Book Review

Yesterday I received The Mystery of Harry Potter written by Nancy Carpentier Brown of the Flying Stars Blog and pretty much set down and read it in one sitting. It is subtitled A Catholic Family Guide and that is it is exactly what it is. Over the years there has been a certain amount of controversy over whether Christian parents should let their children read the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowlings. Mrs. Brown provides a great resource for parents in prudently deciding this question and the answers and suggestions she gives should be used by all parents in deciding what literature they should allow their children to read.

Nancy Brown had originally started at the the point of a negative view towards the world of Harry Power and later revisited this because a Catholic friend of hers who she trusted recommended them and ended up reading the books and reading some of them to her children. I myself had quite a negative view of the Harry Potter book since I had read and heard commentary against them by Catholics whose views I generally trusted. Though over the years I was surprised to find that there wasn’t this anti-Potter bias in the Catholic blogosphere and in fact there was quite a positive view of the books and the movies in general. I have seen the first four movies and enjoyed them and finally got around to reading the first six books in the series earlier this year in just a two week period. I enjoyed the series and like so many others is awaiting the final book in the series. I got around the to reading the books mainly because of Nancy Brown’s blog and her entries on the books.

I really liked the advice given in The Mystery of Harry Potter in that even though she enjoys the books she does not advocate parents just going out and getting the books and giving them to her children. I also liked the fact that she encouraged parents to read the books first and then to make their own decision as to whether their children should read the books at all. She mentions that after all there are just so many good books that they could read and it certainly is not mandatory in any way that people should read these books. This advice certainly goes along with the Catholic view that parents are the primary educators. She also gives good general advice on pre-reading children’s books in general and web resources for book reviews. She also gives a general guide as to what ages each book is appropriate to and that this must be used with prudence in considering the sensitivity of each child. The books do get darker as they go since they do deal with the battle of good and evil and death. While talking about the series she is careful not to give away plot points to those who have not yet read the book.

Since Nancy Brown is a thoroughly going fan of G.K. Chesterton I was not surprised at the Chestertonian references throughout. I did find it quite interesting that through out the book she used sections of Chesterton’s Lepanto poem with sections of the HP books along with contrasts. Besides Chesterton she references C.S. Lewis, Thomas Fleming’s The Morality of Everyday Life, John Granger’s Looking for God in Harry Potter, and several other books. One section of the book starts off with Michael O’Brien’s A Landscape With Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind, though I think she should have mentioned that O’Brien (an author I really like) has written extensively against the Harry Potter books. This book was also accidentally left out of the biography at the end of the book.

I do think that Mrs. Brown did a very good job of addressing the complaints of critics and where they had valid points she agreed with them. I do think seeing these books primarily as a Fairy Tale as she and others have proposed is the best way to understand them and that they are driven by a Christian imagination and the magical elements to the stories are the background and not the primary focus. She points out that really it should be secular side that should be complaining about the series because amazingly it is so free of political correctness so often found in children’s books today. That the power of love and sacrificial love, friendships, good vs. evil morality, children needing the help of adults are the main themes of the books. I think what I enjoyed most about the book was the balance. There is no tint of "if you don’t like the books something is wrong with you" and that she doesn’t just overlook some problematic aspects of the books such as the so-called "white lies’ told by Harry and his friends at times. She puts all the impetus on the parents to judge. Towards the end she also addresses the movies in the Harry Potter franchise and cautions that Harry is much nobler in the books and the scripts in the movies sometimes inject dialogue not really fitting.

An appendix includes interviews with Dale Alquist the president of the American Chesterton Society and Regina Doman author of Angels in the Water and other children’s books on the subject of the Harry Potter books. Both of the interviews are interesting for their insights and Regina Doman was once in the anti-Potter camp. Another appendix includes discussion questions for teachers, catechists, and parents. Throughout the book there are discussion points of topics pertaining to the books to make for fruitful parent child interaction and to ensure that proper lessons are learned from the series.

This is a really good book whether you are a fan of series or have some serious questions about it.

* I would also recommend SQPN’s series The Secrets of Harry Potter podcast where Fr Roderick and Brother Giles explore the world of Harry Potter and the Christian connections throughout.

