Alone: Death as Birth in Pure Land Buddhism ed. Jonathan Watts and Yoshiharu Tomatsu
CLAS 22: Greek 2
ASCI 150: Catholicism 101
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
I also have language courses going in Biblical Hebrew (reviewing verbs) and am starting Classical Tibetan (yikes).
TESP 50: Catholic Theology: Foundations
The World is Charged: The Transcendent With Us by Francis R. Smith
An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective by Stephen B. Bevans
TESP 71: Mysticism in Catholicism
Mystics of the Christian Tradition by Steven Fanning
Light from Light: An Anthology of Christian Mysticism ed. Louis Dupre
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
RSOC 130: East Asian Buddhism
Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan by William R. LaFleur
Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices by Martine Batchelor
Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Red Pine
The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng
Never Die Alone: Death as Birth in Pure Land Buddhism ed. Jonathan Watts and Yoshiharu Tomatsu
CLAS 22: Greek 2
ASCI 150: Catholicism 101
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
I also have language courses going in Biblical Hebrew (reviewing verbs) and am starting Classical Tibetan (yikes).
36Mr.Durick
Well BN.COM does not recognize the title Never Die Alone: Death as Birth in Pure Land Buddhism. I was just last night at a discussion led by a scholar of and adherent to Shin Buddhism, mostly about his conversion over the years, and the book he was carrying, Tannisho: A Primer, which he characterized as radical, is also not recognized by them. I think Shin Buddhists are trying to hide something.
Robert
Robert
37rebeccanyc
Wow! That's quite a course schedule! And fascinating reading lists. Looking forward to reading your reviews and learning a tiny fraction of what you're studying.
38edwinbcn
I will look forward to your review of Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Red Pine.
39JDHomrighausen
> 36
Pure Land (Shin) Buddhism in general seems to be left out of Western discourse. I'm always fascinated by the way in which Westerners perceive Buddhism. (Hint: it's far more closely allied to all the colonialist and Orientalist studies than we like to think.) We seem to be fascinated by the most exotic stuff, which is why people love to talk about Zen and Tantra and less about Shin.
Also, if I ever hear the phrase "tantric sex" from some New Agey 'sage' again, I'm gonna go nuts. But that's just a side note.
Pure Land (Shin) Buddhism in general seems to be left out of Western discourse. I'm always fascinated by the way in which Westerners perceive Buddhism. (Hint: it's far more closely allied to all the colonialist and Orientalist studies than we like to think.) We seem to be fascinated by the most exotic stuff, which is why people love to talk about Zen and Tantra and less about Shin.
Also, if I ever hear the phrase "tantric sex" from some New Agey 'sage' again, I'm gonna go nuts. But that's just a side note.
40JDHomrighausen
Also - major first world problems here -I found out from the department that the Catholic mysticism and the East Asian Buddhism courses are at the same time! Aghh!!
So I'm dropping the Buddhism class and taking "Bible and Empire," which explores the New Testament writers' context as a marginalized group and how it affected the texts, as well as postcolonial readings of the Bible by African, Asian, and other non-European scholars. It is guaranteed to be interesting, and it will give me a platform to explore how Christian missionaries and Orientalist scholars brought Biblical assumptions to their study of Buddhism.
Readings:
The Postcolonial Biblical Reader, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah
The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide by Warren Carter
Empire and Apocalypse: Postcolonialism and the New Testament by Stephen D. Moore
So I'm dropping the Buddhism class and taking "Bible and Empire," which explores the New Testament writers' context as a marginalized group and how it affected the texts, as well as postcolonial readings of the Bible by African, Asian, and other non-European scholars. It is guaranteed to be interesting, and it will give me a platform to explore how Christian missionaries and Orientalist scholars brought Biblical assumptions to their study of Buddhism.
Readings:
The Postcolonial Biblical Reader, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah
The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide by Warren Carter
Empire and Apocalypse: Postcolonialism and the New Testament by Stephen D. Moore
41The_Hibernator
That DOES sound like an interesting class. Good luck with it! :)
42JDHomrighausen
Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 by Gerald McKevitt
Finished 11/2/12
This behemoth of a book is assigned reading for my class on the history of the Jesuits. A bonus: it was written by my professor, who tells us there isn't much else out there on the nineteenth-century Society. Just beginning to read it gave me a newfound respect for my teacher, as it is one of the most elegantly written academic books I have ever seen.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, successive political revolutions forced the politically reactionary Jesuits out of Europe. Many of them came to America (not exactly a Catholic-friendly place either), and the Italians in particular came to the American West. Their educated European cosmopolitanism and adaptability made them often-ideal choices for their ministries in the West with Mexicans, Native Americans, and (later) white settlers. While some of these Italians grew to love America and thrived in its open environment, others despised this new country for its lax customs and pragmatism. (The latter group tended to stay on the East coast.)
McKevitt is very good at portraying the various nuances of the Jesuits' activities. For example, Catholic missionaries have come under much fire for contributing to the destruction of Native American cultures. And the Jesuits' desire to "civilize" the native peoples contributed much to that. The But the Jesuits' work with the Native Americans, which involved mostly boarding schools and parish work, also tried to preserve facets of their culture. For example, the Jesuits taught native languages alongside English, something the government officials funding these schools disapproved of. (Jesuits wrote much of the first linguistic studies of Western Native American languages.) They also tended to locate their boarding schools on the reservation so the students could visit their parents, unlike the Protestant schools which intentionally cut the children off entirely. But despite their basic goal as paternalistic "civilizers" and evangelizers, the Jesuits' ideal was also preserving native culture and keeping natives separate from the seemingly barbaric white settlers. Unfortunately, as more whites came West, this became impossible. The Jesuits' schooling had to turn more industrial to train Native American children for jobs in a changing world. So yes, they were helping destroy traditional ways of life. But at the same time, they were trying to help the Natives assimilate and have the skills to succeed in a world that was changing in ways much broader than the Jesuits could prevent. It's hard to unambiguously label that as either good or bad for the natives.
Speaking of Native American missionary activity, McKevitt speaks quite a bit about our school, Santa Clara University. SCU is the only university founded on the site of a California mission, and it's also the oldest university in the state - foundd 1851, which I know isn't very old for you East Coast people. At first, SCU was a small boarding school, run by Italians seeking to create a traditional classical education for Catholic boys (we became co-ed 1961). While that model worked in their native Italy, and even more in places like Boston or New York, it did not fly in the rough-and-tumble, pragmatic, business-focused world of 1800s California. They began offering degrees in commerce and mining, while despising having to do it. The major embrace of these subjects only came later as the Italians died off and Irish and American Jesuits began to take over. And despite being a Catholic university, even by 1868 our student body was only half Catholic, a statistic that still stands. And there is still tension between the arts and sciences students and those in business and engineering. (However, unlike some Jesuit schools, at least we have not cut our classics department entirely - although it's a huge financial waste and some feel we should). Just as SCU had to adapt to the Californian culture, so did the other universities the Italian Jesuits founded: Sacred Heart University (now Regis), Gonzaga, and St. Ignatius (now USF).
Overall a great book, peppered with excerpts of letters and diaries kept by Jesuits. Also perhaps the densest book I've read all year.
Finished 11/2/12
This behemoth of a book is assigned reading for my class on the history of the Jesuits. A bonus: it was written by my professor, who tells us there isn't much else out there on the nineteenth-century Society. Just beginning to read it gave me a newfound respect for my teacher, as it is one of the most elegantly written academic books I have ever seen.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, successive political revolutions forced the politically reactionary Jesuits out of Europe. Many of them came to America (not exactly a Catholic-friendly place either), and the Italians in particular came to the American West. Their educated European cosmopolitanism and adaptability made them often-ideal choices for their ministries in the West with Mexicans, Native Americans, and (later) white settlers. While some of these Italians grew to love America and thrived in its open environment, others despised this new country for its lax customs and pragmatism. (The latter group tended to stay on the East coast.)
McKevitt is very good at portraying the various nuances of the Jesuits' activities. For example, Catholic missionaries have come under much fire for contributing to the destruction of Native American cultures. And the Jesuits' desire to "civilize" the native peoples contributed much to that. The But the Jesuits' work with the Native Americans, which involved mostly boarding schools and parish work, also tried to preserve facets of their culture. For example, the Jesuits taught native languages alongside English, something the government officials funding these schools disapproved of. (Jesuits wrote much of the first linguistic studies of Western Native American languages.) They also tended to locate their boarding schools on the reservation so the students could visit their parents, unlike the Protestant schools which intentionally cut the children off entirely. But despite their basic goal as paternalistic "civilizers" and evangelizers, the Jesuits' ideal was also preserving native culture and keeping natives separate from the seemingly barbaric white settlers. Unfortunately, as more whites came West, this became impossible. The Jesuits' schooling had to turn more industrial to train Native American children for jobs in a changing world. So yes, they were helping destroy traditional ways of life. But at the same time, they were trying to help the Natives assimilate and have the skills to succeed in a world that was changing in ways much broader than the Jesuits could prevent. It's hard to unambiguously label that as either good or bad for the natives.
Speaking of Native American missionary activity, McKevitt speaks quite a bit about our school, Santa Clara University. SCU is the only university founded on the site of a California mission, and it's also the oldest university in the state - foundd 1851, which I know isn't very old for you East Coast people. At first, SCU was a small boarding school, run by Italians seeking to create a traditional classical education for Catholic boys (we became co-ed 1961). While that model worked in their native Italy, and even more in places like Boston or New York, it did not fly in the rough-and-tumble, pragmatic, business-focused world of 1800s California. They began offering degrees in commerce and mining, while despising having to do it. The major embrace of these subjects only came later as the Italians died off and Irish and American Jesuits began to take over. And despite being a Catholic university, even by 1868 our student body was only half Catholic, a statistic that still stands. And there is still tension between the arts and sciences students and those in business and engineering. (However, unlike some Jesuit schools, at least we have not cut our classics department entirely - although it's a huge financial waste and some feel we should). Just as SCU had to adapt to the Californian culture, so did the other universities the Italian Jesuits founded: Sacred Heart University (now Regis), Gonzaga, and St. Ignatius (now USF).
Overall a great book, peppered with excerpts of letters and diaries kept by Jesuits. Also perhaps the densest book I've read all year.
43JDHomrighausen
English Grammar to Ace Biblical Hebrew by Miles V. Van Pelt
Finished 11/3/12
A short (97 pages) book chattily explaining some of the basics of English grammar. Assumes no knowledge of Hebrew, which makes it great for a student just starting the language but not as great for a student who has studied it for some time and wishes to understand Hebrew grammar better via contrast with English.
Some interesting differences:
- Hebrew doesn't have the preposition "of," it instead uses the construct state.
- Hebrew has fewer prepositions than English (100 vs. 30) but can put prepositions together to make compound prepositions. Some prepositions are inseparable: not words on their own but attached to the noun they create a phrase with.
- Three kinds of pronouns: demonstrative (both near and far), personal (both subjective and objective/possessive), and relative. Of personal pronouns, subjective (he/she) tend to be their own words whereas objective/possessive tend to the suffixes attached to the end of verbs or nouns ("my God" is one word). English has many relative pronouns (who, which, that, etc.) but Hebrew only has one.
- Hebrew is more word-order based than, say, Greek, and usually prefers verb-subject-object-modifier order. But there is some flexibility within that, as one can use a particle to mark a direct object.
- Verbs: mood (indicative, imperactive, subjunctive), tense (past, present, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive, perfect progressive), person-gender-number, voice (active, passive, and reflexive), and action (simple, intensive, causative). Not to mention imperatives, infinitives, and participles...
Grammar is fun but vexing.
Finished 11/3/12
A short (97 pages) book chattily explaining some of the basics of English grammar. Assumes no knowledge of Hebrew, which makes it great for a student just starting the language but not as great for a student who has studied it for some time and wishes to understand Hebrew grammar better via contrast with English.
Some interesting differences:
- Hebrew doesn't have the preposition "of," it instead uses the construct state.
- Hebrew has fewer prepositions than English (100 vs. 30) but can put prepositions together to make compound prepositions. Some prepositions are inseparable: not words on their own but attached to the noun they create a phrase with.
- Three kinds of pronouns: demonstrative (both near and far), personal (both subjective and objective/possessive), and relative. Of personal pronouns, subjective (he/she) tend to be their own words whereas objective/possessive tend to the suffixes attached to the end of verbs or nouns ("my God" is one word). English has many relative pronouns (who, which, that, etc.) but Hebrew only has one.
- Hebrew is more word-order based than, say, Greek, and usually prefers verb-subject-object-modifier order. But there is some flexibility within that, as one can use a particle to mark a direct object.
- Verbs: mood (indicative, imperactive, subjunctive), tense (past, present, future), aspect (simple, perfect, progressive, perfect progressive), person-gender-number, voice (active, passive, and reflexive), and action (simple, intensive, causative). Not to mention imperatives, infinitives, and participles...
Grammar is fun but vexing.
44avidmom
How interesting to read a book written by your Professor! Once again a very informative review. Interesting stuff about Santa Clara U. too. Having lived in Southern California for quite a while now, I seem to associate the missions with the Spanish missionaries only so I consider myself corrected.
45JDHomrighausen
No, you are actually quite right. The Spanish Franciscans ran the earliest ones. When the Jesuits received Santa Clara Mission in 1850 as a site for a college, it was just a run-down. abandoned Franciscan mission built in 1777.
Speaking of SoCal, McKevitt doesn't mention Loyola Marymount. I think its founding story came from a different context.
Speaking of SoCal, McKevitt doesn't mention Loyola Marymount. I think its founding story came from a different context.
46avidmom
I feel better now :)
When I took a class on Native Americans of the Southwest we were required to read a little book (it is less than 100 pages long), The Padre on Horseback who was born in Italy. Your review of the Italian Jesuits & my recent reading of Silence makes me want to re-read it.
Grammar is fun but vexing.
LOL! So true! So true!
ETA: Speaking of fun with grammar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw
When I took a class on Native Americans of the Southwest we were required to read a little book (it is less than 100 pages long), The Padre on Horseback who was born in Italy. Your review of the Italian Jesuits & my recent reading of Silence makes me want to re-read it.
Grammar is fun but vexing.
LOL! So true! So true!
ETA: Speaking of fun with grammar...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw
47rebeccanyc
During one of my visits to relatives in Tucson, we visited the Mission of San Xavier del Bac, which was established by a Jesuit missionary Father Kino, who was one of the first Europeans in that part of the southwest; it is now on the Tohono O'odham reservation which spans part of southern Arizona and northern Mexico.
48streamsong
Wow--there's really a huge disconnect in how the Indian schools are perceived in this part of Montana where they are never spoken of by tribal members as anything but a great evil.
The Jesuits' sexual abuse documented in the schools in the mid twentieth century also only adds to the inflamed feelings.
The Jesuits' sexual abuse documented in the schools in the mid twentieth century also only adds to the inflamed feelings.
49avidmom
>47 rebeccanyc: The Padre on Horseback is about Father Kino. San Xavier del Bac is certainly gorgeous!
50JDHomrighausen
As usual I bought too many books today. But a) I always buy them used, and b) I'd rather buy from a used bookstore than support Amazon.
Even better was the Tibetan Souvenirs shop in Berkeley. They had a very small selection of books, but the shopkeeper gave me 25% off because these were dharma books. :)
New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors by Gordon D. Fee
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and The Origin of its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament As Sacred Scripture by Sandra Schneiders
Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life by B. Alan Wallace
A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers by Joseph Fitzmyer
Generous Wisdom: Commentaries of H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on Jatakamala Garland of Birth Stories by Dalai Lama XIV
In Search of American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension by Jay P. Dolan
A Tibetan Verb Lexicon: Verbs, Classes, and Syntactic Frames by Paul G. Hackett
The Pentateuch: The Oxford Bible Commentary, ed. John Barton
The Song of Songs: A New Translation by Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch
A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by C. L. Seow
Sacred Power, Sacred Space by Jeanne Halgren Kilde
The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters by Luke Timothy Johnson
Whew.
Even better was the Tibetan Souvenirs shop in Berkeley. They had a very small selection of books, but the shopkeeper gave me 25% off because these were dharma books. :)
New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors by Gordon D. Fee
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and The Origin of its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman
The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament As Sacred Scripture by Sandra Schneiders
Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life by B. Alan Wallace
A Christological Catechism: New Testament Answers by Joseph Fitzmyer
Generous Wisdom: Commentaries of H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on Jatakamala Garland of Birth Stories by Dalai Lama XIV
In Search of American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension by Jay P. Dolan
A Tibetan Verb Lexicon: Verbs, Classes, and Syntactic Frames by Paul G. Hackett
The Pentateuch: The Oxford Bible Commentary, ed. John Barton
The Song of Songs: A New Translation by Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch
A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew by C. L. Seow
Sacred Power, Sacred Space by Jeanne Halgren Kilde
The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters by Luke Timothy Johnson
Whew.
51JDHomrighausen
> 48
I can see that. For one, we have little evidence of how the Native Americans viewed early Jesuit missionaries, mainly because we don't have many of their writings. It seems that many of the tribes' leaders appreciated the Jesuits, although that didn't mean they became Christians or did so in a way the priest wanted them to.
Of course, the horrendous sex abuse scandals are outside the time period this book covers, so I can't speak to that.
I can see that. For one, we have little evidence of how the Native Americans viewed early Jesuit missionaries, mainly because we don't have many of their writings. It seems that many of the tribes' leaders appreciated the Jesuits, although that didn't mean they became Christians or did so in a way the priest wanted them to.
