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PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES must admit that I have never been Web site (dated Oct. 15), the new evan - a big fan of the work of art that gelization invites Catholics, not to rein - PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Igraces the cover of this week’s vent Christianity for a new century (a John P. Schlegel, S.J. issue. “Why, then, is it there?” you preposterous notion if there ever was might ask. Well, for starters, America one) but to “become missionaries so EDITOR IN CHIEF is not a totalitarian state. We’re not that the joy that has been communicat - Matt Malone , S.J. exactly a democracy either; still, it’s ed to them and that has transformed EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT both charitable and prudent to pay a their lives may allow others, too, to MANAGING EDITOR decent respect to the opinions of one’s encounter the same source of love and Robert C. Collins, S.J. colleagues, especially when they’re as of salvation.” ONLINE EDITOR smart as mine. And, truth be told, quite Jesus Christ is that source of love Maurice Timothy Reidy a few members of team America like and salvation. At the heart of our faith, LITERARY EDITOR the piece. I don’t see it, but I’m a bit old then, is not an idea or a philosophy or Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. fashioned that way. My reaction to even a theology, but a person. Our faith POETRY EDITOR Dalí’s modern depiction of the Last is not in a proposition but in the One James S. Torrens, S.J. Supper is something like the punch line who is the way, the truth and the life. ASSOCIATE EDITORS to the joke about how many Irish The proclamation of the Gospel in any Kevin Clarke mothers it takes to screw in a light age is existentially unintelligible in the Kerry Weber bulb. The answer: What’s wrong with absence of such a personal dimension. Luke Hansen, S.J. the old one? It is also dangerous; Robert Ellsberg CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Indeed. What’s wrong with the “old” reminds us of just that in this week’s James Martin, S.J. Last Supper, the one that Leonardo da issue: The tragic story of some of the ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Ratcliffe Vinci gave us, that triumph of light, 16th century’s “new evangelists” reveals color and form that has inspired count - that when Christians confuse the what ASSISTANT EDITOR Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. less artists, Christian and otherwise, of faith for the who of faith, then we long before Dan Brown “cracked” its also tend to forget who we are as people BUSINESS DEPARTMENT “code”? The more or less straightfor - of faith and, unfortunately, who our CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER ward answer, of course, is that there is neighbor is. Lisa Pope nothing wrong with the old one; it’s a When God ceases to be personal masterpiece. It’s just that it is neither and is instead merely a thought or 106 West 56th Street the first nor the last word on the sub - idea, then God is no longer a subject, New York, NY 10019-3803 ject. Artists in nearly every century but an object. As Pope Benedict has Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 since the second have taken a crack at written, “the arrogance that would E-mail: [email protected]; depicting that fateful, world-changing make God an object…is incapable of [email protected] night in Jerusalem, a seminal event in finding him. To think like that is to Web site: www.americamagazine.org. the life of Jesus and the church. make oneself God. And to do that is Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 That is as it should be. For “in his to abase not only God, but the world © 2012 America Press, Inc. gracious goodness,” as the fathers at and oneself too.” Vatican II put it, “God has seen to it The new evangelists—all of us— that what he had revealed for the salva - would do well to remember that. We tion of all nations would abide perpetu - would do well to remember that the ally in its full integrity and be handed most powerful form of evangelization is on to all generations.” In other words, our account of the joy that is within us. every generation of Christians must We cannot fake that; and while it takes make its own the timeless truths of the different forms at different times for Scriptures and tradition. In that sense, different Christians, it ultimately comes the new evangelization that we’re hear - from the same source, the same person. ing so much about is not really new at In a way, both da Vinci and Dalí got it all; it is the work of the church in every right: Jesus is in the center of both pic - Cover: “The Sacrament of the Last Supper,” by Salvador Dalí, 1955. age. As Archbishop Rino Fisichella tures—exactly where he should be. Oil on canvas. Photo: National points out in an article on America’ s MATT MALONE, S.J. Gallery of Art CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOl. 207 NO. 13, WhOle NO. 4989 NOVember 5, 2012

ARTICLES 13 LAS CASAS ’ DISCOVERY What the “Protector of the Indians” found in America Robert Ellsberg

18 OUT OF AFRICA How a new generation of theologians is reshaping the church Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

5 Editorial A Prayer for Malala 13 6 Signs of the Times

10 Column Bullseye! Kyle T. Kramer

21 Faith in Focus Toeing the Line Michael J. O’Loughlin 37 Letters

39 The Word Comfort Zones Peter Feldmeier

BOOKS & CULTURE 21 23 FALL BOOKS II The Arab Uprising; Thomas Hart Benton; Why Niebuhr Now?; The Province of Joy; Saints of the Roman Missal, Pray for Us; A World of Prayer; Farther Away ART Salvador Dalí’s “The Sacrament of the Last Supper”

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB A report on Jacques Berthieu, right, a new Jesuit saint . Plus, Roger Haight, S.J., talks about his new book, Christian Spirituality for Seekers, with James Martin, S.J. All at ameri - camagazine.org. 23 4 America November 5, 2012 EDITORIAL A Prayer for Malala

o you remember what you were doing on Oct. 11, malicious and ultimately self-lacer - the United Nations’ first International Day of the ating misogyny. DGirl Child? Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old The church condemns the Pakistani girl, was fighting for her life. She had been shot grave moral evil of violence against in the head and throat on Oct. 9 by a Taliban assassin women and the sexual exploitation intent on making the teenager an object lesson in fear. Ms. of women, whether in their own Yousafzai had dared to challenge the Taliban raging homes or through the vicious trade across Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Her offense was her deter - of human trafficking and sexual mination to get an education. Her poignant diary, written bondage, an industry that particu - for BBC Urdu’s Web site in winter 2008-9 about the daily larly abuses young girls. Beyond these obvious offenses to struggles of a girl seeking a better life in a profoundly, human dignity, however, various other degradations of girls even violently patriarchal society, had captivated the have a significant material impact on the future in terms of world and transformed her into a spokesperson for all a profound void opened up in global productivity and cre - girls barred from education and, regrettably, into a target ativity that is literally incalculable. The church has repeat - in her homeland. edly promoted the full and equal dignity of women, and by Gravely wounded, she has been transported to Britain extension girls, in a world where many societies are hostile for more sophisticated medical treatment and for her own to that notion. safety. Taliban agents have vowed to complete their deadly In his “Letter to Women” in 1995, Pope John Paul II, mission. Ms. Yousafzai suffers today on behalf of all the girls after apologizing for the role Christians have played in in the developing world, millions who are shut out at birth undermining the dignity of women through the ages, high - from educational and career opportunities because of their lighted the urgent need to achieve “real equality” for the gender; forced into child marriages, servitude or sexual slav - world’s women as a matter of justice “but also of necessity.” ery or murdered to preserve family “honor”; or prevented “Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of from being born in the first place as sex selection abortions the serious problems of the future,” he wrote, “leisure time, depress the birth rate of girls in India, China and elsewhere. the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, This first observation of a day to acknowledge and cel - drugs, health care, the ecology, etc.” What the church has ebrate the girl child focuses on the suffering engendered by called the “genius of women” will favor “processes of human - child marriage. In the developing world, one in seven girls ization which mark the ‘civilization of love.’” But before that marries before age 15. The cultural institution of early and genius can be realized, the world’s girl children must be pro -

s forced marriage essentially denies a girl her childhood. It tected and cherished. r e t t

u disrupts her education, restricts her opportunities, increas - The depravity of Ms. Yousafzai’s attackers has gener - r e A r e

, h A es her chances of becoming a victim of violence and abuse ated outrage throughout Pakistan. It is possible that, as one z d A e r r c

N and jeopardizes her health. government minister suggests, her shooting could prove a i A s s

h t O

A The world wounds itself in its suppression of girls. turning point as pressure mounts to finally contain the

m e : c i O V t Today there are 500 million adolescent girls in the develop - Taliban. It is tempting now to succumb to platitude and r O e h s p

ing world. If they could all express the fullness of their tal - sagely note that such an outcome would mean Ms. r s e N Y c A

.

r ent, their heart, their creativity and ambition—what would Yousafzai’s suffering would not have been in vain. But that 4 p 1

. A

t t

c be the limit on their future accomplishments? How much is inaccurate—the suffering will surely continue for girls in A O i

, A N z

A could their vision and experience improve upon the plod - Pakistan and around the world for many years after this first f t u s s i k u ding patriarchy in government and among international declaration of an international day for girls. And it is unfair A O p Y

, A e l

r nongovernmental organizations dedicated to combating to Ms. Yousafzai. She should never have been asked to pay A O l h A A m

l hunger, disease, poverty and social and economic inequity? so dear a price simply because she was born with a hunger

f N i O

l t i But the spiritual loss of girls to the world is even more dev - for knowledge and a hope to do more with her life, as well A A r r d t e r astating when so many are denied the fullest expression of as with the inescapable, wonderful and, in her case, daunt - h O t p A

c A their humanity by “tradition,” by fear and ignorance, by ing reality of her gender.

November 5, 2012 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

GU A NT Á NAMO Victims’ Families Seek ‘Justice’ at 9/11 Trial ore than 11 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, claimed the lives of their family members, Mnine people traveled to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in mid-October to attend the pre-trial hearings of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the attacks’ alleged mastermind, and four others accused of organizing and financing the attacks. The defendants, arraigned in May by U.S. military commissions, face execution if convicted. By traveling to Guantánamo Bay, the family members had a unique opportunity to face personally the men accused of murdering their loved ones. Eleven years after that tragic day, the emotions were as raw as ever. “I wanted to walk past them when we came into the courtroom,” said Kathleen Haberman of Farmington, Wis., who traveled to the Guantánamo Bay facility with her husband, Gordon. Their daughter Andrea, then 25, died in the attack on the World Trade Center. “I truly wanted to just look in their faces because, to me, these cannot be human beings.... No human being would do this.” was engaged to be married. “Her rorism suspects, are unnecessary. Some family members spoke of the whole life was taken away from her,” Instead, they argue, the case should be importance of faith in carrying them said Mrs. Toyen. “There is no way I moved to federal court, which has a through the darkest moments since could ever forgive them.” proven record of trying and convicting Sept. 11. “The Lord will help you Mr. Toyen concurred. “I want jus - terrorism suspects. through anything in life. You just have tice, not forgiveness,” he said. “I’m still Peaceful Tomorrows, an organiza - to ask,” said Mrs. Haberman. very bitter. Rage.” If the accused “are tion of 9/11 families dedicated to Merrilly Noeth lost her son found guilty, then I would have no peacemaking, agrees. The military Michael, then 30, a member of the U.S. qualms with the death penalty.” commissions “currently fail to guaran - Navy, at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. “I During the week of hearings, Army tee the fairness and respect for due pro - know he is with me. I believe very firm - Col. James L. Pohl, chief judge of the cess that federal trials would,” the ly, and I always have,” she said. military commissions, heard more group said. “Justice will be served only Yet for those who attended the than a dozen motions related to the if the highest legal standards are met.” hearings, forgiveness is hard—even defendants’ presence in court, what Alexandra Scott of Stanford, unthinkable. Forgiveness “for them?” they are allowed to wear, how to treat Conn., who lost her father Randolph asked Ms. Noeth. “I’m not that good.” classified information, calling and Scott, then 48, in the World Trade Mr. Haberman admitted: “That’s a compelling witnesses, the applicability Center, shared her perception of the tough one for me. When I sit in court of the U.S. Constitution and whether fairness of the current hearings. with these guys, can I forgive them? I the defendants should be able to “There are different ways to gauge fair. have a hard time. I mean, they don’t recount on the record details of mis - Fair for whom? Fair for us?” she won - want my forgiveness. I think justice is treatment while secretly detained by dered. “This is 10 years in the making, the word.” the Central Intelligence Agency. but at the same time, it is also just the Dorine and Martin Toyen of Avon, Human rights organizations con - beginning. A matter of fairness is kind Conn., lost their daughter Amy, then test that the military commissions, a of hard to judge at this point.” 24, in the World Trade Center. She special court system created to try ter - LUKE HANSEN, S.J.