I received Paula’s Huston’s By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness for review from Loyola Press and just finished it. The book is a very well written and interesting spiritual biography that follows a format of chapters on the virtues. She discusses a particular virtue and relates it the the struggles in her life. Along the way she tells mini biographies of a saint that relates to the chapter and uses quotes form various Catholics throughout history. St. Thomas Aquinas and his writings are often used to explain the virtues and other points.

Her spiritual journey entails being raised a Christian and then like so many others losing her faith as an adult and became a self-proclaimed atheist. A spiritual reawakening brings her back to Christ and a conversion to the Catholic Church. Though within this journey was also paths through Cafeteria Catholics and bits of Eastern religions and then visiting a Camaldolese Benedictine Monastery and an event at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem that moved her forward in the fullness of the Catholic faith.

I could really relate with her with she describes the period of a a converts zeal where you really feel out of phases with others especially your own relatives. You come to think that everybody should be at the same point of the spiritual journey as you are and you just can’t understand while they are not also on fire for God. The silliness of this demand on others does not immediately dawn on you or that just a short time ago you were just as spiritually lax.

You can easily remember a list of virtues, but actually seeing where you are lacking and what to do about it when you do start to glimpse this is another thing. This is what I most enjoyed about this book was her frank discussion of her own struggles and the path to slowly overcoming them. The mini saint biographies are also very well done and even though I was mostly familiar with the saints mentioned, I still learned something from them.

Paula’s Huston is obviously well read and was able to draw on the treasury of the Church for examples and quotes to use. I do think at times that some of her explanations were lacking a little bit of rigor. Like for example saying that faith is "a theological one, because it comes through grace", when it fact it is theological because its immediate object is God. Though these minor problems don’t distract from the overall value of the book. One part I could certainly have done without dealt with the enneagram. When she first brings it up she announces skepticism about it and then writes about the values of the insights they gave her into her own personality. Doubtless good can come from even problematic things, but when she describes St. Teresa of Avila as "St. 3." I found that quite annoying and I almost put the book away after that. This though was the exception to an otherwise fine book.

Just one of the benefits of the election of Pope Benedict XVI is that his books written while still a Cardinal are more easily found in bookstores. I recently came across The Nature And Mission Of Theology:
Approaches To Understanding Its Role In The Light Of Present Controversy which was written in 1985.

It is a book of medium length and as always when reading his works I both wish I was much smarter and that I had become a Catholic much sooner. This book is densely packed, but quite worthwhile as an overview of theology and its end.

The first chapter discusses both philosophy and theology, their varying competencies, and how they interact together. The second chapter on the essence of academic freedom is really quite enjoyable as Cardinal Ratzinger fleshes out a true academic freedom and its service to truth. He of course touches on dialogue and the importance of truly listening. From source I have read this is another of the admirable traits of Josef Ratzinger is that despite his hard nose reputation that he does truly listen to what others have to say and not just to find entries where he can interrupt and disagree. He also notes:

"… what does the word ‘dialogue’ really mean? After all, dialogue doe not take place simply because people are talking. Mere talk is the deteriorization of dialogue that occurs when there has been a failure to reach it. Dialogue first comes into being when there is not only speech but also listening. Moreover, such listening must be the medium of an encounter; this encounter is the condition of an inner contact which leads to mutual comprehension."

He then goes on to describe how St. Augustine concludes that his friends were capable of this mutual listening because they heeded the interior master, the truth. This book was certainly an answer to the current climate of theologians who mostly are merely talking and lack the same interior master.

Another chapter goes on to explain the eccclesial identity of theology and exactly how it is not truly possible to be a theologian outside of the Church. Cardinal Ratzinger while head of the CDF wrote the Instruction on the Eccclesial Vocation of the Theologian and this book in many ways expands on what he wrote in the instruction. Towards the end of the book he addresses some of the complaints made throughout the world to this instruction and really shows how little merit these criticisms had. I hadn’t read this instruction previously and took the opportunity to read it after finishing this book and I think it is quite unfortunate that this instruction was so thoroughly ignored among so many Catholic theologians.

What I really found interesting in this book is that it was not just a challenge to dissenting theologians, but also to orthodox ones.

"There are, of course, many petty minds and repeaters of the past even among orthodox theologians. They are to be found everywhere; hack theology has enjoyed a particularly rapid growth precisely where their was too much noisy chatter about creativity."

