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Bookshelf
By WILLIAM C. GRAHAM
Minnesota’s governor-elect, Jesse “the Body”
Ventura, former professional wrestler, suburban mayor, volunteer conditioner
for a high school football team and talk-show host, has made a splash even on
the East Coast. Might be the feather boa he has been known to wear. Quizzed
about him by college students in New Jersey, I expressed amazement that he had
trounced Hubert H. Humphrey III.
“Who?” they asked.
“Son of ... ” and so on, I explained.
Not one student in the room had heard of the former vice president
and one-time presidential candidate. However, every one of them knew Jesse the
Body.
That’s enough to make a guy read some more books and to think
that others might do the same. And so:
Catholic Social Teaching and Movements, by Marvin L. Krier
Mich (Twenty-Third, 475 pages, $29.95 paperback), recognizes that the rich
tradition of the social teachings of the church is a well-kept secret. He
violates that secret in a very effective manner. He looks to encyclicals and
pastoral letters as well as the movements that expressed the teachings, telling
the story from above and below.
This book is certain to be useful to college students and
seminarians but will also be prized by those who are attentive to social
justice ministry.
Those concerned with the many issues surrounding considerations of
global population may look to the contributions of John C. Schwarz in Global
Population from a Catholic Perspective (Twenty-Third, 256 pages, $19.95
paperback). While the church’s stand has been seen as largely negative
with prohibitions on artificial contraception, sterilization and abortion,
Schwarz intends to look at both positive and negative aspects of ecclesial
positions. He is bold in speaking his own views in a way that is sure to
diminish both impact and credibility: “And even if the church
(magisterium) did possess all the truth, she still should ... ” The
italics are his own.
Those who seek to understand the development of moral theology can
look to Moral Choices: The Moral Theology of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, by
Redemptorist Fr. Theodule Rey-Mermet (Ligouri, 180 pages, $14.95 paperback),
which chronicles the contributions to the evolution of moral theology over 300
years ago by St. Alphonsus, who was noted as a champion of responsible freedom,
of love over legalism and conscience over force.
Cistercian Fr. Richard Gwyn, living in a monastery off the coast
of Wales, has written The Psalms in Haiku: Meditative Songs of Praise
(Seastone, an imprint of Ulysses Press [PO 3440, Berkeley, CA 94703], 346
pages, $14 paperback). Gwyn does not see his haiku psalms as a learned work but
instead offers a simple and stark approach to the ancient prayers that may be
of meditative help: “The Lord is my Shepherd,/there is nothing I shall
want,/grazing in His fields” (Psalms 23:1-2). “Be gracious to me for
your true love’s sake, O God/Blot out my misdeeds” (Psalms 51:1).
I like this little volume a lot. No doubt it will provoke a flurry
of poetic and inspired prayer in those lucky enough to find it. Those who
object to masculine references to God will need to look elsewhere, however.
Small Christian Communities: Imagining Future Church,
edited by Holy Cross Fr. Robert S. Pelton (University of Notre Dame Press, 132
pages, paperback), is a collection of essays that presents the findings of a
1996 theological consultation held at the University of Notre Dame that
included theologians, pastoral leaders and lay members of small communities
from five continents.
These insights about contemporary Christian life are a positive
view of how small communities might serve as leaven for the Christian
future.
Pedagogy of the Heart (Continuum, 141 pages, $11.95
paperback), by Paulo Friere, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is a
collection of some of the last writings gathered in a volume titled Under This
Mango Tree in the original Portuguese. The late Brazilian educator here
considers the world of politics and values with, as the preface suggests,
rationality rationally clamoring for the right to its emotional roots, thus
returning to the shade of the mango tree as a complete human being. Early
Friere fans will appreciate this volume of reflections, reminiscences and
meditations that includes notes by his widow.
Of Passion and Folly: A Scriptural Foundation for Peace, by
Notre Dame Sr. Patricia McCarthy (Liturgical Press, 128 pages, $11.95
paperback), was written not to propose theories but “to raise questions
and to encourage participation in living out the process of answering
them.” The questions include, Why is peace simultaneously desirable and
unimportant? Can we seek peace while avoiding the means of peace? Is peace an
option or tenet of faith?
Those who will search the words and will of Jesus for the answers
may find a helpful guide here.
As communities of religious women continue their rapid evolution
and as new models look to history for guidance, Brides in the Desert: The
Spirituality of the Beguines, by Saskia Murk-Jansen (Orbis, 136 pages, $13
paperback), may be an important resource. The Beguines, a lay women’s
movement, began in the 13th century. They were committed to poverty, chastity
and obedience but not as members of a recognized order. Gathered in urban
communities, Beguines lived from their own work rather than charity, and their
spirituality was clearly in and of, not apart from, the world. Many were well
educated and from wealthy families, and they left texts for consideration in
later ages.
Beginning with an informative look at the origins and development
of the movement, Murk-Jansen looks to Beatrijs of Nazareth, Hadewijch, Mechtild
of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete. She notes that the voices of these women
and the spirituality they forged out of their circumstances have rested unheard
for centuries. Here is a timely and interesting resurrection.
