Practicing Catholic by James Carroll [book review]

Practicing Catholic by James Carroll [book review]

Carroll is a very interesting writer. At times he can be too deep, so deep that his reflections seem lost in obscurity. At other times, he often uses his  personal involvement and reactions to frame important issues. This is a very unusual way to craft a narrative, yet Carroll succeeds. He uses his personal and faith history to cover the changes in the Catholic Church over the last fifty (can it be that long?) years.

Drawing on both history and his life, Carroll starts by looking at “Americanism” which the Church first defined in terms of heresy and disloyalty. An American church that valued pluralism, freedom of religion and conscience and democracy was a huge threat to a Vatican that had just lost their temporal power over the Papal States. With secular values on the rise throughout Europe, Darwin seemingly replacing God with chance and the walls coming down on the Old Order, the Papacy responded with a claim of infallibility, a re-statement that there was no salvation outside the Church and a denunciation of the American heresy.

Carroll finds a hero to stand up for America and modernism – John Cardinal Cushing. Cushing had a Jewish brother-in-law. Church dogma said that there is simply no salvation outside the church, defined as the Church. Jews (as Carroll documented in Constantine’s Sword) have suffered greatly under Christianity of all stripes. At that time, a priest in Cushing diocese was boldly reaching this No Salvation doctrine. Cushing found this dogma in contrast with his experience and therefore ethics. For him, dogma had to flow from experience rather than the reverse. Cushing sought to have him silenced and the Vatican agreed with him on the basis that Cushing was a Cardinal.

Vatican II is another event covered in some detail. Despite John XXIII’s wishes, the Council almost came to naught, since the Old Guard tried to sabotage it from the start. Carroll rightly identifies language as a key, as well as dogma that flows from experience, rather than dogma that comes from literal interpretation of language about God, which can NOT be literal, since God is greater than language. Carroll ties this to a war between modernism and a more feudal, authority based religion.

Carroll’s take on contraception may be typical, but his focus on America’s role in the Church is enlightening. He ties in the Berrigans, the anti-war movement, Howl, women’s liberation, Liberation Theology into a bundle that brought him to adulthood and found the Church opposing them all. Unsurprisingly, the priest-pedophile scandal get a chapter, since the need of the hierarchy to protect their own enraged many of the flock that was being used, not protected.

Carroll has a poor opinion of the current pope. When John-Paul prayed with those of other faiths, then Cardinal Ratzinger issued a correction that Catholics can only pray “next to” not with others. Slowly, Benedict is seeking to restore No Salvation Outside the Church and the rule of dogma over experience / ethics. At the end he makes the case for staying Catholic (his choice, though former Catholics are more numerous than many denominations). To the extent that papal infallibility and other current pillars of the Church are modern in origin, he is calling for a Church that maintains continuity while responding to  modernity rather than uncritically fighting it.

Catholics who believe that the Pope (and therefore bishops) are owed unstinting loyalty will hate this book. Catholics who voted for Obama (about half of us) will find a lot here that resonates. Other Christians, people of faith and no faith might well appreciate the history and a view of a Church that is badly split, despite the univocal hierarchy.

08 : a graphic diary of the campaign trail

08 : a graphic diary of the campaign trail by Michael Crowley and Dan Goldman.

A well written narrative of the campaign, with Crowley and Goldman serving as a Greek chorus as reporters covering the events. A great example of a niche that works well for graphic treatment. I am not up for a 300 page treatment of the campaign. I’m not that much of a political junkie and like Obama, I want to look forward.

Other non-fiction in graphic form I have been through lately:

Pyongyang : a journey in North Korea /by Guy Delisle and his Shenzhen : a travelogue from China.

Long time no post

Well, this bog is focused on  two things, my work in libraries and what I am reading and can recommend. As I have noted before  my political writing takes place at Kos and religious comments over at Street Prophets.

So have I been slacking off? Nope. Here’s what I’ve been writing on libraries, all posted at McMillan Memorial Library:

Connecting with Friends and Family
A presentation covering email. instant messaging, VOIP, video email and video calls, including Tokbox and Skype.  Though general in nature, this program can be easily adapted for use with military families. Put this together when we added webcams. We needed to have a training session and this is the outline for it.