Surprisingly he admits to having once found the so-called heretic theologians to be much more interesting than theologians of the Church, especially in modern times and then list those orthodox theologians who are actually much richer and relevant. I think creativity for creativity sake that is divorced from the Church is the cause of so much dissent. A individualistic attitude of coming up with something new and different seems to drive this, though normally what they find so new is a old as gnosticism or some other heresy. The point he makes is that there is plenty of room for creativity and building upon the Church’s theology. After all mysteries are inexhaustible.

Reading the Pope’s books one thing I have noticed is his wry sense of humor. It is not introduced much into his writings and when used is used to make a point. For example this is from the foreword to this book.

"…If I am right two things are expected of a theologian in the modern world. One the one hand, he is supposed to subject the tradtions of Christianity to critical examination by the light of reason, to distill from them the essential core which can be appropriated for use today, and thereby also place the institutional Church within her proper limits. But at the same time he is also expected to respond to the need for religion and transcendence, a need which simply refuses to be ignored, by giving guiding orientation and meaningful content which can be responsibly accepted today. In the emerging world society an additional task devolves upon him: he must promote interelgious dialogue and contribute to the development of a planetary ethos whose key concepts are justice, peace, and integrity of creation. Finally, however, the theologian should also be a comforter of souls, who helps individuals to be reconciled with themselves and to overcome their alienations. In fact, the purely collective consolation of a better world of the future where universal peace reigns has proved to be thoroughly unsatisfying.

While the theologian is busily working to meet these expectations, the institutional Church often appears to be an annoying impediment. This is especially true of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, which presupposes that Christianity especially in its Catholic variety, has determinate content and thus confronts our thinking with a prior given, which cannot be manipulated at will and which alone gives to the theologians words their distinctive significance and above and beyond all purely politician and philosophical discourse. …"

It wasn’t until the second paragraph that I realized he was giving a critique of the modern theologian, of which I should have realized sooner when he used the words "institutional church" of which modern theologians are so fond of using as in a dismissive way.

So if you are interested in theology and its sphere within the Church, then this book is highly recommended.

In related news R.R. Reno has a post today in First Things called That Seventies Show that partly addresses theology in the last century.

The paperback version of John Allen Jr’s Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church is coming out next week and I had received a copy for review. I had read previous views when it first came out which where very favorable. Anytime you see a subtitle that uses the word objective it kind of raises a flag, but in the case of this book it is entirely accurate.

Opus Dei has been a bit of a whipping boy throughout its history. Early from attacks that it was a Masonic crypto-Jewish organization and then later as the spiritual home of the albino monk assassin in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Controversy has followed Opus Dei with many charges leveled against it.

John Allen Jr has really created an impressive and balanced book that really shows his talent as a capable investigative journalist. It was quite obvious he spent a good chunk of time in researching Opus Dei and spent many hours speaking to people directly involved in Opus Dei, those acquainted with it, and the those who are detractors of Opus Dei. The variety of people he talked to all over the world really gives the book a depth that gives you quite a detailed look at Opus Dei.

As I have noticed in other books John Allen Jr. has written he is very good at taking apart objections that get passed along and become accepted by many as fact and gives extensive evidence for why they are mistaken. He starts of with a chapter that provides an overview of Opus Dei followed by one on its founder St. Josemaría Escrivá. He then goes on to chapters on the cores of the Opus Dei charism – sanctification of work, contemplation while living in the work, Divine filiation, and Christian freedom. He provides good introductions to these topics and how they are specifically practiced by Opus Dei. Though I had some familiarity with Opus Dei before reading this book these sections made me respect the vision of Opus Dei more and also an appreciation of its uniqueness. While sanctification of work and Divine affiliation are not anything new in the history of the Church, they have given them proper emphasis.

Of course on a book on Opus Dei you must come to the various controversies such as charges that they are elitist, secretive, fear women, are rich and politically manipulative, etc. All of the various charges are each given their own chapter and for the most part are debunked. This is not to say that Opus Dei is some perfect organization and that their actions haven’t at times lead to how they are labeled. Just that most of the charges were pretty much unfair in the first place, but Opus Dei did not handle these criticisms in a productive way and at times just made themselves look more secretive. Many of the charges were in fact quite the opposite of what is actually the case. At the start of the paperback edition there is a new preface that talks specifically how Opus Dei has responded in light of both the Da Vinci Code book and Movie and that they are obviously learning how to respond better.