Of course, the horrendous sex abuse scandals are outside the time period this book covers, so I can't speak to that.
52JDHomrighausen
God's Soldiers: A History of the Jesuits by Jonathan Wright
Finished 11/3/12
This was one of the textbooks for my class on the history of the Jesuits. It's supposed to be a general survey of the Jesuits since their founding. As a textbook, it is simply awful. At every study group, my fellow students complained at being unable to clearly understand the main points Wright makes. His writing style is his main impairment: he meanders around from point to point, rehashes things, gives examples without letting the reader know where he is going. He has such a flowery and ornate vocabulary, yet seems quite light on analysis and meat, preferring instead to lope from vignette to vignette. I found this very frustratng.
But even his content is questionable. There are some things, such as anti-Jesuit propoganada in the nineteenth century, that he spends lots of time on. It gets repretitive. But he barely talks about Vatican II or the Jesuits' involvement in Latin American liberation theology. These are some of the most important trends in both the Society and the contemporary global Church - yet Wright skims them in less than ten pages.
That said, he has some high points. His explanation of the Catholic Church's oft-neglected side of the story in the Galileo affair was tops. The stuff on how anti-Jesuit propoganda resembled anti-Semitic propaganda was fascinating. But this book is too uneven and poorly written for me to recommend.
Finished 11/3/12
This was one of the textbooks for my class on the history of the Jesuits. It's supposed to be a general survey of the Jesuits since their founding. As a textbook, it is simply awful. At every study group, my fellow students complained at being unable to clearly understand the main points Wright makes. His writing style is his main impairment: he meanders around from point to point, rehashes things, gives examples without letting the reader know where he is going. He has such a flowery and ornate vocabulary, yet seems quite light on analysis and meat, preferring instead to lope from vignette to vignette. I found this very frustratng.
But even his content is questionable. There are some things, such as anti-Jesuit propoganada in the nineteenth century, that he spends lots of time on. It gets repretitive. But he barely talks about Vatican II or the Jesuits' involvement in Latin American liberation theology. These are some of the most important trends in both the Society and the contemporary global Church - yet Wright skims them in less than ten pages.
That said, he has some high points. His explanation of the Catholic Church's oft-neglected side of the story in the Galileo affair was tops. The stuff on how anti-Jesuit propoganda resembled anti-Semitic propaganda was fascinating. But this book is too uneven and poorly written for me to recommend.
53dchaikin
Fascinating reviews on Josephus and Jesuits. Best of luck with your classes.
I realize my bias with Jesuits are as very dedicated and sophisticated destroyers of native culture. Only facts are one book I read a long time back (and the missionary results in Hawaii, non-Jesuit*.) Your reviews make me want to re-evaluate.
*Hawaii - requires much venting...
I realize my bias with Jesuits are as very dedicated and sophisticated destroyers of native culture. Only facts are one book I read a long time back (and the missionary results in Hawaii, non-Jesuit*.) Your reviews make me want to re-evaluate.
*Hawaii - requires much venting...
54JDHomrighausen
What you might also find interesting, Daniel, is Wright's mention that much Jesuit stereotyping and demonizing (especially in the nineteenth century) draws on the same tropes as anti-Semitic stereotypes: those slimy Jesuits, out to take over the world, corrupt innocent women, enslave the Protestant world, diabolical, overeducated, and far too influential.... Quite an irony considering the Church's own history of anti-Semitism!
55dchaikin
#54 - I saw that mentioned in post #52 - the anti-semitic comparisons. That's interesting but also a little odd based on what (I think) I know about the origins of anti-semitism. Thomas Mann would have loved the comparison - see Naphta in The Magic Mountain.
56JDHomrighausen
The Heart of the Buddha-Dharma by Kenryu T. Tsuji
Finished 11/10/12
Tsuiji, who died in 2004, was a pre-eminent bishop of the Buddhist Church of America. This is one of the earliest forms of Buddhism to come to the USA, long before the Zen craze of the '60s or even the 'Beat Zen' in the '50s. Japanese immigrants brought Shin Buddhism (aka Jodo Shinshu) at the turn of the last century. Shin Buddhism, although it is the strongest form of Buddhism in Japan (pretty sure), is almost unspoken of in the West. Shin practitioners believe that we fragile humans, tainted as we are with selfishness and ego-grasping, are unable to reach awakening by our own meditative skill. Instead, we must rely on the power of Amida Buddha, a compassionate bodhisattva whose 'grace' helps us to become awakened.
Tsuji's short book provides an introduction to this often-neglected form of Buddhism. He reviews the basics of Buddhism - anitya, anatman, and dukkha, the four noble truths, the Buddha's life. It is his discussion of the Amida Butsu - Shin's main mantra, "Namo Amida Butsu" - that left me unclear. Is the 'Pure Realm' that Amida Buddha created a place we are reborn into, or a metaphor for having a really deep practice and awakening in this life?
"Does the human spirit grow more beautiful with each passing day? Or does it become more engrossed in its mortality by creating stronger hands of self-attachment." (65)
Finished 11/10/12
Tsuiji, who died in 2004, was a pre-eminent bishop of the Buddhist Church of America. This is one of the earliest forms of Buddhism to come to the USA, long before the Zen craze of the '60s or even the 'Beat Zen' in the '50s. Japanese immigrants brought Shin Buddhism (aka Jodo Shinshu) at the turn of the last century. Shin Buddhism, although it is the strongest form of Buddhism in Japan (pretty sure), is almost unspoken of in the West. Shin practitioners believe that we fragile humans, tainted as we are with selfishness and ego-grasping, are unable to reach awakening by our own meditative skill. Instead, we must rely on the power of Amida Buddha, a compassionate bodhisattva whose 'grace' helps us to become awakened.
Tsuji's short book provides an introduction to this often-neglected form of Buddhism. He reviews the basics of Buddhism - anitya, anatman, and dukkha, the four noble truths, the Buddha's life. It is his discussion of the Amida Butsu - Shin's main mantra, "Namo Amida Butsu" - that left me unclear. Is the 'Pure Realm' that Amida Buddha created a place we are reborn into, or a metaphor for having a really deep practice and awakening in this life?
"Does the human spirit grow more beautiful with each passing day? Or does it become more engrossed in its mortality by creating stronger hands of self-attachment." (65)
57JDHomrighausen
I picked up the Tsuji book at the local San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin:
58Becky.Hirst 
Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.
59JDHomrighausen
In Good Company: The Fast Track From the Corporate World to Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience by James Martin, S.J.
Finished 11/11/12
Martin, a well-known popular author of books on Catholicism and Ignatian spirituality, has written a gem about his joining the Jesuits. After growing up in a Catholic family and graduating from UPenn's prestigious business program, he went into an increasingly dehumanizing and stressful career in finance at GE. After a few years of hating his job and flirting with leaving, he finally took the step, leaving GE for SJ. Martin's spiritual memoir is applicable to any kind of discernment to a deeper calling, as he writes in a way accessible to non-Christians as well as his flock.
Martin ends with his profession of first vows, after two years in the order doing various ministries. In one of his toughest, he worked at one of the Missionaries of Charity houses (Mother Teresa's order). It was gruesome, stinky work:
"I realized that if I saw this same scene as part of, say, a movie, I would probably find it terribly moving. I would sit in the movie theatre thinking, 'Wow, I should be doing that.' So now that I was doing it, why didn't I feel moved? One morning, while washing one of the men, I thought that if this were in fact a move, there would doubtless be some stirring background music. Maybe that's what was issing. So I started singing to myself when I worked. Mostly religious songs to get me in the mood and take my mind off of people blowing snot all over me. Eventually, the patients hummed along with me." (159)
At the end of the book, describing Jesuit poverty:
"There is also a deeper type of poverty that a Jesuit faces as well - a spiritual poverty that everyone faces at some point. The poverty of being simply human, prone to failure, to sickness, to hunger, to disappointment. The inability to heal people or 'do' something at Youville hospital, the knowledge that no matter how many hours I spent tutoring in Kingston, the Alpha boys were probably destined to a life of poverty. The understanding that the same men and women I met at the St. Francis homeless shelter would probably remain homeless. And knowing that no matter how much time we spent with the boys of Nativity, some of the boys would undoubtedly face lives of struggle and hardship. Without faith, I think, this type of realization can lead to despair. It is this type of poverty that forces you to rely in God." (191)
I read this in two days - couldn't put it down.
Finished 11/11/12
Martin, a well-known popular author of books on Catholicism and Ignatian spirituality, has written a gem about his joining the Jesuits. After growing up in a Catholic family and graduating from UPenn's prestigious business program, he went into an increasingly dehumanizing and stressful career in finance at GE. After a few years of hating his job and flirting with leaving, he finally took the step, leaving GE for SJ. Martin's spiritual memoir is applicable to any kind of discernment to a deeper calling, as he writes in a way accessible to non-Christians as well as his flock.
Martin ends with his profession of first vows, after two years in the order doing various ministries. In one of his toughest, he worked at one of the Missionaries of Charity houses (Mother Teresa's order). It was gruesome, stinky work:
"I realized that if I saw this same scene as part of, say, a movie, I would probably find it terribly moving. I would sit in the movie theatre thinking, 'Wow, I should be doing that.' So now that I was doing it, why didn't I feel moved? One morning, while washing one of the men, I thought that if this were in fact a move, there would doubtless be some stirring background music. Maybe that's what was issing. So I started singing to myself when I worked. Mostly religious songs to get me in the mood and take my mind off of people blowing snot all over me. Eventually, the patients hummed along with me." (159)
At the end of the book, describing Jesuit poverty:
"There is also a deeper type of poverty that a Jesuit faces as well - a spiritual poverty that everyone faces at some point. The poverty of being simply human, prone to failure, to sickness, to hunger, to disappointment. The inability to heal people or 'do' something at Youville hospital, the knowledge that no matter how many hours I spent tutoring in Kingston, the Alpha boys were probably destined to a life of poverty. The understanding that the same men and women I met at the St. Francis homeless shelter would probably remain homeless. And knowing that no matter how much time we spent with the boys of Nativity, some of the boys would undoubtedly face lives of struggle and hardship. Without faith, I think, this type of realization can lead to despair. It is this type of poverty that forces you to rely in God." (191)
I read this in two days - couldn't put it down.
60rebeccanyc
Interesting, as always.
62JDHomrighausen
Happy day after Thanksgiving everyone! This has been a good reading week for me, as you can see. Sadly I found out the day before Thanksgiving that one of my good friends died ... she had been battling cancer for a year or so, and it seemed like she was getting better, but then she had a pulmonary embolism and that was it. Very sad. Left me with a very pensive Thanksgiving, thankful for the mortality of it all. (I have a history with Thanksgiving. The day after Turkey Day in 2010 I got in a massive car wreck that could/should have killed me - instead I walked away with a bruised eye.)
On a happier note, I have finished something I've needed to do for some time: I read through all the documents of Vatican II, the worldwide bishops' council that took place from 1962-1965 and defined much of the Church's modern teaching and praxis.
The Gospel According to Oprah by Marcia Nelson
Finished 11/17/12
When I first saw this at the book sale, I thought it would be by some conservative decrying Oprah's lack of Jesus-talk. Quite the opposite: this author argues that Oprah's lack of expicitly religious language is one of her major successes as a pastoral public figure. Yes, pastoral. Though not a pastor, Oprah melds together an eclectic blend of practical, everyday spiritual teachings on her show. She teaches forgiveness and gratitude, and encourages her audience to practice self-examination (e.g. don't just lose the weight, but ask yourself why you eat emotionally). She does so not by preaching, but by inviting "witnesses" on her show to give "tesimonies." Oprah's roots in a black church inform her way of presenting and occassionally the vocabulary she describes it in, when she does discuss Jesus. And she exudes charm and likeability, especially because she openly talks about her flaws (e.g. weight gain).
Overall, an okay book. I came away with some insights but felt like it lacked some depth. It did give me a new appreciation of Oprah, especially how she has opened up the national dialogue on sex abuse and other womens' issues. It was also a bit dated (2005) so didn't cover the end of her show. It would have also been nice to explore Oprah's attitudes towards religion(s), such as her episode on Catholic nuns. I gave it to my mom (an avowed Oprah fan) to read.
Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints by James Martin, S.J.
Finished 11/17/12
Reading Martin's autobiography In Good Company gravitated me toward this short book on sprititual growth. Martin discusses his two favorite saints, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton, and how they conceptualized growing into God. Martin, who spent years trying to be a competitive executive before he joined the Jesuits, exhorts readers not to try to be soneone else. This even includes trying to be someone else spiritually. We are not meant to be a "dry, bloodless representation of a model, however perfect," writes John XXIII in his private journals. I'm reminded of a Zen retreat I was on where the roshi described fellow practitioners imitating Suzuki-Roshi to be like him, even trying to duplicate the way he walked and talked. They're missing the point: holiness is meditated by our personal differences and quirks. If we have an active personality, perhaps being a contemplative is not our call.
The spiritual life is not about having God give us what we need as a "Great Problem Solver," and nor is it solely a fight against bad desires. Rather, it is about letting our good desires, our love and work for peace and justice, grow. In encountering ourselves, in learning about ourselves, we grow toward God.
I definitely needed something spiritual to read, and Martin filled that bill. I have struggled for some time with feeling I need to be more of a contemplative. Because I am not, I guilt myself for feeling I need to do so. Martin reminded me that I can find God the way I usually have: through ideas, books, words, thinking and speaking in the broadest sense.
A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II by Edward Hahnenberg
Finished 11/21/12
Hahnenberg's book helped me in my task to read all these clause-filled council documents. Though only some were really ground-breaking documents that warrant re-reading, even the most prosaic and dull ones had some nuggets. Hahnenberg helps the reader understand not only the historical context of each document - a necessity for those of us too young to have known the pre-conciliar Church. He also described debates over each document at the council, how some passed easily (Sacred Liturgy) and others had intense debate (Church in the Modern World). He also discusses how the situations each document responds to have changed in the past 50 years. Though he could at times be too "concise," he definitely helped me navigate through each document and figure out which ones warrant further study.
Next up:
Lumen Gentium (On the Church)
Gaudium et Spes (Church in the Modern World)
Dei Verbum (Divine Revelation/Sacred Scripture)
Unitatis Redintegratio (Ecumenism)
Dignitatis Humanae (Religious Freedom)
Nostra Aetate (Relationship of Christianity to Non-Christian Religions)
I'll be using some volumes from Paulist Press' "Rediscovering Vatican II" series to guide me along the way.
Darwin and Intelligent Design by Francisco Ayala
Finished 11/21/12
Ayala's short book, a required reading for one of my classes, describes the background of evolution and the Christian response to it. Much of this should be incontroversial: Darwin in his novel theory of natural selection was attempting to provide a scientific explanation for appearance of design rather than Paley's invocation of God to explain a natural order. Ayala briefly discusses the evidence for evolution from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, embryonic development, molecular biology, and "the geography of life." He debunks certain intelligent design or anti-evolution arguments, such as the claim that we lack key transitional species in the fossil record. We don't. We have clear and detailed records of hominid evolution from ardipithecus to homo erectus, habilis, and sapiens. We also have fossil evidence for the transitional species between fish and tetrapods (tiktaalik) and between reptiles and birds (archaeopteryx). Furthermore, we have an abundance of literature on key questions that IDers argue no "Darwinist" has ever answered, such as the evolution of bacterial flagellum and the human eye.
However, Ayala is less luminous when discussing more philosophical issues. While he does give some good reasons why intelligent design is not science - its hypotheses are untestable and unfalsifiable - he doesn't do as good a job explaining why religion and science don't conflict. He gives the NOMA theory: science and religion cover different territory so don't conflict. He cites Aquinas and John Paul II for this point. But what about Pius XII's contention that while evolution is true, there must have been a point where God put a soul into a hominid species. Is this in the territory of science? In this and other ways, Christianity holds that God is not some allegorical figure we encounter in the depths of our soul, but a being that acts in the universe in observable ways. God cures people from illness, not natural causes. While Ayala is right that Darwin bestowed a gift onto theology by explaining the violence and suffering intrinsic in the natural world is not caused by God's creation but by un-designed natural selection, he seems to miss other crucial issues that lie at the root of different methodologies for examining reality: one methodologically naturalistic, one open to miracles and divine intervention. And what about the belief of some Christians that the universe has the appearance of age, created with fossils in place, but is in fact only 6000 years old? Perhaps I am being too harsh with his brevity, but Ayala misses these key issues.
Rachel, I'm especially interested to know what you will think of this book. :)
(As a side note - one of the easiest ways to tell ID is a religious belief, not a science, is that practically every major ID proponent teaches at a religious school (esp. Biola) or is funded by a religious organization. Also, most of the peer-reviewed ID research is published in a journal founded by the ID movement, BIO-Complexity. It's pretty dishonest.)
Historicity of the Gospels by Pontifical Biblical Commission
Finished 11/22/12
This isn't really a book as much as a ten-page document issued in 1964 in response to "Historical Jesus" research. The Pontifical Biblical Commission was called on to write this in part for the preparation of the Vatican II document Dei Verbum. This document calls upon Catholic exegetes to balance two oft-conflicting trends. One, the exegete must make use of the "historical method in its widest sense," including the so-called "higher criticism" and other insights gained from modern disciplines of linguistics, textual criticism, and form criticism. But the exegete must also do her research in step with the Church.