Creating Google Map mashups.

A brief look at how McMillan created four different Google Map mashups. I put together four different projects using Google Maps and the Library’s existing digital content. Here’s the how-to.

Wood County cemetery map

McMillan’s Google Maps mashup of the cemeteries of Wood County. Here’s one of the products, a map of the location of the sixty plus cemeteries in Wood County, Wisconsin.

Webcams @ McMillan
In March 2009, the Library added public webcams. We use both Skype and Tokbox to provide video messaging and email. This covers the how-to, including what equipment we used, what it cost and what our policies are.

I have been a slacker about posting book reviews, so I try and catch up.

God’s Continent by Philip Jenkins

God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe’s religious crisis

Jenkins has two solid books on world Christianity and completes the Future of Christianity trilogy here. (The others: The Next Christianity: the coming of global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: believing the Bible in the global south).

This one has several things to say about Europe. The dilemma of a secular elite that is facing both Christian and Muslim minorities. Their secular values demand protection for minorities, but also assume that religion will fade so that rationality can rule. What to do? Ban all religious expression? Try to follow the US model? Let Christianity maintain a privileged position?

This is complicated by the fact that the religious minorities that are not of native stock. The fastest growing group religious groups are made up of immigrants and their children. This is true of Christian sects, not just Muslim groups.

A conflation of immigrant identity and religious identity. Faced with minority status in a new country with new rules, immigrants often regain religious fervor that they didn’t need in their homeland, where their religion was taken for granted.

The threat of Eurabia, a Europe over run by a fast breeding, which Jenkins (and most others) find over hyped, since immigrant populations usually end up with birth rates matching that of their adopted country.

But how does Europe deal with even a 15% minority population? In the US we are used to a situation where 10-15% of our population is foreign born. Despite persistent nativist pressure, we keep absorbing new populations and keep on ticking. But can Europe hope to replicate this? American may be a nationality, but it isn’t an ethnic group (speaking as an eight generation American).  The Germans, Dutch and Danes have a pretty good idea what traditionally constitutes a citizen. They are also relatively small groups. Denmark has about the population of Wisconsin (5.5 million). Currently, 9% of the population of Denmark is foreign born, though many of those are from other parts of Scandinavia. How would Wisconsin handle a sudden influx of 100,000 Muslims?

The best thing about this book is the very well informed and even handed nature of Jenkins’ discourse. He knows his stuff and is ready to share the numbers behind what he is saying. He doesn’t have the answers, but he is asking all the right questions. Like his previous titles in the series, well worth reading, both for the religious aspects and the security angle.

Catholics and Obama, part the first

On dog-whistles and weasel words.

The Sunday before the election, our bishop had a letter read at every parish at every Mass. No problem with that, though I had already voted. Of course, waiting until the last moment to speak your piece might be considered an authoritarian trick, meant to end discussion instead of promote it.

The letter (since removed/unlinked for the diocese’s website) said some straightforward thing. The bishop and the diocese do not endorese candidates or political parties. We should look at the candidates’ records. We should learn, explore, consider.  No problem with that. It is totally in line with the Church’s documents on Faithful Citizenship.

Then there were the dog whistles, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink and the weasel words.

To begin with, there was the contention that abortion is the only issue that matters in this election. Some concern there. That is contradicted by Faithful Citizenship and 2000 years of tradition. As Chesterton said, a truth too closely held becomes heresy.

Next, the subtext that the bishop would certainly have endorsed the Republicans if it wouldn’t have cost the Church it’s non-profit status and that we should all understand this. Nope. If it is a matter of the murder of millions and the fate of the eternal souls of the members of his diocese, am I to understand that he isn’t speaking out because it might cost the institution some cash? If so, he belongs in one of the lower circle of Dante’s Hell. That would be a degree of moral cowardice that I can not consider him capable of. So…I find him innocent. He said what he meant and he meant what he said, just like Horton. No endorsement, covert or otherwise.