6 America November 5, 2012 said during a visit to Washington in tution is legal. Members of Parliament mid-October. “There are complaints, chose members of the assembly, and and I would say they are genuine com - some Egyptians argue that the assem - plaints.” The archbishop said that bly does not reflect all sectors of soci - often what begins as a conflict over ety. The court has said it will issue its property or family affairs turns reli - ruling on Oct. 23. gious and “ends up with people having Archbishop Fitzgerald said these their houses burned or their shops were signs of emerging democracy: destroyed or their place of worship “Certainly people are ready to criticize also attacked. the president and to say, ‘Look, you “It’s easy to arouse a group of promised many things, and you’re not Muslims against the Christians, and fulfilling your promises.’” He said he is there can be also a reaction on the trying to encourage Christians to par - Christian side,” he said, adding, “The ticipate in the new democracy, thing is that people are rather hot- although some express fear for what tempered and they don’t reason very the future holds for their children. much before they react.” When there is “My own message to them has

N a problem, he said, Christians feel been: Look, there is a new spirit of e s N

A “that the security forces don’t come in democracy, and you have to build on h

e

k time, they always come late, and very that,” he said. “Though the Islamists u l

:

O often they hold reconciliation sessions, are in power now, this doesn’t mean to t O h

p and the Christians are always the say that they will always be in power. losers.” This depends on you.” EGYPT After President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was ousted in February Christians 2011, an Egyptian military council assumed broad powers. Sixteen Worry, But Note months later, Mohammed Morsi of Signs of Freedom the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood was elected Egypt’s new president. ome of Egypt’s Christians are Morsi has finished his first 100 concerned about Islamists in days in office, and critics say he has Spower, but there is greater free - not kept most of his promises dom of speech than before the revolu - about what he would achieve in tion, said the pope’s ambassador to the that time. Morsi has pledged that Middle Eastern country. “I think there he would promote equal rights for is a greater freedom now, though they Egypt’s Christians and women. accuse the present regime of also “Our Christian brothers, let’s be clamping down on people, on trying to clear, are national partners and control the press...so they say that the have full rights like Muslims,” president is becoming a pharaoh,” said Morsi said in May before his elec - the Vatican nuncio, Archbishop tion. Egypt’s Christians, mostly Michael Fitzgerald, describing the Copts, account for about 10 per - mood of Egypt’s Christians. cent of the country’s 82 million “Christians are feeling uncomfort - people. able, and certainly the Salafi group,” an Egyptians also are awaiting a ultraconservative sect of Islam, “is court ruling on whether the assem - showing...disrespect for Christians,” he bly drafting the country’s new consti - Celebrating Morsi’s victory

November 5, 2012 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

SYNOD ON THE NEW EVANGELIZATION Bishop Kicanas shared a couple of Accent on the ‘New’ more edifying moments from the Synod. The session on Oct. 19, he said, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, ing Catholics, inviting us to deepen “ended with the loudest and most pro - Australia, urges that the New our relationship with Jesus Christ. It longed applause from the synod floor Evangelization use the examples of extends to those who have left the yet.” A young catechist from Italy, newly canonized saints to reach the church, whom we miss, inviting them Tommasso Spinelli, had addressed the spiritually hungry. Cardinal Donald to come back home. It reaches out to bishops. “He urged priests to be proud Wuerl of Washington says the New those who have not met the Lord of their priesthood, to know they mat - Evangelization can benefit from the inviting them to encounter Jesus ter,” Bishop Kicanas said. The young church’s social outreach to the sick and Christ. This synod touches everyone, layman told those assembled that the poor, efforts that make the priests should be attentive to their church “the very presence of Christ celebration of the liturgy and not to in the world today.” Bishop Gerald be hesitant to challenge young peo - Kicanas of Tucson suggests that it ple who want to grow in their rela - is the progressive messages of the tionship with Jesus Christ. Priests church’s social justice teaching that must be the guides. will enliven the New “The passion and sincerity of his Evangelization. Hearing those words touched the hearts of the observations about the nature of synod fathers,” Bishop Kicanas said. the New Evangelization, as a global “It gave a hint of how the young can synod dedicated to professing it be the source of the New Evangeli- convened in Rome in October, it may calling all to awaken the faith, to dis - zation. They can inspire and encourage be fair to ask exactly how the “new” cover what the church teaches and to their peers and even their elders, as evangelization differs from the “old.” inspire others to know Jesus Christ.” Tommasso did with the bishops, on Bishop Kicanas’s synodal experience The bishops at the three-week-long the importance and deepening of faith.” offers some insight into the question. In synod, which ended on Oct. 28, also Bishop Kicanas said he also found a series of blog posts from Rome, discussed the challenges facing the the synod’s opening reflection from Bishop Kicanas offered something real - New Evangelization. Cardinal Wuerl’s Pope Benedict XVI deeply moving. ly new, a uniquely transparent experi - opening address on Oct. 8 included a “This elderly man spoke passionately ence of church leaders grappling with critique of modern culture, warning and with vigor, without any notes, on the challenge of the New Evangelization that a “tsunami of secularism” threat - confession and charity as roots of the and trying to come to terms with its ened to wash away the West’s founda - New Evangelization,” he said. “The meaning themselves. His frequent digi - tional Christian tradition. wise teacher obviously was grasped by tal dispatches were themselves another The proceedings were also not with - the message he was presenting. marker of the new. Bishop Kicanas used out controversy. Cardinal Peter His strong gestures and clear thoughts one of the latest communication forms Turkson of Ghana, president of the were captivating.... He called Catholics of the Internet age to facilitate his out - Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, to confess out loud and make public reach in digital epistles to the members generated some consternation with a what is in their hearts. We need of his home diocese but also the entire surprise presentation: an eight-minute courage to utter the word. He called us Christian world. video gleaned from YouTube that com - to sing out our faith.” “New evangelization is a phrase pared birthrates between native-born The pope, said Bishop Kicanas, first used by Paul VI in ‘Evangelii Europeans, about 1.8 per woman, to “reminded us that faith does not Nuntiandi,’” Bishop Kicanas wrote in the birthrates of Muslim immigrants to remain in church, but we take our an e-mail message from Rome, “and Europe, about 8.1. Among the many faith out into the street in works of taken up by Pope John Paul II and dire possibilities held up in the video charity. Works of charity and justice Pope Benedict XVI. New evangeliza - was the specter of France as an Islamic are at the heart of the new evangeliza - tion begins with ourselves as practic - republic within four decades. tion.” KEVIN CLARKE

8 America November 5, 2012 Syria Delegation A papal delegation of bishops, includ - NEWS BRIEFS ing Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of The U.S. bishops will discuss getting up to speed with New York, will travel to the capital of church teaching—literally—when they consider a state - war-torn Syria in late October. ment on doctrine in the digital age at their meeting in Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Baltimore from Nov. 12 to 15. • Between trips to Africa secretary of state, made this announce - and South America, Cardinal Theodore E. ment on Oct. 16 at the Synod of McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, Bishops in Rome. He said the delega - stopped home long enough to be honored on Oct. 10 tion would be a display of solidarity for his “extraordinary commitment to peace” by the Jacques and would encourage peace negotia - Rumi Forum, advocates of interfaith dialogue and peace - Berthieu tions “in the certainty that the only making. • On Oct. 18 Pope Benedict XVI appointed possible solution to the crisis is a polit - Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, secretary of the Vatican Congregation ical solution and bearing in mind the for Institutes of Consecrated Life, to be archbishop of Indianapolis. immense suffering of the population.” • Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising, president of the The cardinal said that Pope Benedict Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European XVI had instructed the Vatican dele - Community, criticized German plans for a minimum wage on Oct. gation to express, on behalf of the 10 and warned that a tax on wealth would resemble “class struggle.” pope and the synod: “our fraternal sol - • Jacques Berthieu , a French Jesuit (1838 –96) and missionary in idarity with the entire population,” Madagascar, was canonized in Rome on Oct. 21 together with six “our spiritual closeness to our other blesseds, including Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope . Christian brothers and sisters” and • The United Nations reports more than 30 armed groups are oper - “our encouragement to all those ating in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of involved in seeking an agreement that Congo , particularly in North Kivu, where fighting over resources has respects the rights and duties of all, driven thousands from their homes. with particular attention to the demands of humanitarian law.”

Scapegoating the Aged place.” He said that as the number of are victims of sexual abuse that is often Western nations must resist the pres - people over age 65 rises, the strain on unreported. The office said that young sure to “scapegoat, abandon, even kill, governments will increase proportion - women in Guatemala’s “chauvinist” the elderly as a cost-cutting measure,” ately. “Of course we need principles of society are objects of discrimination an Australian bishop said in a major fairness here and virtues like medical and in some cases forced to marry and bioethics lecture. Bishop Anthony temperance,” the bishop said. “But to deprived of an education. Girls as Fisher of Parramatta, a member of the wish we were dead before we are old or young as 10 have become pregnant. Pontifical Academy for Life, said that the old were dead so they’d stop Often their abusers are other family health economists and utilitarian burdening us is no anthem for a good members, so the assaults go unreport - philosophers were placing the elderly society.” ed to authorities. All these abuses of at risk by treating them as a “swarm of girls contribute to Guatemala’s persist - voracious but unworthy consumers of Vulnerable to Violence ing poverty, the office reports. While a resource which doctors must guard laws are on the books in Guatemala to from them.” Delivering the 2012 In Guatemala protect girls, they are not fully imple - Anscombe Memorial Lecture on Oct. In Guatemala young women are vul - mented, and the state does not employ 15 at St John’s College, Oxford nerable to many forms of violence, sufficient resources for this purpose, University, he accused health according to the human rights office of according to the archdiocese. (See economists who focused dispropor - the Archdiocese of Guatemala City. Editorial, p. 5.) tionately on costs of “showing us how Girls are most often the victims of to get most efficiently to the wrong childhood abuse, and adolescent girls From CNS and other sources.

November 5, 2012 America 9 KYLE T. KRAMER

Bullseye! or years I dreamed casually awareness of one’s body and must ulti - and what we Christians might call the about taking up archery, and this mately be learned by the body, shot virtue of humility. Too much confi - Fsummer I finally splurged on a after shot after shot, as muscle memo - dence ruins the shot, as does grasping very nice compound bow for target ry. When my young daughters shoot a the bow too tightly. As Herrigel shooting and deer hunting. I am hard - bow, they learn to be aware of and (I learned, the master archer does not ly on the cutting edge of popular cul - hope) to value their bodies. In an age even claim to release an arrow; it ture, so I learned only in hindsight that when most forms of modern technolo - “releases itself” when the shot is ripe. I bows and arrows have taken a larger gy alienate the body or make it largely think we are finally beginning to see place in the cultural zeitgeist. irrelevant, perhaps archery represents how the delusion that we are masters According to the Archery Trade an invitation back to the body. And for of our surroundings has not served the Association and sporting-goods retail - the Christian, to discover the blessed human race well. Archery might help ers, among others, recent years have body is to discover the heart teach some to hold their seen a rapid increase in archery’s pop - of the Incarnation, in which bows and their egos ularity, especially among youth. bodilyness plays an essen - Archery more loosely. Katniss Everdeen, the 16-year-old tial part of the divine plan. Sometimes our 5- heroine of the dystopic novel (and Archery engages not engages year-old son will do tar - film), The Hunger Games, gave a recent only the body, but also the not only get practice alongside spur to the growth of the sport when mind; shooting well me, shooting suction- her archery skill helped her outwit the requires tremendous men - the body, cup arrows with his toy despotic power of a cruel empire. The tal discipline, focus and but also bow. I love watching his expert archer Princess Mérida, in the self-control. When I aim an wiggly body go still with recent animated film “Brave,” provides arrow, even the slightest the mind. concentration, and I a similar model of empowerment for distraction or preoccupa - thrill with him at his young girls. Archery also attracted tion makes my shot go wild. occasional bullseyes. An millions of viewers during the 2012 As a person whose mind often wan - important New Testament Greek Olympic Games. ders during my daily prayer time, I word for sin, hamartia, is actually an What is the draw? Regardless of have noticed that regular archery prac - archery term that means “to miss the whether it ends up as fad or fixture, tice has helped develop my capacity for mark.” So might trying to hit the mark what about this seemingly anachronis - spiritual concentration, too. In fact, represent an innate human longing for tic sport has allowed it to gain traction Eugen Herrigel’s classic Zen in the Art truth and virtue in a fallen and com - in our cultural narratives? Might its of Archery, which describes the years of plex world—a world made even more appeal even provide some unlikely lessons he received from a Japanese confusing by marketing hype and measure of hope for today’s youth and master archer, claims that archery can expedient political spin? our common future? and should be a spiritual discipline. I I harbor no illusions that archery will A bow involves the body intimately. wonder if in archery some intuit a save the world, or that any one thing My compound bow may have carbon counterbalance to the diffusion and will. But our future may depend less on fiber components and high-tech engi - distraction created by on-demand grand purposes and plans than on peo - neering, but ultimately I still have to entertainment and a multi-tasking ple whose personal qualities are honed, draw it to the right position, aim prop - workplace culture—especially young by practice and grace, to kingdom cal - erly and smoothly release an arrow. All “digital natives,” whose brains have iber. Perhaps in archery a few may find a of these skills demand an exquisite been hard-wired on iEverything. way to embrace their bodies, concen - Though it may require a great trate their minds, humble their hearts amount of bodily and mental control, and nurture a deep desire for truth. The KYLE T. KRAMER is the author of A Time to Plant; Life Lessons in Work, Prayer, and archery ultimately demands what the world would be better for it, and that Dirt (Sorin Books, 2010). Zen tradition calls “beginner’s mind” would be the best bullseye shot of all.