As a framework for approaching the historical Jesus, the PBC described three stages of the Gospel:
1. The lived gospel of Jesus' life and ministry.
2. The oral gospel, strands of tradition floating around the earliest Christian movements.
3. The written gospel, i.e. the canonical gospels as they stand today.
The key here is in avoiding two extreme reactions to the historical Jesus. One, often called fundamentalist, affirms the historical accuracy of every word in the Gospels. This confuses stage 1 with stage 3, and misses the creativity and "varied ways of speaking" of each of the gospel writers. At the other extreme are the mythicists, who believe Jesus was a complete fiction. They only see stage 3, and overestimate the creativity of the early Christian community.
So a Catholic exegete must recognize that while the Evangelists "faithfully set forth His life and His words," they also "adapted the format of their preaching to the condition of their audience." They added their own perspective and reflection on Jesus' life. The Gospels are not just history or biography, but kerygma: "Recent studies indicate that the life and teaching of Jesus were not simply related so as to be remembered; they were "preached" to provide the basis of faith and morals for the Church." By affirming the complicated nature of the Gospels without getting too specific about some of the debates concerning it, the PBC ensured that healthy scholarship would take place. Questions still remain unsettled.
For example, scholar Raymond Brown famously asserted that on the basis of history there is insufficient evidence for the virgin conception of Jesus. Form-criticism identifies Jesus' infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke not as factual retellings but as symbolic preludes, introducing the major themes of each gospel writer. Brown affirmed that as a Catholic believing in the Spirit-inspired Church tradition, he believed in the virgin conception of Jesus - only he could not argue so on historical scholarly grounds. While I see this as honesty and following this document's instruction that Gospel writers used the forms appropriate to their audience, some Catholics felt that Brown was committing hresy by denying the virgin conception. Both sides can quote from this PBC document to support their argument, even though I feel Brown is more in line with its message.
That's all for now, folks!
On a happier note, I have finished something I've needed to do for some time: I read through all the documents of Vatican II, the worldwide bishops' council that took place from 1962-1965 and defined much of the Church's modern teaching and praxis.
The Gospel According to Oprah by Marcia Nelson
Finished 11/17/12
When I first saw this at the book sale, I thought it would be by some conservative decrying Oprah's lack of Jesus-talk. Quite the opposite: this author argues that Oprah's lack of expicitly religious language is one of her major successes as a pastoral public figure. Yes, pastoral. Though not a pastor, Oprah melds together an eclectic blend of practical, everyday spiritual teachings on her show. She teaches forgiveness and gratitude, and encourages her audience to practice self-examination (e.g. don't just lose the weight, but ask yourself why you eat emotionally). She does so not by preaching, but by inviting "witnesses" on her show to give "tesimonies." Oprah's roots in a black church inform her way of presenting and occassionally the vocabulary she describes it in, when she does discuss Jesus. And she exudes charm and likeability, especially because she openly talks about her flaws (e.g. weight gain).
Overall, an okay book. I came away with some insights but felt like it lacked some depth. It did give me a new appreciation of Oprah, especially how she has opened up the national dialogue on sex abuse and other womens' issues. It was also a bit dated (2005) so didn't cover the end of her show. It would have also been nice to explore Oprah's attitudes towards religion(s), such as her episode on Catholic nuns. I gave it to my mom (an avowed Oprah fan) to read.
Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints by James Martin, S.J.
Finished 11/17/12
Reading Martin's autobiography In Good Company gravitated me toward this short book on sprititual growth. Martin discusses his two favorite saints, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton, and how they conceptualized growing into God. Martin, who spent years trying to be a competitive executive before he joined the Jesuits, exhorts readers not to try to be soneone else. This even includes trying to be someone else spiritually. We are not meant to be a "dry, bloodless representation of a model, however perfect," writes John XXIII in his private journals. I'm reminded of a Zen retreat I was on where the roshi described fellow practitioners imitating Suzuki-Roshi to be like him, even trying to duplicate the way he walked and talked. They're missing the point: holiness is meditated by our personal differences and quirks. If we have an active personality, perhaps being a contemplative is not our call.
The spiritual life is not about having God give us what we need as a "Great Problem Solver," and nor is it solely a fight against bad desires. Rather, it is about letting our good desires, our love and work for peace and justice, grow. In encountering ourselves, in learning about ourselves, we grow toward God.
I definitely needed something spiritual to read, and Martin filled that bill. I have struggled for some time with feeling I need to be more of a contemplative. Because I am not, I guilt myself for feeling I need to do so. Martin reminded me that I can find God the way I usually have: through ideas, books, words, thinking and speaking in the broadest sense.
A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II by Edward Hahnenberg
Finished 11/21/12
Hahnenberg's book helped me in my task to read all these clause-filled council documents. Though only some were really ground-breaking documents that warrant re-reading, even the most prosaic and dull ones had some nuggets. Hahnenberg helps the reader understand not only the historical context of each document - a necessity for those of us too young to have known the pre-conciliar Church. He also described debates over each document at the council, how some passed easily (Sacred Liturgy) and others had intense debate (Church in the Modern World). He also discusses how the situations each document responds to have changed in the past 50 years. Though he could at times be too "concise," he definitely helped me navigate through each document and figure out which ones warrant further study.
Next up:
Lumen Gentium (On the Church)
Gaudium et Spes (Church in the Modern World)
Dei Verbum (Divine Revelation/Sacred Scripture)
Unitatis Redintegratio (Ecumenism)
Dignitatis Humanae (Religious Freedom)
Nostra Aetate (Relationship of Christianity to Non-Christian Religions)
I'll be using some volumes from Paulist Press' "Rediscovering Vatican II" series to guide me along the way.
Darwin and Intelligent Design by Francisco Ayala
Finished 11/21/12
Ayala's short book, a required reading for one of my classes, describes the background of evolution and the Christian response to it. Much of this should be incontroversial: Darwin in his novel theory of natural selection was attempting to provide a scientific explanation for appearance of design rather than Paley's invocation of God to explain a natural order. Ayala briefly discusses the evidence for evolution from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, embryonic development, molecular biology, and "the geography of life." He debunks certain intelligent design or anti-evolution arguments, such as the claim that we lack key transitional species in the fossil record. We don't. We have clear and detailed records of hominid evolution from ardipithecus to homo erectus, habilis, and sapiens. We also have fossil evidence for the transitional species between fish and tetrapods (tiktaalik) and between reptiles and birds (archaeopteryx). Furthermore, we have an abundance of literature on key questions that IDers argue no "Darwinist" has ever answered, such as the evolution of bacterial flagellum and the human eye.
However, Ayala is less luminous when discussing more philosophical issues. While he does give some good reasons why intelligent design is not science - its hypotheses are untestable and unfalsifiable - he doesn't do as good a job explaining why religion and science don't conflict. He gives the NOMA theory: science and religion cover different territory so don't conflict. He cites Aquinas and John Paul II for this point. But what about Pius XII's contention that while evolution is true, there must have been a point where God put a soul into a hominid species. Is this in the territory of science? In this and other ways, Christianity holds that God is not some allegorical figure we encounter in the depths of our soul, but a being that acts in the universe in observable ways. God cures people from illness, not natural causes. While Ayala is right that Darwin bestowed a gift onto theology by explaining the violence and suffering intrinsic in the natural world is not caused by God's creation but by un-designed natural selection, he seems to miss other crucial issues that lie at the root of different methodologies for examining reality: one methodologically naturalistic, one open to miracles and divine intervention. And what about the belief of some Christians that the universe has the appearance of age, created with fossils in place, but is in fact only 6000 years old? Perhaps I am being too harsh with his brevity, but Ayala misses these key issues.
Rachel, I'm especially interested to know what you will think of this book. :)
(As a side note - one of the easiest ways to tell ID is a religious belief, not a science, is that practically every major ID proponent teaches at a religious school (esp. Biola) or is funded by a religious organization. Also, most of the peer-reviewed ID research is published in a journal founded by the ID movement, BIO-Complexity. It's pretty dishonest.)
Historicity of the Gospels by Pontifical Biblical Commission
Finished 11/22/12
This isn't really a book as much as a ten-page document issued in 1964 in response to "Historical Jesus" research. The Pontifical Biblical Commission was called on to write this in part for the preparation of the Vatican II document Dei Verbum. This document calls upon Catholic exegetes to balance two oft-conflicting trends. One, the exegete must make use of the "historical method in its widest sense," including the so-called "higher criticism" and other insights gained from modern disciplines of linguistics, textual criticism, and form criticism. But the exegete must also do her research in step with the Church.
As a framework for approaching the historical Jesus, the PBC described three stages of the Gospel:
1. The lived gospel of Jesus' life and ministry.
2. The oral gospel, strands of tradition floating around the earliest Christian movements.
3. The written gospel, i.e. the canonical gospels as they stand today.
The key here is in avoiding two extreme reactions to the historical Jesus. One, often called fundamentalist, affirms the historical accuracy of every word in the Gospels. This confuses stage 1 with stage 3, and misses the creativity and "varied ways of speaking" of each of the gospel writers. At the other extreme are the mythicists, who believe Jesus was a complete fiction. They only see stage 3, and overestimate the creativity of the early Christian community.
So a Catholic exegete must recognize that while the Evangelists "faithfully set forth His life and His words," they also "adapted the format of their preaching to the condition of their audience." They added their own perspective and reflection on Jesus' life. The Gospels are not just history or biography, but kerygma: "Recent studies indicate that the life and teaching of Jesus were not simply related so as to be remembered; they were "preached" to provide the basis of faith and morals for the Church." By affirming the complicated nature of the Gospels without getting too specific about some of the debates concerning it, the PBC ensured that healthy scholarship would take place. Questions still remain unsettled.
For example, scholar Raymond Brown famously asserted that on the basis of history there is insufficient evidence for the virgin conception of Jesus. Form-criticism identifies Jesus' infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke not as factual retellings but as symbolic preludes, introducing the major themes of each gospel writer. Brown affirmed that as a Catholic believing in the Spirit-inspired Church tradition, he believed in the virgin conception of Jesus - only he could not argue so on historical scholarly grounds. While I see this as honesty and following this document's instruction that Gospel writers used the forms appropriate to their audience, some Catholics felt that Brown was committing hresy by denying the virgin conception. Both sides can quote from this PBC document to support their argument, even though I feel Brown is more in line with its message.
That's all for now, folks!
63JDHomrighausen
Can someone else flag 58 above? It's clear from her profile she's a spammer.
64The_Hibernator
Flagged. :)
65JDHomrighausen
> 64
Rachel! I'm curious for your thoughts on the Ayala book. :)
Rachel! I'm curious for your thoughts on the Ayala book. :)
66rebeccanyc
Sorry about your friend, Jonathan, and your bad Thanksgiving karma! And that's a lot of reading you've been doing. I would guess that Ayala may be less detailed about the religious issues because he's a biologist himself and finds it easier to write about science.
67avidmom
So sorry about your friend, lilbrattyteen.
More interesting reviews. I would not have expected you to read The Gospel According to Oprah though! Becoming Who You Are reminds me of a little self-test exercise handed to us years ago in church to find out what kind of "worshipper" you were.... some people find their connection (or feel closer) to God through music, some in service, some in quiet study. It was very interesting.
More interesting reviews. I would not have expected you to read The Gospel According to Oprah though! Becoming Who You Are reminds me of a little self-test exercise handed to us years ago in church to find out what kind of "worshipper" you were.... some people find their connection (or feel closer) to God through music, some in service, some in quiet study. It was very interesting.
68JDHomrighausen
What did the test tell you, Ms. Mom?
69avidmom
I had to do some digging but I found that little quiz. Apparently, it is from a book called Sacred Pathways. (A few people here on LT have reviewed it). I am (or was then) a "Contemplative/Intellectual/Enthusiast".Here's the quiz: http://common.northpoint.org/sacredpathway.html
70JDHomrighausen
Such an odd typology! I'm definitely an intellectual but not much of a contemplative.
71The_Hibernator
Hi Jonathan! Sorry I didn't answer your question before, I was pretty busy last week and didn't have time to have intelligent conversations on everyone else's threads. :)
The Ayala book looks interesting...in fact, it's just the type of book that I'm generally interested in reading. It's surprising that you say he didn't cover the philosophical aspects well because he's supposed to be a philosopher, right? That's too bad, because I'm just as interested in the philosophical aspects as the scientific aspects of this issue.
Did he discuss theistic evolution and fine tuning? I suppose theistic evolution is closest to my belief system. I think an interesting discussion on theistic evolution would be much more interesting to me than a discussion which debunks the theory that the universe is much younger than it looks, and God created misleading clues like fossils. I guess there's no way to disprove a theory like that, you just need to lean on Occam's razor and say that it's much more reasonable to assume that the fossils are what they appear to be. :)
It seems that Ayala wanted to avoid mixing religion with science too much (which he may feel theistic evolution and fine tuning do). He probably thinks it's best to separate science and religion as unrelated territory that don't mix. That's a perfectly good way to keep things straight in your head, though I think taking God out of the natural world is unnatural. ;)
The Ayala book looks interesting...in fact, it's just the type of book that I'm generally interested in reading. It's surprising that you say he didn't cover the philosophical aspects well because he's supposed to be a philosopher, right? That's too bad, because I'm just as interested in the philosophical aspects as the scientific aspects of this issue.
Did he discuss theistic evolution and fine tuning? I suppose theistic evolution is closest to my belief system. I think an interesting discussion on theistic evolution would be much more interesting to me than a discussion which debunks the theory that the universe is much younger than it looks, and God created misleading clues like fossils. I guess there's no way to disprove a theory like that, you just need to lean on Occam's razor and say that it's much more reasonable to assume that the fossils are what they appear to be. :)
It seems that Ayala wanted to avoid mixing religion with science too much (which he may feel theistic evolution and fine tuning do). He probably thinks it's best to separate science and religion as unrelated territory that don't mix. That's a perfectly good way to keep things straight in your head, though I think taking God out of the natural world is unnatural. ;)
72JDHomrighausen
The dustjacket of my book bills Ayala as a biologist. You prompted me to examine his website - and lo and behold, he also has quite a bit of philosophical publication. A true Renaissance man!
So when/how did God insert souls into the hominid line? :)
I guess there's no way to disprove a theory like that, you just need to lean on Occam's razor and say that it's much more reasonable to assume that the fossils are what they appear to be. :)
On scientific grounds I agree with you. Except that this can't be a scientific argument - because science seems to say that unless we have good reason not to, we should as a rule stick with our senses and observation. I just can't believe that a loving God who wants us to know His Truth and His love would so blatantly deceive us and mock our ability to use the reason which he gave to us.
So when/how did God insert souls into the hominid line? :)
I guess there's no way to disprove a theory like that, you just need to lean on Occam's razor and say that it's much more reasonable to assume that the fossils are what they appear to be. :)
On scientific grounds I agree with you. Except that this can't be a scientific argument - because science seems to say that unless we have good reason not to, we should as a rule stick with our senses and observation. I just can't believe that a loving God who wants us to know His Truth and His love would so blatantly deceive us and mock our ability to use the reason which he gave to us.
73The_Hibernator
I just can't believe that a loving God who wants us to know His Truth and His love would so blatantly deceive us and mock our ability to use the reason which he gave to us.
At first, I considered saying something along those lines. But God isn't human, and humans can't understand Him. Perhaps he has an ineffable reason to create fossils as-are, and we mere humans are unfortunate enough to misinterpret them as millennia-old creatures. It wouldn't be the first time that we misunderstood what was right before our eyes. Who am I to say "God wouldn't do that?" After all, there isn't anything fundamentally evil about creating fossils as-are. It just doesn't make sense to today's logicians, but it's not evil.
Like I said, there's no way to disprove a theory like that...you just have to make logical assumptions. Using Occam's razor is no more right than saying "God wouldn't do that," but at least I have more faith in Occam's razor than I do in my ability to predict God. :D
ETA: So when/how did God insert souls into the hominid line? :)
Well, I'm going to pretend to understand the ineffable here and suggest that God metaphorically breathed his love into humans, thus creating a soul. That soul was created at the point in time when humans first developed a conscience. When I say "conscience" I don't mean an instinctual urge to help a community member in danger. I mean when a human first considered the question: "which is the RIGHT thing to do?" When they first developed a feeling of guilt. When they first noticed the consequences of their choices and were able to consider "if I had behaved in a different way, perhaps things would be better for my friend...."
At first, I considered saying something along those lines. But God isn't human, and humans can't understand Him. Perhaps he has an ineffable reason to create fossils as-are, and we mere humans are unfortunate enough to misinterpret them as millennia-old creatures. It wouldn't be the first time that we misunderstood what was right before our eyes. Who am I to say "God wouldn't do that?" After all, there isn't anything fundamentally evil about creating fossils as-are. It just doesn't make sense to today's logicians, but it's not evil.
Like I said, there's no way to disprove a theory like that...you just have to make logical assumptions. Using Occam's razor is no more right than saying "God wouldn't do that," but at least I have more faith in Occam's razor than I do in my ability to predict God. :D
ETA: So when/how did God insert souls into the hominid line? :)
Well, I'm going to pretend to understand the ineffable here and suggest that God metaphorically breathed his love into humans, thus creating a soul. That soul was created at the point in time when humans first developed a conscience. When I say "conscience" I don't mean an instinctual urge to help a community member in danger. I mean when a human first considered the question: "which is the RIGHT thing to do?" When they first developed a feeling of guilt. When they first noticed the consequences of their choices and were able to consider "if I had behaved in a different way, perhaps things would be better for my friend...."
74dchaikin
#62 - You're cruising. Interesting comments and responses to books I would probably never read - although I'm intrigued by James Martin.
75JDHomrighausen
The Interpretation of Scripture: In Defense of the Historical-Critical Method by Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J.