Next, the unspoken thought that only the Republicans are dedicated to reducing abortions. If that were true, abortion would indeed be rare. Since Roe vs. Wade, we have had Nixon, Ford (Carter) Reagan twice, Bush, (Clinton twice) and Bush twice. It is not those who say Lord Lord, but those who do something who enter the Kingdom. Given all those votes and all those years, the Republicans have put five Catholics on the Supreme Court, but not taken any substantial actions to reduce abortions. One might almost think that Republicans require this issue to keep their party together and would be fools to seek a resolution. It is not necessary to condemn Republicans as hypocrites, it is enough to point out that they are not accomplishing what they say they will do.

Next, the letter is based on an analysis of the Freedom of Choice Act, which makes it clear that it will maximize abortions, practically demanding that doctors kidnap women off the street. On further investigation, this analysis was prepared by the Family Research Council, the political arm of Dr. Dobson’s Focus on the Family and seconded by hard right Catholics. Sorry. I don’t take political advice from Focus on the Family. The track  record of their analysis is right up there with Fox News – wrong just about all the time and badly askew. I also don’t take religious advice from Dr. Dobson and neither should Catholic bishops. Shame on them for finding data to wrap around their policies. Very unorthodox.

Next, the notion that the solution that America needs on abortion is criminalizing it. Just arrest enough women and the problem will go away. Just vote to criminalize it and your hands are clean, even if nothing ever happens. Very unBiblical. Very unChristian. If Christians and Catholics oppose abortion, they should be working every day to make certain that no woman ever feels the need to have one, that circumstances never make abortion seem the best alternative. Their money and their time should be dedicated to that end, not the election of one political faction. Then our hands would be clean.

Finally, opposition to FOCA will be fierce. It is a half loaf that will satisfy hunger. It will leave the way clear to set strict limits on late term abortions (centered on viability, not trimesters). It will hit the political and moral sweet spot that will sufficiently satisfy people that action has been taken, that abortions can and will be reduced. This is a middle ground that sets aside criminalization. I think that it will find support within the bell curve of our country and the criminalization crowd will go fa-nuts.

To my mind, until we abandon the entire concept of criminalization, we will make no progress on abortion. If we as Christians do, we can start acting the way Jesus would and show the world that we care about life, not just elections and power.

I’m baaaaaack

OK, so no one noticed I was gone.

Well, I’m back. Been very busy lately with non-blogging activities. Spent a day or three canvassing for Obama, which I felt compelled to do. If my sons can spend 2 years in Iraq, I can walk around town for a couple days to participate in the election of their commander-in-chief.

Plus, I have been working on a publishing project. It involves reprinting an out of copyright book with additional content (lots more photos and an appendix). Since this was always going to be self-published, it involved a learning curve on a number of issues and in some ways was more work than actually writing a book.  Preview it here – Grit, grief and gold

So now, back to business. Expect some reviews soon. I have some comments about the election (how can I not), though I don’t intend to make this site political. I’ll be covering the process of self-publishing, but don’t want to be too informative until I have more information. The proof copy is being printed now and the proof is in the proof.

What the Gospels Meant by Garry Wills

What the Gospels Meant by Garry Wills

This is the third in Wills’ series, which started with What Jesus Meant and What Paul Meant.

Wills is on very strong ground here, since he stands on the shoulders of giants, specifically Raymond Brown. He cited Brown literally dozens of time and dedicates the book to that “devout scholar.” Much of what is here will be familiar to many readers and is entirely within mainstream religious scholarship.

Not that Wills is shy about his opinions. He provides his own translations from the Greek and is more than an interested amateur here. Despite that the main selling point here is that he synthesizes and compresses and, yes, popularizes Brown. To his credit, he also does it in just 209 pages.

For those who haven’t dipped into current scholarship and its popularizers, this is what to expect: the Gospels were written at different times, by different communities, for different reasons. No reason to try and synchronize them, since that does violence to their intent. Knowing that original intent should guide our reading. Being aware of the meaning and context of the original words enriches our understanding and should over-ride the all too familiar English translation we use. Wills helps make the Gospels unfamiliar and dermanding.

