Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly

BLOG POSTING 28 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Number 2 ARTICLES Summer 2005 Religion and Politics Thomas Cavanaugh John Paul II:: A Retrospect Jude P. Dougherty A Tale of Failed Feminism Sr. Renée Mirkes, OSF German Catholics and Democracy Winfried Becker Demolition of Man Terry Graves Cardinal Jean Danielou, SJ Brian Van Hove, SJ Sports and Philosophy James V Schall, SJ

BOOK REVIEWS The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life by James Hitchcock Francis P. Canavan, S.J. Our Lady and the Church by Hugo Rahner David Paul Deavel Uncommon Dissent by William A. Dembski Jude P. Dougherty Caring for a Dying Loved One by Robert Fischer and Healing by Rev. Terence P. Curley John Adam Moreau Queen Mother by Edward Sri Thomas P. Scheck The Heretic by William Baer Glenn Statile All the Pope’s Men by John L. Allen, Jr. Brian Van Hove, SJ The Eloquent President by R.C. White, Jr. Michael P. Orsi

BOOKS RECEIVED BLOG POSTING MEMBERSHIP MATTERS ISSN 1084-3035 OBITUARY Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 Notre Dame, IN 46556 EX CATHEDRA Ralphy McInerny (574) 631-5825 www.catholicscholars.org Ralph McInerny, Editor [email protected] FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 1 BLOG POSTING

A Blog Posting to Amy’s What did you hear on Sunday? Blog by Marcus Daly ([email protected]), April 3, 2005 From the Saint John Vianney Parish, Vashon Island, Washington, (Rev.) Richard R. Roach, S.J. Ph.D., Pastor

“In our vigil Mass Saturday evening, John Paul II was Fellowship of honorably remembered for his courageous witness to Catholic Scholars our resurrected Lord. A brief biography was included in our bulletin following a long printed homily. Father Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, in Service to the Church Roach, a former professor, puts a great deal of work into his weekly homilies and provides us with many pages to take home and prayerfully read. He also pointed out that no human being is perfect CONTENTS and that our deceased Holy Father did not always dis- BLOG POSTING ...... 2 tinguish between Tradition and tradition so as not to confuse the faithful, and that there were questions of LETTER TO THE EDITOR ...... 3 tradition still unsettled, such as the essential nature of an ARTICLES all-male clergy. Religion and Politics ...... 3 At the end of our printed homily was a p.s. about John Paul II: A Retrospect ...... 4 Terri Schiavo. A Tale of Failed Feminism ...... 7 ‘Before Terri Schiavo died bodily, many raised issues German Catholic and Democracy ...... 10 about Catholic teaching concerning end of life deci- Demolition of Man ...... 18 sions. It is important to take one’s guidance in these Cardinal Jean Danielou, SJ ...... 26 matters from established teaching of the Church, which Sports and Philosophy ...... 29 one will find in the Declaration on Euthanasia from 1980 and in the encyclical John Paul II wrote entitled BOOK REVIEWS Evangelium Vitae (1995). In March of 2004 the ail- The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life ...... 34 ing pope addressed a group of pro-life physicians at the Our Lady and the Church ...... 36 Vatican. The text he read on that occasion seemed to Uncommon Dissent ...... 38 revise (or directly contradict) what he had previously Caring for a Dying Loved One ...... 40 taught. I know of no informed person who thinks the Healing ...... 40 Holy Father wrote the speech he read. In fact, many feel Queen Mother ...... 42 well enough informed to name the man who wrote it. I The Heretic ...... 43 think it wise to treat with a grain of salt anything attrib- All the Pope’s Men ...... 45 uted to this pope from 2004 until his death. The Eloquent President ...... 46 Before our Holy Father went home to God, this speech caused many of us to fear what would hap- BOOKS RECEIVED ...... 48 pen when his time came. We feared that, prompted by MEMBERSHIP MATTERS ...... 49 this speech, persons caring for him would attach him to medical technology which would prolong his death OBITUARY ...... 49 agony. We feared even that some might have unworthy BOARD ...... 51 motives for doing so. But, John Paul II took charge of EX CATHEDRA ...... 52 his own dying. Before he lost consciousness he refused a return to the Gemini hospital. This may well be on of the greatest and bravest thing John Paul II ever did. And, I thank God for his courage and faith! RRR sj’” Reminder: Membership dues will be mailed out the first of the year and are based on a calendar (not academic) year.

2 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 LETTER ARTICLES

Editor: e should try to be clear about the “debate Religion and Politics on end-of-life care within the Catholic Thomas Cavanaugh, Associate Professor of Philosophy, WCommunity. Pope John Paul II did not say University of San Francisco that food and drink could never be discontinued. He admitted of the possibility that assisted feedings could f polite company avoids discussion of re- be discontinued when a patient is imminently dying of a fatal disease such as organ failure or metastatic cancer. ligion and politics, then the recent presi- in such cases the patient died of the underlying disease dential election has rendered the nation and food and drink will not preserve his life. In the impolite. Bars, boardrooms, and barracks cases where the patient is not dying such as persistent echo with talk of religion and politics. How vegetative state, when gastrostomy feedings are with- Ishould a politician’s religion relate to his politics? held the patient dies, not of PVS but of starvation and How ought a voter’s religious beliefs influence dehydration. Withholding nourishment kills the patient. his vote? Of course, religion’s relation to politics The statement by John Paul II to the effect that has been a salient topic in our republic from the food and drink constitute ordinary care and therefore beginning, as the Constitution’s monitory first obligatory was made at a Vatican-sponsored interna- amendment indicates, “congress shall make no law tional convention in March 2004 in Rome. It was at- respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit- tended by 400 recognized experts of PVS. It was char- acterized by in depth presentations and dialogue. There ing the free exercise thereof.” was a large Dutch delegation. Holland is not known as This constraint limits the law’s bearing on reli- the center of pro-life sentiment or for medical advo- gion. What governs religious influence upon law? cacy of the prolongation of life. Some would prohibit all religious influence upon The statement by John Paul II was not a throw- laws and public policy. Historically, the ability to away line. It was delivered solemnly at the end of the persuade one’s fellow citizens determines the de- convention in the Papal Audience Chamber. As a dele- gree to which religious convictions influence laws. gate to the convention it was clear to me that the Pope Consider the prohibition of alcohol and civil rights. was addressing one of the most important issues of the In each case, religious believers played a robust role convention as the meeting closed. He has used such limited by the cogency of their arguments. In the a venue to clarify other controversial bioethical issues case of prohibition, the public ultimately found the such as brain death. Some Catholic theologians (nota- arguments that alcohol was entirely evil unconvinc- bly O’Rourke, Paris and McBrien) have advocated for ing. Prohibition proved to have too little of a basis the legitimate removal of assisted feedings from patients in publicly accessible reasons and, correspondingly, who are not dying but lack “cognitive and effective” too large of a dependence upon specifically religious capacity. In a recent article in Neurology (64:514 2005) commitments that too few shared. it was pointed out that MRI evaluation of patients In the case of the civil rights movement, religion in minimally unconscious states (e.g. Shiavo) do give played a very effective role. In his leadership, the evidence of cognitive ability. A poll taken at the afore- Reverend Martin Luther King brought religious be- mentioned international convention of PVS experts liefs to bear on politics with greater success than the in Rome revealed that 98% of those present disagreed Christian temperance league. Why was he successful with the theory that those lacking cognitive and affec- tive function could legitimately be denied life saving where others failed? Reverend King employed argu- assisted feeding. The Pope was not exploring new theo- ments inspired by religious convictions, yet persua- ries or overturning standards of care. He was, in effect, sive beyond the boundaries of his Baptist religion. reiterating the Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. It would be wrong, however, to think that King’s arguments were not religious in nature. He himself Sincerely, referred to the ethical convictions of Christianity Eugene F. Diamond, M/D., Director, Linacre Institute, and Judaism as the, “great wells of democracy,” from Catholic Medical Association, Chicago.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 3 ARTICLES which he drew inspiration. The question then be- Hebrew scripture consistently indicate our religious comes, what enables some religiously grounded obligation to care for the orphan and widow, as arguments to transcend the boundaries of religion God’s wards. In the public arena, one argues on their and appeal to voters of many faiths or no faith at all? behalf in terms of their vulnerability and profound To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, whom need. In such terms, religious believers frame argu- King often cites, preambles to religion allow such ments capable of influencing reasonable people of arguments. good will. Consider the more controverted example What is a preamble to faith? Alumni of Catholic of embryonic stem cell research, opposed by the institutions will recall Aquinas’s famous five ways or Catholic Church. Theologically, the Church opposes arguments for the existence of God. Aquinas pro- this research insofar as God personally and intimately poses that these reasons for assenting to God’s exis- creates each embryo in His image. Thereby, each and tence do not properly belong to religious faith. That every human embryo enjoys the sanctity and corre- is, they are not uniquely religious. (That Thomas sponding inviolability of human life. Philosophically, borrows arguments for God’s existence from a pagan one argues against the use of embryos as human be- philosopher such as Aristotle indicates their rational, ings in our most inchoate state, and, therefore, ac- non-sectarian basis.) Of course, to assent to God’s ex- corded the protection due the innocent. Those who istence is a religious commitment; Aquinas acknowl- remain unconvinced by the philosophical grounds edges this. He proposes that this assent, however, can for banning this research have, nevertheless, been be grounded either in faith or in reason. St. Thomas offered arguments and not sermons by their fellow calls truths accessible both to faith and reason pre- citizens. ambles. One might think of them as religious convic- Discussion of politics and religion may never be tions overlapping with conclusions able to be arrived welcomed in polite company, but a vibrant repub- at by reasoned argument. Here one finds ground lic will find itself full of such conversations, as ours common to faith and reason, by which the faithful now does. In those conversations, let us agree that may speak to the reasonable. Congress shall make no religiously biased laws and In the practical realm of politics, one finds such religions shall, as preambles to faith allow, make rea- shared convictions. For example, Christian and soned arguments. ✠

John Paul II’s First Visit as the Successor of Peter: A Retrospect

Prepared for delivery to The Friends of John Paul II II, not in his decline but by the way he captured the Foundation, Inc., May 7, 2005 heart of the nation on his first visit to the United States as pope. Catching his stride soon after his ar- Jude P. Dougherty, The Catholic University of America, rival in Boston, he went on with charm and vigor to Washington, DC teach an attentive nation in the name of Christ. If it was a personal triumph, it was one that was shared by e taught us how to live, and he all of the faithful. The Catholic Church, an immigrant showed us how to die. I am sure Church, a Church that has never been fully accepted that most of us who have lost our in the United States, was, through its leader, suddenly parents like to remember them in the center of respectful attention. their prime, not in the declining Decades before, the vision of the Bishop of Rome years.H That is the way I like to remember John Paul celebrating Mass within sight of the Lincoln and

4 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 Jefferson Memorials and spending hours in the White now in the United States, contrasts with the decline House, would have been unthinkable. Two promi- in prestige of international institutions—-foremost nent Catholic politicians from two different eras, the United Nations itself—-and with the absence of New York Governor Al Smith and President John commanding leaders on the world scene. Kennedy, would not have believed it possible. The ef- The political substance of the Pope’s message fect John Paul had in Washington, D.C., was extraor- at the United Nations was simple. More by way of dinary. Hundreds of high level government officials prolegomena than anything else, he dealt with top- clamored for invitations to a reception in his honor. ics such as Auschwitz, the Middle East, and the arms Some legislators are said to have traded votes for the race. But the heart of his message dealt with a more privilege of attending. By the time the guest list had fundamental issue, namely, the need to recognize the been revised for the final time, over 10,000 people relationship between the spiritual and the material. had been invited. All other issues including peace and prosperity, he To say the least, John Paul was photogenic. The maintained, hinge on the proper relationship be- backdrops chosen for his speeches were for the tween these two. On balance, it is the spiritual goods most part spectacular. Framed against the Statue of that deserve first consideration. He said, “It is easy to Liberty as he spoke in Battery Park or against the see that material goods do not have unlimited capac- U.S. Capitol in Washington, his speeches were staging ity for satisfying the needs of man…They are not triumphs. The Pope appeared to millions of television in themselves easily distributed…they give rise to viewers as exceptional, intelligent but warm, schol- tension, dissension, and division that will often even arly but humane. His speech was direct and simple. turn into open conflict. Spiritual goods, on the other Throughout his visit his speeches reiterated time- hand, are open to unlimited enjoyment by many honored truths and were uncompromisingly frank. at the same time without diminution of the goods Here before the public was an attractive human be- themselves.” Although the Pope went on to indict ing, clearly enunciating the moral teachings of the modern civilization for subordinating the whole Church before audiences used to equivocation and man to his material needs, economic needs he did timidity; here was obviously a man of courage as well not deny. Later in Iowa he said, “The earth and its as a man of considerable physical endurance. Despite fruits are to be shared fairly by all mankind under the a grueling schedule, his good spirits never flagged. guidance of justice tempered by charity.” Generosity, The Papal visit was in many respects similar to he reminded his audience, is a collective as well as those of other world figures or returning national an individual responsibility. Calling for cooperation heroes. It was reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth’s first between countries to overcome the serious disparity visit to the United States. Time magazine featured the between geographic areas of overabundance and areas pope on its cover under the banner headline, “John of dire need, he urged that this disparity be system- Paul II, Superstar.” But this superstar was not simply atically reduced through international cooperation. a media personality. That he attracted and held atten- Twenty-six years have passed since that Iowa ad- tion was in major part due to his message as Vicar of dress. It would require the sophistication of a globally Christ. Further, he seemed in his person to illustrate minded or macro-economist to determine if first- the very virtues that he prescribed for others—–hu- world aid and capital investment have made a differ- mility, sacrifice, compassion, love of life, and love of ence to the poor nations of John Paul II’s concern. Christ. Yet throughout his pontificate his teaching remained On his second day in North America, the atmo- the same. In a message promulgated on World sphere at United Nations headquarters was such that Immigration Day in December 1999, he said, “On the delegates of member states were prepared, even the one hand, globalization accelerates the movement eager, to listen to the Pope. This receptivity, as well of capital and the exchange of goods and services as the apparent acceptance of the Pope as a universal among men, inevitably influencing human move- teacher, if not as a father, by the cheering millions ments.” But globalization, he reminded his audience, he experienced in Italy, Mexico, Poland, Ireland, and causes new cleavages. In the context of unbridled

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 5 ARTICLES freedom without adequate brakes, the difference be- Conception he reaffirmed traditional Church teach- tween rich nations and poor nations becomes more ing on marriage, sex, and the family. profound. “The former have capital and technology Respect for the institution of marriage begins that enables them to enjoy the planet’s resources, a with respect for human life. Those who truly respect faculty they do not always employ with a spirit of human life will bring life into this world only within solidarity by learning to share.” the context of a stable marriage. “The great danger Another papal theme on that first visit was the for family life, in the midst of any society whose threat to human rights, what he called “injustice in idols are pleasure, comfort, and independence, lies in the field of spirit.” The pope was concerned with the the fact that people close their hearts and become whole gamut of civil rights, but he was particularly selfish.” He contrasted this danger to the security of concerned with religious freedom. Human beings mutual love that is abetted by Christian marriage. are obligated by their nature to seek truth, to direct The need for a stable relationship between parents their lives on the basis of truth, and to give expression also rules out the legitimacy of extramarital and pre- of their understanding of truth in the community of marital sex. like-minded individuals. Only in an atmosphere of While the Pope took unequivocal and unpopular religious freedom can the confrontation between the stands, he did so in a manner that did not, at least on religious view of the world and the agnostic or athe- the surface, promote bitter divisiveness. He displayed istic view take on honest and human dimensions. no discouragement about the prospect that his words Speaking at Battery Park with the Statue of would have little or no immediate impact. On the Liberty in the background, he warned that liberty contrary, he depicted the enormity of the challenges must be conjoined with truth about the human con- facing the modern world as a reason for the renewal dition. Past achievements in the name of freedom, of Christian evangelization. A settled will summon- however significant, can never be an adequate sub- ing the unsettled. “A challenge for our age,” he said, stitute for present social responsibilities. Christians “and indeed for every age in the Church is to bring must strengthen natural human virtue by infusing the message of the Gospel to the very core of our it with the Gospel message so that they may dis- people’s lives…Christ is calling you one way or an- cover its deeper meaning and thus assume more fully other to the service of life: to the love of God and their duties and obligations toward their fellow man. your neighbor.” American values are strengthened when freedom is A professional philosopher could not help but accepted not as an absolute or as an end in itself but notice the subtle influence of Professor Karol Wojtyla as a gift that enables self-giving and service. Freedom on his papal discourse It often takes considerable must be guided by divine law, which is given to us learning to make simple distinctions or to defend a in the Gospel. It is that Truth which sets men free. In basic principle. I have in mind the ease with which Philadelphia, the Pope preached traditional Catholic John Paul II made distinctions, defined his terms and clerical discipline. He said “no” to women priests; he displayed causal connections. Anyone familiar with said no to married clergy. the philosophical work of Professor Wojtyla will rec- Speaking to all Americans without distinction, ognize that, in addition to his theological learning, John Paul II did not shy from entering the emotion- most of his teaching in the United States on that first ally charged abortion debate in the United States. visit was a popularized version of his Lublin philo- He summoned Catholics and like-minded people sophical work. His teaching was clear because his to redouble their campaign against abortion, declar- mind was clear. His classical and scholastic training ing that, “When the sacredness of life before birth were evident, but so was his indebtedness to Edmund is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no Husserl, Roman Ingarden and Max Scheler. Previous one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life.” sojourns to the United States undoubtedly gave He went on to utter the memorable line, “When a him a sense of the vernacular and aided his rhetoric. soul is created, it is forever.” In Boston and Chicago But then his whole career as a scholar and teacher and in his homily at the Shrine of the Immaculate had habituated him to seek contemporary modes of