The chapters answering charges are often self contained so some information is repeated throughout the book. This though I think was a good decision since somebody who was interested in one aspect could turn to just that chapter for information without having to go through the whole book and at close to 400 pages it is thorough book.

The last chapter of the book John Allen Jr. gives an overview of various aspects of Opus Dei and a summary of his conclusion. He then goes on to give suggestions as to how some weaknesses could be addressed. I think his suggestions are quite solid and would go a long way in removing some of the suspicion of Opus Dei. I really enjoyed the book despite that fact that I am really not interested in becoming involved in Opus Dei itself. This would be an excellent book for anybody interested in Opus Dei since it is truly objective and filled with information.

One caveat is that after reading several of John Allen’s books I wonder if he can write one without bringing up condoms? One place in the book it was necessary in addressing something that, I believe, a Bishop part of Opus Dei wrote on the subject, but the other segue into the topic just didn’t seem to be necessary.

Recently I came across a book in a Catholic book store that I had heard good things about previously. It was with pleasure that I picked up Edmund Campion – A Life by Evelyn Waugh printed by Ignatius Press. It is always good to read about the saints, but the writing of those who write on the saints is not always good. It is no surprise that one of the great writers of the last century such as Evelyn Waugh would turn out a great book.

Edmund Campion is a biography of the Jesuit Saint Edmund Campion who was martyred in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation and the increasingly severe penal laws in England. This book was written in 1935 only five years after Waugh’s conversion into the Catholic Church. It is a straightforward biography based on the best historical research available at the time. The author does not inject himself in the book in that he tries hard to stick to the historical narrative of what can actually be known and any dialogue in the book is straight from the historical record. This is in no way some syrupy hagiography that diverges from facts with flowery stories or that tries to inflate the actions of Edmund Campion. Though considering the subject this is not much needed when you look at his amazing life.

The book running at a little more than 200 pages is divided into four very appropriate chapters: The Scholar, The Priest, The Hero, The Martyr. I wonder if you have to give a spoiler alert when you are talking a martyr. Evelyn Waugh provides the necessary historical background of the state of the Church and of the politics involved and you fast become involved in the biography as if you were reading a novel. Every time you read about the recusants and those in Church history who were persecuted for the faith it always gives you a greater appreciation of what most Catholics in the modern world take for granted. When we go to Mass we aren’t worried that somebody is going to turn us in or that we don’t need guards to warn is people are coming so that the priest can hide in the priest-hole.

The first two chapters deal with his academic life and his early career as he initially leaves England because of the growing persecution of Catholics and his decision to become a priest and then a Jesuit. The biographic then moves to his returning to England. Like many saints he was not specifically making decisions that would lead him on the road to martyrdom. In fact circumstances could have left him teaching in Vienna and Prague since the Jesuits at the time had no chapters in England. But also like many saints when it became apparent that he would indeed be traveling down that road it was done with joy.

As Waugh chronicles Campion’s year of attending to the Catholics in England you again get caught up in the drama as he and other priests continue to minister to the flock for the good of souls. It is a measure of Campion’s genius that his "Brag" that he wrote in a half-hour’s time to defend himself from charges of treason was printed and reprinted across England. Or that his famous Ten Reasons would provide much annoyance to the authorities at the time. So annoying that once he was captured and tortured they brought him to a series of debates to try to counter it. Waugh does not dwell much into St. Campion’s grisly martyrdom that will be familiar to those that saw Braveheart, but it is quite interesting the stories he describes by those who were converted by Campion in his last days.

Highly recommended and one of those rare biographies that is indeed a page-turner.

Providentially today being The Feast of Corpus Christi the next book I turned to in my book queue was 7 Secrets of the Eucharist by Vinny Flynn put out by Ignatius Press. I had read a good review of it in the Catholic blogosphere earlier and ordered it.

One of the reasons the Church gives us feasts in the first place is often to emphasize a mystery. It would be wonderful if once are intellects grasped something it was immediately incorporated in our will and daily lives, but the fact is that even with great mystery of the Eucharist of which we can never fully plumb we still become complacent. Feasts such as today’s can help remind us and to restore that wonder and so too can good spiritual reading.