10 America November 5, 2012

Bartolomé de las Casas, as depicted in the book History of the Church (ca. 1880)

12 America November 5, 2012 WHAT THE ‘PROTECTOR OF THE INDIANS ’ FOUND IN AMERICA Las Casas ’ Discove ry ROBERT ELLSBERG

Christ did not come into the world to die for gold. —Bartolomé de las Casas

ho is my neighbor? That question emerges as one of the critical questions of the Gospels. After all, as Jesus con - firms to an inquiring scribe, our eternal life rests on loving God and our neigh - Wbor as ourselves. And so the scribe’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” could not be more pertinent. Jesus answers by way of the parable of the Good Samaritan. In so doing, he cuts through any easy notion that our “neighbor” is simply the per - son who lives next door or who lives in the same “neighbor - hood,” who looks like us or shares our values. The story of Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), a Dominican friar and one of the first Europeans to set foot in this hemisphere, offers another answer to the question. His

story raises the further question: Who are those in our world 3 7 9 1

who “don’t count,” whose humanity does not measure up, whose N A m c

aspirations and needs are not our concern? How would we O b / m

respond, how would we organize our lives if we believed our O c . k

salvation rested on the answer to that question? c O t s

The arrival of three small Spanish ships on the blue shores of r e t t

the Bahamas in 1492 marked the beginning of an unprecedent - u h s

: O

ed collision of cultures. For the Spanish explorers and their royal t O h

patrons, the “discovery” of “the new world” was like the opening p

ROBERT ELLSBERG is the publisher of Orbis Books and the author of several books, including All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time. This essay will appear in the book, Not Less Than Everything: Catholic Writers on Heroes of Conscience from Joan of Arc to Oscar Romero (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2013).

November 5, 2012 America 13 of a treasure chest. But for the indigenous peoples, whom conversion, as the Spanish priest gradually defected from Columbus called Indians, it marked the onset of oblivion. For the cause of his own countrymen and identified with those most of the invaders, this was not a serious consideration. In who were treated as nonpersons, of no account, of “less their view, the Indians were a primitive, lesser breed; as worth than the dung in the street.” Aristotle taught, some people were born to be slaves and oth - In 1514, las Casas, 30, gave up his lands and the Indians ers to be masters. While the church endorsed the conquest as in his possession and declared that he would refuse absolu - an opportunity to extend the Gospel, there were few theolo - tion to any Christian who would not do the same. gians of the time prepared to see the Indians as fully human Eventually, he joined the Dominican order and went on to and equal in the eyes of God. One who did was the become a passionate and prophetic defender of the indige - Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, who was so affected nous peoples. For more than 50 years he traveled back and by what he had seen during the early decades of the conquest forth between the New World and the court of Spain, that he devoted his long life to raising an outcry and bearing attempting through his books, letters and preaching to witness before an indifferent world. expose the cruelties of the conquest, whose very legitimacy, and not merely excesses, he disavowed. Gilded Cruelty On one occasion, a bishop became bored with the To an extraordinary degree the life of las Casas was bound Dominican’s account of the death of 7,000 children and to the fate of the Indians. As a boy of 8, he witnessed the interrupted him to ask, “What is that to me and to the return of Columbus to king?” With fierce indigna - Seville after his first voyage tion, las Casas replied, “What to the New World. With fas - Such scenes of cruelty is it to your lordship and to cination the young boy haunted las Casas for the the king that those souls die? watched as the Admiral of Oh, great and eternal God! the Ocean paraded through rest of his life. They also Who is there to whom that is the streets, accompanied by something?” To las Casas the seven Taino Indians (the began his conversion. Indians were fellow human surviving remnant of a larger beings, subject to the same number who began the voy - sadness, entitled to the same age). As he recalled, they carried “very beautiful, red-tinged respect. With this insight it followed that every ounce of green parrots,” as well as jewels and gold “and many other gold extracted by their labor was theft; every indignity things never before seen or heard of in Spain.” imposed on them was a crime; every death—whatever the His father quickly signed up for Columbus’s second voy - circumstances—was an act of murder. age, and in 1502 Bartolomé made his first trip to Hispaniola Although the main attraction for the Spanish in the New (currently Haiti and the Dominican Republic). After later World was gold, the conquest was ostensibly justified by studies in Rome for the priesthood he returned to the New evangelical motivations. The pope had authorized the sub - World, where he served as chaplain in the Spanish conquest jugation of the Indian populations for the purpose of of Cuba. Though a priest, he also benefited from the conquest implanting the Gospel and securing their salvation. Las as the owner of an encomienda, a plantation with Indian Casas claimed that the deeds of the conquistadors revealed indentured laborers. their true religion: “In order to gild a very cruel and harsh In these years, he witnessed scenes of diabolical cruelty, tyranny that destroys so many villages and people, solely for which he later chronicled with exacting detail. He described the sake of satisfying the greed of men and giving them gold, how the armored Spaniards would pacify a village by initiat - the latter, who themselves do not know the faith, use the ing massacres; how they would enslave their captives and pretext of teaching it to others and thereby deliver up the punish any who rebelled by cutting off their hands; how they innocent in order to extract from their blood the wealth would consign them to die before their time through over - which these men regard as their god. ” work in the mines and plantations. His reports, based, as he frequently noted, on “what I have seen,” included accounts of Scenes of the Crucified Christ soldiers suddenly drawing their swords “to rip open the bel - With shame, he recounted the story of an Indian prince in lies” of men, women, children and old folk, “all of whom were Cuba who was burned alive. As he was tied to a stake a seated, off guard and frightened,” so that “within two credos, Franciscan friar spoke to him of God and asked him not a man of all of them there remained alive.” whether he would like to go to heaven and there enjoy glory Such scenes, replayed constantly in his memory, haunted and eternal rest. When the prince asked whether Christians las Casas for the rest of his life. They also began a process of also went to heaven and was assured that this was so, he

14 America November 5, 2012 replied without further thought that he did not wish to go method of teaching men the true religion was established by there, “but rather to hell so as not to be where Spaniards Divine Providence for the whole world and for all times, were.” las Casas notes with bitter irony, “This is the renown that is, by persuading the understanding through reason and honor that God and our faith have acquired by means and by gently attracting or exhorting the will.” Needless to of the Christians who have gone to the Indies.” say, such views on religious freedom, the rights of conscience But las Casas’ theological insights went far beyond a sim - and the relation between salvation and social justice were far ple affirmation of the Indians’ human dignity. In their suf - advanced for his time; indeed, they were scarcely matched in ferings, he argued, the Indians truly represented the cruci - the Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council. fied Christ. So he wrote, “I leave in the Indies Jesus Christ, Even then, they were bitterly debated. our God, scourged and afflicted and beaten and crucified Nevertheless, las Casas did win a hearing in Spain, not once, but thousands of times.” where he was named Protector of the Indians. With the For las Casas there could be no salvation in Jesus Christ passion of an Old Testament prophet, he proclaimed: “The apart from social justice. Thus, the question was not whether screams of so much spilled human blood have now reached the Indians were to be “saved’’; the more serious question was heaven. The earth can no longer bear such steeping in the salvation of the Spanish who were persecuting Christ in human blood. The angels of peace and even God, I think, his poor. Jesus had said that our eternal fate rests on our must be weeping. Hell alone rejoices.” But his efforts made treatment of those in need: “I was hungry and you fed me, little difference. naked and you clothed me.… Insofar as you have done these In 1543, with court officials in Spain eager to be rid of things to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done him, las Casas was named a bishop. While he spurned the them to me” (Mt 25:31-40). If the failure to do these things offer of the rich see of Cuzco in Peru, he accepted the was enough to consign one to hell, what about the situation impoverished region of Chiapas in southern Mexico. There of the New World, where Christ, in the guise of the Indians, he immediately alienated his flock by once again refusing could justly say, “I was clothed, and you stripped me naked, absolution to any Spaniard who would not free his Indian I was well fed, and you starved me.…”? slaves. He was denounced to the Spanish court as a “lunatic” Las Casas did not oppose the goal of evangelization. But and received numerous death threats. Eventually he this could never be achieved by force. “The one and only resigned his bishopric and returned to Spain, where he felt

November 5, 2012 America 15 he could more effectively prosecute his cause. He took part in an epic debate with one of the leading theologians of the day, defending the humanity of the Indians, their right to religious liberty, and challenging the legality of the conquest. He also fought to abolish the encomienda system and wrote voluminous histories of the conquest and “the Destruction of the Indies.” By this time, he charged, the once-vast indige - nous population of Hispaniola had been reduced to 200 souls. Las Casas died in his monastic cell on July 18, 1566, at 82, confessing to his brethren his sorrow and shame that he was unable to do more.

Las Casas’ Legacy Five hundred years after the “discovery” of America, what are we to make of this life, this witness? Clearly for his writ - ings on human equality and his defense of religious free - dom, las Casas deserves to be remembered as a political philosopher of high significance in the history of ideas. But in decisively challenging the identification of Christ with the cause of Christendom, he proposed a recalibration of the Gospel that continues to provoke a response. In 1968 the bishops of Latin America, meeting in Medellín, Colombia, examined the social structures of their conti - nent—in many ways, the ongoing legacy of the early con - quest—and named this reality as a situation of sin and insti - tutionalized violence. To preach the Gospel in this context necessarily involved entering the world of the poor and engaging in the struggle for justice. In undertaking such a shift in perspective and allegiance, the bishops were renouncing their age-old identification with the rich and powerful, and their new stance provoked a furious reaction. As Dom Hélder Câmara, a courageous Brazilian bishop cut from similar cloth as las Casas, observed, “When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why there are so many poor and hungry, they call me a Communist.” In subsequent years many priests, sisters and lay Catholics raised this same question, with fateful conse - quences. In the words of Oscar Romero, the prophetic archbishop of San Salvador: “One who is committed to the poor must risk the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador we know what the fate of the poor signifies: to disappear, to be tortured, to be captive, and to be found dead.” In the decades of the 1970s and ’80s, the truth of those words would be played out in the lives of tens of thousands of Christian martyrs in Latin America. They included Archbishop Romero himself, a bishop like las Casas, whose conversion had been prompted by his encounter with the “scourged Christ” of the poor. He was assassinated in 1980 while saying Mass in El Salvador, and he became a symbol of a new church born of the faith and struggle of the poor. His death was a potent sign of the lingering contradictions implied in the original “evangelization” of the Americas—