6 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 exposition. It is evident that though he had his feet entitled to hear the Gospel in its purity, he called on planted firmly in tradition, he could speak the lan- the Church to be a beacon, not a weathervane. guage of his contemporaries. The extraordinary coverage of his last days and As the world media covered his death and the the election of Benedict XVI are testimony to his subsequent papal conclave, we have been flooded success. His appeal to youth in life and in death is with assessments taking the measure of his pontifi- uncontested. Visibly he has touched the minds and cate. It will be the work of future historians to ad- hearts of many who will assume positions of leader- equately judge his reign, but this much can be said. ship in the years to come. No doubt he has inspired Clearly he has not rolled back the secular juggernaut. others by the example of his teaching and courage to If anything, the West is more materialistic than it consider the priesthood. On this side of the Atlantic, was when he assumed office. Within the European in the midst of a superficial religiosity inspired by the Union, Christianity is in full retreat. Betrayed by evangelicals, we can find in the young a genuine de- its intellectuals, Europe is ill equipped to appreci- sire for that learning essential to the perpetuation of ate its past, let alone to defend itself from a resurgent the faith as students turn not only to the encyclicals Islam. Through the years and against all odds the but in increasing numbers to the pre-papal writings Holy Father proclaimed, almost daily, proclaimed of Professor Karol Wojytla. the Gospel to those willing to listen. His magisterial This center as well as others is devoted to the teaching, exemplified by Veritatis Splendor, Fides et perpetuation of John Paul II’s basic insights, insights Ratio, and Centisimus Annus will remain to enlighten grounded in a Catholic intellectual tradition en- future generations, becoming the textbooks of a re- riched by acute observation. May it succeed in its ef- newed evangelization. When he assumed office, his fort to amplify and expand that teaching in the years intent was to teach over the heads of dissident and to come both in its study of John Paul II and in the maverick theologians. Proclaiming the faithful were sources that have enriched his teaching. ✠ A Tale of Failed Feminism

Sister Renée Mirkes, OSF, PhD, Director, Center for NaProEthics, the ethics division PC Pornography of the Pope Paul VI Institute, Omaha, NE n my view, the VMs belong in the genre of he book version of The Vagina Mono- politically correct pornography—porn that is logues (VMs) has received fair to good Iideological sexual propaganda. Ensler’s book (and reviews. Toasting Eve Ensler as the its dramatization) replace the traditional adult rules of cheri du jour, the elite print media de- sexual behavior with those of adolescents. Stripping scribe both the book and its author- away every last remnant of human goods such as essT as witty, frank, funny, never offensive, and—of postponed gratification and altruistic love, the VMs course—always honest. enshrine a sexual agenda that celebrates the basest of Recently, Fr. John Neuhaus cryptically dismissed human instincts. As such, they are a part of the much the dramatized version of the book as “women larger contemporary cultural movement to define getting their kicks by talking as dirty as possible deviancy down. about their sexual fantasies” (First Things, May 2005, And Ensler’s tome accomplishes this in a p. 64). While his assessment is not inaccurate, the duplicitous way. It attempts (under the smoke and impressionable collegians that pack playhouses to mirrors of literature, art and prevention of male participate in V-Day (as in Vagina-Day) deserve a violence) to put a respectable face on what is nothing more comprehensive critique. more than pornographic text and drama. It throws

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 7 ARTICLES sexual explicitness—nearly always vulgar, trashy and Thus, to the extent that women are confused as to voyeuristic—in the faces of everyone. To what end? their nature and destiny, and I think Ensler is very Well, instead of expanding the reader’s or confused on these matters, to that extent men are participant’s knowledge and understanding of human confused. That’s just the way it is (and the way it will sexuality, the VMs reduce sex from an experience always be) with male and female human beings, each that should be private, holistic, and rich in self-giving only one-half of humanity, each trying to find his into one that is exhibitionist, solipsistic and a matter or her true self so each can discover what it means of mutual sexual gymnastics. to complete—and be completed by—persons of the opposite sex. Overcoming Sexism As more and more women become who and what they are meant to be, more and more men will nsler would probably agree with me that get the message—or catch the message. Some men, overcoming sexism, one of the principal ills of perhaps even most, will see the meaning of their Emarriage and male-female relations in general, masculinity in the “mirror” that women provide in is what would truly empower women. Eve and I are their authentic female personas. probably not in accord, however, about the definition of sexism, and most assuredly don’t agree about how The Male-Female Relationship best to overcome this problem. Here is my take on misogyny and how to end just declared that Ensler’s portrayal of women it. Sexism has been the root problem of married life and the relationship of the sexes are fundamen- throughout the ages. Please do not misunderstand Itally confused. Let me put some meat on the me. I am not arguing that sexism has been the major bones of that declaration. difficulty of every marriage since the dawn of time. I First, while I would not want to underreport or am only asserting that sexism in marriage happened suppress the evil of male violence against women, with enough frequency throughout recorded history and while I think abusive men must be brought to that one can say it is a root problem. The male’s justice, I also think the VMs describe the problem greater physical strength and his freedom from child in a way that demonizes all men and canonizes all care, especially in a fallen world, has led to two women. Ensler implies that women are incapable or misconceptions: that of manhood as characterized by innocent of all violence and abuse (whether toward violence and lust and that of women as sex objects self or others). and slaves. As a consequence, the flotsam and jetsam To set the record straight, the VMs need to ad- of rape, polygamy, premarital promiscuity, adultery, dress the following issues: 1) wives or female partners wife battering, and child abuse litter our cultural that verbally abuse and dominate husbands and 2) shores. partner abuse amongst lesbians. Ensler also needs to Until women dedicate themselves to correcting galvanize women to work equally hard to resist what the false notion of manhood, there will exist “the I would call hidden aggressors against them: contra- war of the sexes.” And the Ensler/radical feminist ception, sterilization, abortion, breast implants, star- solution—distorting women’s identity by over- vation diets, etc. Eve needs to tell women that these independence and seductiveness or by hidden or not activities and practices can kill them, injure them so hidden hostility toward, competition with, and physically and spiritually, and destroy their unique segregation from men—will not and cannot correct feminine good of motherhood. the problem. Second, the VMs hawk a lesbian genital sex We will end male violence when vices such as which, just like failed heterosexual sex or lust, is aggression and abuse are replaced by true masculine a lose/lose or take/take kind of sex. Eve Ensler’s values: protection, partnership and fatherhood. But— brand of sexual activity is a version of genitality that and here’s the crux of the matter—true male virtues I cynically describe as “filling-station-sex,” an “all- will flourish only when the natural female values about-me-sex” or a “fill-me-up-because-my-needs- of motherhood and companionship are honored. must-be-met-sex.” Twisted sex, whether between two

8 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 heterosexuals or two homosexuals, is twisted sex. It other divergences are cultural and can be altered with simply cannot make men and women happy in the impunity. sense of helping them become complete persons. However, when we carefully examine cultural Referring directly to the VMs text for examples: variations regarding gender practices, we discover How will Eve Ensler’s espoused ideal of “women they are limited by fundamental biological factors: as sex workers serving women only” make women males are, on the average, physically larger and stronger genuinely fulfilled? How will her description of a than females; females alone bear and nurse the child 24 year-old woman teaching a 16 year-old girl how- and are needed by the small child for a number of to-achieve-an-orgasm-sans-male further her goal of years. Human experience teaches that, although these overcoming sexual abuse of women? And, in cat- biological characteristics (to which men and women egorizing the latter experience as “good rape,” the 24 have also been psychologically adapted) are very year-old woman as a “savior,” and the experience for general in character, they cannot be ignored without the 16 year-old as “salvational,” does Ensler mean to creating severe tensions in human development and say that only male pedophilia is wrong? sexual relationships. Third, blindsided by her agenda of male phobia and hatred, Ensler fails to discuss that there is another Women and the Priesthood alternative beyond hedonistic sex, viz., sexual rela- tions that represent mutual self-gift between two het- n the introduction to the VMs, I read with erosexual, loving, caring persons who are capable of great interest Gloria Steinem’s reveries (and, by entering into a lifelong, two-in-one flesh union. Iextension, those of Ensler) about overcoming As any good parent will confirm, the step from a sexist Church that bars women from ministerial being a spouse to being a parent is gargantuan. priesthood. I am compelled to share the following Parenthood matures the person almost on the spot, insights from Fr. Benedict Ashley (“Gender and the and only this maturity helps to realize the natural Priesthood of Christ: A Theological Reflection,” feminine and masculine potential of both spouses. A Thomist [57, 3, 1997]). wife who is mother calls from her husband the full- Christ’s priesthood consisted in his central act of ness of his manhood: the gravity, dignity, sense of re- humiliated, sacrificial love and hence also in his entire sponsibility and sobriety which characterize a father. life as Suffering Servant: renouncing his rightful claim The husband who is father calls from his wife her to kingship and dominion in favor of servanthood. unique richness: the warmth and fierce tenderness This seems the reason why, in choosing to be characteristic of a mother. The fact of the matter is, incarnate, the Second Person of the Trinity chose to no matter how many orgasmic groans the VMs at- become a male rather than a female human being—a tribute to lesbian genitality, non-procreative sex can fact which is the ultimate stumbling block for feminists never speak the language of totality, the language of in the mold of Gloria Steinem and Eve Ensler. They mutual, embodied self-gifting. suppose that this implies that God prefers men to Fourth, Ensler implies that one’s sexuality is women! But this is to miss the notion that for God to unimportant and that one’s gender is nothing more become a woman in order to be a slave who died on than a social construct. This view, in my mind, mud- the Cross would have been pointless since, in fact, in dies the waters of building genuine male-female rela- first century AD society, it was expected that women tionships and of finding a way out of sexism. be slaves. Certainly nothing could be more controversial No, in order to overcome all human pride and today than the problem of discriminating between masculine claim to tyrannical dominion, a claim which those sexual differences that are innate (and, there- is part of the sinful, sexist glorification of power and fore, unchangeable) and those that are due to cultural violence, God had to become a male human being custom and liable to change. Eve Ensler, I would sug- who could deliberately submit himself to servitude for gest, is among the many today who believe that only the sake of the poor and powerless, such as women. the mere anatomical differences between the sexes Consequently, an essential qualification for priesthood are innate (and, for EE, even these are fungible). All is that the priest symbolize Christ in His masculine

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 9 ARTICLES humanity, i.e., as the one who deliberately renounced baby. Missing is applause and wonder over the most power in order to be a servant. selfless, disinterested love possible this side the ground: that between mother and child, especially mother and Motherhood newborn. The poignancy of that relationship—where the baby needs everything and the mother must give n one of the last chapters of her book, Ensler all—seems to have completely eluded the authoress. is so fixated on describing the “beauty” of her Eve Ensler fails to learn a lesson she desperately Idaughter-in-law’s vagina during childbirth (!) needs to recall and recount to her audiences: the that she fails to see the wonder of her grandchild and female hand rocking the cradle is the female hand the mystery of giving birth. Absent from her account rocking the world. And, perhaps this, more than any is any ecstatic appreciation for the love that exists other error, is the most blatant shortfall of the VMs between hubby and wife and/or mother, father and and its failed feminism. ✠

Freedom and Justice: German Catholics and Their Concept of Democracy

Presented at the VIII German/American Colloquium Religious variety and unity in the Winfried Becker, Professor of Modern and Contemporary old Holy Roman Empire History at the University of Passau, Germany. y the late Middle Ages, Christian unity had de- he most recent globalization debate veloped into religious variety under the roof caught the Christian denominations of Bof a common Christianity. Various and some- Europe by surprise, exposing both cer- times rival theological schools of thought developed. tain crisis-ridden phenomena but also a Liturgies, festive traditions and even the honoring of great readiness to participate in dialogue. saints varied between cities, territories, nations and WhileT Islam displays a strong, self-assured claim to nationalities. In contrast to this, in Germany the early coherence and missionizing that easily surmounts the modern age in the 16th and 17th centuries shows ten- boundaries of religion, politics and science, Christian- dencies towards further establishing the faiths and insti- ity is in a state of gradual retreat from society due to an tutions of the three largest denominations: Catholicism, ongoing process of secularization over the past decades. Lutheranism (Confession Augustan) and Calvinism. History is not a theological, philosophical sci- Germany is one of the few countries in Europe ence, nor is it one related to the study or discovery that allowed equal coexistence between denominations of general scientific laws, and thus it will not face the as early as 1555. The Religious Peace of Augsburg sep- challenge at the abstract level of the concept. But it arated the areas of religious dogma and political-social can, perhaps more often now than before in an age of coexistence. Rulers of both Protestant and Catholic increasing specialization, point out the fundamentals territories were forbidden to use violence to settle of the development of Western religion. When we ad- religious differences. This critical interposition did not dress, for example, the relationship between Christian arise from a modern, secular view of the state or mod- religion and politics, we discover a structure based ern views of tolerance, but rather because the compro- on dialogue between secular attitudes and attitudes mise reached to preserve the peace in religious matters of belief, and beyond that a great historical variety, in is based, according to the Religious Peace of Augsburg which the relationship between faith and the world of 1555, on the Christians’ duty to live peacefully and found its expression. respectfully with their neighbors.