Finished 11/23/12
Jesuit Fitzmyer has written a short apology for the historical-critical method of reading Scripture in Catholicism. This is little surprise: Fitzmyer and his close friend Raymond Brown were the two giants of the first generation of Catholic historical-critical Biblical scholars following the 1943 encyclical allowing this method. Though using historical-critical methodology is far from controversial in the Church now, there are some traditionalists who question its use and fear its past associations.
Historical-critical methodology developed in nineteenth-century Germany out of historical tools sharpened by the Enlightenment. These include a new attention to questions of authorship, authorical context, style, and other questions associated with form, source, redaction, and textual criticism. These methods were aided by the advent of Biblical archaeology and the decoding of ancient Near Eastern languages, allowing us to read cognate texts and genres from cultures surrounding ancient Israel. While being a genuinely new event, these methods had precedents in Church Fathers' use of classical philology and Origen's proto-textual criticism. It would have been impossible without the Reformation "return to the sources": studying Biblical languages and casting off highly speculative allegorical readings favored in some medieval circles.
Unortunately, the Church was at first highly opposed to these new methods. Its cultured despisers used them to attack Christianity, such as the various quests for the historical Jesus done in the nineteenth century. Later, Bultmann used them as part of his demythologization of the Gospels, promoting his own kerygmatic theology detached from any historical Jesus. Yet Pope Pius VII saw the need to open the Church to these new methods, and in 1943 his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu he did. Vatican II's Dei Verbum upheld this new shift, as did the Pontifical Biblical Commission in its 1964 "Instruction on the Historicity of the Gospels" (which I reviewed above).
What is the significance of the historical-critical method? Fitzmyer's strongest argument for it is that in order for Revelation and its meaning to be preserved, scholars must constantly seek to understand what Revelation meant in its original context. This does not deny later re-readings of scripture or creatively imagining how it can be read to inform the current situation of the Church and the World. But these later interpretations must always begin with the literal sense: "the sense which the human author directly intended and which the written words conveyed." This literal sense is not a new invention, but was described by medieval exegetes and the PBC's 1993 document "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church": the literl sense, the spiritual (Christological sense), the fuller sense of how ongoing tradition has made sense of a text.
To Catholics who feel that we should return wholly to how the Church Fathers and the Magisterium read scripture, Fitzmyer responds that this is hardly a unanimous tradition. As my next review will explore, the Fathers hotly debated between literal/historical and allegorical readings of scripture. The Magisterium has rarely defined the meaning of a particular verse or book. And while historical-critical scholarship can demolish the assumed Biblical bases for some doctrines, the Catholic belief that the Holy Spirit guides our tradition prevents us from having to take hard lines on historical debates to save key doctrines. And of course, historical-critical Catholic exegetes still do their work in the context of the tradition and the Magisterium, though debates about which one takes preference still continue.
Fiztmyer's short, useful book is marred in one respect: it's somewhat repetitive and discontinuous. It is not so much a book as a collection of various articles Fitzmyer published, strung together to be more coherent. Still, it's a useful guide to how Catholic Biblical scholars read scripture and how one major exegete views his vocation and its meaning.
Finished 11/23/12
Jesuit Fitzmyer has written a short apology for the historical-critical method of reading Scripture in Catholicism. This is little surprise: Fitzmyer and his close friend Raymond Brown were the two giants of the first generation of Catholic historical-critical Biblical scholars following the 1943 encyclical allowing this method. Though using historical-critical methodology is far from controversial in the Church now, there are some traditionalists who question its use and fear its past associations.
Historical-critical methodology developed in nineteenth-century Germany out of historical tools sharpened by the Enlightenment. These include a new attention to questions of authorship, authorical context, style, and other questions associated with form, source, redaction, and textual criticism. These methods were aided by the advent of Biblical archaeology and the decoding of ancient Near Eastern languages, allowing us to read cognate texts and genres from cultures surrounding ancient Israel. While being a genuinely new event, these methods had precedents in Church Fathers' use of classical philology and Origen's proto-textual criticism. It would have been impossible without the Reformation "return to the sources": studying Biblical languages and casting off highly speculative allegorical readings favored in some medieval circles.
Unortunately, the Church was at first highly opposed to these new methods. Its cultured despisers used them to attack Christianity, such as the various quests for the historical Jesus done in the nineteenth century. Later, Bultmann used them as part of his demythologization of the Gospels, promoting his own kerygmatic theology detached from any historical Jesus. Yet Pope Pius VII saw the need to open the Church to these new methods, and in 1943 his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu he did. Vatican II's Dei Verbum upheld this new shift, as did the Pontifical Biblical Commission in its 1964 "Instruction on the Historicity of the Gospels" (which I reviewed above).
What is the significance of the historical-critical method? Fitzmyer's strongest argument for it is that in order for Revelation and its meaning to be preserved, scholars must constantly seek to understand what Revelation meant in its original context. This does not deny later re-readings of scripture or creatively imagining how it can be read to inform the current situation of the Church and the World. But these later interpretations must always begin with the literal sense: "the sense which the human author directly intended and which the written words conveyed." This literal sense is not a new invention, but was described by medieval exegetes and the PBC's 1993 document "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church": the literl sense, the spiritual (Christological sense), the fuller sense of how ongoing tradition has made sense of a text.
To Catholics who feel that we should return wholly to how the Church Fathers and the Magisterium read scripture, Fitzmyer responds that this is hardly a unanimous tradition. As my next review will explore, the Fathers hotly debated between literal/historical and allegorical readings of scripture. The Magisterium has rarely defined the meaning of a particular verse or book. And while historical-critical scholarship can demolish the assumed Biblical bases for some doctrines, the Catholic belief that the Holy Spirit guides our tradition prevents us from having to take hard lines on historical debates to save key doctrines. And of course, historical-critical Catholic exegetes still do their work in the context of the tradition and the Magisterium, though debates about which one takes preference still continue.
Fiztmyer's short, useful book is marred in one respect: it's somewhat repetitive and discontinuous. It is not so much a book as a collection of various articles Fitzmyer published, strung together to be more coherent. Still, it's a useful guide to how Catholic Biblical scholars read scripture and how one major exegete views his vocation and its meaning.
76JDHomrighausen
Reading Scripture With the Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall
Finished 11/26/12
Hall's book provides a neat counterpoint to Fitzmyer's. He explores how Church Fathers were both unified and at odds in how to read scripture, and how they run counter to the way biblical scholars work in the academy. His book is a description of the Antiochian and Alexandrian schools of exegesis in the first few centuries of Christianity, but also a defense of these exegetes and a call to reclaim them for today. This book is meant to serve as an overture to Hall's Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series.
The Fathers were not tenured professors writing books in private offices. They were bishops, ministers, men whose reading of the Bible was done with an eye to homiletics and to the immediate needs of the Church. Their criteria for sound exegesis did not just include critical reading skills, but also the spiritual health of the exegete: just as sin blinds one to God, it blinds one to God's Word. We should pay attention to their mode of reading scripture not just because many are saints and Church Doctors, but because of their hermeneutical and historical closeness to Christ, their ability to hear the music of scripture that falls dead on our modern ears.
Hall goes on to describe eight of the major exegetes of the ancient Church, including Augustine, Basil, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Jerome. In really like how he describes their personal lives and the struggles they face: struggles between a call to ascetic contemplation and a need to serve the Church, between embracing the world or seeing its brokenness, between their scholarly sensibilities and the demands of the laity and leaders they served. These were men who fought heresies, such as Gnosticism and Arianism. At the end of describing these figures Hall points to good translations of their works for popular audiences, helping to bring ancient exegetes easily into the hands of modern readers.
Hall then goes on to compare the Antiochian school of exegesis with the Alexandrian. The Alexandrian school, with such famous figures as Ireneus, Origen, and Augustine, looked to highly speculative allegorical readings of scripture. They could find the deepest symbolism in even the most prosaic Levitical laws; the cloven hoof of a goat could represent the Father and the Son, as could any binary in the Bible. To me this was reminiscent of Jungian dream interpretation: they assume that there is deep, deep meaning in every small detail of the dream, and of course find what they are searching for. Allegorical interpretation is useful for "explaining away" factual contradictions in the text or places where God seems less than Godlike. Alexandrian exegetes, responding to the Jewish skeptics of Christ's Messianship and the Gnostics' own allegorical reading, used allegory as an apologetic tool. Yet without hermeneutical constraints, allegory easily turned into a free-for-all more telling of the exegete's imagination than the text itself. Ironically, the same criticism is given to dream analysts
Antiochian exegetes such as Theophilus of Antioch or John Chrysostom were more careful. While they were not above finding figurative meaning in scripture, they were clear that no figurative reading could contradict or take precedent over the literal meaning of a text. While there were surely viscious debates between these schools, Hall leads the reader through an examination of various exegetes' comments on Jesus' saying that a rich man's attainment of salvation is harder than putting a camel through the eye of a needle. The exegetes don't differ as much as one might think. While there were some wacky allegorists (Origen comes to mind), perhaps the polemics exaggerate the issue.
Hall holds up ancient Biblical reading as a way out of two dilemmas faced in the academy. One is a modernist way of reading scripture: a rational, individual reader publishes research marked as their own corner. The other is the postmodern lapse into subjectivism. What criteria can we have for reading scripture if ultimately it's only our own solipsistic perspective? Hall's mode of returning to the Fathers, which he terms paleo-orthodoxy, provides an out by placing all scholarship in the community and needs of the Church. His readings are always theological. The Fathers unanimously read every verse of the Bible in light of Christ, whether allegorically or more literally.
While I enjoyed Hall's book, his polemics at the end seemed unnecessary. I will keep in mind that this is published by InterVarsity Press, an Evangelical group, so perhaps his appeal to tradition needs to be defended more clearly. As a Catholic it seemed redundant. But perhaps this is my own failure to understand the mindset of his audience, a mindset that might disregard any Christian writer before Luther and Calvin. (Never mind that Luther was himself a Catholic monk nurtured on the Fathers!) Despite this annoyance, Hall's book is a solid user friendly introduction to how the Fathers read scripture.
Finished 11/26/12
Hall's book provides a neat counterpoint to Fitzmyer's. He explores how Church Fathers were both unified and at odds in how to read scripture, and how they run counter to the way biblical scholars work in the academy. His book is a description of the Antiochian and Alexandrian schools of exegesis in the first few centuries of Christianity, but also a defense of these exegetes and a call to reclaim them for today. This book is meant to serve as an overture to Hall's Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series.
The Fathers were not tenured professors writing books in private offices. They were bishops, ministers, men whose reading of the Bible was done with an eye to homiletics and to the immediate needs of the Church. Their criteria for sound exegesis did not just include critical reading skills, but also the spiritual health of the exegete: just as sin blinds one to God, it blinds one to God's Word. We should pay attention to their mode of reading scripture not just because many are saints and Church Doctors, but because of their hermeneutical and historical closeness to Christ, their ability to hear the music of scripture that falls dead on our modern ears.
Hall goes on to describe eight of the major exegetes of the ancient Church, including Augustine, Basil, John Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Jerome. In really like how he describes their personal lives and the struggles they face: struggles between a call to ascetic contemplation and a need to serve the Church, between embracing the world or seeing its brokenness, between their scholarly sensibilities and the demands of the laity and leaders they served. These were men who fought heresies, such as Gnosticism and Arianism. At the end of describing these figures Hall points to good translations of their works for popular audiences, helping to bring ancient exegetes easily into the hands of modern readers.
Hall then goes on to compare the Antiochian school of exegesis with the Alexandrian. The Alexandrian school, with such famous figures as Ireneus, Origen, and Augustine, looked to highly speculative allegorical readings of scripture. They could find the deepest symbolism in even the most prosaic Levitical laws; the cloven hoof of a goat could represent the Father and the Son, as could any binary in the Bible. To me this was reminiscent of Jungian dream interpretation: they assume that there is deep, deep meaning in every small detail of the dream, and of course find what they are searching for. Allegorical interpretation is useful for "explaining away" factual contradictions in the text or places where God seems less than Godlike. Alexandrian exegetes, responding to the Jewish skeptics of Christ's Messianship and the Gnostics' own allegorical reading, used allegory as an apologetic tool. Yet without hermeneutical constraints, allegory easily turned into a free-for-all more telling of the exegete's imagination than the text itself. Ironically, the same criticism is given to dream analysts
Antiochian exegetes such as Theophilus of Antioch or John Chrysostom were more careful. While they were not above finding figurative meaning in scripture, they were clear that no figurative reading could contradict or take precedent over the literal meaning of a text. While there were surely viscious debates between these schools, Hall leads the reader through an examination of various exegetes' comments on Jesus' saying that a rich man's attainment of salvation is harder than putting a camel through the eye of a needle. The exegetes don't differ as much as one might think. While there were some wacky allegorists (Origen comes to mind), perhaps the polemics exaggerate the issue.
Hall holds up ancient Biblical reading as a way out of two dilemmas faced in the academy. One is a modernist way of reading scripture: a rational, individual reader publishes research marked as their own corner. The other is the postmodern lapse into subjectivism. What criteria can we have for reading scripture if ultimately it's only our own solipsistic perspective? Hall's mode of returning to the Fathers, which he terms paleo-orthodoxy, provides an out by placing all scholarship in the community and needs of the Church. His readings are always theological. The Fathers unanimously read every verse of the Bible in light of Christ, whether allegorically or more literally.
While I enjoyed Hall's book, his polemics at the end seemed unnecessary. I will keep in mind that this is published by InterVarsity Press, an Evangelical group, so perhaps his appeal to tradition needs to be defended more clearly. As a Catholic it seemed redundant. But perhaps this is my own failure to understand the mindset of his audience, a mindset that might disregard any Christian writer before Luther and Calvin. (Never mind that Luther was himself a Catholic monk nurtured on the Fathers!) Despite this annoyance, Hall's book is a solid user friendly introduction to how the Fathers read scripture.
77dchaikin
Interesting as always. Just to mention it, these reviews would make nice additions to work pages that generally don't have other reviews.
Fascinated by the review of Hall's book. I need a non-religious version.
Fascinated by the review of Hall's book. I need a non-religious version.
78JDHomrighausen
Hall's book is mostly non-religious. James Kugel has a book on ancient Biblical interpretation if you're looking for a Jewish slant.
79JDHomrighausen
The Church in the Making: Lumen Gentium, Christus Dominus, Orientalium Ecclesarium by Richard R. Gaillardetz
Finished 11/28/12
Gaillardetz's book is an instrumental part of my quest to undertand Vatican II. Unfortunately, there were so many topics raised in this book that I can hardly do it justice. I'll have to start small.
Vatican II was a time of immense change in how the Church viewed itself. Before Vatican II, the Church was defensive and triumphant: it had the full truth, the joy of certainty, and no need to listen to anyone else. Vatican II exploded this by exploring how the Church's expression of the faith is always historically conditioned, how it is always changing. Rather than the Church as a "perfect society," Vatican II saw the Church as a pilgrim toward the fullness of truth, as a mystery, as a sacrament. Vatican II also opened up the first real Catholic theology of the laity; laity and their lay ministries have gained more and more acceptance in the Church.
But how is the church "in the making" to adapt and change? Unfortunately, this issue was never resolved at Vatican II. Some of the biggest debates in theology now take place in ecclesiology. How are the bishops to relate to the pope? How much power should the pope have? How should the Magisterium relate to scholars who express views criticizing church doctrine? Where do the laity fit in? How is the Church to work out its tension between unity and diversity? Vatican II, interested more in pastoral advancement than definitive doctrinal pronouncements, left these things unanswered, or gave multiple answers in the same document. Lumen Gentium's account of collegiality, the bishops' sharing of power and authority with the pope, was left tempered by the Pope's appendix declaring his sovereignty over the bishops. Efforts to make sense of these conflicting tendencies are ongoing in both the academy and in the hierarchy.
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
Finished 12/2/12
This book changed my life. Patel, who studied religion and society as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and founded the Interfaith Youth Corps, writes about his own religious formation (or lack thereof) and how he views pluralism and interreligious dialogue and service.
Patel, the son of Indian Muslim immigrants, grew up in Chicago with little sense of religious identity. It was simply never discussed either in higher school or college. It was only after becoming a part of the Catholic Worker movement and meeting Brother Wayne Teasdale that Patel began to quest after his own religious identity. After all, as even the Dalai Lama told him, you should stick with your heritage and your roots.
Patel went back to Islam not in a mosque, but through contacts with people from other traditions. In other words, his "faith formation had occurred in the midst of religious diversity" (73). While sitting in Buddhist meditation, Islamic prayers he had learned in childhood came up in his mind, spontaneously working their way out. This led to another realization, one which the IYC is based on: interreligious learning and contact does not weaken religious identity into a kind of bland syncretism. It strengthens religious identity by helping one see how their tradition is unique and bringing them into the position of speaking for their tradition. The IYC is founded on Patel's impatience with the way ecumenical counsels had nice banquets with lots of speeches that never seeped down into the actual parishes and religious adherents. Drawing youth into interfaith service is doubly important, as the youth are the future of the world.
My religious formation also happened in the context of pluralism. Even as I was in RCIA, I was sitting at the local zendo. At first this posed no problem. But after meeting other "Zen Christians," I was confronted with an uncomfortable fact: for people who were raised in Christianity, branching out seemed fine. But for me, an adult convert still struggling to learn prayers and scripture quotes, it seemed best to work on one tradition before I dive into another.
Patel's book affirmed my intuition that this caution is unnecessary. I can honor my experience, indeed dive into two traditions at the same time. To paraphrase Patel, I know that my tradition is my home, but I have open windows.