This is, of course, threatening to some. If the Gospels can’t be synchronized, which of them is inaccurate (lies)? Aren’t our great translations (King James) divinely inspired? What do you mean we should re-write the Our Father to reflect its end-time context? No “daily bread” or “delivery us from evil”?

Overall, I learned a little less and was less challenged by this than by his book on Paul. Paul pre-dates the Gospels and even then is already quoting songs and poems, while the Gospels, even the newest understanding of the Gospels, was something I had read more about. If noting else, Wills has given me a task for my (not soon) retirement. I would like to learn Greek. Wills attended the same high school I did. When he was there they taught Greek, but they dropped it the year before I arrived. I’ll have to remedy that sometime.

Baby Boomers Vs Gen Jones

OK, I have a bone to pick here and a soapbox to mount. While Baby Boomers is a term often used to cover everyone born between 1946 and 1964, actual demographers (as opposed to pop culture talking heads) now use the term to mean only those between 1946 and 1953 (or 1954), while those born 1954-1964 are demoted to such names as Generation Jones (how anonymous) or Shadow Boomers (defining them as shadows of their older siblings).

Those of us in Gen Jones are tired of being tarred with the Baby Boomer brush, which doesn’t really apply.

Let’s start with a Wikipedia quote: “While 1945-1965 reflect the post-World War II demographic boom in births, there is a growing consensus among generational experts that two distinct cultural generations occupy these years. The conceptualization that has gained the most public acceptance is that of a 1942-1953 Baby Boom Generation, followed by a 1954-1965 Generation Jones. Boomers and Joneses had dramatically different formative experiences which gave rise to dramatically different collective personalities.”

To get personal with this, I am from the first age cohort of Gen Jones, born in 1954. I remember seeing Jack, Bobbie and Teddie Kennedy during the Wisconsin primary in 1960, but I was only five at that point. I was eight for the Cuban Missile Crisis and nine (third grade) when JFK was killed. Yes, I saw Oswald shot live on TV and ran to tell my parents. The Summer of Love, RFK’s and King’s assassinations took place just after I graduated from grade school. Kent State happened on my 16^th birthday. I never faced the draft, but I was able to vote in the 1972 election.

The younger members of Gen Jones had even less connection with these events. They were born after the Missile Crisis and JFK’s assassination and were not even in kindergarten in 1968. Some could not vote for a president until Regan’s second term.

I am quite willing to concede that Boomers have made lousy political leaders. This would include Bill Clinton (1946), Hillary Clinton (1947), George W. Bush (1946) and Tom Delay (1947), with Jim Webb (1946) and Al Gore (1948 ) providing some counterpoint. Their formative years made them formidable politicians, just not very effective leaders. Clarence Thomas (1948 ) and Samuel Alito (1950) are Boomers, while John Roberts qualifies as Gen Jones. Gen Jones politicians include Barak Obama (1961) and Russ Feingold (on the cusp in 1953), though most of that generation have not (yet?) reached prominence.

Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age, deluging our airways with Depends and Viagra commercials. Gen Jones expects to work until they are 70 and will not really start hitting retirement until 2024, with the trailing edge hitting 70 in 2034. John McCain will be 98 by then (God willing).

I’ll close with another Wikipedia quote: In demographic terms, Generation Jones was part of the baby boom which ended in the early 1960s. However, the events stereotypically associated with generational discussion of Boomers, including protests over civil rights and the Vietnam war and the emergence of rock music took place while the members of Generation Jones were still children or early teenagers. Thus the early life experience of this group was more similar, in many respects, to that commonly imputed to Generation X.

Almost Catholic by Jon M. Sweeney

This book is well defined by its subtitle: An Appreciation of the History, Practice & Mystery of Ancient Faith. Sweeney is not a Catholic and isn’t interested in becoming one. He is interested in how to adapt (not adopt) some Catholic practices into his faith life and there he finds much that he can use.