10 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 The tendency to liberate the state from its in the Church Articles of the Weimar constitution. If Christian foundations first began to spread in the one applies the criteria of a truly liberal, not secularly 18th century. Yet despite the Enlightenment and constricted national-liberal viewpoint, one notices in the differences between the various faiths, the Holy these efforts a tug-of-war over a central basic right, Roman Empire still retained the character of a whose success, i.e., its inclusion in the constitution, was Christian State. The churches had their own vested to a great extent decisive for the modernization of the properties and rights. Germania sacra was dominated state. by a coexistence and cooperation between the cleri- But this movement was complex and is to be cal and secular powers. Even the less powerful social understood not only according to the predomi- structures, such as small states, estates of noblemen, nant thought patterns of an anti-state emancipation. monasteries, were protected by the guarantees of the According to Adam Miiller and Novalis, and start- imperial Constitution that maintained a centuries- ing with Joseph Gorres in the direct investigation old right of tradition. of the effects of the revolution in Germany, we see The “Revolution of Ideas of the 18th Century” a criticism of the one-sided view of mankind in (Heribert Raab) reached its climax in France with the Enlightenment. The traditions of the Christian the Great Revolution, in Germany with the Great religion should no longer be seen from the view- Secularization of 1803-1806. Instead of a social up- point of a flat rationalism as a hindrance to progress, heaval as in France, Germany saw its secular princes a relict of the past and impediment to freedom. It expand their possessions and powers and ascend to belonged much more to the concept of life; and the the position of keepers of state sovereignty. The cleri- interdependence of the various areas of life should cal princes disappeared, monasteries were disbanded. find some consideration when the state commenced Many bishoprics had only temporary appointments. its rearrangement of the relationships in politics and Following the secularization of 1803, many Catholics business, in science and in society. found themselves in Protestant states without any When the bishops of Cologne and Mainz, guarantee of their religious rights following the Johannes Geissel and Wilhelm Emanuel von Ketteler, change. demanded freedom for the Church and its teachings as part of the constitutional movement of 1848, they were not demanding delineation or total autonomy Secularization and striving in the sense of opposing the existing system. To this for freedom extent one cannot draw any parallels to claims cur- rently propagated by certain radical representatives of he Great Secularization had a special meaning non-Christian religions. for the start of the Catholic consolidation Geissel and von Ketteler wanted rather to present Tmovement. The individual states achieved an an up-to-date definition of the role that Christians increase in power. They ruled, conscious of their own had come to play in shaping public life over the sovereignty, the cura animarum, or subjected without course of a long historical development. They sought further concern the iura circa sacra, i.e., the special legal to create the conditions for conveying the Christian and pastoral matters of their Catholic subjects, to their image of humanity in civil society. This required bureaucratic access. Catholics striving for religious freedom of association, freedom to form associations freedom arose to counter this. This began in the and organizations, freedom of the press and the abil- state councils in the Vormarz period (from 1815 -the ity to retain or found religious schools. Some of these Viennese Congress and the end of Napoleon) prior demands were addressed in the constitution of 1849. to the March revolution of 1848 and the early public This was the start of a line that led to the anchoring association movement, and came out in the revolution of the constitutional position of religious communi- of 1848 and in the debates over the constitution of the ties within the democratic state. They were guar- North German league and the Empire (1866-1871) as anteed their specific sphere of influence in 1849, in well as in the cultural struggle. It found its fulfillment

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 11 ARTICLES

1919 in the Weimar constitution and in the constitu- broad range of political forces that he did not want tion of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. and could hardly have controlled. The anti-church They have the guaranteed right to convey the values laws of the cultural struggle provided, among other and principles of coexistence that every free commu- things, for the extensive curtailing of state contribu- nity relies upon, but which such a free community tions for parsonages in Prussia, suspending training must not dictate out of respect for the citizens’ right of new priests, restricting the right of the pulpit and to religious and philosophical self-determination. that of church offices in their interaction with Rome, With their Pius Associations, petitions and the the deportation of the Jesuits and other orders. formation of a General Congress of the Catholic However, the spectrum of political disputes also Associations in 1848, and with the parliamen- extended well beyond purely Catholic concerns. The tary union of Catholic representatives attained in Zentrumspartei did indeed have a political program the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, the Catholics and and immediately assumed clear legal views. The party their leaders took an active part in the constitu- called itself the “Constitution Party” and based its tional movement. The exclusion of Austria made program on their election slogan of Justitia fundamen- the Catholics a minority in the so-called “lesser tum regnorum. They supported a “federal character” for Germany” of Bismarck and the Kaiser. Despite their Germany, “civil and religious freedoms” for all citi- repeatedly announced regret that the previous “ma- zens. jor Catholic power” of Austria was not participating, The representatives of the Zentrumspartei recog- Catholics did not adopt any maximalist or extraterri- nized and also used the podium of the parliament torial religious positions. Rather, Bishop von Ketteler and the potential of the press to counter the cultural expressed understanding for the political develop- struggle. Party leader Ludwig Windthorst proved ment and loyalty towards the new Hohenzollern to be a brilliant parliamentary strategist, in that he empire. In return he expected the Catholics to be pointed out the connection between the Catholics’ granted full recognition and the right to exist in the demands and the general postulates of freedom, new state. Here he put his faith in the Prussian con- equality and parity. He demanded freedom for the stitution to regulate matters. Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church and the religion of the Israelites. At the same time he criti- cized the lawmaking practices in the Prussian state: Das Zentrum—paving the way Zentrumspartei delegates contributed greatly to mak- for a democratic state ing politics more public, more exposed to open dis- course and subject to exchange of arguments. on Ketteler’s calls for peace were lost in the To its neoliberal admirers, the Hohenzollern state turmoil of the cultural struggle. Catholics was the summit of the avidly sought after transition Vwere once again made the object of politics. to a unified national culture. After its victory over After the introduction of universal voting rights, France, the Hohenzollern state was said to symbolize Bismarck saw himself and his works in danger if the a Germanism that had demonstrated its superiority Catholic element of the population, which resided over Romanism. It also was said to represent at once primarily in those areas that most supported the the long-renounced power of the German state and “greater German” solution (the south of Germany), a Protestant culture of individuality which had over- could unite and act against him as opposition. So come the slavery of the clerically dominated Middle he pieced together a domestic policy alliance with Ages. The Zentrumspartei developed a countering the national Liberals and those parts of the Prussian theory of state which, sober and exact, removed of Conservatives that had followed him along the way false and pretentious historical constructions, strove to German unification. German Catholicism as or- to organize community life according to the general ganized in the Deutsche Zentrumspartei in 1870/71 principles of extratemporal rights and assigned the could, in his eyes, have become the breeding ground state the task of balancing social interests. for demands of a right in co-determination for a

12 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 The Christian view of humanity: story of creation, and finally the transcendental sense of the universe and our human, earthly life. Chance basis for social and political and matter were now seen as the elements that guid- Catholicism and the Catholic ed cosmic and physical processes. Catholic academics disagreed with this new “mechanical explanation of world view nature” especially where it shoved aside the belief in an all-powerful God as scientifically untenable. They olitical Catholicism was formed over and concluded that such premises and conditions could above any delineations and clarifications on lead only to the conclusion that science and faith Pthe part of any who attempted to bring about were to be completely separated from each other, a national or social substitute religion. It came to that culture had a purely secular basis—clearing the stand out in the Reichstag in that it always adopted an way for the new belief in the saving powers of the independently defined social standpoint in disputes nation and national culture—and that the previous, with Bismarck’s social policies. The Zentrumspartei differentiated relationship between faith and science endorsed neither Bismarck’s dream of the state-de- was a hindrance to development of a secular culture pendent worker nor the determinism of Marxist of knowledge based on its own premises. theory, that the paradisiacal final state of just distribu- Because the representatives of political tion of wealth is to be achieved when the working Catholicism took a clear position regarding these classes, via revolution, finally come to own the means challenges because they maintained their position as of production. Constructive proposals on the part of a clearly disputed minority in the political, social and the Zentrumspartei for accident insurance, pension and philosophical arena, the Zentrumspartei developed into health insurance were equally directed at restricting the generally recognized representative for German too great a state intervention, at overcoming the pa- Catholics in the 1870’s. This was expressed poign- tronage of the factory owners and at ending the class antly in the image or the caricature of the besieged struggle. They resulted from a view of humanity that Zentrum tower. The German Zentrumspartei even remained aware of religious and Christian ties and served as a model for the delayed formation of the further developed inherited concepts of justice and Catholic party in Italy. fairness. They viewed the person as a whole. Speakers of the Zentrumspartei, especially the philosopher Georg von Hertling, referred to the basic rights of each Threats prove of value in individual. The natural rights of the individual are the Weimar Republic exercised and restricted based on the moral equal- ity of mankind as created by God. Subsequently, the he way of the Zentrumspartei until its dis- Zentrumspartei did not see any class or race of people solution was marked by maintaining its own as preferred. From that point on, this clear view of Tindependence while striving to achieve inte- humanity characterized to a great extent political gration. The tendency towards integration reached a Catholicism’s thinking on the state. It developed im- climax in the patriotic fervor of the First World War, munizing powers against all ideologies’ artificially cre- in which German Catholics joined in solidarity with ated or maintained inequality to the point of rejecting their people and Kaiser against their French fellow teachings of a master race under National Socialism, Catholics. But they found it easier than the German whereby mankind is divided by blood and descent Protestants to part with the abdicating Kaiser during into useful and useless elements. the upheaval of 1918/19. The political religions, which began in the 19th Together with the non-revolutionary ele- century and completed the phenomenon of totalitari- ments of the Social Democrats and the left-liberal anism in the 20th century, were at first determined by German Democratic Party, the German Center Party specific philosophical developments. The currents of (Deutsche Zentrumspartei) stood on the basis of the agnostic and materialistic thought had been spreading Weimar Republic, creating and maintaining it. They since the middle of the 19th century. Their represent- campaigned for a moderate foreign policy, a con- atives disputed the contents of the Bible, including the

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 13 ARTICLES tinuation of social policies and for a Christian ap- the leadership of the party, refrain from taking part in proach to society and education. The Zentrumspartei politics. In spite of that, it is not completely correct was closely involved in coalitions with all parties. It to say that Hitler and the Curia came together to dig was present in various coalition cabinets and, with the grave for political Catholicism in Germany out Joseph Wirth, Wilhelm Marx and Heinrich Bruning, of affinity for their authoritarian convictions. There even provided significant, albeit not outstanding was a difference between the quality of authority in Chancellors. Above all, Wilhelm Marx personified the church and that of the authority as exercised by politics of moderation, reason and selfless reconcilia- the state. Another great difference, initially covered tion out of a spirit of moderation. up by Hitler, separated National Socialism and the However, Catholicism during the Weimar Catholic Church in the area of philosophy. Primarily, Republic also showed some ambivalent traits. On the Curia saw itself confronted with increasing, one hand, the Zentrumspartei and its Bavarian sister threatening incursions into the life of the Catholic party could not escape the widespread tendency of Church in Germany. In this emergency and strained the time that worked towards some sort of emer- situation, the Curia saw it necessary to take on a duty gency dictatorship or an authoritarian regime not that it could not delegate to anyone, namely to take dependent on a series of changing parliamentary up responsibility for the undiminished maintenance majorities. On the other hand, certain developments of religious life and to try and achieve correspond- within Catholicism resulted in a “longing for com- ing legal guarantees. In the emergency situation munity” (Alois Baumgartner). The aftereffects of a that arose, the head of the Church assumed care for romantic universalism became concretized in the German Catholics. Religion was separated from “holistic theory” of Othmar Spann. In individual politics, but according to the Concordat, it was to be cases it can be seen that the Catholics, organized in granted a protected place within society, albeit in an a political party, were less susceptible to National apolitical form. Socialism than those who explicitly spoke out against Further developments brought to light an irrec- the tried and tested “Catholic parties”, accusing them oncilable contrast and conflict of goals between the of misusing their religion for political goals and dis- Catholic Church and National Socialism. The very rupting the national community. This showed the activities of Catholic organizations, schools, newspa- success of decades of political education. pers and journals were diametrically opposed to the Although the external political situation for this National Socialists’ totalitarian claims. state improved by the end of the 1920’s, the un- There were attempts to redefine National democratic, radical parties had already won too much Socialism as a philosophically neutral or opportun- support. Criticism of the Weimar parliamentary istic form of rule. These overlooked the principal “system” was heard from violent politicians ready for intolerance with which this political religion fought civil war all the way to the highest circles of politics against the Christian faith and the Church. National and business. Ongoing inner differences, religious Socialism consistently attacked Christian teachings and philosophical tensions were also added. And then because of their Judaic origins, as witnessed by the came the world economic crisis. origin of its founder and the Old Testament. In ad- dition, there figured the old, nationally motivated charges against the German Catholics, who were Faith and National Socialism— internationally organized and thus predestined to two irreconcilable views betray the Fatherland. The National Socialist regime was more than a philosophically neutral ruling struc- he Zentrumspartei, like other political par- ture, but saw religious faith as an opponent to its own ties, fell victim to Hitler’s aggressive policy views on the meaning of life. Helmuth James Graf Tof bringing parties into line. Article 32 of von Moltke noted in his death cell that his crime the Imperial Concordat (after all, already the third consisted, according to Roland Freisler, not of any international treaty under Adolf Hitler) required that verifiable activities against the regime, but rather in priests, who were traditionally strongly represented in his faith in God’s highest determination for mankind,

14 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 which makes man incapable of making the final sac- Although often set back due to their particularistic rifice for a Greater German Reich that relied only origins under the Kaiser or in the Weimar Republic, on itself. they moved more to the center of the West German At the center of National Socialism stood not state, even though it comprised only a part of the only the extermination of the Jewish people but also previous nation. Their higher share of the population combating Christianity, whose suppression in poli- afforded them a better position, without construing tics and society meant curtailing their democratic any causal connection between Catholic denomi- freedoms. The connection between religious faith nationalism and the founding of West Germany. In and political freedom was established by the regime 1950, Catholics made up 45.2% of the population, itself in a negative manner. What was more important with Lutherans comprising 51.2%. Catholics went to the men and women of the Christian-motivated from being citizens to being citizens of democracy resistance than to own up to this connection, to turn (Rudolf Morsey), and played a key role in deter- it to the positive and finally to make it useful to the mining the domestic and foreign policy course this future constitution of a democratic Germany? state would take. The Rhineland Catholic Konrad Adenauer had enough distance from the Germans’ traditionally nationalistic fixation on their own The new relationship sovereignty to undertake a new approach that fit- between Catholics and ted in with the existing global political situation Protestants after 1945 and dispensed with a separatist approach. Adenauer immediately embraced cooperation with other European nations and with NATO. This decision, nlike any other German state, The Federal not taken alone, but without a referendum, regained Republic of Germany is based on political for Germany the very respect and recognition that lessons, experiences and upheavals of the U Adenauer’s predecessors as Chancellor had failed to recent past. Their joint persecution under National gain using entirely different means. Socialism led Catholics and Protestants to resolve The long era after the Second World War, which themselves to the fundamental similarities of their is again subdivided by several markings such as 1990 faiths. After the crimes and aberrations of the and 2001, differs essentially from all previous periods politics of violence and racism, they felt compelled to when we view the history of the faith. introduce Christian standards of value into political Strongly pronounced denominational antago- life, and in doing so also to distance themselves from nisms were fortunately a thing of the past. Instead, previous value-neutral political concepts. Christianity entered into a state of tension with This ideological reorientation was comple- the rapidly secularizing societies of many European mented by strategic considerations directed towards countries, especially since the end of the 1960’s. In occupying leadership positions and participation many cases, practicing Christians have become a in government. Competition between the newly weak minority. formed and re-formed political parties began with Especially for Germany it can be established that the assumption of responsibility in 1949, at first with Catholicism has lost its traditional forms of existence the cities and states. The Social Democrats’ claim in society and politics, developed in the 19th century to leadership was based on their persecution under and reaching even further back. A reanimation of a National Socialism. The Christian Democrats, with social and intellectual, argumentative presence would a core of former Zentrumspartei followers, also philo- be a major task. It would also consist of anchoring an sophical opponents to Hitler’s regime, sought to form awareness of subsidiarity, solidarity, personality, self- a broad civil center to overcome the previous politi- organization and self-responsibility of social forces in cal and religious divides and to ward off any renewed the various areas of life. totalitarianism from whichever side it may come. In conclusion, it can be stated that trying to The Catholics’ share of the history of the Federal simply whisk away Christian faiths from the overall Republic of Germany is not extensive but effective. picture of modem Europe would be akin to devising

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 15 ARTICLES a guide to losing track of historical reality. There are National Socialism, Fascism or Communism. Such in fact various lines of connection between politics so-called historical thinking erases the boundaries and religion. Mutual toleration of faiths, a coexist- between Christian religiosity and the totalitarian ence of Church and state that serves the separation of claims of political systems. powers, the teaching of human equality that is based Disagreements over the interpretation of the in each individual, all derive to a great extent from past often have significance for the orientation in the influences of Christianity, even if it cannot be the present. Equating political with transcendental denied that violence and intolerance have been prac- religiosity is very much an invitation to indifference ticed in the name of Christ. With the disappearance and could reinforce the present impetus towards of the Christian state and the increasing separation secularization that set in all over Europe by the end of church and state, representatives of the Christian of the 1960’s (or earlier). In certain circles it is con- faiths found it indispensable to seek to achieve con- sidered good form to profess apathy or great reserve stitutional guarantees of freedom for church activities. in questions of religion or philosophy. Naturally, In taking this approach, German Catholics contrib- skepticism is not out of place whenever someone in uted to the development of the democratic plural- the sciences, for example, prematurely announces the ity of the modernizing state. Without intermingling latest truths. But a general indifference that one takes politics and theology, one can reach some under- to be the norm is of no use to society and does not standing of this development by considering whether promote any striving for truth and secured realiza- Christianity in comparison to the other gentile re- tion, which accompanies a goal-oriented and results- ligions is not itself a religion of freedom and libera- driven activity, whether wanted or not. tion, namely a religion of a true successor of Christ (“Let the dead bury their dead”). Outlook National Socialism showed most clearly that the struggle against the churches was also to the same as the question of the relationship between extent a campaign against democratic freedoms. In faith and society not become obsolete in the Federal Republic it was possible to bring reli- Hthe face of entirely new developments gious freedom and democracy together in a positive and problem areas? Overnight, globalization placed context, prompted by an enhanced awareness based Germany under a previously unknown pressure to on experiences under dictatorship that democ- compete. Unemployment among young people, es- racy requires basic rights of freedom and actively pecially university graduates, is currently widespread. takes part in realizing them. Wherever people and The relation between wages for the working popu- groups professed to the transcendent religion of the lace and transfer income is dramatically worsening. Christian faith, they were probably most able to re- The generational contract exists now only on the sist the temptations of political religions and modern social experts’ paper. idolatries. A traditional understanding of religiosity With the birth rate in decline for several years may contribute greatly to the continued existence of and ancillary wage costs ever increasing, the social a free society, because it ventures the social accept- state requires basic reforms. We must reanalyze our ance of each individual personality and makes this own requirements in light of what workers are satis- part of the foundation of their faith. fied with in previously industrially underdeveloped It is not the profession of a transcendental faith countries. Work must become affordable again in that makes people unable to take advantage of free- Germany, where a process of de-industrialization has dom or of the free thought of science, but rather already begun. when faith is delivered onto an immanent national, It is in the light of these new challenges that racial or class goal as defined by certain ideologies. we see that there is still a need for transcendent- Here we must not make any rash analogy to the Christian motivated standards in our society that go Christian claim to the whole or the inner self or to beyond the private sphere. Society’s moral founda- place it on the same level as the totalitarian claims tions and references require a theoretical basis of of inner world healing theories, as it was defined by argumentation, for which Christian teaching and