The other thing I thought of in the course of this book was a praxis for social change. I have been taking this course in social justice and technology, looking at how social entrepreneurs have addressed MDG goals. While dialogue isn't an MDG goal, interreligious and intercultural peace and understanding is certainly a global necessity. How can I bring these two together?
How can I work to change the world? How do I bring my desire to change the world together with my desire to be an academic and work with ideas and books?
Last but not least, Patel's book affirmed my understanding that folk from many different walks of life are realizing that contributing to the world in the context of one's tradition is better than isolating oneself or opposing the world as a way to reassert identity. This is a trend I have been learning about in Catholicism, particularly in Vatican II; here is a Muslim saying the same thing. Very touching.
"Even articulating the hope is helping to ake it a reality. Keep praying for it and meeting people who feel like you do, and it will begin to take shape." (71)
Finished 11/28/12
Gaillardetz's book is an instrumental part of my quest to undertand Vatican II. Unfortunately, there were so many topics raised in this book that I can hardly do it justice. I'll have to start small.
Vatican II was a time of immense change in how the Church viewed itself. Before Vatican II, the Church was defensive and triumphant: it had the full truth, the joy of certainty, and no need to listen to anyone else. Vatican II exploded this by exploring how the Church's expression of the faith is always historically conditioned, how it is always changing. Rather than the Church as a "perfect society," Vatican II saw the Church as a pilgrim toward the fullness of truth, as a mystery, as a sacrament. Vatican II also opened up the first real Catholic theology of the laity; laity and their lay ministries have gained more and more acceptance in the Church.
But how is the church "in the making" to adapt and change? Unfortunately, this issue was never resolved at Vatican II. Some of the biggest debates in theology now take place in ecclesiology. How are the bishops to relate to the pope? How much power should the pope have? How should the Magisterium relate to scholars who express views criticizing church doctrine? Where do the laity fit in? How is the Church to work out its tension between unity and diversity? Vatican II, interested more in pastoral advancement than definitive doctrinal pronouncements, left these things unanswered, or gave multiple answers in the same document. Lumen Gentium's account of collegiality, the bishops' sharing of power and authority with the pope, was left tempered by the Pope's appendix declaring his sovereignty over the bishops. Efforts to make sense of these conflicting tendencies are ongoing in both the academy and in the hierarchy.
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
Finished 12/2/12
This book changed my life. Patel, who studied religion and society as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and founded the Interfaith Youth Corps, writes about his own religious formation (or lack thereof) and how he views pluralism and interreligious dialogue and service.
Patel, the son of Indian Muslim immigrants, grew up in Chicago with little sense of religious identity. It was simply never discussed either in higher school or college. It was only after becoming a part of the Catholic Worker movement and meeting Brother Wayne Teasdale that Patel began to quest after his own religious identity. After all, as even the Dalai Lama told him, you should stick with your heritage and your roots.
Patel went back to Islam not in a mosque, but through contacts with people from other traditions. In other words, his "faith formation had occurred in the midst of religious diversity" (73). While sitting in Buddhist meditation, Islamic prayers he had learned in childhood came up in his mind, spontaneously working their way out. This led to another realization, one which the IYC is based on: interreligious learning and contact does not weaken religious identity into a kind of bland syncretism. It strengthens religious identity by helping one see how their tradition is unique and bringing them into the position of speaking for their tradition. The IYC is founded on Patel's impatience with the way ecumenical counsels had nice banquets with lots of speeches that never seeped down into the actual parishes and religious adherents. Drawing youth into interfaith service is doubly important, as the youth are the future of the world.
My religious formation also happened in the context of pluralism. Even as I was in RCIA, I was sitting at the local zendo. At first this posed no problem. But after meeting other "Zen Christians," I was confronted with an uncomfortable fact: for people who were raised in Christianity, branching out seemed fine. But for me, an adult convert still struggling to learn prayers and scripture quotes, it seemed best to work on one tradition before I dive into another.
Patel's book affirmed my intuition that this caution is unnecessary. I can honor my experience, indeed dive into two traditions at the same time. To paraphrase Patel, I know that my tradition is my home, but I have open windows.
The other thing I thought of in the course of this book was a praxis for social change. I have been taking this course in social justice and technology, looking at how social entrepreneurs have addressed MDG goals. While dialogue isn't an MDG goal, interreligious and intercultural peace and understanding is certainly a global necessity. How can I bring these two together?
How can I work to change the world? How do I bring my desire to change the world together with my desire to be an academic and work with ideas and books?
Last but not least, Patel's book affirmed my understanding that folk from many different walks of life are realizing that contributing to the world in the context of one's tradition is better than isolating oneself or opposing the world as a way to reassert identity. This is a trend I have been learning about in Catholicism, particularly in Vatican II; here is a Muslim saying the same thing. Very touching.
"Even articulating the hope is helping to ake it a reality. Keep praying for it and meeting people who feel like you do, and it will begin to take shape." (71)
80JDHomrighausen
The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity by Jon D. Levenson
Finished 12/3/12
"You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people. You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me." -Exodus 22:28-29
Levenson's book begins with this verse, perhaps one of the most disturbing and little-known in the Old Testament. Although I only read part of this book as a primer on human sacrifice in ancient Israel, the third I read proved to be useful. Levenson argues that this was taken much more literally than we moderns would like to believe, but also explains that the law was not always lived as concretely written down.
There are three stories of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible:
1. Genesis 22:1-19, the well-known story of Abraham and Isaac. Here the sacrifice is not consummated, but there is a disturbing lack of qualms with God even commanding it in the first place.
2. Judges 11:29-40, the story of Jephthah who hastily vows to God that if he wins against the Ammorites, he will sacrifice the first thing he sees upon returning home. When he gets home his daughter comes out to greet him. Oops.
3. 2 Kings 3:26-27, when a Moabite king sacrifices his son to keep Israel from taking the city. Israel miraculously retreats.
All of these stories are disturbingly brutal. Yet, Levenson points out, ancient Israel's law was not always followed perfectly. Often laws represented ideals to aim for: in this case, the ideal to be so devoted to God as to sacrifice your first-born child. Yet there were ways to get around this requirement. Animals could be used as substitutes. The child could be given to God not by blood but by Nazirite vow, by sacrificing a paschal lamb, by giving a monetary ransom for the child's life. Levenson even speculates that circumcision was an oiutgrowth of this mentality.
Even if we believe the prophets' words that they abolished child sacrifice from the land, its symbolic and theological meaning lived on in other practices.
Often, child sacrifice in the Bible is spoken of in terms of Baal or Molech, foreign deities who
supposedly condone this in their cults. Yet "Molech" seems to be absent from surrounding literature. Was child sacrifice truly a illegitimate part of the cult of YHWH? Some scholars speculate that the embarrassing practice of child sacrifice was ony later attributed to Baal and Molech, because nobody wanted to admit that YHWH would condone that. Some scholars even speculate that "Molech" is a term for a type of sacrifice rather than a deity. Levenson disagrees with this.
The literary transformation of the concept of child sacrifice echoes elsewhere in the canon. It echoes in Exodus, where YHWH sacrifices the first-born sons of the Egyptians so YHWH's first-born son, Israel, can escape. Later, God sacifices his son Israel to the Assyrians and the Babylonians because of his bad behavior. Christians would not only use the first-born son sacrifice to refer to Christ and God's love for humanity in His sacrifice, but also as a transformation of the favored younger sons in Genesis. God has rejected Israel, the first-born son, in favor of the Church, his second-born son.
Levenson has written a provocative, if dense, story of a little-examined topic in Biblical studies. Worth reading if you have the time and ability.
Finished 12/3/12
"You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people. You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me." -Exodus 22:28-29
Levenson's book begins with this verse, perhaps one of the most disturbing and little-known in the Old Testament. Although I only read part of this book as a primer on human sacrifice in ancient Israel, the third I read proved to be useful. Levenson argues that this was taken much more literally than we moderns would like to believe, but also explains that the law was not always lived as concretely written down.
There are three stories of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible:
1. Genesis 22:1-19, the well-known story of Abraham and Isaac. Here the sacrifice is not consummated, but there is a disturbing lack of qualms with God even commanding it in the first place.
2. Judges 11:29-40, the story of Jephthah who hastily vows to God that if he wins against the Ammorites, he will sacrifice the first thing he sees upon returning home. When he gets home his daughter comes out to greet him. Oops.
3. 2 Kings 3:26-27, when a Moabite king sacrifices his son to keep Israel from taking the city. Israel miraculously retreats.
All of these stories are disturbingly brutal. Yet, Levenson points out, ancient Israel's law was not always followed perfectly. Often laws represented ideals to aim for: in this case, the ideal to be so devoted to God as to sacrifice your first-born child. Yet there were ways to get around this requirement. Animals could be used as substitutes. The child could be given to God not by blood but by Nazirite vow, by sacrificing a paschal lamb, by giving a monetary ransom for the child's life. Levenson even speculates that circumcision was an oiutgrowth of this mentality.
Even if we believe the prophets' words that they abolished child sacrifice from the land, its symbolic and theological meaning lived on in other practices.
Often, child sacrifice in the Bible is spoken of in terms of Baal or Molech, foreign deities who
supposedly condone this in their cults. Yet "Molech" seems to be absent from surrounding literature. Was child sacrifice truly a illegitimate part of the cult of YHWH? Some scholars speculate that the embarrassing practice of child sacrifice was ony later attributed to Baal and Molech, because nobody wanted to admit that YHWH would condone that. Some scholars even speculate that "Molech" is a term for a type of sacrifice rather than a deity. Levenson disagrees with this.
The literary transformation of the concept of child sacrifice echoes elsewhere in the canon. It echoes in Exodus, where YHWH sacrifices the first-born sons of the Egyptians so YHWH's first-born son, Israel, can escape. Later, God sacifices his son Israel to the Assyrians and the Babylonians because of his bad behavior. Christians would not only use the first-born son sacrifice to refer to Christ and God's love for humanity in His sacrifice, but also as a transformation of the favored younger sons in Genesis. God has rejected Israel, the first-born son, in favor of the Church, his second-born son.
Levenson has written a provocative, if dense, story of a little-examined topic in Biblical studies. Worth reading if you have the time and ability.
81avidmom
>80 JDHomrighausen: What an interesting book! It's good to know somebody had the fortitude to tackle such a disturbing subject.
82JDHomrighausen
Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: Unitatis Redingratio, Nostra Aetate by Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy
Finished 12/4/12
Cassidy's book, part of Paulist Press' "Rediscovering Vatican II" series, reviews the content, implementation, and current issues surrounding Unitatis Redingratio (Ecumenism) and Nostra Aetate (Non-Christian Religions). His book is a useful overview of some contemporary issues in Catholicism related to these themes. Cassidy, an Australian cardinal, was for many years president of the ecumenism branch of the Vatican, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The PCPCU also manages the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. I like that Cassidy writes from experience, and that Paulist Press has chosen to have a variety of voices in this series other than just scholars.
Before Vatican II, the Church did its best to keep away from Protestants. "Ecumenism" was a dirty word. When the World Council of Churches was founded, the Catholics stayed away. Interdenomination prayer was anathema.
But at Vatican II, the bishops came out with ground-breaking ideas. The Protestants were no longer heretics but "separated brethren." The Catholic Church was to some extent also guilty for the historical divides. Non-Catholic baptisms are valid. Christ is at work in the Protestant churches as well. And most of all, we must dialogue and collaborate with Protestants, in both spiritual ways (prayer), doctrinal dialogue, and social change.
Yet how is the Church to balance its mission to both work with Protestants and try to unite them with the Church? To what extent does Christ work in their traditions if we believe Christ is most fully in the Catholic tradition? This was worked out more in John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sunt. John Paul wrote that ecumenism is not an appendix to the Catholic mission to evangelize, but an intrinsic part of it. God wills unity, much more than denomination competition, and we are to work toward unity in ways other than church mergers. He identified some key issues separating Catholics from Protestants: the relation of scripture and tradition, the Eucharist, ordination, Mary, and the magisterium and papal primacy. Does one side have the full truth on these issues (ours), or does the Spirit work through diversity as well as unity? Where do we find that balance?
"Obviously spiritual ecumenism is more than prayer alone. It may be seen as an entire way of life in which one responds to the inner voice and movement of the Holy Spirit. A spiritual person listens to the abiding Spirit and directs his or her life accordingly, becoming selfless and fully dedicted to expressing this faith in action." (92)
Nostra Aetate is one of the shortest documents from Vatican II, but one of the most historically significant. It stemmed from and ushered in a radically different way of relating to other religions. The premise: all people seek truth, and our quests for truth become closer and closer in a world getting smaller and smaller. While we believe Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we must dialogue with other religious traditions. We must seek to learn about them and appreciate what is good and holy in their traditions, even preserve it. The Council originally planned to have a document about the Jews, but as the bishops discussed the document they extended it to all religions. The text has strong condemnations of anti-Semitism.
And perhaps Nostra Aetate's biggest historical impact has been on the Church and the Jews. John Paul II was famously the first pope to visit the synagogue in Rome, and had a long friendship with its head rabbi. John Paul, who saw the horrors of World War II and the Shoah, visited Auschwitz in 1979 and later moved a Carmelite convent off the Auschwitz grounds after Jews protested it. And in 1998, the Church published "We Remember," expressing deep sorrow for the Church's long heritage of anti-Semitism and the violence and persecution it led to. Still, issues remain to be discussed. How are we to read the Old Testament, as autonomous or as in need of fulfillment from the New? What is the meaning of Shoah? If the Mosaic covenant is still valid and the Jews are also the People of God, what makes us distinctive? Some Catholics still criticize the 2002 joint Jewish-Christian document Covenant and Mission, which effectively states we should cease trying to convert the Jews.
Cassidy briefly covers how relations with other religions have improved as well. And there is ongoing clarification. In 1984, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue published Dialogue and Mission, describing how dialogue and mutual respect is a part of the kingdom of God. In DM, four types of dialogue are enumerated: dialogues of life, deeds, reflections, and religious experience. Every Christian is called to this mission. John Paul II exemplified this in his Assisi meetings, which controversially had members of different religions praying together for peace. The balance to this is in the 1991 document Dialogue and Proclamation, which reinforces the fact that dialogue must not replace evangelization but must work hand-in-hand with it (confusing). We may learn from others in dialogue, but we may also help them see
"seeds of the Word" in their tradition.
Cassidy's strength here is his downfall. Because he was in charge of the Vatican's dialogue with Protestants, Orthodox, and Jews, he has lots of detail about various meetings and documents. But his coverage of non-Christian religions is pretty weak. For example, in discussions about Buddhism he fails to mention Christians' increased interest in Buddhism, the work of scholars at the Society for Buddhist-Christian studies, or even John Paul II's encyclical on Buddhist meditation, "On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation." I really wish he had given much more "on the ground" detail rather than just what happens at the Vatican.
This book contrasts nicely with Acts of Faith, Eboo Patel's book I read recently. Patel expresses his frustration with religious leaders getting together at nice interfaith banquets and pontificating eloquently on the importance of dialogue without ever bringing parishioners into it. Cassidy's description of all the joint statements and meetings left me wondering: what's the point? I know religious leaders can be role models for the laypeople, but how many on-the-ground parishes actually follow the mission to dialogue? Anti-abortion protests garner lots of support from laypeople, but I haven't seen mass lay movements to visit mosques and temples. Perhaps it is time for someone to fill this vacuum.
Finished 12/4/12
Cassidy's book, part of Paulist Press' "Rediscovering Vatican II" series, reviews the content, implementation, and current issues surrounding Unitatis Redingratio (Ecumenism) and Nostra Aetate (Non-Christian Religions). His book is a useful overview of some contemporary issues in Catholicism related to these themes. Cassidy, an Australian cardinal, was for many years president of the ecumenism branch of the Vatican, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The PCPCU also manages the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. I like that Cassidy writes from experience, and that Paulist Press has chosen to have a variety of voices in this series other than just scholars.
Before Vatican II, the Church did its best to keep away from Protestants. "Ecumenism" was a dirty word. When the World Council of Churches was founded, the Catholics stayed away. Interdenomination prayer was anathema.
But at Vatican II, the bishops came out with ground-breaking ideas. The Protestants were no longer heretics but "separated brethren." The Catholic Church was to some extent also guilty for the historical divides. Non-Catholic baptisms are valid. Christ is at work in the Protestant churches as well. And most of all, we must dialogue and collaborate with Protestants, in both spiritual ways (prayer), doctrinal dialogue, and social change.
Yet how is the Church to balance its mission to both work with Protestants and try to unite them with the Church? To what extent does Christ work in their traditions if we believe Christ is most fully in the Catholic tradition? This was worked out more in John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sunt. John Paul wrote that ecumenism is not an appendix to the Catholic mission to evangelize, but an intrinsic part of it. God wills unity, much more than denomination competition, and we are to work toward unity in ways other than church mergers. He identified some key issues separating Catholics from Protestants: the relation of scripture and tradition, the Eucharist, ordination, Mary, and the magisterium and papal primacy. Does one side have the full truth on these issues (ours), or does the Spirit work through diversity as well as unity? Where do we find that balance?
"Obviously spiritual ecumenism is more than prayer alone. It may be seen as an entire way of life in which one responds to the inner voice and movement of the Holy Spirit. A spiritual person listens to the abiding Spirit and directs his or her life accordingly, becoming selfless and fully dedicted to expressing this faith in action." (92)
Nostra Aetate is one of the shortest documents from Vatican II, but one of the most historically significant. It stemmed from and ushered in a radically different way of relating to other religions. The premise: all people seek truth, and our quests for truth become closer and closer in a world getting smaller and smaller. While we believe Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we must dialogue with other religious traditions. We must seek to learn about them and appreciate what is good and holy in their traditions, even preserve it. The Council originally planned to have a document about the Jews, but as the bishops discussed the document they extended it to all religions. The text has strong condemnations of anti-Semitism.