Sweeney’s background is evangelical and he spent time as a missionary. It was the experience of working to convert Catholics in the Philippines that helped him realize that, though he wasn’t interested in being Catholic, he was interested in much that they had that was missing from his life. This is not a book about dogma, papal infallibility or canon law, but about imagination, mystery, the Desert Fathers and Incarnation.

In all this he stays within his own faith (he is now an Episcopalian), even when spending a chapter on eleven steps to becoming a truly Catholic Christian. As a Catholic myself, he is entirely correct in these prescriptions, which get to the core of our shared faith. Unlike your flag decal, they might well get you into heaven, but they are too often missing from Catholic orthodoxy and pronouncements. He is thus calling all Christians to recover some of their heritage (his primary purpose here) and reminding Catholics of some of their core beliefs.

Much of the heritage came back to him only with a lot of struggle. Andrew Greeley, when not penning romantic suspense and mysteries, has written about the importance of the Catholic imagination, a world view that stands in sharp contrast to that of most Reformation and post-Reformation Christians. Catholics are more “fleshy”, which is why they use a crucified Christ rather than an empty cross. Sweeney even comes to appreciate such thing as rosaries and repetitive prayers, novenas and icons, anathema to most Protestants.

In all this, Sweeney is not looking at Benedict or Cardinal Law as his exemplars of what Catholics are about, but the Desert fathers, Merton, Francis, Chesterton and Flannery O’Connor. He is looking at two thousand years of faith (much of it shared with other Christians). If there is a conversion he is seeking, it is one that any Christian can undergo – a closer approach to Jesus.

This brings to my mind Gordon R. Dickson’s Childe cycle. In it, a crowded Earth colonizes several planets, but does so in the way Europe colonized America. One planet is a religious City on a Hill, another is devoted to philosophy, a third has little in the way of resources and turn to producing military expertise (Courage, Faith, and Philosophy). After each has developed humanity to the outer limits of what is possible, they find that they must reunite or die. Not that they must become homogenized, but that their strong traditions must blend and mix to provide even greater strength and survive.

Catching up on my graphic novel reading

I often pick up a graphic novel or two to fill out my lunch. Working in a library rules. Ran through the Queen & Country series, which reminded me a lot of Le Carre, which I am also working my way through (on A Perfect Spy right now). Gritty spy stories, lots of trade craft, but friends lost, people betrayed and regrets.

I heard that Watchmen was being made into a movie (due in 2009) and thought I would re-read it. Good decision. Super heroes have never looked more human, since many of the capes are just very motivated normals. The writing is multi-level, with a touch of coming of age, the cost of being more than human, deep foreshadowing and some truly deranged people. Hard to know just how this will translate to film, since this isn’t X-Men or Hellboy. Complicated plot and a lot of it. A good break from the Japanese stuff I sometimes read. This is a core title for anyone reading graphic novels.

ThenI picked up Orson Scott Card’s Red Prophet: The Tales Of Alvin Maker Volume 1 and Volume 2. This is a “based on the book” deal, but I liked the books and the GNs don’t disappoint. For those who haven’t read the books, these are more than fine. The story concerns an alternate history where magic is alive and well on the American frontier. Harrison, Jackson, Tecumseh all make appearances. Not instant classics, but rewarding.

Next I picked up The Gunslinger Born, based on Stephen King’s book. I must be one of the few humans never to have read a Stephen King book (though I have read a few of his short stories). Just don’t appreciate scarey things. This was different and more in my reading profile. Mythic. Very atmospheric. Very “painterly,” so that it does look like a comic, but is more like magic realism.

Finally, because the local newspaper messed up my subscription, I have been catching up on Robin. Not the original Boy Wonder, who is now Nightwing, but Tim Drake, who is unburdened by the legacy of Golden Age action that Dick carries. Tim reminds me more of Invincible. A young, talented hero who is feeling his way through the teen years and real losses.

Frankly, though I like anime and manga, it is nice to get a dose of American stories. No weird monsters from someone else’s tradition (Shimigami? death gods?). No weird sexual vibe. I don’t look down on other people’s traditions and culture, but I also don’t look down on my own. Taoism is great, but I use it as an adjunct to Catholicism, not as a replacement. Adapt, not adopt.