16 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 natural rights have always provided arguments wor- ahead of the Social Democrat SPD (1999 18.5%, thy of discussion. The feeling of responsibility for one 2004 14.5%). In the state of Brandenburg the CDU another must not be lost. The balance between per- share declined from 36.31% in the federal elections formance and claims should be re-established, room of 1990 (SPD 32.9%, PDS 11.03%) to 22.26% in should be made for care. Especially in “Old Europe”, the federal elections of 2002 (SPD 46.37%, PDS the state should invest more in youth. 17.24%). The Union fared best in Brandenburg with Only a resolved return to the precepts of eco- local and European elections, two not unimportant nomic and social reason in an era of unavoidable fields of politics. An uncalled-for wave of nostalgia globalization will secure the survival of our tried- for the old East Germany, the return to the familiar and-tested values. This includes retaining our own socialization forms such as the “youth ordination” personal center and identity, responsibility for the and disappointment over the slow adoption of living whole, not least life in and with the family, which standards to the already no longer rosy conditions in had already provided a natural support for earlier the west seem to have muddied the view of the large generations. transfer payments that have been made by the “Old How will we manage to solve these challenges Federal Republic” since 1990. of the future without employing the current forms The often-bemoaned religious deficit in the of interaction from religion and politics? In assuming New States cannot have been wholly responsible for Christian responsibility, one can hardly do without these declines. A study conducted in December 2002 proven forms of interaction and intermediaries, to by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation found, among consider only the differences between differing bod- citizens of eastern and western Germany, an ap- ies of law. After reunification the process of found- proval of the influence of Christian values on politics ing the Federal Republic could not be repeated (77%) and for retaining the reference to God in the to the same extent in the New States as far as the preamble to the Constitution (56%). 57% of West quick, spontaneous and permanent establishment Germans and 30% of East Germans agreed with the of Christian-Democratic parties in the area of the statement that man was created by God. The results former East Germany is concerned. Christian forces of the survey indicate on one hand that parts of turned to the Christian-Democratic Union, but also Germany have become a missionary land where the to the Social Democrats and the Greens. At first, the gospel must be spread anew, on the other hand, that Christian Democrats had considerable support from the ground that the churches have to work is still voters who did not belong to either major faith. This fertile. It seems necessary to spread or establish the then contributed to their decline, as they did not practice and knowledge of the Christian religions. have core constituency that had been loyal to them But a party political option that is trustworthy in its for decades as had the Catholics in West Germany. presentation and historically proven, which despite In state elections in Thuringia the CDU went from its fallibility still measures itself against the Christian 51% in 1999 to 43% in 2004, the ex-communist view of humanity, releases powers of impression of a PDS took second place (1999 21.3%, 2004 26.1%) specific type. ✠ 

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 17 ARTICLES The Demolition of Man

Terry Graves is a novelist and essayist living near serious point” is calamitous. What Lewis feared and Pittsburgh. His novel, Rain in Hell, is about original foresaw is no longer science fiction: underway are sin without, he hopes, being yet another fruit of it. numerous scientific and pseudo-scientific efforts whose purported goals are to perpetuate and im- n his excellent C.S. Lewis and the Catholic prove the human race and to achieve personal im- Church, Joseph Pearce devoted 18 pages to mortality. This essay will not debate the morality of Lewis’ space trilogy, yet nowhere did Pearce any one of these efforts, because, taken together, their mention the lectures, later published as The scope is so broad and their ambitions so grandiose Abolition of Man, that embodied what Lewis that it will be the rare Christian who will find all of Ielsewhere called “the serious point” behind his trilogy. them morally acceptable. In Lewis’ own words, in a letter to an Anglican nun, Instead, my own serious points are – another the “serious point” is: “… that thousands of people in thing science cannot do is judge morality, especially one way or another depend on some hope of perpetu- of its own actions; these scientific efforts have signifi- ating and improving the human race for the whole cant moral implications; and that each Christian must meaning of the universe—that a ‘scientific’ hope for act, openly and loudly, on them. Those of us who defeating death is a real threat to Christianity…” meet on the common ground of what Lewis called Sixty years later, it is now tens or hundreds of “mere Christianity” and certainly of his “Tao” may millions who depend on that hope. Some go further, disagree on specifics about these efforts. But what- believing, as Jacques Barzun put it, “the fallacy… that ever each decides must be done, must be done soon, the method of science must be used on all forms of because there are more, and stronger, challenges than experience and, given time, will settle every issue.” most realize. Of course, science cannot explain even its own bases: why matter and energy exist and why they are not chaotic. (Those of us who reply, “God,” might be Unnatural Family Planning told our answer begs those questions. Yet, even if He n one of Bob Thaves’ recent “Frank and Ernest” does, those questions persist.) Still, this dependence cartoons the two stood in front of a “Biogenetic on science is to be expected, if only because so few Research Lab.” Frank complained to Ernest, comprehend an alternative: George Sayer wrote in I “When I ask about cloning all I get is doubletalk.” Jack, his biography of Lewis, that few members of the Of the efforts to remodel mankind, those employ- audience at the Abolition lectures understood them ing some form of genetic manipulation are the best – and this was at a university, in 1943. And in that known to us in the comic strip reading public, thanks same letter Lewis noted that of about sixty reviews of to the controversy over cloning and stem cell re- the space trilogy’s first novel, “… only 2 showed any search. But the very unfamiliarity of these terms and knowledge that my idea of the fall of the Bent One their careless, even deceptive, use are among the rea- was anything but an invention of my own.” sons large-scale embryonic cloning has come upon That same sixty years later, in this far less literate us so quickly. era, even fewer would trouble to pry Lewis’ “seri- To clarify the doubletalk: the word embryo ous point” out of a long essay like The Abolition of denotes, in humans, the first eight weeks after Man. Still fewer would find it hidden in the fantastic conception. As the National Institutes of Health elements of the space trilogy’s entertaining novels, summarized: stem cells are unspecialized cells, found set on, successively, Mars and Venus and in a literally in both human embryos and adults, that can de- demonic institution in Britain, the National Institute velop into specialized cells and can also reproduce for Co-ordinated Experiments, or N.I.C.E. themselves for an extended period. Because of their This reluctance, or inability, to grapple with “the potential for curing diseases, the Federal government

18 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 supports research on stem cells from both adults the health risks for women who provide the eggs to and embryos. Harvard magazine, in its July-August create the embryos. In his “The Science of Human 2004 issue, explained that embryonic stem cells Cloning” (www.stemcellresearch.org/testimony/ derive from, “a ball of four to 50 undifferentiated prentice_03-02-05.pdf) David Prentice spelled it out, cells that forms in the first few days after a sperm estimating that treating just the 17 million diabetics fertilizes an egg.” Writers such as Susan Estrich and in the United States would need, at the very least, 85 Mortimer Zuckerman make much of the allegation million (not 400,000!) women to provide eggs. (Not – with no attribution – that fertility clinics in the that many American women vote.) Providing the U.S. have 400,000 frozen embryos that are likely to eggs, Prentice continued, would carry with it signifi- be “discarded” – that is, killed. (As we shall see, these cant health risks for the women and likely lead to 400,000 embryos would not begin to fulfill the de- their commercial exploitation, both here and abroad. mand.) The only certainty, then, about embryonic cell There are two kinds of human cloning—re- research is that millions of women must risk their search, or therapeutic, limited to a few cells for use health to donate eggs and a like number of fetuses in research or a medical therapy, and reproductive, will be killed. These are among the moral issues to where cells would be allowed to mature and be born. which Christians should react, openly and loudly. However, as David A. Prentice, a professor of biol- But “cloning” and “stem cell” research are but two of ogy at Indiana State University, told a committee of many biomedical research efforts with moral impli- the Colorado legislature, the methods and the clones cations. The Center for Genetics and Society (CGS) produced are precisely the same, differing only in surveys them at www.genetics-and-society.org/analy- how far the process is allowed to proceed. The intent sis/index.html. Along with the many sites that quote of the cloning of and research with embryonic stem David Prentice, the huge CGS site is invaluable, cells is not to treat the embryo, whose cells are in- because despite the Center’s preferences—it favors stead used to treat others—after the embryo is killed. research cloning of embryonic stem cells—its pre- In stark contrast, adult stem cells are harmlessly ex- sentations are thorough, skeptical, and evenhanded. tracted from various parts of the body, such as blood, Its analysis begins with this warning: “The motiva- marrow, and even fat. Research with embryos has tions and visions driving the development of genetic gone on around the world, despite 1998 and 2001 technologies are varied. Some are quite troubling. Presidential orders that restrict its Federal funding Utopian beliefs, economic potentials, and exagger- (and hence its frequency) in the U.S. ated medical promise are playing as much of a role as Despite the continuation of embryonic research, the desire to alleviate human suffering.” To this I add all the existing medical treatments instead use adult an open and loud, Amen. stem cells. There is no reason to presume this will There is another, more subtle motivation. More change: in October 2004, 57 biomedical researchers than four years ago, the pro-abortion writer Anna from major laboratories all over the United States Quindlen hoped in her Newsweek column that wrote a letter (copy supplied me indirectly by one of “thinking—really thinking—about the use of the the signers) to then presidential candidate John Kerry. earliest embryo for life-saving research might bring The letter warned that cloned embryonic stem cells a certain long-overdue relativism to discussions of are unstable, spontaneously accumulate genetic ab- abortion across the board.” The cant that abortion normalities, are prone to uncontrollable growth and should be safe, legal, and rare never made any sense: tumor formation, as well as “serious and potentially if safe and legal, why should it be rare? The “exagger- lethal side-effects,” and may be rejected by even the ated medical promise” of embryonic stem cells will host that produced them. As these researchers were update the cant, and abortion will be touted as safe, not, so to speak, Heinz 57, their letter received no legal, and useful. media attention. The Center for Genetics and Society lists doz- Our Bodies/Our Selves’ Judy Norigian, who is ens of “troubling” technologies and dystopian urges, pro-abortion, opposed research with embryos at such as transhumanism and post-humanism; gender www.sfbg.com/38/53/cover_stem_cell.html, citing selection; gene transfer experiments; and inherit-

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 19 ARTICLES able genetic modification (IGM). About the last, four lar context: “What Plato says on immortality really American bio-ethicists asserted that people should is profound, reached after deep study, but then poor not be prohibited from creating genetically enhanced Plato had no authority whatsoever.” These issues are children (with, for example, higher IQ’s) and went far too important for us to leave to low-carb ethicists, on to argue that since this practice will likely create bio- or otherwise, who have no authority whatso- dramatic inequities, public policies should be adopted ever. that make IGM freely available to all. University of Texas law school professor John Robertson intro- duced “procreative liberty” as a legal and ethical Mini-Me principle that argues against prohibitions on repro- nother technology (and issue) is human re- ductive cloning and IGM. Princeton biologist Lee productive cloning – allowing the clone to Silver champions both and couples these with a mature and be born. The CGS names sev- libertarian social and political philosophy, arguing A eral groups that support it, such as the Raelian cult, that a future in which humanity segregates into ge- which advertises, none too convincingly, that it has netically engineered sub-species, the “GenRich” and successfully cloned 13 human babies. But far more the “Naturals,” is “inevitable… whether we like it or oppose reproductive cloning, including the CGS not.” itself and others who strongly support research clon- ing: Pitt’s Gerald Schatten, who led the team that in Ethic Intimidation December 2004 first cloned (through the blastocyst stage) a non-human primate, told Science News that n aside about ethics: nowadays no one quali- he and most other researchers are “unhesitatingly” fies as (or wants to be) a moralist, while just against human reproductive cloning. Schatten and Aabout anybody can hang out his shingle as “most other researchers” may believe that a cloned an ethicist – and expect to attract well-heeled clients. human baby will go from being one kind of chimera When Nobel laureate James Watson was trying to straight to the other, from Raelian myth to real mon- reassure Fr. Richard John Neuhaus about the Human ster. Genome Project, he told Neuhaus that the project Despite what these trained professionals say, had set aside several million dollars “to get the best those readers who still wish to try this at home can ethicists money can buy.” That a profession or aca- go to eBay or, say, Stratagene of La Jolla, California demic specialty happens to include members who (www.stratagene.com). There they will find a help- bill themselves as ethicists does not mean there is a ful instruction manual, “Human Clone Collection,” consensus about what its ethics are. Even if there is, along with warranty information and instructions they need not bind its members. For example, when on how to order Stratagene’s “Products.” (The word Harvard’s provost recently created a committee to embryo never appears in the manual.) Though the site review embryonic stem cell research because of the warns its “Products” are for research only, they are, as ethical issues it raised, its chair said, “Our starting Prentice said, precisely the same as clones intended point is academic freedom”—thereby effectively for reproduction. If businesses and the GenRich are ending any reason for his committee’s existence. to treat children as “Products,” will we then have (Indeed, when a group decides it needs a code of I.Q. wars as we do automobile horsepower wars? ethics, it is likely too late to rein in its members, and Will Consumer Reports, which recently referred to the code and its ethicists will be less conscience than unborn children as “uterine content,” rate each year’s camouflage.) new models? And what will happen to the inevitable And while a body of ethics can be a more strin- “Product” recalls? gent application of ordinary morality, it can also be a About the qualms of people like Schatten, David gentrified, upscale body of exceptions to morality, or L. Bump wrote Science News, “The researchers charg- even a low-carb substitute for it. A profession’s code ing into this field think that we should pass laws to of ethics does not trump morality, is not binding on keep others from abusing their research. Ha! Do the greater society. As Kierkegaard wrote in a simi- they really think they can keep this genie in a bot-