Scholars and students of medieval history will be glad to have
Pastors and the Care of Souls in Medieval England, edited by John
Shinners and Holy Cross Fr. William J. Dohar (University of Notre Dame Press,
330 pages, paperback). They bring together documents, many not available before
in English, which illuminate the lives of a group long ignored by scholars.
It is clear that this substantial effort ought to accomplish what
the editors hope: a historical awareness sharpened by highlighting the wider
social and religious milieus in which the medieval pastor worked, leading to a
richer appreciation of Christianity’s role in molding medieval
culture.
The Butterfly Healing: A Life Between East and West, by
Julia Ching (Orbis, 220 pages, $16 paperback), is the story of sickness and
recovery from physical and spiritual perspectives. The author, a professor of
east Asian philosophy and religion, explores both East and West in considering
medical, philosophical and spiritual responses to living and dying.
Ching is very fond of italics, but that distraction aside, her
considerations of the butterfly as a model of fragility and strength may prompt
hopefulness in those who look for new life.
Seekers may also appreciate Spiritual Literacy: Reading the
Sacred in Everyday Life, by Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat (Touchstone,
from Simon & Schuster, 608 pages, $15 paperback). This compendium of over
650 snippets includes stories, poems and reflections from Frederick Buechner,
Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Tyler, Denise Levertov, Lawrence Kushner and Henri
Nouwen with a foreword by Thomas Moore.
Bishops and their staffs and those who take pastoral planning
seriously will want a look at Bridges: Towards the Inter-Parish Regional
Community ... Deaneries, Clusters, Plural Parishes, by noted planner Fr.
Robert G. Howes (Liturgical Press, 110 pages, $9.95 paperback).
A New Testament Guide to the Holy Land, second edition, by
Jesuit Fr. John J. Kilgallen (Jesuit Way, an imprint of Loyola Press, 298
pages, $14.95 paperback), is a fine tour guide for pilgrims and armchair
travelers. Kilgallen sets the scene and explores the meaning of the stories of
those who looked to Jesus to change their circumstances but encountered one who
preferred to change their hearts.
Extraordinary Lives: Thirty-Four Priests Tell Their
Stories, by Fr. Francis P. Friedl and Rex Reynolds (Ave Maria, 270 pages,
$12.95 paperback), includes the stories of a cross section of happy religious
and diocesan priests and bishops and what they think of the vocations they
share. I’ve sent my copy off to a newly ordained young man with the
expressed hope that it will quicken him in hopefulness for many years of happy
service.
Hell, Healing and Resistance: Veterans Speak, by Daniel
Hallock (Plough [Farmington, PA 15437], 434 pages, $25 hardbound), is dedicated
to the conscience of a nation and includes a preface by Philip Berrigan.
Hallock, himself a veteran, conducted over 40 interviews and collected about a
hundred written accounts in an attempt to understand the military and the human
cost of war. These stories are intended to ensure that an appreciation of the
horrors of war not be lost.
Living a Gentle, Passionate Life, by Robert J. Wicks
(Paulist, 137 pages, $14.95 hardbound), is a nicely written book of stories and
ideas for those who would “find the new life that is already there before
us, if only we take the next step.”
Ana F. Sauthoff lives in Princeton, N.J., is a wife, a mother,
high school teacher and a candidate for an MA in Pastoral Ministry in the
Caldwell pastoral Ministry Institute at Caldwell College. I gave her a copy of
Praying With Women of the Bible, by Sister for a Christian Community
Bridget Mary Meehan (Ligouri, 158 pages, $12.95 paperback) and invited
comment.
Sauthoff reports that she was expecting to read a prayer book
based on real women as role-models and prayer partners. The introduction claims
that the aim of the book is to invite people, women in particular, to learn and
to pray and “to catch the living spirit of amazing witness.” Meehan
deals with 20 women from the time of the Patriarchs to the early Christian era.
Each chapter contains background information, a reflection, thought-provoking
questions for discussion and prayer experience. End-notes provide sources for
each chapter. The style is conversational, and the author is a good story
teller.
Unfortunately, according to Sauthoff, instead of being a prayer
book, the book presents the author’s agenda on the ordination of women and
might better have been titled How to Empower Women to Reclaim Their Rightful
Place in the Church. Sauthoff did not find clarity of purpose but felt
surreptitiously manipulated and recruited for a cause. She reports
disappointment in what seemed to her careless use of biblical references, with
alternative references to an Inclusive New Testament and heavy reliance on
Gnostic and apocryphal New Testament material. All of these difficulties, in
Sauthoff’s judgment, obscure a very valid message concerning justice and
equality.
Fr. William C. Graham is preparing the final manuscript of
Sacred Adventure: Beginning Theological Study, coming soon from
University Press of America. He can be reached at NCRBkshelf@aol.com
National Catholic Reporter, January 8,
1999
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