And perhaps Nostra Aetate's biggest historical impact has been on the Church and the Jews. John Paul II was famously the first pope to visit the synagogue in Rome, and had a long friendship with its head rabbi. John Paul, who saw the horrors of World War II and the Shoah, visited Auschwitz in 1979 and later moved a Carmelite convent off the Auschwitz grounds after Jews protested it. And in 1998, the Church published "We Remember," expressing deep sorrow for the Church's long heritage of anti-Semitism and the violence and persecution it led to. Still, issues remain to be discussed. How are we to read the Old Testament, as autonomous or as in need of fulfillment from the New? What is the meaning of Shoah? If the Mosaic covenant is still valid and the Jews are also the People of God, what makes us distinctive? Some Catholics still criticize the 2002 joint Jewish-Christian document Covenant and Mission, which effectively states we should cease trying to convert the Jews.
Cassidy briefly covers how relations with other religions have improved as well. And there is ongoing clarification. In 1984, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue published Dialogue and Mission, describing how dialogue and mutual respect is a part of the kingdom of God. In DM, four types of dialogue are enumerated: dialogues of life, deeds, reflections, and religious experience. Every Christian is called to this mission. John Paul II exemplified this in his Assisi meetings, which controversially had members of different religions praying together for peace. The balance to this is in the 1991 document Dialogue and Proclamation, which reinforces the fact that dialogue must not replace evangelization but must work hand-in-hand with it (confusing). We may learn from others in dialogue, but we may also help them see
"seeds of the Word" in their tradition.
Cassidy's strength here is his downfall. Because he was in charge of the Vatican's dialogue with Protestants, Orthodox, and Jews, he has lots of detail about various meetings and documents. But his coverage of non-Christian religions is pretty weak. For example, in discussions about Buddhism he fails to mention Christians' increased interest in Buddhism, the work of scholars at the Society for Buddhist-Christian studies, or even John Paul II's encyclical on Buddhist meditation, "On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation." I really wish he had given much more "on the ground" detail rather than just what happens at the Vatican.
This book contrasts nicely with Acts of Faith, Eboo Patel's book I read recently. Patel expresses his frustration with religious leaders getting together at nice interfaith banquets and pontificating eloquently on the importance of dialogue without ever bringing parishioners into it. Cassidy's description of all the joint statements and meetings left me wondering: what's the point? I know religious leaders can be role models for the laypeople, but how many on-the-ground parishes actually follow the mission to dialogue? Anti-abortion protests garner lots of support from laypeople, but I haven't seen mass lay movements to visit mosques and temples. Perhaps it is time for someone to fill this vacuum.
83JDHomrighausen
101 Questions and Answers on Vatican II by Maureen Sullivan
Finished 12/4/12
Sullivan is a Dominican nun and theologian whose youthful Catholic formation emcompassed both pre- and post- Vatican II. As such, she is well-positioned to write this short introduction to Vatican II and what it hath wrought in the Church.
Ecumenical councils traditionally hold the highest teaching authority in Catholicism. There have only been 25, the last three being Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II. Vatican II was the first truly world council, with 2200 participants from all over the globe (even women observers!). Vatican II was primarily a pastoral council rather than a doctrinal one, yet what has changed?
A move from the Church as anti-modern "perfect society" and knower of all truth to the Church as pilgrim, sacrament, and mystery.
From arcane, ritualistic, strongly penitential liturgy to vernacular, colloquial banquet.
From a siege mentality, an "intellectual ghetto" to a Church which works for the world's good, justice and peace.
From a paternalistic mentality (obedience, humility, and docility as key virtues) and clericalism (celibacy > marriage) to an awareness of the need for the formation of conscience of every Christian.
From an excessive devotion to Mary and the saints to a more New Testament focus on Jesus.
From a speculative, abstract, rationalistic theology to an awareness of doctrine's historical context and need to speak to the times and constantly find new language to express the unchanging faith in.
But Vatican II didn't work out every issue. The Pope specifically blocked some issues from being discussed, such as womens' ordination and birth control. These issues are now supposedly closed, but not in the minds of many laypeople and theologians. Debates still continue about ecclesiology, the magisterium, and who has the power to define what the Church teaches. Do we need a Vatican III? Despite the lack of consensus on some key issues, we are still working out the meaning of Vatican II. After Vatican II, there was an explosion of liberal thought, of poor formation devoid of intellectual content. Now the Church is centralizing and becoming perhaps more conservative. The pendulum swings. "Ecclesia semper reformanda" = the Church is always in need of reformation.
A useful book, and a good complement to the Hahnenberg one I read earlier. Hahnenberg discusses the content of each document while Sullivan describes the overall background and way of thinking of Vatican II.
Finished 12/4/12
Sullivan is a Dominican nun and theologian whose youthful Catholic formation emcompassed both pre- and post- Vatican II. As such, she is well-positioned to write this short introduction to Vatican II and what it hath wrought in the Church.
Ecumenical councils traditionally hold the highest teaching authority in Catholicism. There have only been 25, the last three being Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II. Vatican II was the first truly world council, with 2200 participants from all over the globe (even women observers!). Vatican II was primarily a pastoral council rather than a doctrinal one, yet what has changed?
A move from the Church as anti-modern "perfect society" and knower of all truth to the Church as pilgrim, sacrament, and mystery.
From arcane, ritualistic, strongly penitential liturgy to vernacular, colloquial banquet.
From a siege mentality, an "intellectual ghetto" to a Church which works for the world's good, justice and peace.
From a paternalistic mentality (obedience, humility, and docility as key virtues) and clericalism (celibacy > marriage) to an awareness of the need for the formation of conscience of every Christian.
From an excessive devotion to Mary and the saints to a more New Testament focus on Jesus.
From a speculative, abstract, rationalistic theology to an awareness of doctrine's historical context and need to speak to the times and constantly find new language to express the unchanging faith in.
But Vatican II didn't work out every issue. The Pope specifically blocked some issues from being discussed, such as womens' ordination and birth control. These issues are now supposedly closed, but not in the minds of many laypeople and theologians. Debates still continue about ecclesiology, the magisterium, and who has the power to define what the Church teaches. Do we need a Vatican III? Despite the lack of consensus on some key issues, we are still working out the meaning of Vatican II. After Vatican II, there was an explosion of liberal thought, of poor formation devoid of intellectual content. Now the Church is centralizing and becoming perhaps more conservative. The pendulum swings. "Ecclesia semper reformanda" = the Church is always in need of reformation.
A useful book, and a good complement to the Hahnenberg one I read earlier. Hahnenberg discusses the content of each document while Sullivan describes the overall background and way of thinking of Vatican II.
84dchaikin
Always impressed with how much you are able to read and review in such depth. The Levenson is fascinating. I was under the impression that Molech (and associated child sacrifice) was documented in other religions around the Mediterranean. I guess I was mistaken. Wish I could recall my source.
All the Vatican II and interfaith issues are very interesting and you are my only source. Your response to Patel is interesting. I know I've spent most of my life afraid of churches. I have sat in them on occasion only with a lot of discomfort, and have avoided them even in cases where it was a bit awkward not to go. It hasn't come up, but I don't think I would have issues now - for two reasons. The first is that I've developed a lot of curiosity about about Christianity and other religions. And the other is that I've developed a lot of comfort with in own my place and relationship to religion.
Anyway, I've strayed off topic. Enjoying your posts.
All the Vatican II and interfaith issues are very interesting and you are my only source. Your response to Patel is interesting. I know I've spent most of my life afraid of churches. I have sat in them on occasion only with a lot of discomfort, and have avoided them even in cases where it was a bit awkward not to go. It hasn't come up, but I don't think I would have issues now - for two reasons. The first is that I've developed a lot of curiosity about about Christianity and other religions. And the other is that I've developed a lot of comfort with in own my place and relationship to religion.
Anyway, I've strayed off topic. Enjoying your posts.
85The_Hibernator
Yes, you do read an awful lot of very heavy books! :) My mind would go numb if I tried to keep up with your pace.
86JDHomrighausen
> 84
You're not off-topic at all. Indeed, you're illustrating what Patel found. Getting youth together for interfaith contact actually made them more comfortable identifying with and living out their tradition.
I've been to synagogue a few times - a friend had a late bar mitzvah at 22. And of course, I learned Hebrew from a rabbi. I really wish I knew more about the Jewish tradition. I always say I would have been happy if I was born a Jew!
> 85
My mind would go numb if I was moving.
Nice to see some responses here; I'm not reading really vibrant stuff and my replies had petered down a bit!
You're not off-topic at all. Indeed, you're illustrating what Patel found. Getting youth together for interfaith contact actually made them more comfortable identifying with and living out their tradition.
I've been to synagogue a few times - a friend had a late bar mitzvah at 22. And of course, I learned Hebrew from a rabbi. I really wish I knew more about the Jewish tradition. I always say I would have been happy if I was born a Jew!
> 85
My mind would go numb if I was moving.
Nice to see some responses here; I'm not reading really vibrant stuff and my replies had petered down a bit!
87The_Hibernator
:) I can always reply more. I'll reply on the next book you review...no matter what the topic is. :p
88JDHomrighausen
Five by Endo by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/7/12
After two months of reading straight nonfiction, my imagination was drying up. What better than a book of short stories to get it running again? Endo's stories focus around connection: lacking it, seeking it, trying to run away from it. My favorites were "A Case of Isobe," about a man who finds connection with his longtime wife only after her death; and "Japanese in Warsaw," about a Japanese tourist in Poland who finds something he did not expect:
"For a long while Imamiya remembered the weary figure of that missionary, the sad smile that had flashed from behind his round glasses, and the hollow-cheeked face. He remembered the image, but he had no other impressions and virtually no other recollections of the foreigners." (42)
Another story, "Unzen," is about a Japanese tourist visiting the sites of the Japanese Christian martyrs of the 1700s and lamenting his own cowardice and inability to be a martyr. If martyrs are gloried in God's eyes, where does that leave those who lack courage and conviction? The story refers to the events and stories of Endo's most famous novel Silence.
Endo writes in a very spare style, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. Christianity pops up frequently in these stories. Though Endo is not what you'd call an "evangelistic" author, his stories evoke for me the horror of life without connection to another human being. His characters come off as sad in their self-imposed solipsism. But being the "Japanese Graham Greene," Endo is not afraid to be realistic about the foibles of his characters. That's his strength.
Finished 12/7/12
After two months of reading straight nonfiction, my imagination was drying up. What better than a book of short stories to get it running again? Endo's stories focus around connection: lacking it, seeking it, trying to run away from it. My favorites were "A Case of Isobe," about a man who finds connection with his longtime wife only after her death; and "Japanese in Warsaw," about a Japanese tourist in Poland who finds something he did not expect:
"For a long while Imamiya remembered the weary figure of that missionary, the sad smile that had flashed from behind his round glasses, and the hollow-cheeked face. He remembered the image, but he had no other impressions and virtually no other recollections of the foreigners." (42)
Another story, "Unzen," is about a Japanese tourist visiting the sites of the Japanese Christian martyrs of the 1700s and lamenting his own cowardice and inability to be a martyr. If martyrs are gloried in God's eyes, where does that leave those who lack courage and conviction? The story refers to the events and stories of Endo's most famous novel Silence.
Endo writes in a very spare style, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks themselves. Christianity pops up frequently in these stories. Though Endo is not what you'd call an "evangelistic" author, his stories evoke for me the horror of life without connection to another human being. His characters come off as sad in their self-imposed solipsism. But being the "Japanese Graham Greene," Endo is not afraid to be realistic about the foibles of his characters. That's his strength.
89JDHomrighausen
Still Interpreting Vatican II: Some Hermeneutical Principles by Ormond Rush
Finished 12/6/12
Fifty years after Vatican II, we are still trying to make sense of it. What is the "spirit of Vatican II"? How do we read the documents? Rush, an Australian priest and theologian, has written this short book to make sense of that question. Drawing on Ricoeur's hermeneutics, he describes how we need to read the documents of Vatican II in terms of author, text, and receiver.
The hermeneutics of the author focuses on the historical context of the documents and their sources. What conflicts were going on at the Council? We must read the documents in light of the compromises the Council Fathers agreed on and the attendant ambiguities in the texts. We must read them in light of John XXIII's statement that the Council was primarily pastoral, not doctrinal. And what do the texts cite? The documents cite biblical and patristic sources more than Vatican I did.
The hermeneutics of the text (the "letter" rather than the "spirit") focuses on the texts themselves. How do they relate to one another? How does each text relate to the entire Vatican II corpus? What is the rhetoric and tone the texts are written in? What is the intended audience?
Perhaps the most controversial debate has been in terms of the third category, the hermeneutics of the receiver. What is the role of Vatican II in church history? What has the reception of the text been? Rush delineates a tension between neo-Augustinian interpreters (Lubac, Ratzinger) who wish to go back to a world-denying patristic tradition, and a world-affirming Thomistic interpretation (Rahner, Congar). He notes that we must look at its reception in the tradition, the magisterium, the theologians, and the sensus fidelum.
Benedict XVI frequently comments that interpreters of Vatican II overemphasize a 'hermeneutics of rupture' rather than a 'hermeneutics of continuity' that sees how the Council flowed from the Church's tradition. Rush proposes a middle way out of the dilemma by looking at the ruptures of the council as micro-ruptures: ruptures with the recent tradition since Trent or with the 'militant Catholicism' of the nineteenth century. These micro-ruptures seek to reclaim earlier strands of tradition, and none of them are macro-ruptures.
In the last chapter, Rush seeks to make sense of the statement that the Spirit worked in the Council and its reception. He says this could not be possible without the historical consciousness raised by the Enlightenment, with the rise of the history and historical-critical method. Rush elaborates a "reception pneumatology" in which we creatively interpret the movement of the Spirit to guide the Church in the right direction. This is in line with the "substance/expression" theology that John XXII referred to: the faith's substance is unchanging but its expression is not. We must constantly re-receive the tradition and the Spirit.
Overall, this was a useful book. I am unsure about Rush's distinction between micro- and macro-rupture. For example, Dignitatis Humanae, the declaration on religious freedom, does seem to be a maco-rupture in some ways. To my understanding, never before had the church declared that other religions should have political freedom to practice. I wish he had clarified this more.
Finished 12/6/12
Fifty years after Vatican II, we are still trying to make sense of it. What is the "spirit of Vatican II"? How do we read the documents? Rush, an Australian priest and theologian, has written this short book to make sense of that question. Drawing on Ricoeur's hermeneutics, he describes how we need to read the documents of Vatican II in terms of author, text, and receiver.
The hermeneutics of the author focuses on the historical context of the documents and their sources. What conflicts were going on at the Council? We must read the documents in light of the compromises the Council Fathers agreed on and the attendant ambiguities in the texts. We must read them in light of John XXIII's statement that the Council was primarily pastoral, not doctrinal. And what do the texts cite? The documents cite biblical and patristic sources more than Vatican I did.
The hermeneutics of the text (the "letter" rather than the "spirit") focuses on the texts themselves. How do they relate to one another? How does each text relate to the entire Vatican II corpus? What is the rhetoric and tone the texts are written in? What is the intended audience?
Perhaps the most controversial debate has been in terms of the third category, the hermeneutics of the receiver. What is the role of Vatican II in church history? What has the reception of the text been? Rush delineates a tension between neo-Augustinian interpreters (Lubac, Ratzinger) who wish to go back to a world-denying patristic tradition, and a world-affirming Thomistic interpretation (Rahner, Congar). He notes that we must look at its reception in the tradition, the magisterium, the theologians, and the sensus fidelum.
Benedict XVI frequently comments that interpreters of Vatican II overemphasize a 'hermeneutics of rupture' rather than a 'hermeneutics of continuity' that sees how the Council flowed from the Church's tradition. Rush proposes a middle way out of the dilemma by looking at the ruptures of the council as micro-ruptures: ruptures with the recent tradition since Trent or with the 'militant Catholicism' of the nineteenth century. These micro-ruptures seek to reclaim earlier strands of tradition, and none of them are macro-ruptures.
In the last chapter, Rush seeks to make sense of the statement that the Spirit worked in the Council and its reception. He says this could not be possible without the historical consciousness raised by the Enlightenment, with the rise of the history and historical-critical method. Rush elaborates a "reception pneumatology" in which we creatively interpret the movement of the Spirit to guide the Church in the right direction. This is in line with the "substance/expression" theology that John XXII referred to: the faith's substance is unchanging but its expression is not. We must constantly re-receive the tradition and the Spirit.
Overall, this was a useful book. I am unsure about Rush's distinction between micro- and macro-rupture. For example, Dignitatis Humanae, the declaration on religious freedom, does seem to be a maco-rupture in some ways. To my understanding, never before had the church declared that other religions should have political freedom to practice. I wish he had clarified this more.
90The_Hibernator
Ah, I've been looking for a book about nice, friendly Japanese people lately (instead of more books about how brutal they are in war). Would you recommend Five by Endo? Or is it too dreary of a book? I'm not in the mood for dreary right now.