20 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 tle?” A genie can grant favors; a better metaphor is is eugenics, the control over who gets to mate with that of Pandora’s box. For this reason, the attempt by whom and how many children, if any, they may Stanford’s William Hurlbut, as reported by Culture have—as in another Bob Thaves cartoon when a lab and Cosmos on 11/30/04 and in Robert Novak’s technician tells the hapless Ernest, “Sorry. We’ve ex- January 6 column, to devise a morally acceptable amined your DNA and it’s labeled ‘Do not refill.’” substitute for cloning, will not stop others from do- A pro-eugenics group, Future Generations (www. ing it. Nor will the UN’s recent resolution against eugenics.net) noted that Theognis of Megara wrote human cloning, another hollow gesture not binding a poem in its praise about 520 B.C., and notions of on even the nations that voted for it. inherited nobility always relied on its supposed ef- It is not that what can be done, will be done. It ficacy. And not just nobility: in his Millennium Felipe is that anything funded will be attempted by, at least, Fernandez-Armesto noted that in the Communist any one of what University of Pennsylvania bio- China of the mid-1960’s, “class enmity was held to be ethicist Glenn McGee told CNN.com on December genetically transmitted…” In the West, eugenics was 27, 2002 were “a pretty good-sized group of not-so- popular and respectable from the mid-1800’s through credible scientists trying to make Mini-Me.” Money the 1930’s, thanks to people themselves as respect- for those dozens or hundreds of attempts to clone able as Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, later a human to a live birth will materialize from some- knighted for his studies. where, probably somewhere tax-supported or, like Most might believe eugenics died in the bunker the Raelians, tax-exempt. with Hitler, but it did not. In 2004 Rolf Winau, a Let us pause for a moment to consider this: ac- professor at a medical school in Berlin, wanted his cording to Schatten, most of the researchers who are colleagues to “exorcize their demons” about eugen- willing to kill an embryo for the medical treatment ics. Winau then let his own demons out for some of others are “unhesitatingly” against letting its clone exercise, as he urged researchers to overcome their develop into a living child. I oppose both, but the moral revulsion against eugenics (http://www.lifesite. latter certainly seems the lesser of two evils—not that net/ldn/2004/jun/04062806.html). But Germany we should have to choose either. For a generation has some of the strongest laws against eugenics and many have cloaked opposition to abortion under genetic manipulation, far stronger than the United the generic “pro-life,” so much so that this “seam- States. The Center for Genetics and Society listed (as less garment” now has no hems, either, stretched out a cautionary) the many organizations and academ- of shape as it is to cover things such as racism. How ics espousing eugenics in one form or another; most open and loud, then, are we ready to be when—not are here, in Britain especially, or in Europe. Some of if—an advocate of human reproductive cloning asks, its proponents, such as psychologist Richard Lynn, “How can you call yourself pro-life yet oppose creat- focus on the desire of parents to have children who ing life, just because we did it without fornication?” are intelligent and free of genetic disease. Another Furthermore, I doubt that the Center for Genetics quoted, with seeming approval, a 1939 reference to and Society, the UN, and selectively fastidious re- some unspecified humans as “noxious animals” (this searchers like Schatten believe, given enough time, from Harvard professor E.A. Hooten, by the way, not eggs, embryos, and money, that cloning could never Hitler). Other sources the Center surveyed seem at produce a healthy child. Instead, perhaps they fear, as least tinged with racism and anti-Semitism, and all I do, what might follow—a return of eugenics. exude a dull arrogance. It is the disabled, the canaries in any eugenics coal mine, who most fear its current resurgence. On Human Husbandry http://www.h-net.org/~disabil/ a posting noted that, for example, Britain’s People Against Eugenics, The second approach to improving the species or PAE, fear that cloning or other genetic manipula- is eugenics, the control over who gets to mate with tion will lead to Nazi-like eugenics and the abortion whom and how many children, if any, they may of disabled children. For good reason: in the fall of have – as in another Bob Thaves cartoon when a 2004 the Royal Society, no less, sponsored a confer- lab technician tells the hapless Ernest, “Sorry. We’ve

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 21 ARTICLES ence whose topics included—“Why we are morally of human society. Call it will power or, paradoxically, obliged to genetically enhance our children,” “Gay its evil twin, conditioning. Now that brainwashing science: choosing our children’s sexual orientation,” is no longer the buzzword it was in the 1950’s, this and “Preventing the existence of people with dis- approach is obscure even, thankfully, to those who abilities.” might wish to misuse it. But brainwashing is more Nevertheless, the PAE hastened to add that it “… than just the plot device in The Manchurian Candidate. supports women’s right to choose abortion…” In A fine source of information is The Mind and the effect, therefore, PAE supports the abortion of only Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D. and science writer healthy babies. So we have been practicing eugen- Sharon Begley. In it Schwartz, a neuropsychiatrist, ics on a large scale for decades: abortion is a kind of related his far-ranging search for an effective therapy post-coital eugenics. In his Birth Control in America: for his patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or The Career of Margaret Sanger, David M. Kennedy OCD. He reviewed the various theories of dualism, quoted Sanger as saying, “Birth control is nothing materialism, and determinism and showed that those more or less than the facilitation of the process of layman—and scientists like Hubel—who profess to weeding out of the unfit, or preventing the birth of hold to them are 70 years or more behind in the defectives or of those who will become defectives.” pertinent science. Schwartz and Begley cited numer- Necessarily, eugenicists will adjudge some genetic ous peer-reviewed studies by Michael Merzenich and traits as defects, others as benefits, and what was once Edward Taub, among many others, that show a per- the one may become the other. Just a few years ago, son can, within limits, rewire his brain, alter both its some behavior was to be excused because there sup- physical form and functions—and therefore his out- posedly was a “fat” gene or a “gay” gene. Will these ward behavior—by an effort of conscious will. The be subject to manipulation? Deletion? Enhancement? limits of change are broad: the authors said what hap- These judgments about “defectives” are not just sci- pens is a “wholesale remapping of neural real estate.” entific or political; they will, or at least should, begin Therefore, the crude diagrams purporting to show as moral questions, about which Christians should be which part of which side of the human brain does open and loud. what, are naVve and quite misleading. Instead, the brain’s map varies from one person to the next—and for the same person, from one moment to the next. Ipsilon This ability to will changes does not end in childhood and continues through old age. Examples: et another question science cannot answer is a Japanese learning English must first rewire his brain why humans are conscious of self and sur- so as to hear the L sound before he can learn to say it, roundings; that is, what is the evolutionary Y and Schwartz learned that his “… OCD patients can, benefit of mind, of consciousness? (Science alone by changing the way they think about their thoughts, cannot even prove to me that anyone else possesses also change their brain.” That is, they can willfully consciousness. And how do you know that I am reduce their repetitive behaviors. He mentioned sim- conscious?) Without consciousness, free will has no ilar therapies that had helped patients suffering from meaning—indeed, many scientists insists conscious- Tourette’s, depression, stroke, and dyslexia. ness is a meaningless illusion. As Nobel Prize winner The brain adapts to outside influences; it also David Hubel put it, “The word Mind is obsolete… adapts to the mind’s thoughts. Here are two of the like the word sky for astronomers.” A Frank and experiments that dramatically illustrated this. In the Ernest cartoon put it better: “I respond to external late 1980’s Greg Recanzone and William Jenkins stimuli, therefore I am.” (I cite cartoons to stress that learned that if their lab “… monkeys’ attention [em- the practical and moral aspects of these efforts to phasis added] was focused elsewhere while they re- make us over are not rocket, or any other kind of, ceived the same tactile stimulation that had otherwise science.) produced massive cortical remapping, no such reor- Here the Greek letter ipsilon—also the ancient Y- ganization occurred.” In 1995, Alvaro Pascual-Leone shaped Christian symbol for free will—will represent had one group of human volunteers practice a five- the third and last approach to the reshaping of us and

22 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 finger piano exercise, while a control group merely est public defender could drive a truckload of felons thought about it. As expected, the physical exercise through. caused changes in the motor cortex of each member An ipsilon has two branches, as a sword has two of the first group; but the same changes in the brains edges: if one is empowered by his own will, so are the showed up, and to the same degree, in the control wills of others. An outside will can bend one’s own group that merely imagined they were practicing. will to bring about major, long-lasting changes in the Both these experiments showed that the mind’s brain’s wiring and, hence, in behavior. This happens, of attentiveness is both necessary and sufficient to ef- course, to all of us, every day—it is how a child learns fect a physical change in the brain. Schwartz and language and the violin and why “practice makes per- Begley relied on quantum theory to show how our fect.” But if one’s will power can effect these changes mind causes the brain to carry out the mind’s will, so haphazardly, it can also happen, indirectly, as a result to effect this rewiring, but the reader interested in of someone else’s will. The process can be as innocent their shade tree quantum mechanics must read their and beneficial as a tennis coach’s helping with your book. Suffice for now to say that they began their forehand—or as insidious as advertising or as sinister as discussion by quoting the great physicist, Niels Bohr: brainwashing. Schwartz and Begley put it this way: “… “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has several hundred ‘trials’ consisting of hearing spoken not understood it.” language spoken imperfectly… [might] result in a new No matter: how we exercise free will is far less brain—and possibly a new impairment—in people. important than that we do. Schwartz, whose discern- The brain changes causing these impairments could ible leanings are toward Buddhism, believes strongly become so severe that Merzenich coined a term to in free will and, indeed, blames “the cultural morass capture their magnitude: learning-based representational of the late twentieth century” on the philosophy of catastrophe.” materialism. Most Christians, too, will readily affirm Because it has three arms, the ipsilon has also been a belief in a conscious free will and may be impatient used as a symbol of the Trinity. But its three arms can with, say, the expedient determinism of defense at- also represent three kinds of behavior—moral; immor- torneys whose clients are, in the lyrics from West Side al; and conditioned, which is say, amoral: a representa- Story, depraved on account of being deprived. Oddly, tional catastrophe. We must choose among them, while such pop materialism is never used to explain away we still can. As the prison chaplain put it in Anthony good or beneficial behavior, such as Hubel’s research Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, “When a man cannot that earned him the Nobel Prize. And since Hubel choose he ceases to be a man.” believes he has no Mind that guided his research, did he refuse his Nobel? (Answer: No.) Like anyone else, materialists and other determinists do not just sit The Camel’s Other End around waiting for their molecules to motivate them. rchimedes is supposed to have said, about the They reserve their notions of inevitability, of help- lever, “Give me a firm spot to stand, and I will lessness for other people. move the Earth.” The Center for Genetics Despite such inconsistencies, for generations we A and Society disapproves of many of the technolo- have absorbed some form of determinism with the gies its Web site discusses, such as inheritable genetic very air we breathe. It must afford us comfort: even modification and reproductive cloning. But it gives so staunch an advocate of free will as the Roman no ultimate, bedrock reason why it does and presum- Catholic Church has inhaled: while section 1734 of ably relies on some flavor of ethics, bio- or otherwise. its Catechism says: “Freedom makes man responsible Professional ethics are no substitute for morals, so in for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary…,” this respect, the CGS is like Archimedes, without a its 1735 qualifies this into, literally, a nullity: “…. re- firm spot to stand. It hopes to be a Pandora who can sponsibility for an action can be diminished or even selectively swat down the evils she has released, while nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, hab- allowing others to fly away. it, inordinate attachments, and other psychological Furthermore, the CGS disagrees that these tech- or social factors.” This leaves a loophole the green- nological changes are inevitable, “whether we like it or

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 23 ARTICLES not,” writing: “In a democratic society, people have the for evil, it would be, well, nice if N.I.C.E. could be power to agree on the rules under which they wish to seen as an ancestor of CIRM. But so far CIRM has live.” Ironically, this naVve statement remains on the not shown any sign of intelligent control, demonic CGS Web site even after the 2004 election, when the or otherwise. It is not the camel’s nose inside the tent voters in California voted overwhelmingly to amend flap; it is behaving more like the camel’s other end: in its constitution to establish and extravagantly fund the the few months since the election, CIRM has man- California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or aged to confirm the warnings of its detractors and to CIRM. Its purpose is to promote and perform re- disappoint its supporters, some of whom now seek, search cloning of human embryos—though as coy as too late, ways to rein it in—even while praising it with Stratagene’s cloning manual, CIRM’s official statement faint damnation. CIRM is not N.I.C.E.; it is a slippery of over 10,000 words includes no form of the word slope into a money pit, or worse, and will become just embryo and substitutes pluripotent or, like Stratagene, another strand in the web of amoral, ineffectual, and products. countervailing organizations that enmesh us. The Center strongly opposed the amendment, as If something as blatant and clumsy as CIRM el- did pro-life churches and groups and some pro-abor- bowed its way into California’s constitution, then the tion groups, warning of, not only the evils of embry- Center for Genetics and Society (and we) would be onic stem cell research, but also of the waste, cronyism, unrealistic to believe that mere democratic effusions and corruption built into CIRM. (California’s can derail other such efforts—that will themselves, Council of Churches, representing 1.5 million in the long run, grossly warp the electoral process. In Protestants and Orthodox, supported it, however.) the short run, already Connecticut, New Jersey, and Yet CIRM is now firmly embedded in California’s New York seek to follow California into embryonic constitution, thanks to the obfuscation in its official research; their announcements indicated they regard statement and mostly to a campaign led and financed it as just good business, a way of keeping up with by those who will directly benefit from it—research- the Gomezes. It smacks more of the mindless, big- ers like Irving Weissman, universities like Stanford, ger-is-better boosterism one usually associates with and private biotech companies such as StemCells, Inc. small town mayors or university presidents. And while Weissman, prominently featured in the pro-CIRM ad- groups like the Raelians may be crackpots, they are the vertising, could serve as the poster child for the latent worst kind: crackpots with money and influence. conflicts of interest CIRM encourages: he both di- And lawyers: nowadays, a “right” claimed is very rects a major Stanford laboratory and is a founder and nearly a right earned. The Raelians shrewdly sponsor director of StemCells, Inc. (The advertising did not a web site, www.HumanCloneRights.org, to promote trouble to mention the latter role.) Professor/Director what its name suggests, and attorney Mark Eibert Weissman is hardly unique—a molecular biologist (http://reason.com/opeds/eibert.shtml) said in 2001 recently told me he estimated that 80% of established he was preparing court challenges to establish human biomedical researchers have patent or other financial reproductive cloning as a legal right. Once established interests in their research, and the federal National legally and politically as a “right,” cloning, for example, Institutes of Health has been embroiled for months in will become a moot issue, a mere matter of personal trying to come up with rules to obviate the conflicts preference, of choice—like abortion and same-sex of interest among researchers who request grants from marriage. Too, the financial interests naturally attracted it and its own scientists who pass judgment on those to such an activity will make it difficult to reverse requests. politically. Again, abortion, because of the income it And just how much benefit will Weissman and the generates for many of its proponents, is an excellent others stand to gain? Three billion-with-a-b dollars. parallel. Crime may not pay, but CIRM does. This process is hardly new: Pearce considered that The demonic N.I.C.E. of Lewis’ space trilogy Lewis was, sixty years ago, representative of those who wanted, as Pearce put it, to implement “all the ‘pro- opposed “a drab egalitarian culture run by bureaucrats gressive’ wonders of the eugenically correct state.” in which the sense of duty and responsibility would So, while demons are neither necessary nor sufficient have no place amid the selfish demands for ‘rights.’”

24 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 Unmoved Movers day. You reading this may not be at risk, but our chil- dren, and certainly their children, will be. It is already t may seem like comparing apples to clockwork too late to stop at least some of these procedures oranges, but these efforts to nudge evolution from being attempted. For example, a culture that Ialong and defeat death share three characteristics: supports partial-birth abortion will do as it pleases they complement, not compete with, each other and, with a clump of embryonic cells smaller than the while they claim to have only the best intentions, are period at the end of this sentence. threats to any form of free society. And all have or Armed with the latest genetic and neuropsy- will attract defenders: “the best ethicists money can chiatric research, better techniques and chemicals, buy” will duly be bought, and each effort will duly and decades of experience, successive generations become what U.S News and World Report columnist of manipulators will grow more effective. Next John Leo called the killing of Terri Schiavo: “a scan- time around, Raymond Shaw, the sniper in Richard dal successfully redefined as unexceptional and there- Condon’s The Manchurian Candidate, will carry out fore moral.” his mission, and the Ludovico conditioning tech- Lewis intuited that the “culture run by bureau- nique Burgess invented for A Clockwork Orange will crats” might not be egalitarian, only drab; he put not need to be reversed so as to “cure” Alex, its pro- these words into the mouth of one of the leaders of tagonist, of his docility. The time after that, Raymond N.I.C.E: “Man has got to take charge of Man. That and Alex may each be designed for his role from the means, remember, that some men have got to take moment of conception in some Petri dish. Of course, charge of the rest.” And in The Abolition of Man he just so many ducks in someone else’s row, novelists had already linked this taking charge directly with in this bleak future will never think to write of such science: “…what we call Man’s power over Nature matters, and you would never read this essay because turns out to be a power exercised by some men over I would never think to write it. other men with Nature as its instrument.” Nor will these efforts be the last. For example, There need be no grand conspiracy to dumb surgical and chemical interventions to control behav- us down and take over our lives. Our Abolition, or ior are outside the scope of this essay because their Demolition, may just be our path of least resistance. use is limited to criminals and the mentally ill. For After all, we have dreamed these dreams before Hitler now. All depends on definition: for example, Freud Youth and the Lebensborn, the New Soviet Man (who was not the last to consider religion a form of mental turned out to be an old Georgian thug), Mao’s Great illness, and the Soviet Union will not be the last to Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and the good doc- act on Freud’s belief. tors Frankenstein, Jekyll, and Mengele. Unlike Dr. Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “The mind is its Jekyll, who drank his own concoction, the control- own place, and in itself/Can make a heaven of hell.” lers, the conditioners, the manipulators will try to In the centuries since we have gone from striving for exclude themselves from their own techniques, to be Heaven to striving for Heaven on Earth. Now, to the unmoved movers. extent we remain inward, quiet, and passive, we are It is possible that all these efforts will messily fail; ready to settle for a drab culture run by bureaucrats, the greater danger is that they will gloriously suc- an Earth on Earth, so long as it promises to be eter- ceed. And the would-be unmoved movers likely will nal. Instead, once we cannot choose, we shall remove be caught up in their own systems, leaving no one man and woman, as well as God, from the equation, free: all of us, the movers and the moved, are already and our minds will make a Hell on Earth. ✠ bombarded with external stimuli of all kinds, every

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 25 ARTICLES Cardinal Jean Daniélou, ..