7 Secrets of the Eucharist is exactly that type of book. It is not an apologetic book on the Eucharist but a helpful guide on living out this Holy Sacrament. At 107 pages the book is an easy read, but its shortness has nothing to do with its usefulness. The author admits that what he has to say are not secrets in reality, but information that seems to be last to many in however they received their catechesis. I would call them virtual secrets because they are not put much in practice, but are certainly part of the Church’s constant teaching.

The seven secrets he lays out our immediately useful for application and he says of course the number seven in this case does not limit the actual great number of helpful advice in incorporating the Eucharist fully into our lives, but just seven he has picked out. Prominently he uses the writings of St. Faustina to illustrate his points. Also referenced are Papal documents, the Catechism, Saint Padre Pio, and several other saints.

Vinny Flynn’s writing style is very good and while at times he uses some of the theological terms that Church uses, he does it in such a way as that you easily know what the terms signify. This is a book that will be pretty much be useful for the majority of Catholics and I know I picked up quite a few solid ways of looking at the Eucharist that once again sparks that wonder and joy of the Blessed Sacrament. Highly recommended and definitely on my re-read list.

Sadly here is a book you will not likely to find in many Catholic book stores or even in online Catholic book stores. I just finished reading The Bad Catholic’s Guide To Wine, Whiskey, And Song: A Spirited Look at Catholic Life and Lore from the Apocalypse to Zinfandel by John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak and I can’t recommend it highly enough. When John Zmirak emailed about the new book I ordered it immediately since I doubted my local Catholic book store would carry it. Though if you do find it in a Catholic book store you might be tempted to take it out in a brown paper bag (which is quite appropriate for a book on alcohol) so that you don’t lose your pious creds among other store shoppers.

I had previously reviewed their first book Bad Catholics Guide to Good Living which I also enjoyed. This book takes the same format and applies it to the many intersections of the Catholics Church and the making of various spirits.

Take equal parts history, drinking songs, teleology, odd facts, monastery brewers, and add a heaping measure of humor you start to get an idea of what this book is like. At close to 400 pages this is a fairly long book and what I think is an amazing accomplishment that it is both informative and funny throughout. Seldom has one book made me laugh out loud as many times as this one did. The footnotes are also a major part of the book. If you are inclined to not read footnotes, do not do that with this book. Sometimes the footnotes provide fascinating information and sometimes they are just jaw-achingly funny.

The book covers various alcohols literally from A – Z and also contains segments on loopholes to the Ten Commandments throughout the book. This is a book only Catholics could write in the first place. There is not exactly a rich Baptist tradition between breweries and vineyards. While I was aware that many monasteries throughout history had their hand in these arts, it is rather amazing just how many connections there are of intersections between the Church and alcohol. Though not really surprising considering the miracle of Cana and wine used as the species for the Holy Eucharist. This history is quite facinating just reading straight, but the authors punctuate this history with many funny moments. Their are also many strange but true facts scattered throughout the book that you would think they were just part of the authors well developed humor. One being a quote from anti-Catholic and just strange John Harvey Kellogg (yes founder of the cereal) who ironically turns out to be a flake.

Another great thing about the book is that while these are Bad Catholic guides, the authors themselves are quite serious Catholics (if serious can be applied to them) and when they include discussion of Church teaching and theology throughout the book it is quite good. The swipes they take at both progressive and rad trad Catholics are also fun. Some people will pick up the book expecting something else and will discover that not only that Catholics aren’t Puritans, but they will see aspects of the faith quite well presented.

There are also some very funny comparisons in various tables included my favorite being the comparison between Lager Beer and Infallible Papal Declarations. Another hilarious section is a critique of some of the songs you will find sung at most Masses.

"Here I am, Lord." This hymn depicts a human soul responding to the call of Christ–but the music is whiny and grim, evoking in most people’s minds a can of rancid potted meat, being slowly spread by windshield wipers across a plate of dirty auto glass. You hear Christ calling all right–but you feel like He’s some hobo who’s tapping at your window at 4 a.m. to wake you from a sound sleep so He can ask you directions to Dunkin’ Donuts. You don’t so much want to answer Him as clock him with a slipper. Sung in a sleepwalking, zombie rhythm, its use at Communion time produces a strikingly cinematic effect, which film critics have dubbed "The Church of the Living Dead." Here again, we have a chance to bring good out of evil: In preliminary tests, use of this song by military interrogators has proved successful, slightly more humane replacement for water-boarding.