P.S. Told you I'd comment. :p
P.S. Told you I'd comment. :p
91JDHomrighausen
Rachel - it is a bit dreary. Endo's most famous novel, Silence, is about the period in Japanese history where Japanese Christians were horrifically tortured until they either renounced their faith or died. If you want nice Japanese people, I think Endo's the wrong route. :P
93JDHomrighausen
Yes, we all have them . . . . times where we back up on reviews but continue to read. My excuse: a faulty charger that left my tablet dead. On the advice of some online folk, I put it in the freezer overnight. It works now. Magic.
I am now up to 144 books. My goal of reaching 150 is within sight.
Evangelization and Religious Freedom: Ad Gentes, Dignitatis Humanae (Rediscovering Vatican II) by Stephen B. Bevans
Finished 12/8/12
The last in my flurry of reading on Vatican II, Bevans covers one of the most talked-about and one of the most controversial documents of the council. Dignitatis Humanae advocated religious freedom as a basic dignity of all humankind, a statement which not every Catholic country was crazy about. It was controversial because of its complete rupture with the 1864 papal Syllabus of Errors, guided by the old notion that "error has no rights," Protestantism and Modernism being the errors. The document on evangelization brought in a new era of praxis, moving from an old colonial model of territory expansion to a theological emphasis on evangelization as a flowing-out of Christ's incarnational and Trinitarian love to the ends of the earth.
The genius of this series is its coverage of how Vatican II documents have been interpreted in the past fifty years. Dignitatis has been especially hard to place. This was the Cold War era, a time when the West seemed divided between increasingly religious nations and increasingly seecular states. A middle way of a constitutional state with religious freedom (even if the state itself supported a particular religion) had not been thought about in some Catholic circles. In a now-pluralistic West, this only seems obvious. Still, Bevans leaves out key contemporary discussions on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. If specifically religious morals cannot be impressed on an entire nation, what do we make of arguments from pro-lifers claiming that abortion can be found immoral on non-religious grounds? What about same-sex marriage? How do we draw the line between religious morals and non-religious (secular) morals?
In the realm of evangelization, increased attention has been paid to the need to re-evangelize societies that are traditionally Christian but have become less and less so. In the USA, the ministry of Catholics Come Home has been one of the most well-known in this effort of the "New Evangelization." At the same time, the lifted privileges of colonialism and the desire to create indigenous Christianities has radically changed the face of mission in non-Western contexts, contexts where Christianity is booming even as it shrinks in Europe. Bevans stakes out six major areas of current evangelization and missionary work: witness and prophetic proclamation, liturgy and contemplation, peace and justice work, interreligious dialogue, enculturation, and reconciliation.
Good as all the rest of this series has been, but I'm setting aside Vatican II for the time being. The Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) tome, Theological Highlights of Vatican II, will wait for my Pope Benedict XVI category in my 13 in 13 challenge.
The New Evangelization: What it is and How if Affects the Life of Every Catholic by Ralph Martin
Finished 12/8/12
A short (30 pages) ebook on John Paul II's efforts at creating a New Evangelization. The New Evangelization is the mission of the entire people of God to reach out to those who are in traditionally Catholic regions but have largely left the Church. Martin looks around at dioceses and sees shrinking numbers of baptisms, declining interest in vocations to the priesthood, increased divorce rates, and lower attendance at Catholic schools. A sad sight, indeed.
How do we persuade this culture that Christ is a viable and worthy example for life?
Martin looks especially at the youth of America, many of whom are raised with a form of religioius indifferentism. God is a moral therapy, a being who always affirms what we do and blesses our lives whether or not we pray and read his Word. All religions are true paths to God. There is no need to choose one religion over another and no urgency to choose any at all.
After all, we have left all that nonsense behind, right?
Yet the Gospels still record Jesus' "evangelical choice": either I am or am not the Son of God. I am not one of many. Matthew's harsh rhetoric of condemnation and repentance is easiest to draw on.
I completely understand Martin. While I feel a kinship with his desire to spread the faith, I see another angle to this. Because all religions face a common problem in today's world: the need to insist on meaning in the face of secularism and indifference. I see this among my own peers, who have immense curiosity about religion and desire to change the world but don't see how these connect. I hope that Martin's short work falls into the hands of more Catholics, inspiring them to work to "set the world on fire."
True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty by Timothy M. Dolan
Finished 12/8/12
Dolan, now the most important Catholic cleric in America in his role as Cardinal and President of the USCCB, wrote this likely as a response to Obamacare. Here he lays out the need for government to not force Catholic organizations to provide abortions or birth control. Instead, Dolan argues, we should see the dignity of all human life, from conception to death. Dolan draws on the "culture of life" rhetoric of John Paul II to call into question what he sees as "culture of death" questions regardly medicine and bioethics.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with his reasoning. I am pro-life. I completely agree with him that utilitarianism, consumerism, and pragmatism are inadequate bases for a true ethics of life. But like Bevans above, he fails to define the all-important distinction between religious and secular means of reasoning. If his view of human dignity - and his specifically "applied ethics" consequences he draws from it - is specifically religious, then should we force everyone to follow them? After all, Catholic theology is also firmly in favor of religious freedom. Still, a good and short introduction.
Introduction to Ecumenism by Jeffrey Gros
Finished 12/10/12
I got a lot out of this book on the Catholic practice of ecumenism, or dialogue with other Christian groups. Gzros names four bases of ecumenism: religious liberty, spiritual ecumenism, collaborative mission, and conversion. I especially like his appreciation of other christian groups, whom we have learned much from. For example, historical-critical scriptural method came out of German Protestantism. Despite the great progress in shared witness since Vatican II, some issues remain unresolved to my knowledge. To what extent is Christian unity necessarily institutional unity? Who can share in our sacraments, especially the Eucharist? (Eastern Orthodox are allowed to take our Eucharist, but Protestants are not, despite the fact that some Protestant churches have almost identical Eucharistic theology.) Our goal of realizing koinonia is far from achieved.
Deep River by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/11/12
"'Every time I look at the River Ganges, I think of my Onion. The Ganges swallows up the ashes of every person as it flows along, rejecting neither the beggar woman who stretches out of her fingerness hands nor the murdered prime minister, Gandhi. The river of love that is my Onion flows past, accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest." (185)
So says the despised Otsu, a Japanese rejected in Japan and Europe. Otsu's problematic is the problem of many of this people in this character-based novel: how do we have faith and overcome our traumas and ourselves? Endo's book follows a group of Japanese tourists as they make a spiritual and physical pilgrimage to India. Here, their Japanese stoicism fades away as they share their burdens with one another, the pasts that haunt each one of them. I was very touched by this book, the third Endo volume I've read.
I agree that it is less explicitly Christian than Silence, although Otsu and Kichijiro are still one and the same in my mind. Still, as a Christian I understood both Mitsuko's tart comment that faith is pointless and Otsu's insistence that he could not live without his Onion. I also understood Mitsuko's feeling that the goddess of India was more identifiable, more human, more mired in the dirt and filth and death of her nation, than the pure and virginal European Mary. Christians so often blow up the holier-than-thou quality of saints and even Jesus himself. Otsu did not see this duality - and rightly so. How does Christianity come to a culture where divinity and humanity, good and evil, truth and untruth, are not so separate and unblurred as in Europe? This question, and the Otsu-Kichijiro character type, seem to recur in Endo's fiction.
I also sensed that Endo may have written himself in as Narada, the middle-aged and kindly writer of childrens' books about nature. My only wish is that Mr. and Mrs. Sanjo had been murdered by the Hindu mobs.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Finished 12/??/12
A delightful, short graphic novel about race and the need to affirm your own identity.
That is all for now.
I am now up to 144 books. My goal of reaching 150 is within sight.
Evangelization and Religious Freedom: Ad Gentes, Dignitatis Humanae (Rediscovering Vatican II) by Stephen B. Bevans
Finished 12/8/12
The last in my flurry of reading on Vatican II, Bevans covers one of the most talked-about and one of the most controversial documents of the council. Dignitatis Humanae advocated religious freedom as a basic dignity of all humankind, a statement which not every Catholic country was crazy about. It was controversial because of its complete rupture with the 1864 papal Syllabus of Errors, guided by the old notion that "error has no rights," Protestantism and Modernism being the errors. The document on evangelization brought in a new era of praxis, moving from an old colonial model of territory expansion to a theological emphasis on evangelization as a flowing-out of Christ's incarnational and Trinitarian love to the ends of the earth.
The genius of this series is its coverage of how Vatican II documents have been interpreted in the past fifty years. Dignitatis has been especially hard to place. This was the Cold War era, a time when the West seemed divided between increasingly religious nations and increasingly seecular states. A middle way of a constitutional state with religious freedom (even if the state itself supported a particular religion) had not been thought about in some Catholic circles. In a now-pluralistic West, this only seems obvious. Still, Bevans leaves out key contemporary discussions on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. If specifically religious morals cannot be impressed on an entire nation, what do we make of arguments from pro-lifers claiming that abortion can be found immoral on non-religious grounds? What about same-sex marriage? How do we draw the line between religious morals and non-religious (secular) morals?
In the realm of evangelization, increased attention has been paid to the need to re-evangelize societies that are traditionally Christian but have become less and less so. In the USA, the ministry of Catholics Come Home has been one of the most well-known in this effort of the "New Evangelization." At the same time, the lifted privileges of colonialism and the desire to create indigenous Christianities has radically changed the face of mission in non-Western contexts, contexts where Christianity is booming even as it shrinks in Europe. Bevans stakes out six major areas of current evangelization and missionary work: witness and prophetic proclamation, liturgy and contemplation, peace and justice work, interreligious dialogue, enculturation, and reconciliation.
Good as all the rest of this series has been, but I'm setting aside Vatican II for the time being. The Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) tome, Theological Highlights of Vatican II, will wait for my Pope Benedict XVI category in my 13 in 13 challenge.
The New Evangelization: What it is and How if Affects the Life of Every Catholic by Ralph Martin
Finished 12/8/12
A short (30 pages) ebook on John Paul II's efforts at creating a New Evangelization. The New Evangelization is the mission of the entire people of God to reach out to those who are in traditionally Catholic regions but have largely left the Church. Martin looks around at dioceses and sees shrinking numbers of baptisms, declining interest in vocations to the priesthood, increased divorce rates, and lower attendance at Catholic schools. A sad sight, indeed.
How do we persuade this culture that Christ is a viable and worthy example for life?
Martin looks especially at the youth of America, many of whom are raised with a form of religioius indifferentism. God is a moral therapy, a being who always affirms what we do and blesses our lives whether or not we pray and read his Word. All religions are true paths to God. There is no need to choose one religion over another and no urgency to choose any at all.
After all, we have left all that nonsense behind, right?
Yet the Gospels still record Jesus' "evangelical choice": either I am or am not the Son of God. I am not one of many. Matthew's harsh rhetoric of condemnation and repentance is easiest to draw on.
I completely understand Martin. While I feel a kinship with his desire to spread the faith, I see another angle to this. Because all religions face a common problem in today's world: the need to insist on meaning in the face of secularism and indifference. I see this among my own peers, who have immense curiosity about religion and desire to change the world but don't see how these connect. I hope that Martin's short work falls into the hands of more Catholics, inspiring them to work to "set the world on fire."
True Freedom: On Protecting Human Dignity and Religious Liberty by Timothy M. Dolan
Finished 12/8/12
Dolan, now the most important Catholic cleric in America in his role as Cardinal and President of the USCCB, wrote this likely as a response to Obamacare. Here he lays out the need for government to not force Catholic organizations to provide abortions or birth control. Instead, Dolan argues, we should see the dignity of all human life, from conception to death. Dolan draws on the "culture of life" rhetoric of John Paul II to call into question what he sees as "culture of death" questions regardly medicine and bioethics.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with his reasoning. I am pro-life. I completely agree with him that utilitarianism, consumerism, and pragmatism are inadequate bases for a true ethics of life. But like Bevans above, he fails to define the all-important distinction between religious and secular means of reasoning. If his view of human dignity - and his specifically "applied ethics" consequences he draws from it - is specifically religious, then should we force everyone to follow them? After all, Catholic theology is also firmly in favor of religious freedom. Still, a good and short introduction.
Introduction to Ecumenism by Jeffrey Gros
Finished 12/10/12
I got a lot out of this book on the Catholic practice of ecumenism, or dialogue with other Christian groups. Gzros names four bases of ecumenism: religious liberty, spiritual ecumenism, collaborative mission, and conversion. I especially like his appreciation of other christian groups, whom we have learned much from. For example, historical-critical scriptural method came out of German Protestantism. Despite the great progress in shared witness since Vatican II, some issues remain unresolved to my knowledge. To what extent is Christian unity necessarily institutional unity? Who can share in our sacraments, especially the Eucharist? (Eastern Orthodox are allowed to take our Eucharist, but Protestants are not, despite the fact that some Protestant churches have almost identical Eucharistic theology.) Our goal of realizing koinonia is far from achieved.
Deep River by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/11/12
"'Every time I look at the River Ganges, I think of my Onion. The Ganges swallows up the ashes of every person as it flows along, rejecting neither the beggar woman who stretches out of her fingerness hands nor the murdered prime minister, Gandhi. The river of love that is my Onion flows past, accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest." (185)
So says the despised Otsu, a Japanese rejected in Japan and Europe. Otsu's problematic is the problem of many of this people in this character-based novel: how do we have faith and overcome our traumas and ourselves? Endo's book follows a group of Japanese tourists as they make a spiritual and physical pilgrimage to India. Here, their Japanese stoicism fades away as they share their burdens with one another, the pasts that haunt each one of them. I was very touched by this book, the third Endo volume I've read.
I agree that it is less explicitly Christian than Silence, although Otsu and Kichijiro are still one and the same in my mind. Still, as a Christian I understood both Mitsuko's tart comment that faith is pointless and Otsu's insistence that he could not live without his Onion. I also understood Mitsuko's feeling that the goddess of India was more identifiable, more human, more mired in the dirt and filth and death of her nation, than the pure and virginal European Mary. Christians so often blow up the holier-than-thou quality of saints and even Jesus himself. Otsu did not see this duality - and rightly so. How does Christianity come to a culture where divinity and humanity, good and evil, truth and untruth, are not so separate and unblurred as in Europe? This question, and the Otsu-Kichijiro character type, seem to recur in Endo's fiction.
I also sensed that Endo may have written himself in as Narada, the middle-aged and kindly writer of childrens' books about nature. My only wish is that Mr. and Mrs. Sanjo had been murdered by the Hindu mobs.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Finished 12/??/12
A delightful, short graphic novel about race and the need to affirm your own identity.
That is all for now.
95rebeccanyc
Haven't had time to catch up with your thread until now, Jonathan, but an education for me, as always.
96LolaWalser
This was the Cold War era, a time when the West seemed divided between increasingly religious nations and increasingly seecular states.
Not sure what's meant by "increasingly religious nations"; as far as I know, there isn't any Western nation or state where religiosity hasn't been declining since before WWII.
Not sure what's meant by "increasingly religious nations"; as far as I know, there isn't any Western nation or state where religiosity hasn't been declining since before WWII.
98JDHomrighausen
Rachel - I would definitely read it. It's not much of a time investment, so even if you don't like it you haven't lost much. :)
99JDHomrighausen
Thank you for all the comments! I am glad to be back on LT. I am also trying out as a guest blogger at the Christian Apologetics Alliance. (One of the administrators is a friend.) I hope this will improve my writing skills.
The Silent Dialogue: Zen Letters to a Trappist Monk by David G. Hackett
Finished 12/15/12
"Christian reliance upon God means both total self-effort and yet total self-surrender." (81)
David Hackett grew up in a relatively nonreligious home, and went to college in that period in the '70s when everyone was interested in mysticism and Eastern religions. Somehow he found himself in the Catholic Church, mentored by Thomas Keating, Trappist monk. After his initial fervor of conversion, Hackett went to Japan for two years to teach high school. This book consists of the epistolary exchange between Hackett and Keating. He spends a lot of time in zendos, from the most traditionally Japanese to Jesuit Father Enomiya-Lasalle's zendo, to an informal monastery with no rules and no requirements. At the end of two years in Japan and a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia, he comes to an unexpected conclusion:
"Raphael a Trappist monk who was also a spiritual advisor to Hackett appeared to be saying that I needed to see my moments of silence in relation to the other, more verbal forms of prayer that help me to reach that silence. The time between meditations needs to be buttressed with discursive (conceptual) prayer so that I keep from falling too far away from the will of God. Zen meditation for Christians, he said, must be solidly founded on Gospel reading, the sacraments, discursive, and petitionary (asking for God's guidance and grace) prayer, rather than standing alone without foundation. Though I may have real and sublime experiences of God's love, without solid roots in the teachings of my faith I run the real risk of becoming disembodied, so detached from my religion, culture, and social setting that I am neither more fully human nor more fully divine, rather I float about like a helium balloon in some psychic no man's land. . . . . But no dialogue can come about if the participants are not first firmly rooted in their own
community, culture, and spiritual tradition. This has been the lesson of these past seven days, and too, perhaps, the greater lesson of my Asian journey." (152-4)
After some time discerning a Trappist vocation, Hackett enrolled himself in an M.Div. program, and is now a sociologist and historian of religion at University of Florida. His experience reminds me very much of Eboo Patel's: in the midst of exploring other religious traditions, he found his own. This is ironically what Father Keating did too. Instead of creating a "Christian Zen," he brought Zen insights back into Christianity and founded the centering prayer movement. A great book for this spiritual seeker, especially since Hackett was close to my age when he wrote it!
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Finished 12/19/12
Keller is one of the foremost "urban ministers" of today. He has founded Redeemer, a church in Manhattan that has expanded to 5,000 members and planted others around the country. This is a book defending and explaining the Christian worldview. I really enjoyed it; in the coming weeks I will reread it and post more of my thoughts, as it warrants a good re-read.