Co-authored and co-edited by Prof. Marie-Joseph ity as teacher, scholar of international repute, student Rondeau and Rev. Brian Van Hove, SJ chaplain, and apostle to intellectuals¯who accepted him as one of their own. Daniélou was not only effective heologian, patristics scholar, Jesuit, with them, however, but also with every other level of spiritual writer, bishop, and cardinal; b. society. In 1942 he published Le Signe du Temple ou de May 14, 1905, Neuilly-sur-Seine near la Présence de Dieu. This small book contained, he used Paris; d. of a heart attack May 20, 1974, to say, the whole of his thought in embryonic form. in Paris. His father, Charles Daniélou, Characteristic of the personality of its author, it shows wasT a deputy and minister during the Third Republic; a contemplative attitude, a taste for symbolic theol- his mother, Madeleine Clamorgan, was in her own ogy, a use of the exegetical methods of the Fathers, and right a woman of great spiritual and intellectual cali- a care to impart in a simple way to a vast public the ber. Jean Daniélou obtained his degree in classical riches of his spiritual life, scholarly work, and highly letters from the Sorbonne and he passed the competi- cultivated mind. Both a Hellenist and a devotional tive teaching examination in the section of classical man, his doctoral dissertation dealt with the spiritual philology (agrégation de grammaire) in 1927. He was doctrine of St. Gregory of Nyssa. This dissertation then introduced to political life by his father, and at was defended successfully at the Institut Catholique the same time briefly engaged in the brilliant Parisian in Paris in 1943, where he was made docteur en théolo- life of that era, translating into Latin Jean Cocteau’s gie, and at the Sorbonne in 1944, where he was made Oedipus Rex. On November 20, 1929, answering a docteur ès-lettres. For the then-required secondary thesis call he had felt since childhood, he entered the novi- at the Sorbonne he translated Gregory of Nyssa’s Life tiate of the Society of Jesus at Laval. He made his pro- of Moses (December 1942; second edition revised and fession of first vows on November 21, 1931, and after augmented from the Greek, 1955; third edition revised that took his course in philosophy at Jersey (1931-34). with a new translation, 1968; fourth edition revised He served as professor of rhetoric at the Collège St. and corrected, 1987) which formed the first volume Joseph in Poitiers (1934-36), and then took his theo- of Sources Chrétiennes. The rapid development as well as logical studies at the theologate of Lyon-Fourvière the high scholarly quality of this collection owes much (1936-39). At Fourvière, where the Fathers of the to the personal initiative of Jean Daniélou who was its Church were held in great esteem and where plans codirector along with Henri de Lubac. In 1943 he was were maturing for the collection Sources Chrétiennes, given the status of writer (scriptor) for the Jesuit review his elders, Fathers Victor Fontoynont (1880-1958) and Études and he succeeded Father Jules Lebreton (1873- Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), introduced Daniélou, 1956), as professor of the history of Christian origins along with his fellow-scholastic Hans Urs von in the faculty of theology of the Institut Catholique in Balthasar (1905-1988), to patristic studies. He was Paris. He was elected dean of this faculty in 1961 and ordained to the priesthood on August 24, 1938. He he would occupy this post until 1969. From this chair was mobilised into military service in 1939-1940 and he formed generations of young priests. He exercised, performed his “Third Year” (the Jesuit tertianship) in simultaneously with his friend Henri-Irénée Marrou 1940-1941. He pronounced his solemn vows in Paris, (1904-1977), professor of ancient Christian history at February 2, 1946. The personal notes he took during the Sorbonne, an undisputed leadership in the field of this long formative period, published posthumously as patristics. Carnets Spirituels (1993), witness the seriousness of his His substantial professional achievement clearly spiritual training. opened several new areas. (1) Parallel to Walther Volker In 1941 Father Daniélou was assigned to Paris and Hans Urs von Balthasar, he is the chief instrument and there he spent the rest of his life in intense activ- of a return to Gregory of Nyssa. In addition to his

26 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 1944 thesis, Platonisme et théologie mystique/Essai sur key by showing that an authentic faith expressed itself la doctrine spirituelle de Grégoire de Nysse, he dedicated in the modality of Semitic thought. He became one numerous articles to the subject. The most important of the most outstanding specialists of this rediscov- ones are collected in L’être et le temps chez Grégoire de ered “Judaeo-Christianity.” With the same care for Nysse (1970). A contemplative himself, he especially cultural roots, yet always bearing in mind the unique- studied mysticism and spiritual exegesis in Gregory. ness of the faith in order to appreciate it in its various He prepared an anthology of Gregory’s mystical texts embodiments, he dedicated a monograph to each which Herbert Musurillo translated from the Greek of the two Alexandrians, Origène (1948) and Philon into English (From Glory to Glory, 1961) and Mariette d’Alexandrie (1958), as well as the first part of the first Canévet from the Greek into French (La colombe et volume of the Nouvelle histoire de l’Église, Des origines la ténèbre, 1967). As an intellectual sensitive to the à Grégoire le grand [1963; republished in paperback as problems raised by secular culture for the Christian, L’Église des premiers temps. Des origines à la fin du IIIe he applied himself to the study of how Gregory re- siècle (1985)] � the second part of this first volume is worked and Christianized the philosophical ideas of by Henri-Irénée Marrou. Again, Daniélou exerted a his day. (2) With Henri de Lubac, he is the principal notable influence in the scientific life of his time by artisan of a rediscovery of patristic exegesis, which, producing yearly from 1946 his “Bulletin d’histoire like the liturgy to which it is closely bound, explores des origines chrétiennes” in the Jesuit review the symbolic dimension of Scripture in order to draw Recherches de Science Religieuse. Distinguished by the therefrom an understanding of the Christian revela- powers of assimilation, perceptiveness, and insight of tion. In particular he illumines the notion of typology its author, this critical bulletin reviewed, for a quarter which ties history and symbolism together in a spe- of a century, nearly the whole of the works published cifically Christian way. Salvation history is marked by in the field of patristics. such interventions of God that the events of the Old Professionally, Daniélou was a historian of the Testament announce those of the New. They, in turn, early Church. However, both by family heritage, the are spread out across the ages of the Church in the Jesuit tradition, and his own temperament, he was a sacramental and mystical life of the Christian people man transformed by the zeal of the apostle, intellectu- in anticipation of full eschatological realization. Here ally alive to every contemporary current of thought, his pertinent works are: Sacramentum futuri/Étude sur and open to every kind of dialogue. Thus he was, les origines de la typologie biblique (1950); Bible et litur- along with Marcel Moré (1887-1969) and the Islamic gie; La théologie biblique des sacrements et des fêtes d’après scholar Louis Massignon (1883-1962), the soul of the les Pères de l’Église (1951)�this work resulted from review Dieu Vivant/ Perspectives religieuses et courses given at Notre Dame University in Indiana in philosophiques (1945-55). This publication, Catholic in 1950; Les symboles chrétiens primitifs (1961) and Études its inspiration, welcomed thinkers of other Christian d’exégèse judéo-chrétienne. Les Testimonia (1966). (3) In confessions and from various philosophical persua- his Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée [3 vols., sion in a forum which was friendly, culturally open- Théologie du judéo-christianisme (1958; second edition minded, and spiritually demanding. Dieu Vivant had revised and augmented 1991); Message évangélique et as its fundamental concern to recall to a secularizing culture hellénistique aux IIe et IIIe siècles (1961; reprinted world the transcendence of God and the ultimate es- 1991); and (1978; reprinted 1991)], which is more chatological effect which that transcendence imposes than a history of dogma in the traditional sense, he on human destiny. To that end Dieu Vivant was the sketches a history of Christian culture. He describes it polar opposite of Esprit, another journal with which in the light of the resources provided by the cultures Daniélou had personal ties. He had witnessed its birth, surrounding it, then shows how Christian culture and its editor was his friend Emmanuel Mounier tests, purifies, or adopts these cultures, at times suffer- (1905-1950). Dieu Vivant was concerned with political ing the failures known as heresies. By gathering to- and social problems requiring the involvement of the gether disparate texts of the most archaic Christianity, Christian. During its brief existence Dieu Vivant was apparently confusing in themselves, he provides the of a high quality and represented a significant part of

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 27 ARTICLES the activity of Daniélou as a Christian intellectual. and lasting influence as chaplain upon the Catholic He was also much involved in the ecumeni- students at the Sorbonne, and especially beginning in cal encounter and formed lasting friendships with 1941 upon the young women of the École Normale Orthodox Christians (such as the theologians of the Supérieure (Sèvres). Out of this apostolate came Dieu Institut St-Serge in Paris), Protestants [such as the et nous (1956) and Approches du Christ (1960). Up to Lutheran exegete and theologian Oscar Cullmann the end of his life he kept himself in contact with (1902-1999) who was an observer at Vatican II], the world of young people and, with penetrating Anglicans [such as Dr. Frank Leslie Cross (1900-1968) judgment, responded to their needs, which he often who was a patristics scholar, dean of Christ Church, anticipated. He was a man of public note, a speaker Oxford, and the organizer of the International both warm and clear in his thought, sought after for Patristics Conference at which Daniélou was a dedi- lectures by parishes, varied Catholic groups, profes- cated and influential participant], and with Jews [such sional clubs and the like, as well as for articles in the as the biblical scholar Natân André Chouraqui (1917- national press, and for radio and television broad- )]. From this last association there emerged Les Juifs. casts. Farsightedly and very soon he saw the signs of Dialogue entre Jean Daniélou et André Chouraqui (1966). the crisis of faith which arose in the Church and he Daniélou’s outlook was quite all-encompassing. The sounded a cry of alarm in Scandaleuse vérité (1961). Cercle Saint-Jean Baptiste was a group of young From that time on he set himself to show, without people cofounded by Daniélou with a view to the losing any of his supernatural optimism, the intellec- missionary vocation. He was their chaplain and he tual roots of the ambiguities of the moment and their proposed to them, somewhat in the same attempt as inevitable developments�the rejection of realism, the Jules Monchanin (1895-1957) and Louis Massignon’s separation of religion and faith, the loss of the sense of to meet non-Christian cultures in a positive way. The the sacred, and others. In 1962 he was nominated as a aim was to form a Christianity not of individuals torn peritus to Vatican Council II by Pope John XXIII. At from their own culture and uprooted from their natu- the service of the Theological Commission Daniélou, ral environment, but of Christians who were part and under Cardinal Gabriel Garrone, contributed consid- parcel of their actual culture, as was historically the erable work. In particular the preparation of the first case with the Semitic culture of the Judaeo-Christians part of the Constitution Gaudium et Spes owes much and also that of the Graeco-Latins. He set to work to to him. develop a theological vision flexible enough to em- Jean Daniélou was consecrated bishop in Paris on brace these principles, but especially to draw out all April 21, 1969, and created cardinal deacon by Pope the implications related to Christian spirituality as he Paul VI during the consistory of April 28. Though he viewed it. The essential teaching which he gave to the resigned from his work as professor and dean, this did Cercle Saint Jean-Baptiste is contained in: Le mystère not change his manner otherwise in the least. While du salut des nations (1945); Le mystère de l’Avent (1948); keeping up his scholarly work and most of his apos- L’essai sur le mystère de l’histoire (1953); Les saints païens tolic commitments, he increasingly spoke out on is- de l’Ancien Testament (1956); Jean-Baptiste témoin de sues of the day. Addressing both the French clergy and l’Agneau (1964); and L’Église des apôtres (1970). The the public at large, he used the authority of his office members of the Cercle received a thorough theologi- to make the voice of fidelity to the Gospel heard. This cal and spiritual education from him. In an effort to fidelity had been weakened by the “reductionism” of free them from unsound exegetical vulgarizations, the the secularists and by those who, at least in practice, following works appeared: Au commencement (1963); had often betrayed the Council while pretending to Les Évangiles de l’enfance (1967); and La résurrec- be inspired by it. This struggle alienated him from tion (1969). Two retreats given to the Cercle have also the most influential part of the Catholic intelligentsia been published: La Trinité et le mystère de 1’existence and clergy. His burning zeal expressed itself through (1968), and Contemplation, croissance de l’Église his talent as a polemicist. He who in the past was an (1977). They show us the true stature of Daniélou as “avant-gardist” was now rebuked for having gone a spiritual theologian. Father Daniélou exerted a great over to the “integralist” or reactionary side. [One can

28 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 only recall his article in Études in 1946, “Les ori- free man and faithful to the Gospel, notwithstanding entations présentes de la pensée religieuse,” which the pressure of factions and other schools of thought. had provoked suspicion in Rome and unleashed the Thus he courageously met unpopularity in the convic- attacks of the ultra-conservatives against the “new tion that service to the Church and zeal for souls theology,” all of which amounted at that time to a demanded it. Concerning this struggle see: L’oraison, portent of the ensuing repression against some of problème politique (1965); L’avenir de la religion (1968); the most eminent Jesuits such as Henri de Lubac and Christianisme de masse ou d’é1ite? (1968); Tests (1968); Henri Bouillard (1908-1981)]. Though he rejected La foi de toujours et l’homme d’aujourd’hui (1969); this charge, he could not allay the force of this hostil- Nouveaux tests (1970); La culture trahie par les siens ity. He merely affirmed that, just as always, he was a (1972); and Pourquoi l’Église (1972). ✠

Sports and Philosophy

James V. Schall, S.J., Georgetown University, DC, them “unserious,” an obvious contradiction, some- 20057-1200, www.moreC.com/schall thing this same Schall, as a matter of principle, warns us to avoid at all costs. Yet, if we all be Thomists, as I An Address Presented before Delta Phi Epsilon, hope we are, we are intellectually prodded by appar- the Foreign Service Professional Fraternity at ent contradictions, such as that between serious and Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. unserious, to examine things more carefully. We need to take a more careful look at something of obvious I. common interest like sports to see what we can learn from what appears, at first sight, to be oddly contra- n February 15, 1983, Vital Speeches dictory. published an address of mine en- But first let me ask a prior question: are sports titled, “On the Seriousness of at all worthy of attention, serious or unserious? If Sports.” This essay was later in- the answer is “no,” then we need proceed no far- cluded in my book, Another Sort of ther. Over Christmas one year, to put this issue in OLearning (Ignatius, 1988). Originally, it was given at another way, I spent a couple of days with a cousin a Conference on Sports’ Journalism, held at Harrah’s of mine and her husband. It happened to be the day Club in Reno, Nevada—itself, as you know, a well- of the Fiesta Bowl, the national championship game known arena for a certain kind of sports, namely, in college football, which game I definitely wanted “gaming sports,” as they are called. Last year, more- to watch. In fact, I delayed my return to Washington over, I published a book entitled, On the Unseriousness from San Diego, home of the Chargers and the Pa- of Human Affairs: Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, dres, for a couple of days just so I could watch that Lecturing, Philosophizing, Singing, Dancing (ISI Books). game. Most of the bowl games I had, with the ben- Note the words “playing” and “philosophizing” in the efit of pop corn, seen up to that time at my brother’s sub-title. They are not accidental or wholly unrelated were lemons. But the Fiesta Bowl between Ohio to each other. And how they are not unrelated is the State and Miami that year turned out to be a won- subject matter of what I wish to speak with you this derful game. evening. My cousin, for whom the Fiesta Bowl was not At first sight, of course, to the attentive reader, it the epitome of existence during New Year’s, several will seem that, in the intervening two decades, Schall times suggested that watching football, even at New has passed from calling sports “serious” to calling Year’s, was a sheer “waste of time.” She could not