16 America November 5, 2012 that 500 years after the arrival of Columbus, in a land named for the Savior, a bishop could be assassinated by murderers who called themselves Christians, indeed faithful defenders of Christian values. Las Casas lived in a time of epochal change, in which new, unprecedented realities posed new questions. Were the Indians truly human? Over time, that question has been definitively answered—at least in theory. But in practice? Slavery in the United States was abolished only 150 years ago, legalized segregation in our own lifetime. But to what extent do we truly consider the lives of those designated the “other” as equal to our own? In a global economy that large - ly functions to siphon wealth and resources from the world’s poorest to its wealthiest inhabitants, who can say whether it is God or gold that we truly worship? As we steadily ravage the irreplaceable natural resources of the planet and reck - lessly undermine the fabric of sustainable life on earth—all for the sake of short-term profit—who can say that we have advanced beyond the rapacious conquistadors, whom las Casas depicted as “wolves, tigers, and hungry lions” feasting on the blood of their victims? Long after the death of las Casas, his writings became the basis of the “Black Legend,” a potent weapon in the service of Protestant anti-Catholicism and anti-Spanish propagan - da. In light of the bloodstained history of the past century, it is harder to ascribe his testimony to some peculiar Iberian aberration from the ON THE WEB land of the Inquisi- Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., on tion. In fact, his writ - St. Jacques Berthieu. ings pose the deepest americamagazine.org/saints challenge to the role of the church in our time. In the face of today’s injustice and violence, in the face of all the threats to human survival, do Christians stand on the side of the victims or with those who profit from their suffering? The Jesuit philosopher and theologian Ignacio Ellacuría of El Salvador, who along with Romero would later join the company of martyrs, spoke of the “crucified peoples of history.” Like las Casas with his talk of the “scourged Christ of the Indies,” Ellacuría compared the poor with Yahweh’s Suffering Servant. In their disfigured features he discovered the ongoing presence and passion of Christ— suffering because of the sins of the world. In this light, he said, the task of the Christian was not simply to worship the cross or to contemplate the mystery of suffering, but “to take the crucified down from the cross”—to join them in com - passion and effective solidarity. Five centuries before the phrase was coined, las Casas’ “preferential option for the poor” continues to trouble the conscience of all who turn their gaze from the sufferings of the “other,” whether in our midst or across the sea, while daring to ask, “What is that to me?” A

November 5, 2012 America 17 Out of Africa How a new generation of theologians is reshaping the church BY AGBONKHIANMEGHE E. OROBATOR

frica’s theological landscape is changing signifi - and the concomitant ramifications for civil and religious cantly and rapidly. The pace and scope of this society in a new and radical way. They open up new paths transformation came into focus at the first toward an action-orientated theological enterprise. regional conference of the global network of The advanced theological education of African women ACatholic Theological Ethics in the World Church held in responds to one of the recommendations of the Second Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2012. For three days, 35 African Synod of Bishops for Africa, held in 2009, for the formation theologians engaged in intense conversation about pressing and greater integration of women into church structures issues confronting church and society in Africa from the and decision-making processes. Judging by the tone and perspective of theological ethics. By many accounts this scope of the discourse at the Nairobi gathering, integration inaugural gathering did not resemble the usual theological would not necessarily translate into unquestioning and sub - talk-shop where scholars present abstract theses or ecclesi - missive acceptance of subservient roles, to which many astical leaders declaim lofty doctrinal propositions. Judging African women are confined in church and society. As a by its composition, methodology and focus, the conference result of the theological formation of African women, we offered a glimpse of the shape of theology in Africa today can expect to see an intensifying theological advocacy for the and the promise it holds for the world church. just treatment of women in Africa; honest recognition and Three factors illustrate this phenomenon of change in appreciation of their dignity and contribution to society; theological discourse and scholarship. The first factor relates and constructive harnessing of their talents and resources to demographics. Picture this: Nearly half the participants at for leadership, ministry and participation in both the the C.T.E.W.C. conference in Nairobi were women, both lay African and the world church. and religious. This is something new and different. A gath - ering of theologians where women are not in the minority is A New Way of Doing Theology unprecedented in Africa. It would have been customary to A second sign of change on Africa’s theological landscape is have, at most, only token representation. Among the women a palpable sense of energy and creativity. Among the partic - theologians in attendance at the Nairobi conference, seven ipants at the Nairobi conference, the majority received their are in a C.T.E.W.C.-sponsored program for the advanced doctorates in theology less than five years ago. This means training of African women in theological ethics. This pro - that a new generation of African theologians has emerged, gram will enable all of them to earn doctoral degrees in the - primed to receive the mantle from the more seasoned gen - ological ethics from African universities within the next eration of theologians who negotiated the transition from a three years. A new generation of African women theologians colonial church to a truly African church, but ready to steer is in the making across an ecclesial and theological landscape this church in a new and exciting direction. where hitherto they were unrepresented, their voices ignored The format of the conference took the shape of conver - and their contributions unacknowledged. sation—women and men, lay and religious, young and old As the veil of invisibility lifts, African women are taking exploring and raising probing questions, clearing new paths a critical stand on existential issues in church and society. and articulating viable options. A critical component of this They make their own arguments as scholars with passion, approach is readiness to listen and learn from one another. confidence and authority rather than being spoken about as The setting of the conference recalled the African palaver passive objects in theological conferences and workshops model of dialogue and consensus in addressing pertinent conducted and dominated by male theologians. It should theological and ethical issues. This conversation was led by hardly surprise us that this new generation of theologically new African scholars in dialogue with established scholars literate African women expresses its understanding of faith and ecclesial leaders. Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria; Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda; AGBONKHIANMEGHE E. OROBATOR, S.J. , the provincial superior of the Eastern Africa Province of the Society of Jesus, is a lecturer at and Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio, Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya. South Sudan, all attended the conference. Unusually, they

18 America November 5, 2012 Participants in the Catholic Theological Ethics Conference, August 2012. The author is standing next to the banner, far right. participated not as keynote speakers but as conversation Justice in the Church partners. In this role, the ecclesial leaders contributed to and Also at issue are internal ecclesial concerns, such as the role enriched the conversation by offering candid views and and participation of African women in the church. Official relating moving personal testimonies of their experience of rhetoric of participation, equality and gender justice in reconciliation, justice and peace in Africa. Here, again, church is not lacking; oftentimes, it is stirring. But too often something new is emerging across the continent: it is not it remains at the level of rhetoric. African women theolo - customary for theologians to dialogue with ecclesial leaders gians are leading the way not only in formulating a critical on level ground. appraisal of the ecclesiastical status quo, but also in articu - A third striking feature of the conference was the variety lating alternatives to an inherited theological discourse that of issues addressed by participants. On the agenda were the favors patriarchy and clericalism. There is growing recogni - themes of the Second African Synod: reconciliation, justice tion that the quest for reconciliation, justice and peace is as and peace. Any observer of Africa and its predicament pressing for the church as it is for the wider society. And this would understand why these themes are crucial for the quest cannot bypass or overlook homegrown solutions. church in Africa, a continent reeling from the trauma of eth - This presents African theologians with a formidable, multi - nic division, economic mismanagement, human rights abus - faceted task: first, to explore and identify these potential es, political bigotry and civil and sectarian violence. These solutions; second, to articulate and analyze them systemati - crises affect the lives of all Africans. The ability and willing - cally in conversation with the Christian tradition and ness of African theologians to tackle these vexing ethical Catholic social teaching; and, third, to propose workable challenges is a measure of the credibility models and applications at the service of

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church doctrine and discipline and relate to public and exis - three-stage process outlined above follows that familiar pat - Y s e t tential concerns. The catalog of concerns ranges from tern. What is different is that the issues at stake are not just r u O c

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to economic injustice endemic in the mining industries in prompted some theologians to narrowly and erroneously N A h c Congo and Nigeria; from sexual, gender-based violence in depict the church in Africa merely as “the dancing church.” s A c

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ple of topics discussed at the Nairobi conference is enough t O h that the focus is simply ad extra . to remove any lingering doubt. p

November 5, 2012 America 19 Alison Munro, the South African nun who leads the conversation are preferred over confrontation. The result is a H.I.V./AIDS Office of the Southern African Catholic process of mutual listening and learning, a vital ingredient for Bishops’ Conference, demonstrated how the daunting task of constructing what the veteran African theologian Elochukwu dealing with the AIDS pandemic in South Africa is integral Uzukwu once designated as “the listening church.” to the church’s mission of justice and peace. The Nigerian- The Nairobi conference offers a new understanding of American scholar Anne Arabome made a powerful argument the nature and purpose of theology in Africa and in the in favor of justice as a practice that thrives only when women world church. First, theology resembles a team event where and men are accorded equal dignity in church and society. the rules of engagement favor conversation over confronta - One of the seven C.T.E.W.C. scholarship recipients, Anne tion, even in the midst of tumultuous and neuralgic debates Oyier, drew on personal experience of sectarian violence to in church and society. argue persuasively the case of holistic peace education as the Second, theology is work in progress informed by on- path toward effective reconciliation and lasting peace in the-ground realities. It is not about discussing arcane points Africa. Elisée Rutagambwa, S.J., offered a model for over - of doctrine or resisting critical analysis. Theology embodies coming the tension between the quest for justice and the and delineates a shared space large enough to accommodate necessity of reconciliation in concrete instances of violence, multiple quests to (re)interpret Christian tradition and like those in Northern Uganda and Rwanda. And David Scripture through sincere and respectful dialogue in the Kaulemu, a Zimbabwean lay theologian, proffered a method - unfolding context of church, society and the academy. In ology for promoting social justice founded on mutuality and this space openness to personal conversion would seem a collaboration between the church and civil society in Africa. precondition for effective dialogue and action. There can be no question about the strong and dynamic Finally, there is a generational turnover that recognizes currents that are now shaping the flow of theological dis - the wisdom and legacy of established theologians but cele - course in Africa. A unique characteristic of this discourse is brates the promise and vitality of young theologians intent the widening circle of conversation partners. African theolo - on furthering the mission of the world church. On the evi - gians no longer content themselves with talking to like-mind - dence of the dynamics and demographics of this genera - ed theologians; they are talking to bishops, civil society tional turnover in African theology, we would be right to groups and government representatives. This approach repre - proclaim with Pliny the Elder: “There is always something sents a new way of doing theology, in which collaboration and new out of Africa!” A

20 America November 5, 2012 FAITH IN FOCUS Toeing the Line Finding balance in long-distance running BY MICHAEL J. O’LOUGHLIN

ust before the race, I sat on a Benedict, La., who supplements a longer distances. stone wall and gazed at the demanding prayer schedule with long Forgoing formal prayer while run - Vermont mountains reflected in trail runs through the monastery’s ning, Brother Elias lets his mind wan - J 1,200 wooded acres. Brother Elias told der. “Sometimes it’s a processing time, a shimmering lake. It was early, but the park was already filled with me that his runs give him time to pro - when I think about what is going on people, thousands engaged in their cess his day and to connect with God. during the day, or work through what is personal rituals, calming their nerves “Running’s very much a spiritual thing going on in school,” he said. But a cer - or pumping themselves up. I was silent for me. It’s very much part of my rela - tain kind of prayer, lectio divina, offers a for a few moments, ignoring the com - tionship with God because it’s very method that he said is well suited for motion. After some encouraging much about being spiritually and phys - meditation on the run. It involves read - words from my best friend and de ically healthy,” he said. ing Scripture and focusing on a few facto trainer, I headed to the corrals. Like me, Brother Elias started run - words or phrases. The starting gun fired and I was off. ning to lose weight—at 5 ft. 9 in. He “Even though exercise is thought of Only 26.2 miles to go. once checked in at over 300 lbs.—but as tiring, when you do it you feel more For many, running is a spiritual prac - he quickly became aware of the comple - energized, physically and spiritually,” he tice, time to attune oneself to the work - mentary emotional and spiritual bene - said. “It gives me time to relax; it’s me- ings of the mind, one’s surroundings fits of long-distance running. Now, just and-God time. Whether it’s explicitly and the physical demands imposed on a few years after his first run with a fel - saying a prayer or just letting my mind one’s body. I had started running to get low seminarian, he has completed six go, it’s something for me that relaxes in shape and, with some cajoling from a full marathons, most recently finishing and deepens my spirituality as I do it.” close friend, began a quest to complete Boston, perhaps the world’s most pres - a full marathon. It was during the train - tigious race. Brother Elias crossed the Running Through my Mind ing that I realized I had come to depend finish line in just over four hours and 15 Much of what Brother Elias told me on running as time to clear my head, to minutes on a day when the temperature about the practice of lectio divina was meditate a bit and even to pray. I began flirted with 90 degrees. reiterated in what was, for me, an to see running as not simply physical The rule of St. Benedict that unexpected quarter. About a week exercise, but as a way to connect my orders a monk’s daily life compels before the Vermont marathon, I had spirit to God’s. monks to pray six times daily—vigils, picked up a copy of Running With the I am not alone in my newfound lauds, Eucharist, daytime prayer, ves - Mind of Meditation , by Sakyong