As you would expect on a book covering this subject they do cover the discussion of drunkenness and the virtue of temperance. I also loved that fact that they made the comparison between people going to Whole Foods to buy pristine and purer organic foods and at the same time pumping their bodies full of hormones through birth control, a point I have made myself. This book is just flat-out funny and informative and one that I would highly recommend this book along with the first one in the series.

I recently finished reading Catholic Priesthood and Women:
A Guide To The Teaching Of The Church by Sr. Sara Butler, MSBT. When I had first read about this book I was intrigued by both the subject and the author and ordered it. Despite Ordinatio Sacerdotalis the issue of women’s ordination is still a hot button issue in the Church and it is still being discussed as if one day this doctrine will change. Thus I think it is an important issue to delve down deeper into and to understand more fully when discussing this topic with those who don’t hold to Church teaching on it.

In 1978 Sr. Butler chaired a task force on women’s ordination for the Catholic Theological Society of America which favored women’s ordination. It was only later when she worked with the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultations and for the USCCB on a Pastoral letter for women’s concern that she realized that the CTSA’s previous critique was seriously flawed. In recent years she was appointed to the International Theological Commission and was involved in the recent document on the hope of salvation for infants who die with being baptized. That she had once held the opposite view makes this book even better since she is able to ably give the objections and then to give replies to them.

She starts off by giving a history of this issue. For most of the history of the Church there has been little doctrinal development on this issue since it has really never been a point of contention within the Church. There have been Church fathers who have addressed this issue at times mainly in response to heretical sects such as the Gnostic’s ordaining women. It is only in recent times that the magisterium has had to seriously address this issue. The first response was by Pope Paul VI in 1975 in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Goggan the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time had asked for papal counsel. The following year the Pope had directed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to explain the tradition more fully which they did with Inter Insigniores. Up to the issuance of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis there were several references to women’s ordination in a couple of papal addresses and letters.

One of the major critiques of this doctrine has been that the tradition was greatly influenced by an outdated view of women and a flawed anthropology. The second chapter on the book addresses this and explains Church teaching on the status of women in society and the Church. There certainly has in the history of the Church been a flawed understanding of the role of women and there has been a lot of doctrinal development in this area, especially during and since Vatican II. In the 1917 code of Canon law there were some roles that male non-clergy could perform that women were barred from as designated in 33 canons. In the revised code there are now only three instances where the status of women and men is not precisely the same. Two concern rites and to which rite the child of a parents in two different rites belong to. The third concerns the lay ministries of lector and acolyte which since they were once part of minor orders and because of "venerable tradition" is reserved to males. The argument that the Church is using a flawed anthropology is itself flawed. The Church in reflecting more deeply on this issue has corrected itself in this area, yet it still teaches that the priesthood is only reserved to males.

Through the rest of the book she first takes a look at three common arguments used by those who dissent from Church teaching. In Summa – Sed Contra style after fairly giving those arguments she replies to those objections thoroughly. These sections of the book are highly valuable and really help you to understand what the Church teaches and why. She also writes in a way where I think that anybody who wants to look at the subject will benefit without being an academic or a theologian.

What I find interesting is that it was the Anglicans who first got the magisterium moving and that in many ways the objections to this teaching are really a Protestant view of the priesthood in the first place. If these arguments were correct they would prove too much. By using a dominant Protestant view on the role of ministers you end up with no priesthood in the first place. Other mistaken views of the priesthood see it as a form of power and the argument goes that women are excluded from this power structure within the Church. Their arguments would destroy settled Church teaching in the area of the ministerial priesthood making effectively the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood the same thing. That Baptism is what can enter us into the ministerial priesthood. Again a Protestant idea and of course they mostly do not see Ordination to the Priesthood as a sacrament in the first place

She also make an important distinction in this book between the fundamental and theological reasons for the Church’s teaching. The fundamental reason is the Christ in his sovereign freedom only appointed men as Apostles and that the Apostles also only did the same. The Church’s teaching relies only on the fundamental reason and not the theological ones, yet the objections mainly attack the theological ones. The theological explanations can help us to understand why this is what Jesus did and I am sure that this is an area where there will be doctrinal development and we will have deeper theological reasons for this. There is a very good reason for why they do this because it is very difficult to directly attack the fundamental reason on a historical basis, though Sr. Butler does address a couple of arguments where this is done.