Conversion in the New Testament by Ronald Witherup
Finished 12/19/12
One of my goals for this break is to revise and publish (in an undergraduate journal) my paper on Paul's conversion experience and cognitive psychology. (In brief: I don't think the latter can tell us much about the former.) Step one: check out a pile of books on Paul from the university library. (The girl who works behind the checkout desk knows me by name already.) Step two, of course, is always more arduous.
Witherup makes it less so in this short (113 pages) book on conversion in different authorial voices. He starts with the Old Testament background, where the verbal roots nhm (to regret/be sorry) and shub (to turn, return, or repent) are the most frequently used. In the New Testament, these become episthrepho (shub) and, most famously, metanoeo and its noun form metanoia.
In the Synoptics, these are the terms of choice. Yet the Synoptics are not identical. Mark emphasizes the danger of conversion and discipleship. Matthew emphasizes conversion's good fruit, the challenge of discipleship and righteousness, and the urgency of conversion in the light of eschatology. Luke more optimistically emphasizes conversion as God's forgiveness and mercy, and conversion as not only bringing together God and humanity but humans with one another. In the parable of the lost sheep, Matthew's sheep has turned to evil and wicked ways whereas Luke's has only gotten lost and confused.
Acts, of course, is the paradigmatic convert's book in the NT. Because it is the 'sequel' to Luke, it continues the same themes, but adds an emphasis on conversion as exemplified in individuals and as a change in religion. Acts' conversions have a structure: preparation, preaching, inquiry, God's initiative, baptism, and the fruits of conversion. And Acts has the story of Christianity's most famous convert, Paul, whose experience on the road to Damascus was as much a conversion as a call story reminiscent of Israel's prophets. Paul's conversion story changes with every retelling, but always uses the Synoptic language of blindness to sight.
John uses a completely different vocabulary. Instead of blindness to sight, he describes darkness turning to light. He does not use the words metanoeo or epistrepho. He emphasizes the convert's change of beliefs and the convert's choice as an existential decision described in subtle, complex imagery such as that of baptism. John's conversions happen in stages with gradual insights. This seems quite the opposite from Paul, who also eschews Synoptic vocabulary in favor of the "apokalypseos" (revelation) he receives from God in Galatians 1:11-17. For Paul, conversion leads to righteousness and faith, a removal of sin and a turn to
the new creation. Despite the huge emphasis on conversion in Luke's description of Paul, Paul
barely mentions it in his letters.
Witherup ends his book with a series of bullet points on conversion in the New Testament. Although it would have been nice to see a stronger conclusion bringing together the different early Christian perspectives, I also like how Witherup focuses on the diversity of views and the Greek terms used by different authors.
America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story by Bruce Feiler
Finished 12/20/12
Listening to on audiobook. Feiler explores how Moses relates to the spirit of America, and how great Americans such as Washington, Lincoln, Tubman, and a host of others have been compared to him. Moses is the perfect American rags-to-riches story, a man who was not only a revolutionary (Tubman) against Egypt (Britain) but a lawgiver who brought together the Israelites (e.g. Washington, Lincoln). I definitely want more of Feiler's books.
The Silent Dialogue: Zen Letters to a Trappist Monk by David G. Hackett
Finished 12/15/12
"Christian reliance upon God means both total self-effort and yet total self-surrender." (81)
David Hackett grew up in a relatively nonreligious home, and went to college in that period in the '70s when everyone was interested in mysticism and Eastern religions. Somehow he found himself in the Catholic Church, mentored by Thomas Keating, Trappist monk. After his initial fervor of conversion, Hackett went to Japan for two years to teach high school. This book consists of the epistolary exchange between Hackett and Keating. He spends a lot of time in zendos, from the most traditionally Japanese to Jesuit Father Enomiya-Lasalle's zendo, to an informal monastery with no rules and no requirements. At the end of two years in Japan and a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia, he comes to an unexpected conclusion:
"Raphael a Trappist monk who was also a spiritual advisor to Hackett appeared to be saying that I needed to see my moments of silence in relation to the other, more verbal forms of prayer that help me to reach that silence. The time between meditations needs to be buttressed with discursive (conceptual) prayer so that I keep from falling too far away from the will of God. Zen meditation for Christians, he said, must be solidly founded on Gospel reading, the sacraments, discursive, and petitionary (asking for God's guidance and grace) prayer, rather than standing alone without foundation. Though I may have real and sublime experiences of God's love, without solid roots in the teachings of my faith I run the real risk of becoming disembodied, so detached from my religion, culture, and social setting that I am neither more fully human nor more fully divine, rather I float about like a helium balloon in some psychic no man's land. . . . . But no dialogue can come about if the participants are not first firmly rooted in their own
community, culture, and spiritual tradition. This has been the lesson of these past seven days, and too, perhaps, the greater lesson of my Asian journey." (152-4)
After some time discerning a Trappist vocation, Hackett enrolled himself in an M.Div. program, and is now a sociologist and historian of religion at University of Florida. His experience reminds me very much of Eboo Patel's: in the midst of exploring other religious traditions, he found his own. This is ironically what Father Keating did too. Instead of creating a "Christian Zen," he brought Zen insights back into Christianity and founded the centering prayer movement. A great book for this spiritual seeker, especially since Hackett was close to my age when he wrote it!
The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Finished 12/19/12
Keller is one of the foremost "urban ministers" of today. He has founded Redeemer, a church in Manhattan that has expanded to 5,000 members and planted others around the country. This is a book defending and explaining the Christian worldview. I really enjoyed it; in the coming weeks I will reread it and post more of my thoughts, as it warrants a good re-read.
Conversion in the New Testament by Ronald Witherup
Finished 12/19/12
One of my goals for this break is to revise and publish (in an undergraduate journal) my paper on Paul's conversion experience and cognitive psychology. (In brief: I don't think the latter can tell us much about the former.) Step one: check out a pile of books on Paul from the university library. (The girl who works behind the checkout desk knows me by name already.) Step two, of course, is always more arduous.
Witherup makes it less so in this short (113 pages) book on conversion in different authorial voices. He starts with the Old Testament background, where the verbal roots nhm (to regret/be sorry) and shub (to turn, return, or repent) are the most frequently used. In the New Testament, these become episthrepho (shub) and, most famously, metanoeo and its noun form metanoia.
In the Synoptics, these are the terms of choice. Yet the Synoptics are not identical. Mark emphasizes the danger of conversion and discipleship. Matthew emphasizes conversion's good fruit, the challenge of discipleship and righteousness, and the urgency of conversion in the light of eschatology. Luke more optimistically emphasizes conversion as God's forgiveness and mercy, and conversion as not only bringing together God and humanity but humans with one another. In the parable of the lost sheep, Matthew's sheep has turned to evil and wicked ways whereas Luke's has only gotten lost and confused.
Acts, of course, is the paradigmatic convert's book in the NT. Because it is the 'sequel' to Luke, it continues the same themes, but adds an emphasis on conversion as exemplified in individuals and as a change in religion. Acts' conversions have a structure: preparation, preaching, inquiry, God's initiative, baptism, and the fruits of conversion. And Acts has the story of Christianity's most famous convert, Paul, whose experience on the road to Damascus was as much a conversion as a call story reminiscent of Israel's prophets. Paul's conversion story changes with every retelling, but always uses the Synoptic language of blindness to sight.
John uses a completely different vocabulary. Instead of blindness to sight, he describes darkness turning to light. He does not use the words metanoeo or epistrepho. He emphasizes the convert's change of beliefs and the convert's choice as an existential decision described in subtle, complex imagery such as that of baptism. John's conversions happen in stages with gradual insights. This seems quite the opposite from Paul, who also eschews Synoptic vocabulary in favor of the "apokalypseos" (revelation) he receives from God in Galatians 1:11-17. For Paul, conversion leads to righteousness and faith, a removal of sin and a turn to
the new creation. Despite the huge emphasis on conversion in Luke's description of Paul, Paul
barely mentions it in his letters.
Witherup ends his book with a series of bullet points on conversion in the New Testament. Although it would have been nice to see a stronger conclusion bringing together the different early Christian perspectives, I also like how Witherup focuses on the diversity of views and the Greek terms used by different authors.
America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story by Bruce Feiler
Finished 12/20/12
Listening to on audiobook. Feiler explores how Moses relates to the spirit of America, and how great Americans such as Washington, Lincoln, Tubman, and a host of others have been compared to him. Moses is the perfect American rags-to-riches story, a man who was not only a revolutionary (Tubman) against Egypt (Britain) but a lawgiver who brought together the Israelites (e.g. Washington, Lincoln). I definitely want more of Feiler's books.
100The_Hibernator
I've read Feiler's book about Abraham and Where God Was Born. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of three Faiths was very short and sweet. :) When I was reading Where God Was Born I sort of felt like he was one of those journalists who goes into war-zones with the deep-down desire that they'll get taken hostage and have a fantastic story to tell. I don't think he had a good enough reason to be wandering around in those areas at that time. Not to write the book he ended up writing. But maybe that's just me. :)
101JDHomrighausen
Rachel - he did some crazy stunts to write this book too. He snuck clandestinely into a secret Masonic ceremony. (Thankfully for him they invited him to dinner after finding him out.) He also wandered around the Ohio-Kentucky border in the middle of the night to get a feel for what terrain a runaway slave on the Underground Railroad would have to have traversed. He ended up conveniently wandering into the backyard of a man he was trying to contact for an interview. I suspect Feiler has nerves of steel.
102rebeccanyc
99 I hope this will improve my writing skills.
Of course there is always room for improvement for all of us, but I have been very impressed by the writing skills you've shown in your reviews, especially since you have only recently left your teens!
Of course there is always room for improvement for all of us, but I have been very impressed by the writing skills you've shown in your reviews, especially since you have only recently left your teens!
103JDHomrighausen
Thank you, Rebecca!
I wanted to ask you - if I should read one Zola novel for the Author Theme Reads, which one would you recommend? I am not in for all twenty in the series.
I wanted to ask you - if I should read one Zola novel for the Author Theme Reads, which one would you recommend? I am not in for all twenty in the series.
104rebeccanyc
You're welcome! I would definitely start with Germinal. It's the one I started with and it remains my favorite. I do have to alert you that Zola was not a fan of the church!
105The_Hibernator
>101 JDHomrighausen: Yeah, but those are nerves of steel that I don't particularly admire. Someone who is willing to trespass upon others in order to get a story might be able to write a good book, but I wouldn't want to be friends with him.
106dchaikin
Catching up again. Zen in Christianity, new testament conversion - lots of interesting things here that I don't typically read about. Feiler sounds like quite a character.
107JDHomrighausen
Still catching up on reviews. I am proud to say that I hit the 150 mark!
The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
Finished 12/23/12
Ants. Most people hate them, or at least prefer them to be distant. Wilson's book, about sociality and its role in evolution, draws a close parallel between ants and people. Ants, like humans, have complex societies with division of labor and a central nest. These qualities have enabled them to take over the insect world as we have the mammalian world. Specifically, this quality is eusociality - forming social groups beyond one's family with a central nest. He illustrates this principle by recounting the history of human evolution, refuting the kinship selection theory in favor of his, demonstrating that human evolution works by both individual and group selection. While his chapters on insect evolution were very dry, his discussion of hominid evolution was not: Neanderthals died out because despite their large brains, they were not the social creatures the homo sapiens were. (Also, I never even knew the subfield "cognitive archaeology" existed.)
"An iron rule exists in genetic social evolution. It is that selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, while groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. The victory can never be complete; the balance of selection pressures cannot move to either extreme. If individual selection were to dominate, societies would dissolve. If group selection were to dominate, human groups would come to resemble ant colonies." (243)
Wilson extends these scientific theories to provide insights into human nature. Why do we have such a precarious balance between good and evil? Because of our evolutionary history. Faking altruism brings social benefits, so we are very sensitive to liars and hypocrites and punish them greatly if caught. Why do we feel overwhelmed by modern society's social demands? Because we are still hardwired for hunter-gatherer groups of 30 or so.
Wilson writes with a firm conviction that science will be the new arbiter of humanistic questions about our nature. And while this book is truly a gem, it does not deliver on that promise. Wilson never explains just why religion is incompatible with science. The Christian who sees a cause and creator of human nature beyond the evolutionary history of Wilson will not be swayed by that science alone. And I wish Wilson had avoided those polemics. But still - worth reading.
Scandal by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/24/12
One of the most gripping books I have read in a long time. Scandal follows the moral and psychological unraveling of an elderly Catholic novelist (read: thinly veiled autobiography) who gets dragged through his dark side. The people who help him do so, such as Naruse, are some of the most repulsive characters I've ever read of. The beauty in this ugliness is not the harmony of the protagonist's well-plotted novels, but the fascination with death and destruction that one character, the psychologist Tomo, says is in all of us. Sugurodoes his best to ignore all of this, cocooning himself in the world of faith he has created in his literature.
The strange this for me about this book is that it is barely Christian. Yes, I see the same theme of ethical dualism vs. nondualism; but despite being a Catholic novelist, Suguro barely speaks or thinks of Jesus. I felt a real spiritual emptiness under the rapid thrill of this novel. Definitely not what I am used to in Endo, and not his most thoughtful work even if his most riveting. But also, not a suitable Christmas Eve read. :P
The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
Finished 12/23/12
Ants. Most people hate them, or at least prefer them to be distant. Wilson's book, about sociality and its role in evolution, draws a close parallel between ants and people. Ants, like humans, have complex societies with division of labor and a central nest. These qualities have enabled them to take over the insect world as we have the mammalian world. Specifically, this quality is eusociality - forming social groups beyond one's family with a central nest. He illustrates this principle by recounting the history of human evolution, refuting the kinship selection theory in favor of his, demonstrating that human evolution works by both individual and group selection. While his chapters on insect evolution were very dry, his discussion of hominid evolution was not: Neanderthals died out because despite their large brains, they were not the social creatures the homo sapiens were. (Also, I never even knew the subfield "cognitive archaeology" existed.)
"An iron rule exists in genetic social evolution. It is that selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, while groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. The victory can never be complete; the balance of selection pressures cannot move to either extreme. If individual selection were to dominate, societies would dissolve. If group selection were to dominate, human groups would come to resemble ant colonies." (243)
Wilson extends these scientific theories to provide insights into human nature. Why do we have such a precarious balance between good and evil? Because of our evolutionary history. Faking altruism brings social benefits, so we are very sensitive to liars and hypocrites and punish them greatly if caught. Why do we feel overwhelmed by modern society's social demands? Because we are still hardwired for hunter-gatherer groups of 30 or so.
Wilson writes with a firm conviction that science will be the new arbiter of humanistic questions about our nature. And while this book is truly a gem, it does not deliver on that promise. Wilson never explains just why religion is incompatible with science. The Christian who sees a cause and creator of human nature beyond the evolutionary history of Wilson will not be swayed by that science alone. And I wish Wilson had avoided those polemics. But still - worth reading.
Scandal by Shusaku Endo
Finished 12/24/12
One of the most gripping books I have read in a long time. Scandal follows the moral and psychological unraveling of an elderly Catholic novelist (read: thinly veiled autobiography) who gets dragged through his dark side. The people who help him do so, such as Naruse, are some of the most repulsive characters I've ever read of. The beauty in this ugliness is not the harmony of the protagonist's well-plotted novels, but the fascination with death and destruction that one character, the psychologist Tomo, says is in all of us. Sugurodoes his best to ignore all of this, cocooning himself in the world of faith he has created in his literature.
The strange this for me about this book is that it is barely Christian. Yes, I see the same theme of ethical dualism vs. nondualism; but despite being a Catholic novelist, Suguro barely speaks or thinks of Jesus. I felt a real spiritual emptiness under the rapid thrill of this novel. Definitely not what I am used to in Endo, and not his most thoughtful work even if his most riveting. But also, not a suitable Christmas Eve read. :P
108The_Hibernator
I feel that Wilson went wrong when he started discussing religion. I have no problems with his expressing his opinions about religion (to each his own) but when he tried to back that up with half-hearted science it weakened his arguments and made his theories seem less plausible (since they were side-by-side with half-hearted science). It would have been best if it had been left out. On the other hand, I DO find his sociobiology theory interesting. :)
109avidmom
Happy Last Day of the Year lilbrattyteen.
Interesting reviews. Glad to see another Endo here. I ordered his A Life of Jesus yesterday.
That quote you included in your review is something to think about. I don't hate ants - as long as they stay outside where they belong! :)
150! Congrats on that.
Interesting reviews. Glad to see another Endo here. I ordered his A Life of Jesus yesterday.
That quote you included in your review is something to think about. I don't hate ants - as long as they stay outside where they belong! :)
150! Congrats on that.
110JDHomrighausen
Rachel - I totally agree. One would think that such a distinguished scientist, a clearly intelligent man, would have more nuanced thoughts on non-scientific issues. I guess not.
Ms. Mom - Thank you! I actually want to go back to A Life of Jesus since it was not as psychologically disturbing as this novel was. I'm glad I can say I've read a good crop of his work for the Author Themes read. :)
Ms. Mom - Thank you! I actually want to go back to A Life of Jesus since it was not as psychologically disturbing as this novel was. I'm glad I can say I've read a good crop of his work for the Author Themes read. :)
111dchaikin
Interesting about Wilson. This ideas presented seem...dated, or lacking in sophistication somehow. Not sure. I was surprised to see the 2012 publication date. And always nice to read your takes on Endo. And congrats on making 150!