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 29 ARTICLES understand why aging gentlemen, like myself and “time” measured by the referees’ watches, though her husband, found it worthwhile to sit around for within cosmic time, is a different kind of time. This is four hours to watch a one hour game between mon- game time, the frame within which the action takes strous men violently smashing each other by trying place. Referees measure the time within which the to get an oblong leather ball across something called game goes on. When we are on referees’ time, we are a goal line. Her scepticism about sports reminds me already within the game action. Even “time-outs,” of Chesterton’s quip, speaking of golf, that he could measured by the referee’s watch, are part of the game. not understand why grown men, dressed in knick- We leave our own time for the time of the game ers, with sticks in their hands, walked around a green while we are beholding before us its unfolding, its meadow avidly chasing a little white ball. action. Now, I am the first to admit that pro football Indeed, Aristotle asks us to notice that when games, as are Bowl games, are too long, too con- we are wholly interested in something, be it writ- trived to make extra ad time for TV advertizing. It ing, playing, or loving, we do not notice the passage does take some of the luster off watching a good of time. He notes this phenomenon of not notic- game, the essence of which is what I want to explain ing cosmic time passing especially in the case of the here. In this sense, soccer with its continuous time theatrical drama, and it also happens at concerts. The flow for everything but serious injuries is a far better initial point I wish to make here, then, is that watch- game, granting that the rhythm and flow of the two ing a good sporting event of whatever variety, from games are different. Time-outs are part of football as the Rose Bowl, to the Preakness, to the World Cup, is walking out of the batter’s box in baseball, though to the NCAA basketball finals, or to a good high not necessarily the extended TV pauses we presently school lacrosse game, has an effect on us. It causes us have to suffer through. But like the two-minute drill to stand outside of real time. And time itself is indeed at the end of a football game, you do have to admire real, as Aristotle and Augustine remind us, a category the genius of advertizing types who know that they of the real. have but thirty seconds to catch our attention to sell us a bottle of beer, a Ford truck, or a vacuum cleaner, II. before we block them out of our minds, screens, or attention. ut this observation about time leads us to How does one explain both that my cousin is another question, as it should, namely, what right, watching football or other sporting events is the relation between time and nothingness, is indeed a “waste of time,” and, at the same time, B or even more profoundly between time and eternity? that the games are still well worth watching, worth Aristotle already hints, I think, that game time is spending the time contemplating them, preferably closer to eternity, nunc stans, as Aquinas called it, than in person at the game itself, but also on television? I to the time that keeps going on and on, as measured usually approach this matter by recalling the famous by our watches. The phrase, “time stood still,” is well passage in Exupery’s The Little Prince that reminds worth pondering and hints at something Aquinas was us that “it is only the time that you ‘waste’ with our getting at, that eternity is the “standing now,” not the friends that really counts.” You cannot be a friend complete evaporation of time or its complete denial. with someone who is forever watching the clock to Where does this leave us? Schall has now estab- do something else. “Wasting time” means the capac- lished that “wasting our time” is quite all right. After ity to enjoy the present, really to look at what is go- the publication of the Vital Speeches talk, some jour- ing on, on who or what is before us in this time and nal, I believe it was Sports Illustrated, picked its theme this place.. up with the amusing comment that now Schall has In a paradoxical sense, all the important things in finally and philosophically justified the dream of time stand outside of time. When we are absorbed in the common man, in his eternal struggle with his a game, in a very real sense, we are “outside of ordi- womenfolk, namely, with a clear conscience, to sit nary time,” the time we measure on our watches. The

30 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 around with a beer and chips on Saturday or Sunday we play the game is to find out who wins and the afternoon to watch a ball game, whether it be base- style with which they play to win. This is why games ball, golf, tennis, football, basketball, sailing, diving, are fascinating, why we play them, because that is the soccer, cricket, boxing, or auto racing, to mention only way to find out who plays better, who plays best no more. Actually, over the years, as I usually have of all. my large classes read this essay, I have been struck by In Aristotle, particularly in the last book of the number of young women who tell me that they his Politics, we find passages that make several rel- have always wondered why they too like sports. Most evant distinctions about what we do in living and women, I suspect, agree with my cousin, bless them. playing—distinctions nowhere more clearly elabo- When they are reluctantly forced by the culture to rated than in Josef Pieper’s famous little essay Leisure: watch the Superbowl, they spend their time knitting, the Basis of Culture. Again, we have to examine what talking of the children, or admiring the half-time we mean by the words we give to the things we do shows or the way the cheerleaders fix their hair. and know about. “Wasting our time” seems to be the The phrase “wasting time” generally has a pejora- other side of the Aristotelian phrase about things ex- tive meaning. It implies that we are not doing what isting “for their own sakes” or knowing them “for its we ought to do, that we have our priorities wrong. own sake.” There are things we do want because they Surely, we think, no one wants his priorities wrong! are useful for something else or simply pleasurable to This question of priority naturally brings up the us. There is nothing wrong with this, provided we do question of what we ought to be doing and whether not think that there is no other reason for our fasci- sports have any place in the scheme of things. And nation with things. this is the question that brings us to Aristotle, whom I have already hinted that the phrase “wasting our Thomas Aquinas rightly called simply “the philoso- time” may not be all that bad. I do not in fact deny pher.” It also brings us to Aristotle’s mentor, the great that what we do when we watch a game is precisely Plato himself, who was quite certain that the rules “waste our time.” What I do deny is that this wasting of games should not change but that we should all is a bad thing, granted that other important things play them in our youth according to the rules our have to be taken care of. We have to choose how we ancestors set down for how the game is to be played. use or waste our time, the time given to us, the only Change the rules of games, Plato thought, and you time there is. I do not, however, want my logic to change the polity. He said much the same about be carried to the absurd conclusion that Schall justi- changing our music. Indeed, Plato even says that a fies spending all his time watching games or to the young man should not marry until his top sprint- equally absurd conclusion that he spends all his time ing speed begins to decline. You might ask yourselves in “significant” things of usefulness or duty. why he put it in that way. To take the next step in understanding the fas- In a way, this consideration even brings us to St. cination of sports—and that word “fascination” is Paul who told us that we run the race to win the worth looking up in a good dictionary as it has some laurel, the prize. That is, we run the race, we play reference to the holy—I usually like to cite a passage the game, to win. And if we do not understand this from Allan Bloom’s Shakespeare’s Politics, a passage about a game, that it is about winning, about win- to which I also call my students’ attention when we ning indeed according to the rules, then we have no read it. The passage concerns, not the game, but the idea what games are about, and probably not what “play,”—interesting word here—that is, the theater. It life is about. Grantland Rice, the famous sportscaster reads as follows: of my youth, in a famous phrase, said that “it mat- What is essentially human is revealed in the extreme, ters not whether you win or lose, but how you play and we understand ourselves better through what the game.” He was quite wrong. The only thing that we might be. In a way, the spectators live more truly matters, as Vince Lombardi said, is “winning,” but, when they are watching a Shakespearean play than again, winning according to the rules of the game. in their daily lives, which are so much determined Without winning, there is no game. The real reason by the accidents of time and place. There could be a

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 31 ARTICLES

theater dealing totally with private life, the cares for ly won an enormous amount of money, some three providing for a living and raising a family. But men million dollars. On investigation, it turned out that who never get beyond that life would be cut off from the winners were college fraternity brothers from their fullest human development… Philadelphia, one of whom just happened to work Notice, that Bloom here is not speaking of actors, but for Auto-Tote, the company that ran the betting spectators, just as in this discussion, with Aristotle, I mechanism. Thus, it is possible for games or races to am speaking primarily of the spectators, not the play- be “fixed” or “thrown,” as they say. ers, in a game. The question of gambling and games I will not Without the spectators, I think, there is no game, go into here except to say that betting has long been even though a game can go on with no spectators, considered to be part of games, particularly horse with no cheering. For an understanding of what races. One of the purposes of referees or stewards is Bloom is getting at, we must return to Aristotle’s to make sure that the games are played according to Poetics. Aristotle understood that when we behold the the rules of the game. The rules of games are made- plot of a drama unfolding before us, we are moved up, they are arbitrary, but once they are set, they form from within our very selves by fear and pity for the the structure of the game and make it what it is. The characters. We form our souls after the models of the referee is not a player in the game, but without him, virtues and vices we see before us. Games, likewise, generally, there is no game. He is responsible, not to simply draw us and have their own catharses in our the outcome of the game, but to the rules so that the souls as we behold them within their own time. outcome, when achieved by the winners, is “accord- ing to the rules.” Thus, there is a clear right and wrong in games. III. Rules have penalties. If you read the sports pages of any newspaper in the world on any given day, you hat, you might object, does an exalted will notice that they are full of moral judgments Sophoclean or Shakespearean drama about right and wrong, about fairness and unfairness, have to do with the Superbowl, the Mas- W about honor and worthiness and about cheating and ters, March Madness or the Penn Relays? Indeed, dishonesty. In this sense, sports are almost the last bas- we might ask, what does it have to do with Aristotle’s tion of clarity in morals, though the slowness of base- Metaphysics or Aquinas’ Summae? The answer is that ball facing the steroid problem reminds us that sports’ in a good game we see displayed before us not only figures are not always on the side of the gods. This the unfolding of a game to its unknown conclusion, awareness of the firmness of rules in sports is also but we see the excellence of our kind stretched to its why, as in the case of German soccer, there is some- best in a certain order. The very notion of the Olym- thing more corrupting about a referee who cheats pic Games was designed to find out what human than a player who cheats. As in the playoff between, beings could achieve in the excellence of their physi- say, the Patriots and the Steelers, a player may get by cal being. Who could run or skate or ski or swim the with an unnoticed penalty. His team may win as a fastest, who could jump the highest or the most dis- result. No justice can be requited in such a case. We tance, who could throw the shotput or the javelin the may not like this failure to notice, but the rules of the farthest? Who wrestled or boxed best? What team game, as such, are not being broken here. But if the played best volley-ball or soccer or hockey? These penalty is not called because the referee is promised a are the testings of our human limits. huge financial reward, we clearly have a higher form Let me also say a word about cheating and ref- of corruption. ereeing. In a Breeders’ Cup in Chicago, a couple of As Thomas Boswell said in the Washington Post years ago, one of the betting combinations known as (January 10, 2003), there is a danger in trying to the Pic-Six was rigged. By a slick change in certain make the game so perfect, with so many rules and tickets after the race was won, certain few tickets, checks, that it is no longer playable. In this case, the partly because of an unexpected long-shot, apparent- referees, the replays, and the fine-points of the rules

32 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 become more important than the game. “A sport can do them simply because they are worthy, fascinating, reach a point where it has so many rules—which are delightful. They have no reason beyond themselves. amended so often and then enforced by officials who Somehow they draw us into themselves. are repeatedly overturned by replay—that the game What does this consideration have to do with strangles on technicalities, loses its flow and exasper- sports? Aristotle, in his uncanny way, compares ates out patience.” As in life itself, place must be left contemplation and sports, or more particularly, the for human error, even human corruption. Otherwise, watching of sports. Games themselves need not ex- our games are for angels, not men and women. ist. They are technically artifacts, things made up. Yet, when they exist, when they are being played, they are IV. “for their own sakes,” they are, if you will, a “wasting of time.” Aristotle does say that theory, contemplation ut let me come to the essence of what I want are more “serious”—that word again—than games. to say about watching and playing games, His point is not to imply that games can replace the about sports. Not too long ago, I had an e- gods, but to suggest to us that what most of us expe- B rience about games, their fascination, their absorbing mail from a student who had read the essay on “The Seriousness of Sports.” In it, he told me that it ex- our time and interest, is analogous to our absorp- plained something to him about himself that he had tion in the highest things. A similar thing happens never quite understood before, namely, what was it to us when we hear a good symphony or see a play. about good games that so absorbed his interest? He We are taken out of our time to behold something had heard a million times, even from his own mother, for its own sake. Things like dancing and liturgy fall that he was, yes, “wasting his time” by watching vari- into the same category. They do something to our ous games. He almost believed there was something time because they give us something in itself worthy wrong with him. But the fact is that someone who to behold, something, like ourselves, that need not finds no fascination in watching games is probably be, but is. This is why on reading, say, Josef Cardinal much farther away from what is highest in our hu- Ratzinger’s (Benedict XVI) book The Spirit of the Lit- man experience than someone who does experience urgy, we sense that what it says is analogously closer this sense of interest, this “wasting of time,” but does to watching games than it is to almost anything else not understand what it is about. we normally encounter. Aristotle makes serval perhaps enigmatic remarks In conclusion, I do not know if your generation on this score. The purpose of “recreation” is work, still remembers Charles Schulz and “Peanuts,“ how he tells us, while the purpose of “work” is leisure. Charlie Brown could never win a ball game, nor We work so that we may have leisure. We have lei- would Lucy ever let him kick off the football with- sure so that we may have all that is. Actually, Aristotle out pulling it out just before he kicked it, so that he says that we are “un-leisurely” so that we may have fell flat on his derrier, much to her amusement. “Pea- leisure. Work, or labor, or technology, or business is nuts” was one of the great on-going reflections on not what we are doing at games, even when we are the relation, among other things, between philosophy playing them with great exertion. Indeed, the Greek and sports in our time. and Latin words for what we call “business” mean In a collection called, If Beagles Could Fly (Top- precisely that we are “un-leisurely,” that we are busy, per, 1990), we see Charlie Brown returning home, devoted to producing or running useful things. still with his baseball hat on, glove in hand. He is Aristotle suggests that there are things beyond obviously dejected. Sally, his sister, is stretched out use, indeed the highest things. The Greek word for on the bean bag chair watching TV. From behind these things is theorein, theory, while the Latin word her, Charlie says to her, “It was the last game of the is contemplatio, contemplation. Such words imply that season, and we lost it.” In the next scene, Sally is off we have things to do “for their own sakes.” That is, of the beanbag and walks away from a glum Charlie. we do not need some “useful” reason to do them. We She says to him, shades of “wasting time,” “so what does that mean?” Next, Charlie is standing alone next

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 33 ARTICLES to the beanbag, hat now on sideways, with a sudden ing a good game, when we forget about time and philosophical look on his face. To himself, in answer behold something just because it is there, because it to Sally’s question of meaning about losing, he re- is. These are, I think, ordinary, everyday experiences flects, “Well, in the long run, and as far as the rest of that, as in the case of my young friend, puzzle us the world goes, it doesn’t mean a thing.” But in the because we are fascinated by them. final scene, we see Charlie with his head despondent- Sports, Aristotle tells us, are of less serious import ly buried in the beanbag. He simply cries,”But I can’t than the contemplation of the highest things, than stand it!” the simple joy and wonder in knowing the things That comes very close to what I want to tell you that are. But this is not to denigrate them. It is merely about sports and philosophy. Charlie’s “can’t stand to point out that the games of our kind are given to it” is in defiance of a world in which losing the last us out of the abundance of things wherein “wasting game doesn’t mean a thing, when in fact it means our time” spells out nothing less than the things that everything. cause time to disappear for us into the timelessness There are things worth doing for their own sakes, we call, sometimes, eternity. The world itself, after all, even worth doing “badly,” as Chesterton said, and all in our theology, need not have existed. It is a colossal of Charlie Brown’s games were badly played. There divine waste of time, but we are delighted that it is. are games to be won and games to be lost. We come This is what games are about and why we have phi- closest to what the contemplation of the highest losophy to think about them. ✠ things might mean when we are drawn into watch-

BOOK REVIEWS

The Supreme Court and Religion must-have work, to be consulted as separation between church and state.” in American Life; vol. 1, The Odys- needed. Just about everything you Those words were taken from a letter sey of the Religion Clauses. vol. 2, need to know on this topic is here written by President Thomas Jeffer- From “Higher Law” to “Sectarian (an exaggeration, of course, but not a son to a Baptist church in Connecti- Scruples.” James Hitchcock, Princ- great one) and it will serve you well cut. Now, Jefferson had been neither eton and Oxford: New Forum Books in arguing with liberals who regard a delegate to the Constitutional Con- (2004), pp. 218 and 261 hardcover the Supreme Court as a secular Holy vention of 1787 nor a member of the ISBN: 0-691-11696–2 (v. 1) $ not See, with law school professors as its Congress in which the First Amend- given theologians. ment had been framed (his friend and James Hitchcock is a professor of colleague, James Madison, had been Reviewed by Francis Canavan, S.J., history at St. Louis University, and both, but he was not the author of Fordham University writes as an historian rather than a the “wall of separation” metaphor). constitutional lawyer. He tells us in You will also have noticed that his two-volume work is a his introduction to volume 1, “This the First Amendment says, “Congress must-read for anyone really volume provides the most compre- shall make no law . . .” The Amend- Tinterested in what the U.S. hensive survey of the religion cases ment purposely leaves out any men- Supreme Court has made of the Reli- that has yet been published and can tion of the States being bound by gion Clauses of the First Amendment: be used, independent of volume 2, it when it says, “no law respecting “Congress shall make no law respect- as an overall survey of the historical an establishment of religion.” Some ing an establishment of religion; or development of the jurisprudence of States at that time had established prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” the Religion Clauses.” religions which the Amendment for- Or, if reading all the information You will have noticed that the bade Congress to disestablish. packed into these pages seems too First Amendment’s Religion Clauses Justice Black, who began the great a demand on your time, it is a do not include the words “a wall of contemporary interpretation of the