Towards the end of the book she addresses seven more objections and also answer these. She also looks at the doctrine using what is basically a theological smell test for the development of doctrine. She takes guidelines from the Council of Trent and others later developed by John Cardinal Newman’s Development of Doctrine. She show why women’s ordination does not pass muster in this context, especially since it would deny other settled doctrine.

At 112 pages this book is a very good treatment on the subject and I learned a great deal from it. At times you kind of wish that Jesus had appointed both men and women to the priesthood so that we wouldn’t have to put up with the nonsense of riverboat ordinations and the slander that the priesthood is an issue of rights and equality. As is always the case when you take the time to learn what the Church teaches and why you come to a greater appreciation of her. There is always a problem when people take their theology from society and not from Christ. After reading this book though I did find that I had a greater sympathy for women’s ordination advocates. Even though they are greatly mistaken I can see how in the context of society it can be greatly difficult to understand this teaching. The key though is for all of us to do our own part to more deeply understand this doctrine so that we can better explain it others.

I highly recommend this book to everybody.

When I received Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth I had previously written that in reviewing such a book "I am not worthy." Exactly how do you go about reviewing a book by a scripture scholar and theologian of the magnitude of the Holy Father? Well the task is easier than I thought it would be. For one this isn’t a book addressed to a limited audience of scripture scholars and exegetes, but one that everybody can benefit from. I have read several of his books and I found this one the easiest to read. I am tempted to say something as cliche as "If you only read one book this year …" if I didn’t find this phrase personally quite scary and I suspect the Holy Father would have the same view on this.

"Jesus of Nazareth" is not a life of Jesus in the style of Romano Guardini’s "The Lord", Frank Sheed’s "To know Christ Jesus", or Archbishop Sheen’s "Life of Christ." The Pope does not set to piece together the Gospels and present the story of Christ in specific chronological order. After the foreword and introduction the first of ten chapters deals with the Baptism of the Lord and ends with the Transfiguration and discussion of Son of Man, Son of God and Jesus’ I Am statements. After reading the introduction and getting to the last chapter I was surprised to find that it is obvious that the Holy Father will be continuing the subject in a subsequent book. He mentions a part two in the introduction and I had originally thought that this was a delineation in his current book.

The main part of the book runs 358 pages and over the four days I read it I stayed up late into the night because I did not want to stop reading it. The foreword and introduction covers information such as his approach in writing this book and how problematic many previous works attempting to get at the "real Jesus" have been in the past. Throughout the book he comments on approaches like what the Jesus Seminar took and there is even one rather humorous short quip towards the end of the book on this that made me laugh when I read it. In the foreword he says "they are much more like photographs of the authors and the ideals they hold." No doubt you will not be surprised to learn that the Pope believes the "Jesus of History" and the "Jesus of the Gospels" are not two separate things.

"…The main implication of this form my portrayal of Jesus is that I trust the Gospel. Of modern exegesis tells us about literary genres, about authorial intention, and about the fact that the Gospels were written in the context, and speak within the living milieu, of communities. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to incorporate all of this, and yet I wanted to portray the Jesus of the Gospels as the real, "historical" in the strict sense of the word. …"

My own humble opinion is that is has achieved this in spades. At another point he writes "This book is my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’" and he certainly has illuminated the face of Jesus in his writing. One of the common themes in this book and really in his whole life is "listening" to the scriptures. Those who know him have reported that he is a good listener in that he allows others to make a case. His listening of scripture is not just to a specific verse, but all of scripture and throughout the book he shows this capability in showing specific scriptures as being in harmony with the whole. He has criticism of some theories that fail to pass this test where exegetes try to pass off a theory that just doesn’t fit the whole of scripture. At the Transfiguration God the Father instructed the three Apostles, and really all of us, to listen to his Beloved Son. Pope Benedict takes this seriously as he fleshes out Jesus of Nazareth.