N i appreciation for spiritually infused run - pers and compline—and to keep a Mipham, a teacher of Buddhist medi - A W s d ning. With cropped brown hair and a rigorous work schedule. Ora et labo - tation and a seasoned marathoner, l O g

full beard, Brother Elias Eichorn, 25, is ra —pray and work—is their motto. If hoping to find some inspiration to get N e r r a monk at St. Joseph Abbey in St. he does not have work to do in the me through the race. As the running A W / k

monastery’s woodshop, Brother Elias maxim goes, a marathon is really a six- c O t s

finds time to run between lunch and mile race: experienced long-distance r e t MICHAEL J. O’LOUGHLIN contributes regu - t vespers. On Sunday afternoons, when runners manage the first 20 miles u h s larly to the blog In All Things on America’s :

the monks are free from many of their somewhat easily. After that, the liver O Web site. He lives, and runs, in Washington, t O h

D.C. work and prayer obligations, he runs loses its glycogen stores, a buildup of p

November 5, 2012 America 21 lactic acid causes muscles to stiffen and N.C.A.A. regional title. Then one day, to bring in over $40,000 during the the mind suffers. The remaining 6.2 during a routine track practice her 2012 race. miles feel like hell. The things I had sophomore year, she broke her foot. “I In the final minutes of my marathon muttered under my breath during the never really got back to where I was in Vermont, my reliance on spiritual last stage of my first marathon in before [the injury],” she said. In fact, it insight helped me get across the finish Providence, R.I., would have made a seemed she might never run again. “I line. I ran down a bike path with a sailor blush. I was hoping for a more had increased my training a lot, and beautiful view of the lake below but no enlightened finish in the Green then my foot pretty much broke in shade anywhere in sight. I was tired, Mountains. half,” she said. “I was running a regular hungry and incredibly thirsty. I yelled The Sakyong writes that running training run, and all of a sudden I went “Oh God!” somewhere along mile 24. It and meditation improve both physical from running to having a broken foot wasn’t prayer, but a cry of agony. My and spiritual health and can alleviate in about five minutes. I was like, friends and family were waiting for me pain. It’s how we react to the pain, he ‘You’re done.’” at the finish line, and I realized I could told me by e-mail, that we understand While taking time away from com - still finish in under four hours—my how we approach the world. “Pain is a petitive running, she began a serious goal—if I just kept my pace. I muttered natural part of life,” he wrote. “We will discernment process about what she what may qualify as a quick prayer: all have to deal with it at some point, wanted from life, a journey that ulti - “God get me through this.” Thinking so it is important to look at how we mately took her to a rough section of back to the Sakyong’s book, I tried to react to it and how we can approach it Chicago to join a small community of envision myself as a garuda, a mythical with a level of cheerfulness.” Catholic sisters, the Franciscans of the flying dragon whose image helps the I’m not sure I was cheerful as I Eucharist. “The injury made me Sakyong finish his races. lurched on in pain during those late reevaluate my life, and made me realize I decided to go for it, picking up miles in Vermont. My quads were on that running could not be my entire speed as the crowds increased along fire, my knees crunched with every life,” she said, adding that before that mile 25. With the finish line in sight, step, and my face was covered in sweat time she had little interest in her faith. the announcer declared that runners as the sun beat down. Still, I was not “Through a series of events, I came to had three minutes left to break the angry and miserable as I had been the a deeper faith in the Catholic Church. four-hour mark. I picked up steam and year before. Maybe the meditation was And that, the recovery, was when I tried to think of nothing but the finish working. “Many people believe that really started making running a spiri - line just ahead. I clocked in at 3:58. In meditation is about separating your - tual activity,” she said. my mind, I looked great with my arms self from reality, going to some far off Today, Sister Stephanie, 24, says that high in the air, waving to my friends. place where it is quiet and peaceful, physical activity helps her focus her When I saw the photo a few days later, away from the stress of everyday life,” mind on praying and frees her from dis - I realized I had actually looked like the Sakyong wrote to me. “[But] med - tractions that come easily. She said that death, a sort of determined zombie itation is more about connecting with from a Catholic perspective, meditation intent on capturing his next meal. who you are in this very moment.” involves thinking or praying about These days remixed pop nonsense something specific in an attempt to still blasts through my headphones as I Powered by Prayer achieve contemplation. This is the cruise through Rock Creek Park in When I needed inspiration to keep moment when an individual feels God’s Washington, D.C. But only some - going, to overcome the pain, the story very presence. Though rare for her, she times. Other days, the trees and sun - of Stephanie Baliga reminded me of said the few times she has experienced set, the people around me, God, or the mental and physical toughness this feeling happen to coincide with perhaps nothing at all, are my compan - some runners exude. Stephanie was a something resembling a runner’s high. ions. During my runs, I reconnect with wunderkind runner from the age of 9. In addition to offering her a time to myself, let go of the day’s worries, try In college she ran cross country at the pray and exercise, Sister Stephanie also to be present in the moment and to University of Illinois. Like many elite uses running as a way to serve the poor. dream about the future. In these athletes, her desire to win and to fur - Her church is finishing up a massive moments I find grace, and I embrace ther her own ambition was her prima - renovation project thanks to a $21,000 the long silences and the solitude as ry motivation. After walking on to the contribution offered by a team, led by opportunities for reflection and spiri - team at Illinois, she finished 21st in Sister Stephanie, that ran the Chicago tual growth. And when the finish line the Big Ten, was ranked sixth in the marathon in 2011. She finished the seems too far away, I dig for the nation and helped Illinois win its first race in 3:43:53. Sister Stephanie hopes strength to continue. A

22 America November 5, 2012 BOOKS &CULTURE

FALL BOOKS II | STEPHEN ZUNES The author takes a sober and realis - tic view of the struggles, avoiding WHEN WINTER THREATENS falling into either an overly idealistic or overly cynical view of the revolutions’ THE ARAB UPRISING that the U.S. invasion of Iraq advanced eventual outcomes. Noting how previ - The Unfinished Revolutions of democracy in the region and notes ous waves of protests in the Arab The New Middle East how the phony pro-democracy world actually led to greater repres - Marc Lynch rhetoric of the Bush administration to sion, he recognizes that there would PublicAffairs. 288p $26.99 rationalize for its imperial ambitions inevitably be some reversals, disap - actually served to discredit and set pointing political outcomes and com - Marc Lynch, a professor of political back the genuine pro-democracy petitive foreign interventions that science at George Washington struggles of indigenous activists. would frustrate aspirations for free - University, has written one of the best Lynch not only provides narratives dom and justice. He recognizes that books to date on the popular revolts and analysis of individual struggles in the problems facing the Arab world that have swept the Arab world over Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain are deep and structural and span gen - the past two years. The Arab Uprising erations. Yet he also recognizes that is a very readable overview of these while happy endings are not guaran - remarkable events, suitable both for teed, Arab peoples will continue to those with background in Middle resist authoritarianism and social Eastern politics as well as those less injustice, and that the combination of familiar with the region. political repression and economic One of the most important of hardship that sparked the revolutions Lynch’s contributions is providing his - will continue to drive popular resis - torical background. Lynch emphasizes tance until political systems are in that the mass mobilizations of the past place that provide at least some hope two years are not novel, and he out - of addressing these grievances. lines several earlier waves of uprisings Another important contribution is in the region. At the same time, he rec - Lynch’s refusal to deny agency to those ognizes that these previous protests who made the revolutions possible— “did not in themselves challenge any of the ordinary Arab citizens who faced the basic operating principles of the down the tanks, often with their bare regional order.” By contrast, he notes hands. He recognizes that the driving how the Arab Spring was not only suc - forces were not traditional opposition cessful in ousting autocratic regimes, leaders or foreign governments, but but—unlike these previous periods— the people themselves. He also refuses the regimes’ repression backfired and and Syria—as well as smaller protests to overstate the role of Twitter, national protests became part of a in other Arab countries—but also Facebook and other social media, rec - regional phenomenon. examines overall trends of protests ognizing that while they can be benefi - Lynch is quite frank about the long resisting regime power. Indeed, the cial tools in a popular struggle, they are and sordid history of U.S. support for comprehensiveness of his coverage of not causal factors. authoritarianism in the region, includ - these remarkable events in just 235 Lynch defends President Obama ing how the United States punished pages is quite impressive, though I was from criticisms from both the right Yemen and Jordan for their genuine, if disappointed that he failed to mention and left, recognizing that the presi - limited, democratic openings in the the large nonviolent protests in dent had the wisdom to recognize the early 1990s and then increased aid and Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, limits of American influence and that assistance as the repression increased. which preceded the Tunisian revolt by the future of the Middle East He appropriately dismisses any claims two months. belonged to those represented in these

November 5, 2012 America 23 popular movements for democracy widespread methods of struggle. tion using a “semi-Cubistic” process. and social justice. Lynch acknowl - Lynch tends, for example, to blame the For him, form and composition over - edges that strategic issues still often failure of nonviolent means in Libya powered color and light, and Benton trump concerns about human and Syria on the ruthlessness of the commonly made clay models before rights—as with the administration’s regimes rather than on the countries’ painting. His scenes had “bumps and support for the autocratic monarchy unique circumstances, which made hollows” that defined power in both in Bahrain despite their brutal crack - any kind of revolutionary challenge landscapes and human figures. down against that island nation’s pro- problematic or the strategic failures of Achieving that personal style— democracy movement. But there are the opposition to apply nonviolent tac - then defending it, sometimes with fury points where Lynch, who served as an tics more effectively. For example, and quick fists, to artists and critics— advisor to the White House during Lynch argues that Assad’s officers became a lifelong struggle that led the uprisings, is perhaps too forgiving “had none of the Egyptian or Tunisian Benton to personify the 20th century’s of the administration’s slowness in qualms about shooting on their own turbulent politics and aesthetics. Born breaking with allied dictatorships in people.” In reality, Egyptian security in 1889 in Neosho, Mo., he was the Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and its forces killed over 800 protesters over son of a U.S. Congressman and great- continued support for the region’s an 18-day period, an even higher rate nephew of namesake Senator Thomas autocratic monarchies. of killing than during the nonviolent Hart Benton, a populist advocate for Similarly, he makes convincing phase of the Syrian revolt, and the Manifest Destiny. Resisting his father’s arguments against some of the more refusal of Tunisian officers to shoot wish for a political career, Benton still simplistic criticisms of the NATO into crowds as ordered by President felt empowered by debates about the intervention in Libya and correctly Ben Ali was less about moral qualms public good. “My original purpose,” he notes the surprisingly strong support as it was the awareness that their sol - said of his art, “was to present a peo - for the military campaign in the Arab diers were unlikely to obey. ple’s history in contrast to the conven - world, but he fails to address ade - Overall, however, if I were to sug - tional histories which generally spot - quately some of the more valid, gest just one book to read about the lighted great men, political and mili - nuanced critiques or consider less vio - revolutions that have swept the tary events and successions of ideas. I lent alternatives. Middle East in the past two years, The wanted to show that the people’s Perhaps the biggest disappointment Arab Uprising would be my choice. behaviors, their action on the opening is the book’s failure to address more land, was the primary reality of thoroughly the centrality of strategic American life…” STEPHEN ZUNES is a professor of politics and nonviolent action or exhibit much coordinator of Middle Eastern studies at the Young Tom first discovered murals understanding of these increasingly University of San Francisco. when he wandered from his Capitol Hill home into the Library of Congress and espied sweeping images by Elihu WILLIAM LANOUETTE Vedder depicting “Government” as a struggle between “Corrupt Legislation” GRUMPY GENIUS and “Good Administration”; both forces balancing panels THOMAS HART BENTON Benton was a self-pro - that pit “Anarchy” A Life fessed “half-hobo and against “Peace and By Justin Wolff half-highbrow.” A Prosperity.” At his Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. 401p $40 grumpy and grandiose mother’s urging, Benton genius. An American studied art in Paris, Manhattan and Martha’s original. Washington and became Vineyard are hardly places we envision “I taught what I was a newspaper cartoonist when thinking about Thomas Hart trying to learn,” Benton in Joplin, Mo. Studies at Benton. Yet in this engaging and sur - said of his instruction at the Art Institute of prising biography, the celebrated the Art Students League Chicago led in 1909 to muralist and Regionalist painter owes in New York City dur - Paris and the conflict as much to these three places as to his ing the 1920s. He was between modernism and home state of Missouri and the updating Renaissance tradition. Midwest prairies he painted so often. and Baroque composi - An art history pro -

