Context: A Church that Can and Cannot Change by John T. Noonan, Jr.

This is one of a series of linked reviews, built around the concept of context / rule sets.

From the book jacket: “Using concrete examples, John T. Noonan, Jr., demonstrates that the moral teaching of the Catholic Church has changed and continues to change without abandoning its foundational commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Specifically, Noonan looks at the profound changes that have occurred over the centuries in Catholic moral teaching on freedom of conscience, lending for a profit, and slavery. He also offers a close examination of the change now in progress concerning divorce.”

In the abstract, it is hard to see just how Church teaching can change. It is, after all, based on the Word of God. Within context, it is easier to see how moral teaching can evolve. Focusing mainly on the Church’s very slow evolution on slavery, Noonan documents how everything from better understanding of Bible texts to the examples of secular / Protestant institutions have influenced the Church.

Most surprising is just how invisible and idiosyncratic the changes are. It wasn’t until John Paul II that slavery was declared to be inherently evil. Before that, the Bible’s explicit approval of slavery (mentioned in two of the Ten Commandments), stopped any statement that it was more than wrong in some situations or implementations. The deciding factor seems to have been Europe’s experience of slavery under Nazi and then Soviet rule.

Similarly, Bible texts and a devotion to Aristotle kept the Church from approving of loans involving interest. The history of banking in Europe mainly concerns how finance adopted itself to usury prohibitions and those rules were stretched to accommodate the new reality.

In all the cases studied, the context of the teaching was stretched by circumstances until it was unsupportable and then suddenly and almost without comment changed.

Sadly, very few of the changes seem to arise from deeper understanding of Christ and his message, since theologians are reluctant to take leadership roles in changing context. Trying to do so may make you a saint, but only after you are duly persecuted. Instead, the official Church teaching is a lagging indicator of the people of God, who fought to end slavery, worked for freedom of religion and moved to mortgages when the Church was either silent or hostile. This is oddly comforting, since it offers hope to those who dissent from current teaching and see little chance of change from within.

Life Out of Context

By Walter Mosley, who is best known for his insightful Easy Rawlins detective series. Like me, Mosley is disgusted with the mess in Washington. The people there are rational actors, doing what they think is right or what works for them, but the results are a nightmare.

He calls for a whole new context. It is time to abandon both parties. The Republicans are not conservative, but big state, corporate shills. The Dems are not liberals and seem to want no more than their turn to mess things up.

It is 2006. I know I can't have a rocket car, but how about health insurance, an energy strategy that includes conservation, a chance at education for everyone, not just college for the wealthy, honesty in government, someone who is willing to speak about what is good for the country instead of the major donors in their district.

In short, I am ready for a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th party. A coalition government that must produce of lose its majority. A president who is not above oversight. A government that must rule from somewhere near the middle. A judiciary that reflects more than just donations.

Mosley is brief and I think much of this is available as an article.

Merchandising the collection II

Of course, I should set some records straight. We can move freely to merchandising the collection because we have a solid view of the mission of the pulic library as an educational institution. Those who move in with the view that the library is a great middle class entitlement or info-welfare are lost to begin with. Even taking the right actions isn't helpful if you are on the wrong path, though I am unsure if I should quote Jesus or Lao-Tze on that. It is not "Give 'em what they want" but "Help the Reader."
Our non-fiction topics:

1. Hot Topics (kind of a dumping ground, but popular)
2. Biography (broadly viewed)
3. History
4. Food (mainly cookbooks, but also parties)
5. Health (including self-help, which will later be split off)
6. Business (including computers and careers)
7. Sports & Games (counting poker)
8. Crafts & Handicrafts (which will be split later)

As we expand beyond eight, I see:

• Self-help
• Handicrafts
• Travel
• Religion
• Literature
• Jobs and Careers
• Science
• Nature

Currently, we have fiction sections for:

1. Rental
2. Recent bestsellers
3. New Mysteries
4. Recent Science Fiction
5. Recent Christian Fiction
6. Chick Lit (all we could find)

Easy to see sections for:

• Historical novels
• 3-4 mystery splits (private eyes, police procedurals, historical)
• Horror (harder than you think, since there is little classic horror and a lot of sexy vampires)
• Family sagas
• Romantic suspense
• Techno-thrillers (if they describe a weapon, it is a techno-thriller)
• Translated voices (in our library, probably from all languages, with no European/rest of the world split)

The goal is not to categorize the entire collection, but to display the last 2-3 year's worth of titles. Those books make up most of the circulation anyway and will move if displayed. After that they begin to look shopworn and asre best relegated to stacks, where they can be found by people discovering the authors is the displays.

We started this in mid-April, so I have only partial stats. There will not really be a good test until we get our new shelves, which is waiting on me to make some decisions on the number of units needed. Thus I am pondering and wandering around 20 units (3, 3 and 4 wide double sided units fore fiction and non-fiction each).