This book is packed with information and his insights into scripture. He is also quite willing to use modern biblical scholarship and tools such as the historical-critical method when it is properly guided and not used as an end to themselves to justify a exegetes original pretext. He is also quite willing to take the insights of some he identifies as liberal scholars and he take the good of what they have to offer and in many cases to tease the truth of their idea and to more fully develop it. In the chapter on the Sermon of the Mount he talks about the book A Rabbi Talks with Jesus by Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner which he says he was greatly helped by and he also tries to answer some of the questions raised. Over and over again it is quite evident he is quite aware of the modern currents of biblical studies and accepts some hypothesis where he thinks they are plausible and also to critique those ideas which are false.

The chapter on the Our Father prayer is worth the price of the book alone. This is not just an academic exegesis of the Our Father prayer line-by-line, but a deep meditation into this prayer. Often we can repeat a prayer so often that it looses its freshness and his meditation on this prayer can shock us back into reality of what the prayer that Jesus gave us really means and indicates. The chapter on the message of the parables starts out by working through the definition of a parable and what it is and then he focuses on meditations on three specific parables. Also fascinating is the chapter on the principle messages of John’s Gospel. Up to this point he had been mostly working with the texts of the synoptic Gospels and he principally explores the use of water in John’s Gospel and then then explores other elements.

What is wonderful about the Pope Benedict’s book is the way he combines scripture scholarship, meditation, and insights. Often he laments the problems of poor translation of the original texts and then explores the actual meaning giving a greater depth to verses that you might normally pass by. The book is soaked with scripture references as you would expect and I often resorted to my Logos Bible Software to be able to note these references and his translation of some of the words.

The text of the book is the most important part, but I was also quite happy with the physical printing of this book. The paper is very high quality as is the binding and cover of the book. In short this is a great book that will be fruitful for anybody. In the meantime please pray for the Pope and for him to have sufficient time to write its follow up.

Reasons to Believe:
How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith by Scott Hahn released just a few days ago is another fine book. His latest book is more in the line of general apologetics than his previous books that mainly pertained to a specific topic.

What I liked about this as an apologetics work is that it started out by addressing reason and natural theology. Natural theology being defined as what we can no about God with revelation from him. He specifically talks about reason and how to talk to atheists and agnostics, something left out of many apologetics works. The first four chapters deal specifically with this and there is a lot of good information contained. It is of course not an exhaustive treatment of this, but a good solid introduction to the subject. He references books like Handbook Of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreft and Fr. Tacelli which is an excellent deeper reference. His coverage of Aquinas "five ways of knowing God: as he puts it is succinct and easy to follow.

Later chapters deal with apologetics and working with other Christians via the Bible and offers good advice on how to do it and not get into proof text wars. These following chapters covers standard Catholic apologetics fare such as the Communion of Saints, Mary, the Mass, and the Pope. He notes these are not meant to be exhaustive and that whole books can be written on nuances of these subjects (as he has done in the past), but he does pack a lot of information to go over in these chapters. If you have read a lot of apologetics there is no real fresh ground here, but it is a good reference. But he does offer some good advice for those like myself who have read much on this subject and start to find it boring and that is to go deeper into theology.

Concluding chapters deal with the Kingdom of God and the book really shines here. No surprise that when Scott Hahn talks on Covenantal Theology and how the Old Testament applies to the New Testament and specifically the Davidic Kingdom it becomes really interesting. At first I was lost to how this was applying to the previous more straightforward apologetics chapters, but he does wrap up some important points on the Queenship of Mary, the Papacy, and especially the Kingdom of God and how it relates to the Church.

As is usually the case Scott Hahn’s sub chapter titles are full of puns. Some people are put off by punning titles in a serious work, but those people who are probably don’t read my blog either. I share Scott’s puns are always intentional attitude. Though his straight writing is fun also. His love of these various subjects shines through in his work and you never feel he is writing over your head, but that he is writing to you. So if you are looking for a solid apologetics work then I can highly recommend this one.

A couple of minor things though need to be fixed in any subsequent reprinting of this book. The introduction mentions many in the field of apologetics by name. I am pretty sure there is no Father Mitch Pacina S.J. More then likely this refers to Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J. He might also want to change the reference to James Akin to Jimmy Akin as this is his preference.