24 America November 5, 2012 fessor at the University of Maine, For Benton, especially, seeking the on an ocean-side bluff, and in a horri - Justin Wolff tells Benton’s story in rich truth through art meant revealing fying painting of a family’s tragic detail and an open, unaffected style. America’s greed along with its good - escape from tidal waves during the He traces trends in politics and art ness. In commissioned murals cele - 1938 hurricane. “People of Chilmark” with authority and ease, showing us brating Missouri’s history, Benton shows island natives at work and play, how Benton’s leftist beliefs drove his painted the “Frankie and Johnny” leg - their entwined and fluid figures row - art. Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw end about lust and revenge; and in one ing, sailing, swimming, raking, danc - and the American historian Charles for Indiana he included a Ku Klux ing and clutching a beach ball with all Beard all informed Benton’s views, and Klan rally. A panel titled “Aggression” the color and brio of a Titian or El Beard especially imbued Benton’s in his mural on “The American Greco. Benton said he felt truly him - socioeconomic interpretation of Historical Epic” highlighted mutual self on the island, where he spent American expansion. But while slaughter by Indians and settlers. summers and other seasons for half a Benton taught art at The New School Unlike Wood and Curry, Benton century. He died there, of a heart in New York during its socialist hey - found authentic subjects on attack, in 1975. day, he rejected many of the left’s polit - Manhattan subways and Martha’s ical dogmas. Vineyard beaches. The Vineyard’s WILLIAM LANOUETTE is the author of Benton dabbled in abstract paint - shifting moods come alive in his Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of ing, but rejected the European mod - intriguing “Self-Portrait with Rita” Leo Szilard , The Man Behind the Bomb . ernism promoted in New York by Alfred Stieglitz. Instead, he embraced American populist themes that cele - GEORGE DENNIS O’BRIEN brated “localized knowledge” as essen - tial for artistic integrity. With the A CHRISTIAN REALIST Iowan Grant Wood and the Kansan John Steuart Curry, Benton created WHY NIEBUHR NOW? In the brief compass of 117 pages, American Regionalism, which cele - By John Patrick Diggins Niebuhr is placed in conversation with brated rural life. Their efforts led to University of Chicago Press. 136p $22 commentators on America from John Time magazine’s first cover story on Adams and Alexis de Tocqueville to art in 1934, depicting a self-portrait by John Patrick Diggins Henry Adams and Benton. was raised a Catholic but Walter Lippmann. Wolff’s Benton is a contrary and said “in the early 1950s I Diggins’s brief sum - contentious artist with a life and lost my faith and found maries of the various works as turbulent as his country’s my mind.” He went on to commentators on the scarred history. He meets Robert be a distinguished American soul are Henri, George Grosz, Diego Rivera, American intellectual pointed. The only limi - John Marin and Gertrude Stein in historian, the author of tation is that it can be Paris; and in New York knows books on such diverse difficult to capture the George Bellows, Marcel Duchamp, cultural figures as depth of the great quar - Stuart Davis and Rockwell Kent. He Abraham Lincoln and rel about the American teaches and mentors (and his wife, Eugene O’Neill. He died soul when major Rita, mothers) Jackson Pollock, in 2009 before complet - thinkers like Thorstein whose abstract expressionism Benton ing a manuscript of the Veblen or John Dewey rejects, but whose troubled life he present book. (The final appear only as walk-ons. comforts. Benton jokes and sips bour - version was assembled by his partner, Reinhold Niebuhr died in 1971. bon with Harry Truman before Elizabeth Harlan, and his most prized Why Niebuhr now? Because political beginning a mural at his presidential student, Robert Huberty). Given advocates left and right have recently library in Independence, Mo. He Diggins’s personal history and academ - claimed his legacy as their own. The debates art’s utility with Frank Lloyd ic specialty, it is not Niebuhr’s theology right applauds his legitimation of Wright, argues politics with William that is the focus of this brief study, but American military power, the left lays Carlos Williams and Lewis Mumford Reinhold Niebuhr as a critic of claim to his deep concern for social and plays harmonica in a band with American history. On that subject he justice. If Niebuhr right and left seems Pete Seeger’s father. remains a powerful voice. a paradox, it is because paradox is cen -

26 America November 5, 2012

tral to his thought. Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize speech, in which he acknowledged the paradox of a peace prize given to the commander-in-chief of two wars, was straight Niebuhr—as was noted by many commentators. Through the crises of the Depression, World War II and the cold war, Reinhold Niebuhr was an ever-present figure in public debate in books, preaching, articles, speeches and as a consultant to the State Department. The cover of the 25th anniversary of Time magazine fea - tured his picture. (The article was by Whittaker Chambers.) Given the gloomy history of poverty and war through which he lived, one can understand the appeal of his thought. Niebuhr saw human beings as free but finite. The inevitable failure to resolve freedom and finitude shadows even our best actions. A quip that appeared in the London Times Literary Supplement was a special favorite of Niebuhr: “The doctrine of original sin is the only empirically verifiable doc - trine of the Christian faith.” To the dismay of rational or reli - gious idealists who see clear human progress through reason or ardent faith, Niebuhr posited the persistence of sin. Why? The realism of power. Diggins comments on Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932): “Niebuhr agreed that individuals may use their capacity for reason and the love of God to transcend their natural drives and self interest, but he argued that the individual conscience is lost as soon as human behavior becomes collective.” Given the paradox of power, it is easy enough to see why right-wing political conservatives claim Niebuhr. Individuals can be moral, but collective behavior leads to overweening govern - ment. To them, socialism is sin. The left has its own concerns about collec - tive power. It is not the government that is the true enemy, it is the concen - trated power of industrial capital that threatens the quest for a just society. In

28 America November 5, 2012 The Catholic Imagination Practical Theology for the Liturgical Year by Skya Abbate Inspirational, practical theology that captures the faith, richly grounded in Scripture and compassionate reflection. The Catholic Imagination, Practical Theology for the Liturgical Year, is a journey through the liturgical year by way of weekly reflections on the life of the church. Through reading, thinking, and discussion, the religious imagination is stimulated and structured so the reader can reflect on and act upon the richness of our faith to enter into a relationship with God. Reflections on the lives of the saints, their writings, their meaning for our times, the importance and value of creation and the natural world, the significance of the sacraments, sacramental devotions, and the timelessnesss of the gospel message encourage the reader to coordinate their actions with the weekly topic. The book offers big ideas in a small package, a weekly lesson to learn as part of on-going catechesis on one’s own time. Orders available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle edition, ISBN: 978-1-62032-051-8 /$21 / 182 pp. / paper from your favorite book seller or order directly from the publisher www.wipfandstock.com via phone (541) 344-1528, fax (541) 344-1506, or e-mail us at [email protected] Media, Examination, and Review Copies: Contact: James Stock (541) 344-1528 ext 103 or [email protected]

November 5, 2012 America 29 the 1920s Niebuhr was a pastor in from rational dialogue or prayer; it loyalties and more parochial Detroit. He was appalled by urban required the assertion of military interests. It...expresses itself, on poverty and during his life was deeply power. Power is not, however, self-jus - occasion, with such fervor that involved in the labor movement. The tifying; it too stands convicted of sin. the critical attitude toward the collective power of labor was needed Niebuhr defended the war but pub - nation and its enterprises is to check the sovereignty of corpora - licly condemned the bombing of almost completely destroyed. The tions. He supported New Deal legisla - Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a sin unqualified character of the devo - tion and helped found the “left wing” against the law of God and the tion is the very basis of the Americans for Democratic Action. Japanese people. nation’s power and the freedom In 1928 Niebuhr moved to Union For Niebuhr, sinful use of power can to use power without moral Theological Seminary in New York as be a special American temptation. If restraint. Thus the unselfishness professor of practical theology. What America is John Winthrop’s “city upon of individuals makes for the self - stance should a professor of practical a hill,” patriotism will take on a high ishness of nations. theology take toward the growth of moral gloss. Americans will go to war Nazism and the war which eventuated only for the very highest motives. The Given our present wars pursued for from German aggression? John great Civil War anthem begins, “Mine nothing less than freedom, Niebuhr’s Dewey, a consistent critic of Niebuhr, eyes have seen the glory of the coming warning about sin remains. spoke from the presumed standpoint of the Lord.” World War I would “make Theological Postscript : Not many of reason and liberalism in a 1939 arti - the world safe for Democracy.” theologians make the front page of cle “No Matter What Happens—Stay Niebuhr’s comment is telling: anything. Another theologian to make Out!” If reason said, “Stay out!” so did a Time cover was Stanley Hauerwas in many Christian commentators caught The paradox of patriotism trans - 2001, the same year that he delivered up in Oxford Group pacifism. mutes individual unselfishness the Gifford Lectures, the same lecture - Niebuhr rejected isolationism and into national egoism. Loyalty to ship that was the basis of Niebuhr’s pacifism as idealistic; neither knew sin. the nation is the highest form of major work, The Nature and Destiny of Peace with Hitler would not come altruism when compared to lesser Man (1939). Hauerwas devoted two long lectures to questioning Niebuhr as a theologian. There is something to that charge. Diggins notes that Niebuhr never offered any argument for the existence of God, and God is never mentioned in the titles of his many books. What impressed Niebuhr was sin: “the only empirically verifiable truth of Christian faith.” Hauerwas questioned whether God can be reached by “empirical truth.” Do we need “sin” to believe Lord Acton’s epigram, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?

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30 America November 5, 2012 November 5, 2012 America 31 TIMOTHY O’BRIEN rather quickly. What there is is quite rich, however, and Angela Alaimo LET US PRAY O’Donnell has done a great service in preparing this text. Also within the THE PROVINCE OF JOY merely reading along. framework of liturgical Praying With Flannery O’Connor The book contains a prayer, J. Michael Angela Alaimo O’Donnell week’s worth of morn - Thompson’s Saints of the Paraclete Press. 160p $16.99 ing and evening Roman Missal offers sup - prayer, adapted from plementary resources for SAINTS OF THE ROMAN the Liturgy of the the saints added (or, in MISSAL, PRAY FOR US Hours. Each day cen - some cases, re-added) to J. Michael Thompson ters on a theme drawn the latest English version Liguori. 144p $14.99 from O’Connor’s life of the Roman Missal. For (e.g., blindness and each of these, Thompson A WORLD OF PRAYER vision, limitation and includes a short biogra - Spiritual Leaders, Activists, and grace) and each “hour” phy, text for reflection Humanitarians Share Their includes brief texts and a brief prayer—fea - Favorite Prayers from her letters and tures that would be of Rosalind Bradley, ed. writings, offered for meditation. service to preachers or religion teach - Orbis Press. 240p $25 O’Donnell has helpfully included ers in particular. The format also has poems and prayers that Flannery her - the happy effect of highlighting the There are as many self found spiritually international face of the latest Roman ways to pray as there fruitful and which offer a Missal, which includes saints from are people who pray, a glimpse into her own around the globe and even some vener - diversity that extends prayer. Taken together ated in non-Latin rites. to books about prayer with the excerpts from The book’s distinguishing mark is as well. These three O’Connor’s own writing, that Thompson, a liturgical musician, recent releases are these underscore that has prepared new hymns (set to famil - quite different, but nonsacred texts are privi - iar melodies) for each saint. Fitting each touches upon leged places where graced new words to old music is a challeng - important aspects of contact with God can ing task, but it is one Thompson typi - the spiritual life that occur. This is a refresh - cally does well. At times, however, the undergirds Christian ing idea for novice and pairing of tune and text feels some - living. more seasoned pray-ers what incongruous. A good example is Recent years have alike, and one that opens verse two of the hymn honoring St. seen an outpouring of up the vast poetic and lit - Christopher Magallanes and popular and scholarly books about erary riches of Christianity as well - Companions (May 21), set to Flannery O’Connor. Despite the springs for personal Beethoven’s “Ode to intense literary and biographical focus prayer. Joy”: “In a time of perse - accorded this Catholic novelist, The only drawback cution/ When the emphasis on her own life of faith and of this book is that Church in Mexico/ prayer has been comparatively rare. there is not more of it, Suffered in the fiercest The Province of Joy , by the Fordham literally. Typically, only manner/ And the streets University professor and America two passages from with blood did flow,/ contributor Angela Alaimo Flannery’s writings are God called men and O’Donnell, helps fill this notable gap. presented for medita - women martyrs/ That All who pray (or want to pray) will tion each day, one their lives in sacrifice/ profit from this slender and attractive each at morning Might be freely, fully volume—not just Flannery devotees. and evening prayer. given/ For their faith The true fruit of O’Donnell’s work Consequently, the beyond all price.” comes in praying with it, as opposed to texts grow familiar Though the lyrics match

32 America November 5, 2012 the tune’s meter, singing about blood- These issues are minor, however, still, it is of use for all of us who seek to soaked streets feels a bit disorienting and Bradley is surely correct on a deepen our religious literacy in a world when the hymn’s tempo seems much major point: that prayer, common to that is growing increasingly more more amenable to “Stars and angels all faiths, can lead individuals to bridge diverse. sing around Thee/ Center of unbro - religious divides. In that spirit, this ken praise.” In the main, though, text can serve as a valuable resource for TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, S.J. , is a graduate stu - dent at the University of Chicago Divinity Thompson has given us settings that those who work in interreligious dia - School and assistant editor of The Jesuit Post can be helpful for communal worship, logue or who are interested in it. Better (www.thejesuitpost.org). making this book a worthy compan - ion for parish music ministers. Rosalind Bradley’s edited volume, JAMES T. KEANE A World of Prayer , approaches the spiritual life from an interreligious BROKEN WINGS angle, offering a collection of favorite prayers from noted individuals rather FARTHER AWAY loved, but also a friend who killed than a how-to manual for spiritual By Jonathan Franzen himself “in a way calculated to inflict types. Herself part of an Australian Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 321p $26 maximum pain on those he loved interfaith organization, Bradley does most, and we who loved him were left this with an eye towards “finding ways Can anyone hold a candle to Jonathan feeling angry and betrayed.” In to transcend religious divides and fos - Franzen in the world of contemporary attempting to make sense of his own ter understanding and mutual respect American belles lettres ? Perhaps the best struggle—between seeking to honor between the world’s religions.” candidate was the late novelist David Wallace but simultaneously rejecting The prayers themselves point to Foster Wallace, whose unfinished efforts to canonize his life or sanitize areas of commonality among religious posthumous novel The Pale King was a his death—Franzen writes some of traditions as diverse as Christianity, finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize the most moving nonfiction of his Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism, (which was ultimately career. Wallace was “as Quakerism, Hinduism, Baha’ism and unawarded). Farther passionate and precise Taoism. Submissions from over 100 Away , a new essay collec - a punctuator of prose individuals of notemostly humanitar - tion by Franzen, includes as has ever walked this ians and religious leadersare includ - among its most poignant earth,” Franzen com - ed, and the array of personalities sur - moments Franzen’s ments in another essay veyed is truly remarkable. It is no small reflections and rumina - (drawn from his feat to assemble reflections from tions upon the life and remarks at DFW’s Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, death of his friend and memorial service). He Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., Archbishop fellow literary darling. was also someone for Rowan Williams and Yusuf Islam (the No one who reads this whom love and fear performer formerly known as Cat collection could doubt existed in equal Stevens). that the 2008 suicide of amounts, and ultimate - Bradley’s book is successful at giv - “DFW” was an over - ly the author of Infinite ing a sense of how other people pray. shadowing event that Jest “had all too ready Just reading the selections challenges affected Franzen deeply, and his writ - access to those depths of infinite sad - rigid distinctions between “our” ings on that relationship alone would ness.” prayers and “their” prayers, however make for an intriguing collection of On less gut-wrenching topics, conceived. On the other hand, the essays. There is more here, however, Franzen’s efforts are spottier. The text’s utility for deepening one’s own and much of what else is found is lack - number of book reviews here seems prayer life is somewhat less apparent. ing, making for an uneven and some - out of context, particularly sand - And though the goal of the text is to times jarring collection. wiched in as they are with long-form increase understanding across faiths, Wallace, Franzen writes in the essay essays. There is an extraordinarily the entries included sometimes give a from which the book takes its name well-crafted essay, “On better sense of the individual (all 21 essays included were previously Autobiographical Fiction,” in which practitioner than of his or her religious published), was a mentally ill and Franzen’s views on the writer’s craft tradition. depressed friend whom he simply prove fascinating. At one point he

November 5, 2012 America 33 reflects on a conversation he had with as somewhat sanctimonious and eli - endeavor, but, in a funny way, it keeps his own mother on her deathbed, in tist, someone with little interest in reli - the focus on the self, on the self’s own the context of a writer’s attempt to gion or morality who has filled in the moral or spiritual well-being.” Exactly overcome his or her own self-con - space left by their absence with a three pages later , he confesses that “it’s a sciousness. After he delivers a kind of humorless and unimaginative kind of long story, but basically I fell in love apology to her for his life’s idiosyn - tsk-tsk moralizing about the bad man - with birds.” Love of birds, he notes crasies, she forgives him by noting, ners of others. Anyone living in (unlike love of humanity?), “became a “Well, you’re an eccentric.” Franzen Brooklyn, in Berkeley, in Madison, in portal to an important, less self-cen - pushes beyond her apparent absolu - Seattle, in any urban neighborhood tered part of myself that I’d never even tion, however, identifying her com - whose name ends with “Centre” or known existed.” If you have read ment with a perhaps-unconscious “Village,” has friends who remind one Franzen’s novel Freedom , you’ll recog - desire to communicate to him that he of Franzen in his more smug nize the character of Walter right takes himself too seriously. “And this moments. I am terrified I sound like there, a man who finds love of birds an was one of her last gifts to me: the smug Franzen myself. Regularly when escape from narcissism but love of implicit instruction not to worry so I encounter others like this, I think humanity somehow self-serving. much about what she, or anybody else, these people are actually reading In the same vein (and speaking of might think of me.” Franzen . More often, they are talking birds), an essay on endangered song - Every writer knows that struggle— in a monotone delivery (learned by birds reinforces this occasional sense from Harold Bloom’s literary theory of osmosis from NPR, I am certain) of unintentional self-parody. In “The “the anxiety of influence” to the endless about someone they saw smoking, Ugly Mediterranean,” a long and inter - silent competition among peers about the distasteful mention of Jesus esting but heavily moralizing essay (Franzen admits his own rivalry with in public discourse, about the regret - about poaching, he segues at the very Wallace) that makes up such a part of table attention being paid to some end into a brief discussion of St. the writing life. Reading Franzen on public human tragedy, the coverage of Francis of Assisi. By his reckoning, no these matters, we see him at his most which is inevitably referred to as one since Jesus has lived the Gospel human—despairing of choices made “lachrymose.” better than Francis. Francis, he writes, in life, cognizant of the danger of A good example of this tendency “went Jesus one better and extended excessive self-reflection, adoring of the can be found in the first essay, adapted his gospel to all creation.” This partic - genius of his friends. And writing, and from a graduation speech Franzen ular bit of environmentalist sanctimo - writing. delivered at Kenyon College in 2011, ny appears in the same essay where There are also, unfortunately, where Franzen notes that “trying to Franzen openly admits to illegally eat - moments where Franzen comes across love all of humanity may be a worthy ing endangered songbirds. His sorrow for the poaching of said songbirds has nevertheless caused him to conclude “the blue of the Mediterranean isn’t pretty to me anymore.” We are a long way from the Pulitzer here. The ultimate impression one takes away from this uneven collection is that Franzen is an extraordinarily tal - ented writer whose best subject (when it comes to non-fiction), is writing itself. He is sincere in his love of what he loves and the people whom he loves, but he can also be a bit of a predictable bore. When the subject matter is right, Franzen is the best; when the subject matter is not, dare I say Franzen is for the birds?

JAMES T. KEANE is a former associate editor of America .

34 America November 5, 2012 “Tillich deplored Dalí’s work as a sam - ART | MICHAEL ANTHONY NOVAK ple of the very worst in ‘what is called MISUNDERSTOOD MASTERPIECE the religious revival of today.’ The depiction of Jesus did not fool Tillich: Salvador Dalí’s ‘The Sacrament of the Last Supper’ ‘A sentimental but very good athlete on an American baseball team... The Since its purchase in 1956 by the Dalí’s image was a clear example of technique is a beautifying naturalism National Gallery of Art in Christian meaning being lost to a of the worst kind. I am horrified by it!’ Washington, The Sacrament of the vague existentialism: “This intangible Tillich added it all up: ‘Simply junk!’” Last Supper , an oil painting by Christ which Dalí painted is in sharp Both theologians misunderstood . 5

5 Salvador Dalí (1904-89), has replaced contrast to the bodies of the apostles the image, however, as a depiction of 9 1

. i l Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Girl With a who are physically solid in the pic - the Last Supper. That is not surpris - A d

r Watering Can” as the museum’s most ture. Dalí explained in his interviews ing. Familiarity with the Leonardo da O d A V

l popular work (pushing her “into the that he had found a mystical meaning Vinci masterpiece causes most of us A s

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t Francis Schaeffer and Paul Tillich, veyed during a lecture on religion and 1949. His journey home had started e O h h t “ p have also weighed in. For Schaeffer, art, was reported by Time magazine: years earlier when he found himself

November 5, 2012 America 35 stirred by the poetry of of the Spanish explore a mystical edge of Christianity we would identify those at table as the mystic St. John of the Cross. Dalí’s first that had been particularly challenged Twelve Apostles. A second look makes painting with an explicitly religious by a sterile view of modern science. us question that assumption. For these theme, the surrealist “Temptation of are mirror images of one another: six Saint Anthony,” appeared in 1946. By A Close Look sets of twins around the table, not the the time of his public embrace of By placing Christ’s face at the center of historical followers of Jesus. The fig - Catholicism, however, Dalí had broken the painting, which intersects with the ures painted here are not important with the Surrealists (though he horizon line, and by placing the sun - for their personalities, but for their remains the most well-known of the light’s source at that intersection point, actions: their reverent prayer and wor - Surrealist painters) and had the figure of Christ dominates “The ship. They direct their attention not to announced his intention to “become Sacrament of the Last Supper.” The Christ, for he is not visibly seated with classical,” combining Surrealist visual Christ then directs our eye upward to them, but toward the altar. What liberties with a High Renaissance the figure that would otherwise domi - inspires their worship is set on the treatment of the body. nate the painting, a giant torso whose table, solid and casting shadows: the Dalí was excited by the possibilities arms span the width of the picture bread and the wine. This is the of expressing mystical ideas in light of plane. This figure is likely the intended Eucharist, the sacrament of the Last new visions of reality made possible by focus because our eye is directed Supper. nuclear physics. He dismissed the “sci - around the canvas to this spot; both ence versus religion” dichotomy, noting figures are transparent. Christ gestures The Real Presence “not a single philosophic, moral, aes - with his left hand toward himself and Instead of painting a historical Last thetic or biological discovery allows with his right hand points to the figure Supper as Leonardo did, Dalí gives us the denial of God.” His Surrealist art above. He looks like a visual represen - the real presence of Christ in the had been dominated by Freudian tation of Jesus’ reply to his disciple Eucharist. motifs, but from then on, his art would Philip, who asked at the Last Supper, The real presence is a cornerstone take on the Christian heritage in its “Lord, show us the Father….” “Don’t of Catholic spirituality. The mystical content and depth. Dalí began to you know me, Philip, even after I have aspect of the doctrine caught Dalí’s been among you such a long time?” attention. The classic definition of a Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen sacrament (a visible sign of an invisible me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:8-9). reality) conveys well the Catholic The Father’s face is appropriately understanding. On the table are the off the canvas; this is the transcen - bread and wine. Also depicted is the dent God who warned Moses, “You invisible reality—Christ, the sacra - cannot see my face, for no one may ment of God on earth, the Father in see me and live” (Ex 33:20). The full this mystical 12-sided heaven—truly presence of the Triune God is made and really present to those who receive complete by the inclusion of an illu - him. sory Holy Spirit dove perched on Dalí’s intention is to make visible Christ’s left shoulder, composed of what occurs in every celebration of the OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOU! the lines of his hair and jaw. Mass: that the worship on earth makes The setting is distinctive: a dodeca - present the realities of the worship in hedron, or 12-sided space, that we per - heaven. The real presence of Christ ceive in the pentagon-shaped window - means the real presence of the Father. PLEASE panes behind the table. The architec - The community drawn together in REMEMBER ture is also transparent. The dodeca - recognition of this miracle—the hedron is an ancient symbol of heaven, church—reveals the real presence of AMERICA where this event is taking place. This is the Holy Spirit. Where the Trinity is, IN YOUR WILL the realm of the Father, who casts a heaven is: unseen with our eyes, but shadow on the otherwise invisible sensed and recognized in our prayer. architecture. With his outstretched arms the Father embraces both heaven MICHAEL ANTHONY NOVAK is visiting assistant professor of Catholic theology in the OUR LEGAL TITLE IS: and earth. AMERICA PRESS INC., department of religious studies at Loyola 106 WEST 56th STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10019 Assuming traditional symbolism, University New Orleans.

36 America November 5, 2012 LETTERS bidden to enter the sanctuary before the whole corrupt house to fall before the priest first consumes the sacred we can build it up again? species. (REV.) MR. RICHARD WARREN Time to Draw the Curtain Springfield, Ore. I admit to a certain wistfulness on the The Rev. Andrew Greeley, speaking part of those of us old enough to from an expertise totally alien to the Who Has the Spirit? remember photos like the one on the American hierarchy, showed that a Thank you for the issue marking the cover of the Oct. 8 issue showing parish can be judged mainly by the anniversary of the Second Vatican Good Pope John. I felt I was in a time excellence of its music and its homilies. Council (10/8). It is one of your best warp, again viewing this scene, replete Since Vatican II, I would add the qual - ever. But most of the articles skirt with the copes and a retinue of clerics ity of its liturgy. Music, preaching, around the issue of the present pope, that characterized the triumphant liturgy. I have no idea where to find many bishops and the Curia being panoply of pre-Vatican II ceremonies. this parish today. obsessed with authority, power and It is therefore ironic that so many of What have we to celebrate, except control. us have moved on from being edified perhaps the spirit, who is waiting for by that kind of display of liturgical life to being completely alienated from it title is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, except for nostalgia. We have moved CLASSIFIED New York, NY 10019. into what the spirit of Vatican II has Retreats America classified. Classified advertisements are emphasized as the “people of God” BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, accepted for publication in either the print version of and the more ancient “priesthood of all Ind., offers private and individually directed America or on our Web site, www.americam - silent retreats, including dreamwork and believers.” This marked a pivotal agazine.org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are per Ignatian 30 days, year-round in a prayerful word per issue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: moment in our experience of liturgy, home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz, P.H.J.C.; Ph: $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 church and identity. (219) 398-5047; [email protected]; times or more: $1.12. For an additional $30, your bethanyretreathouse.org. This photo thus symbolizes the print ad will be posted on America ’s Web site for one week. The flat rate for a Web-only classified ad transitional death-knell of medieval NEED SILENCE AND PRAYER? Come to One is $150 for 30 days. Ads may be submitted by e- liturgy to the birth pangs of the church Heart, One Soul Spirituality Center, Kankakee, mail to: [email protected]; by fax to Ill. Peaceful wooded river-front setting with her - (928) 222-2107; by postal mail to: Classified in aggiornamento. It also symbolized mitages, private rooms and meeting facilities. the eventual demise of a liturgical Department, America , 106 West 56th St., New Ph.: (815) 937-2244; www.sscm- York, NY 10019. To post a classified ad online, go experience that was so powerfully usa.org/ohos.html. to our home page and click on “Advertising” at the evocative of the transcendent for many top of the page. We do not accept ad copy over the of us a few generations ago. Wills phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more DAVID E. PASINSKI Please remember America in your will. Our legal information call: (212) 515-0102. Fayetteville, N.Y.

Let It Fall America’ s cover “Celebrating Vatican II” (10/8) left me nonplussed. Celebrate? My parish, St. Alice in Springfield, Ore., now situates the tabernacle centered behind the altar table. It’s the central focus. We use a translation of the Sacramentary that suggests the word “consubstantial” is somehow holier than “one in being with the Father,” and our pastor (administrator) tells us how fortunate we are to be allowed to use this and such Latinized words in the new translation. We extol the Manichaeism of Augustine with “And with your spirit.” Laypeople still assist in the dis - tribution of the Eucharist but are for -

November 5, 2012 America 37 Why can’t you just say it? In spite of rather than predating it). with low-level enemy combatants.” their protests, they would like to dump U.S. officials knew that many or Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff to the progressive changes in the church most of the Gitmo detainees were Secretary of State Colin Powell under and go back to the church as pope and there by mistake. Seymour Hersh the Bush administration, testified hierarchy—forget the people of God. I reports in Chain of Command that an under oath in 2010 that Bush, Cheney think they sincerely believe that the early internal analysis by the Central and Rumsfeld knew in 2002 that most Spirit speaks to and through them Intelligence Agency determined that of the Guantanamo detainees were only. more than half of the detainees did not innocent. J. PETER SMITH belong there. Jane Mayer reported in JAMIE MAYERFELD Vero Beach, Fla. Seattle, Wash. The Dark Side that early on, Maj. Gen. Michael E. Dunlavey thought that one We’re Stuck They Knew It Was Wrong third of the then 600 detainees were Concerning “Obama’s Scandal”: Sure, Re “Obama’s Scandal” (Editorial, there by mistake, and he later raised innocents all over those battlefields 10/22): In Guantánamo, almost all of the estimate to one half. Also, another captured by bored soldiers offering the detainees transferred to other counterterrorism expert from the Afghan fighters free trips to Cuba countries have been released upon Federal Bureau of Investigation esti - makes perfect sense. Whatever word transfer or shortly after transfer. Only mated that “there are no more than 50 one can use about Guantánamo and a small minority of transferred detainees worth holding in the detainees, “innocent” is not one of detainees are alleged to have engaged Guantánamo.” them. So why hasn’t President Obama in terrorism or violence directed Publicly, Secretary of Defense closed the place? Why are trials start - against the United States (and it is Donald Rumsfeld described the ing now? What would Gitmo’s oppo - possible in some cases that their ter - detainees as “the worst of the worst,” nents use to replace it? Bash Bush, get rorist activity or hostility was caused but in private he wrote that “we need elected, then do the same. The presi - by their captivity in Guantánamo to stop populating Guantanamo Bay dent and his people never talk about this issue—for a reason. There is no To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below articles on America ’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider your letter for publi - better solution identified so far. cation in both print and online versions of the magazine. Letters may also be sent to America ’s VINCENT GAITLEY editorial office (address on page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. They should Exton, Pa. be brief and include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Red Tie, Blue Tie “Who Shall Lead Us?” (Current WITHOUT GUILE Comment, 10/22) contrasts the appearance and dress of today’s presi - dential debaters with Lincoln and Douglas, concluding that today’s debaters “differed only in the color of their ties and their skin.” I may be a minority of one, but I thought I saw significant differences. One regards the office of president of the United States with profound seriousness, the other simply profoundly wants that office— at the cost of integrity, consistency and truth. DENNIS M AC DONALD

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38 America November 5, 2012 THE WORD

have; not that others should have relief while you are burdened” (2 Cor 8:12 –13). Comfort Zones It strikes me that what the poor THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), NOV. 11, 2012 widow best models for us is humility Readings: 1 Kgs 17:10—16; Ps 146:7—10; Heb 9:24—28; Mk 12:38—44 (contra the scribes) and extraordinary generosity. What she gives really costs “This poor widow put more than all the other contributors” (Mk 12:43) her, while for them it was merely a part of their “surplus wealth.” Many of us ave you ever wondered himself and impoverishing her. This are generous and kindhearted. But we what the Bible meant by would be especially easy if he appeared are usually so only until our comfort Hscribe ? Minimally, scribes particularly devout, and Jesus was scan - zone gets threatened. were educated people who read and dalized by their public campaigning. In One of the great studies of the wrote for a living. Scribes could be condemning the exploitation of human condition is Shantung hired by illiterate people (the vast widows, he follows notable Compound , a narrative by the theolo - majority) for legal and financial mat - prophets who had done the gian Langdon Gilkey about life in a ters. More typically, scribes were also same (Is 1:23; Jer 7:6; Ez Japanese internment camp during experts in Torah (the Mosaic law), and 22:7). World War II. As Gilkey the New Testament often refers to Whether they were describes it, the Japanese treat - them as lawyers. We might consider cheats or not, Jesus ed these Westerners relatively them a combination of pious theolo - observes that their piety well, and they adjusted to this gians and civil lawyers. Lived rightly, it was worse than compro - quasi-imprisonment. There was an honorable profession. Sirach mised; it was downright says that “the scribe’s profession hypocrisy. In our Gospel PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE increases his wisdom” and describes reading, such a religious sham con - him as one who “devotes himself to the trasts with the poor widow who • Ask yourself what you could give to oth - study of the Law or the Most High. humbly contributes two small coins ers during Advent that would take you out He explores the wisdom of all the to the Temple treasury. He also con - of your comfort zone. e N ancients and is occupied with the trasts her with affluent contributors • Ask the Lord for the courage to make N u d

prophecies” (38:24; 39:1). who give far more than she: “For that gift, and then step forward. d A t

: t

We encountered such a pious scribe they have contributed from their r in last week’s Gospel reading. It appears, surplus wealth, but she, from her A however, that many scribes were far less poverty, has contributed all she had, were conflicts, however, when people pious. Our Gospel reading this week her whole livelihood.” were asked to give up some comfort for begins with the sentence “Beware of the Much ink has been spilled on the common good. Those called upon scribes.” Jesus then denounces them as whether contributing all one has is a for a small sacrifice were resentful and inclined to ostentation and places of wise, authentic expression of radical complaining, and they contrived all honor. Then comes his great criticism: faith, utter foolishness or something in kinds of reasons why it would be more “They devour the houses of widows between. Literally relinquishing all one’s just for others to be imposed upon, and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers.” possessions is surely unwise, unless one instead of them. Gilkey’s experiences The situation would work like this: a is called as St. Francis was. I think most led him to abandon his optimism con - widow, with no social power or protec - of us would do well to be guided by St. cerning human nature, and he came to tion, might have to rely on a scribe to act Paul’s comments when collecting relief regard humans as deeply narcissistic. as a conservator of her estate. An funds to the impoverished church in We can be generous, he thought, just as unscrupulous scribe could take great Jerusalem. He encouraged generosity, of long as it doesn’t really cost us by violat - advantage of her weakness, enriching course, since by it God would “increase ing our comfort zone. Push the edges of the harvest of your righteousness” (2 that, and it is dog-eat-dog. Today, Jesus Cor 9:10). One’s generosity, however, points to the poor widow. Be like her, PETER FELDMEIER is the Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University should be “according to what one has, he tells us; make it cost. of Toledo. not according to what one does not PETER FELDMEIER

November 5, 2012 America 39