34 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 Establishment Clause in 1947, knew legal procedures summed up in the evil to be remedied, and what was that, of course. But he had convinced phrase “due process of law.” the remedy provided by the law. If himself that the purpose of section Justice Byron White, in the opin- the Constitution is the supreme law 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment ion of the Court that he wrote in of the land it must have a discern- (framed and ratified after the Civil Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), remarked, ible meaning and a purpose that the War) was to make the federal Bill of “It is true that despite the language of Court can recognize and apply to the Rights (the first eight amendments) the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth decision of the case before it. binding on the States. Had he taken and Fourteenth Amendments, which But if the Court, or a majority of the trouble to read the debates in appears to focus only on the processes its members, regard the Constitution Congress on the framing of the Four- by which life, liberty, or property is as an accordion to be pulled out or teenth Amendment, he would have taken, the cases are legion in which squeezed in to meet the needs of so- known that the purpose section l of those Clauses are interpreted to have ciety as the Justices see them, the re- the Amendment, which its sponsors substantive content, substantive rights sult is to make constitutional litigation in both houses of Congress repeat- that to a great extent are immune a device for resolving political contro- edly explained, was to confer on Con- from federal or state regulation or versies, or even a tool for advancing gress the power to enact civil-rights proscription. Among such cases are political agendas, and to turn the ap- laws binding on the States. It would those recognizing rights that have pointment of Justices into the fierce have been unimaginable for them to little or not textual support in the political struggles that we now see. transfer the power to protect the civil constitutional language.” In his treatment of the Court’s rights of the recently emancipated The cases are indeed legion: interpretation of “establishment,” slaves to the Supreme Court, which although Justice White had made Hitchcock divides the members of less than ten years earlier had handed it perfectly clear that he disagreed the Court into separationists who down its well-known and infamous with the substantive right to abor- believe in Justice Black’s high and im- decision in the Dred Scott case. tion found in Roe v. Wade and its pregnable wall, and accommodation- What Black did know, however, sequels, in this case, when writing an ists who think that accommodations was that he wanted to transfer the opinion of the Court, he had to ac- to the religious beliefs and interests of control of civil-rights legislation cept the power of the Court to create citizens are sometimes and to some from State and local legislatures to substantive rights. extent permissible. (The “incorpora- the federal courts, ultimately to the The Court has never asserted tion” of the First Amendment in Supreme Court. Hence his flat asser- that all the rights listed in the Bill of into the Fourteenth through “sub- tion in the opinion of the Court in Rights are binding on the States. But stantive due process” is now generally the 1947 case of Everson v. Board of it has “incorporated” a number of taken for granted.) Education: “The First Amendment has them into the Fourteenth Amend- Among the strictest separationists erected a wall between church and ment as the substantive meaning of Hitchcock numbers Hugo L. Black, state. That wall must be kept high and the liberty protected by the of course, and William O. Douglas, impregnable.” But that statement does Due Process Clause. In this way it has Felix Frankfurter, Wiley Rutledge, not suffice to grant the U.S. Supreme made the words “Congress shall make and William Brennan. In Volume 2, Court the power to decide a case no law” mean “No State shall.” Hav- Hitchcock reports at length on the arising, not from an Act of Congress, ing done that, the Court has assigned religious beliefs and church member- but from an action by a subdivision itself the task of determining the ship of the Justices. Anti-religious of a State. The First Amendment, on meaning of “establishment,” “religion” bias seems to have been more evident its face, limits the power of Congress, and “the free exercise thereof” in than partiality toward the creeds in not of New Jersey. cases involving State as well as federal which they were raised. According The Court. however, relies on actions. to Hitchcock, “The roots of the[ir] the Due Process Clause of the Four- One might think that in inter- assumption about the irrationality teenth Amendment, which says that preting clauses that contain these of religion can perhaps be found in no State “shall deprive any person of terms in the course of deciding cases the personal histories of the majority life, liberty, or property without due arising under them, the first duty of of the justices who during the 1940s process of law.” That is to say that all the Court would be to ask what the fashioned the modern jurisprudence of the penalties or losses that a State terms meant to those who wrote and of the religion clauses. In 1947, prob- may impose on persons may be im- ratified them. Or, to put it in other ably for the first time in history, the posed only in accordance with those words, to determine what was the Court was composed of a majority

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 35 BOOK REVIEWS who were alienated from the religions Jewish Congress, and Protestants and self. Liberal thought cannot conceive of their youth.” Other Americans United for the Sep- of persons belonging to communities Justice Antonin Scalia has been aration of Church and State–which bound by ties that are antecedent to often for somewhat different motives, choice, an attitude that inevitably sees the most conservative member of the each espoused a separationist view strong religious groups as danger- Court in the religion cases. Hitchcock and mounted systematic challenges to ous. Contemporary liberalism seems calls his judicial philosophy “a modi- existing forms of accommodation. bifurcated, in that it is obsessed with fied ‘original intent’–not the personal This change has appeared, not ‘rights talk’ even as it treats certain opinions of the Framers of the Con- only in the opinions of Justices of rights, especially those having to do stitution or later lawmakers but the the Court, but in a large literature of with religion, as though they were ‘evident meaning” of the texts them- conferred by the state. The ultimate commentators, most of them liberals. issue is whether citizens possess natu- selves as they would have been under- According to Hitchcock, “The term ral rights, which the Constitution stood at the time they were drafted.” ‘liberalism,’ in modern American merely promises to respect, or wheth- Justice Brennan, says Hitchcock, politics refers both to an agreement er rights are conditionally bestowed “was fairly certain that . . . the Found- to abide by constitutional principles by the state. ers were so preoccupied with oppos- that provide access to all citizens ing a formal establishment of religion” (‘political liberalism’) and to an James Hitchcock deserves loud that they had not given “specific ideological act of faith in a particular and prolonged congratulations for thought” to modern questions like concept of a free and open society striking a blow for liberty in this well prayers in public schools. But the (‘comprehensive’ or ‘transformative’ written and thoroughly documented Constitution, said Brennan, should not liberalism.).” work. We can only hope that he will be treated “as a static document when “The premodern Court,” says be listened to. in fact its interpretation had to change Hitchcock, “was hardly a bastion of in each age in order to be faithful to religious orthodoxy…But the justices’ its original purpose.” (The Court, of personal doubts seldom influenced Our Lady and the Church, Hugo course, would decide what the pur- their willingness to support reli- Rahner, S.J., translated by Sebastian pose should mean today.) gion,…” From the modern liberal Bullough. Zaccheus Press, 2004. xii + There have therefore been sev- point of view, which has strongly 152 pp. $10.95 softcover. ISBN 0- eral “patterns of establishment” in he influenced the Court since the 1940s, 9725981-1-1. Court’s interpretation of the Religion religion is subjective and irrational, Clauses. The premodern Court sel- and therefore should be confined Review by David Paul Deavel, adjunct dom found “either a violation of free to the private realm and kept out of lecturer in theology at the University of St. exercise or an act of establishment.” influence on public law and policy. Thomas and a doctoral candidate in his- Hitchcock’s thesis is that the primary Carried to its logical extent, it would torical theology at Fordham Universiy purpose of the Religion Clauses was seem, belief that God created man in to ensure the free exercise of religion His own image should bar one from n his memoir, Milestones, then and, as means to that end, it forbade having a vote on public questions of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger recalled the establishment of religion, i.e.. a human rights such as abortion, stem- Ithat while he and the renowned Church of the United States by Law cell research, and same-sex marriage Jesuit Karl Rahner had come to many Established. The modern Court is (which last item is constitutionally similar conclusions at the Second Vati- quick to protect minority sects in protected because “male and female can Council, they resided in different their practices, but tends to regard any He created them” is the only objec- mental universes. Ratzinger’s universe public expenditure of money or other tion to it). The liberal mind acknowl- was the Bible, the Fathers, and the governmental action that favors a reli- edges no revealed law of God or entire history of the Church. Rahner’s gious institution as an establishment of moral law derived from our nature as world, especially after the Council, religion. This became, in rough out- human beings. evident if one has ever read his essay line, the modern ‘separation of church In his conclusion to volume 2, in fundamental theology, Foundations, and state.” Hitchcock states: at least appears to be a combination He says, in addition: Liberalism emphasizes rights so of philosophical perspectives from St. The legal climate also changed be- strongly that it overlooks the question Thomas, Kant, and Heidegger among cause of the newly aggressive posture of the goods that individuals should others. Scripture and the Fathers rarely of three organizations–the American pursue in their lives, political rights appear, while the appearance of the Civil Liberties Union, the American being taken as prior to the good it- Church at the end of the book feels

36 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 almost an afterthought. I am aware resolving a growing apparent “con- stands as a figure of the Virgin Moth- that there have been attempts at re- tradiction” felt between the historic er of God, who without the work of habilitating Rahner as a man of the western devotion to Mary and to the man received the blessed fruit of her Tradition, notably by R. R. Reno and newly revived devotion to the Church. womb. (71) Patrick Burke, but I think my general- This book, said Rahner, “has one ization still stands. single object: to show from the warm- The child of baptism must continue Not so Karl’s brother Hugo, also a hearted theology of the great Fathers to give birth to Christ in his own Jesuit, and also influential before and and Doctors that the whole mystery soul throughout life, so Rahner fol- during the Council. Hugo, who sup- of the Church is inseparably bound up lows Mary through her life leading posedly joked that he was waiting to with the mystery of Mary” (5). to her place at the cross where the read his brother’s works when they After an introductory chapter sword which threatened to pierce her were translated into German, lived in detailing the notion of typology in own heart did. the mental universe of those conciliar Scripture since St. Paul, Rahner takes The eighth chapter, “Valiant figures, like the young peritus Ratz- four chapters to treat various aspects Woman,” is perhaps the most pow- inger, who thought any aggiornamento of this great, two-sided mystery under erful of the chapters, attempting to was only possible with a rigorous and four traditional Marian titles: “Im- open up “the mystery of her inner constant ressourcement. The Church maculata,” “Ever Virgin,” “Mother of strength amid the ordinariness of her could only truly serve the world if God,” and “Mother of the Faithful.” life on earth. For only he who can she knew in what her service consist- Each chapter is filled with quotations prove his unswerving faithfulness to ed and with what her own treasury from both Latin and Greek Fathers, Christ by his powerful patience in was stocked. It is noteworthy, then, as well as numerous medieval com- everyday life, is able to go with Christ that this reprint of Hugo Rahner’s mentators, designed to show that the to Calvary and share in the Resurrec- pioneering study of the Fathers’ vi- Catholic understanding of Mary and tion” (88). This thread has an impor- sion of Mary and the Church as the Church was indeed universal. tant effect on our understanding of two sides of one reality bears on its Rahner specially highlights many of the sacraments, and consequently on cover the recommendation of Joseph the statements of St. Augustine on our lives: “Incarnation and death are Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, this topic, showing that the Doctor made one in the Church’s sacraments, as “one of the most important theo- of Grace’s concept of salvation was for in the sacrificial death, Christ’s logical rediscoveries of the twentieth as intricately wrapped around Mary body is every day reborn” (90). Even century.” and the Church as any of the other the old claims about Catholics focus- Three cheers seem too stingy Fathers. It is thus useful in proving the ing more on the Incarnation and the for tiny Zaccheus Press, which also 19th century Calvinist B. B. Warfield Orthodox (or Protestants, depending brought out last year one of the a grand simplicateur in his facile claim on who bears this legend) more on greatest theological works by an Eng- that the Protestant Reformation was the Death and Resurrection must lishman in this century, Dom Anscar the triumph of Augustine’s soteriology find their end. The Incarnation and Vonier’s A Key to the Doctrine of the over his ecclesiology. the Paschal Mystery are as inter- Eucharist. Our Lady and the Church The next chapters proceed to take twined as are Mary and the Church. is physically a gorgeous book. The insights from the Marian aspects thus Every sacrament and every day in the cover’s cobalt blue border and white surveyed and apply them to individual life of the Church bear the weight of background surround a print of Bot- spiritual lives. “Mary at the Font” the glory of Christmas, Good Friday, ticelli’s Madonna of the Book, while the beautifully details the Christmas im- and Easter. title, in gold lettering, and the author, agery of baptism when Christ is born If the eighth is the most power- in red lettering, are above and below anew in one of the children of Adam. ful, the ninth chapter, “The Pledge of the print respectively. For those who Rahner quotes wonderful passages like the Spirit in our Hearts,” is the most judge books at least in part by their the following from the old Spanish personal. Mary’s pondering of the covers, it should be said that designer liturgy of baptism: mysteries revealed to her is revealed Robin Terra gets a special prize. The children of light go forth from as the essence of Pentecost, that is, But like the stable in Bethlehem, baptism: tonight they are born, by the being filled with the Spirit. “For into what is inside is immeasurably greater grace of the Spirit, of their mother the her heart,” writes Rahner, “came the than the outside. Written originally Church to greet a new day: without Spirit with a fullness that filled it to before the declaration of the Assump- stain she conceived them, she brought human capacity” (103). Mary’s fill- tion, Rahner set himself the task of them forth without pain: for she ing was a precursor to the wind of

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 37 BOOK REVIEWS

Pentecost when the nascent Church Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals an interpretation of it in support of received the Spirit in all her mem- Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing. its own agnosticism. Reason to doubt bers—and it is no mere coincidence Dembski, William A., ed., Wilmington: the existence of God as the author that she is present with the gathered ISI Books, 2004. xxxviii + 366 pp. of nature as we experience it fitted Apostles: “Is my heart a trusting Cloth, $22.40; paper, 14.40. nicely with the enlightened secular heart? Is my heart a vessel ready to philosophies of the day. No doubt receive the Spirit poured out by the Reviewed by Prof. Jude P. Dougherty, there have always been village atheists. risen Christ?…And this can again be Emeritus, The Catholic University of Plato thought atheism so serious that resolved by the simple question: Is America in his ideal republic he mandated the the mother of Jesus there?” death penalty for the second offense The final two chapters, “The embski has brought together of atheism. The youthful first offender Woman of Revelation” and “Queen a valuable collection of es- was to be excused. Today the situation Assumed into Heaven,” cover the Dsays in an attempt to clear is reversed given the willingness of place of Mary in the Church’s escha- the air in the “creationist-evolutionist” the ACLU to commit its resources to tology. The “woman” of Revelation debate where terms are rarely defined anyone willing to challenge the public 12 is the Church constantly in birth and ideological motivation is often expression of the existence of God, pangs for the totus Christus as well as hidden. Dembski makes clear in his including those who attribute order in Mary who, Assumed into Heaven, has “introduction” that a few basic dis- the universe to an intelligent designer. “fulfilled in her own body what for tinctions are in order. One must dis- How did we come to this? the Church is still in promise, namely tinguish among theories of evolution, Who, we may ask, has a stake in the complete victory over Satan and Darwin’s work itself, Darwinism as an the denial of the existence of a creat- the regaining of the life of paradise, ideology, and the use made of evolu- ing God? In their respective contri- . . .” (126). Mary, meek and mild, is tionary theory in the cause of militant butions to the volume, both Phillip E. as terrible a sight to the the forces atheism. Theories of evolution ante- Johnson and Nancy R. Pearcey make of darkness in her Assumption as her date Darwin, notably those of St. Au- it clear that the debate about creation Son was in his Resurrection. Rahner gustine and Immanuel Kant. Darwin’s is not a debate among paleontolo- quotes an Armenian hymn of the As- own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin gists but a debate among philosophers sumption: “Today the choirs of fiery (1731-1802), had proposed a theory who represent conflicting world spirits look upon our own nature, of evolution. Alfred Russell Wallace, an views. Dembski is astonished that made of clay, and tremble” (132). The English naturalist, worked out a state- someone like Daniel Dennett can Patristic vision of our Lady, valiant ment of evolution similar to Darwin’s get away with invoking Darwin in woman and crusher of the serpent, shortly before Darwin’s book, On the defense of his atheism, and not only makes the “empowered” Marian Origin of Species by Means of Natu- that, but that Dennett, with the aid models of certain feminist theologians ral Selection (1859) was published. of willing editors, is given a forum seem like the thin, pathetic shades of Wallace’s paper and an abstract of Dar- in his attempt to make atheism at- Dante’s Inferno. win’s book were presented together tractive in the wider culture. On July This book, only 135 pages of text, at a meeting of the Linnean Society 16, 2003, the New York Times op ed is so full that it would pay immeasur- of London in 1858. Neither said any- page published an article by Daniel able rewards by close study. Our Lady thing about the origin of nature itself Dennett proclaiming his atheism and and the Church would make an excel- or about a creator or purposive de- encouraging others to do so as well. lent text for teachers of ecclesiology signer. Why then the alarm? Darwin’s That a philosophy professor at Tufts who want to introduce a full vision account did challenge the biblical University would feel compelled to of the Church as not an “It” but account of creation as found in the evangelize on behalf of a question- “She.” book of Genesis, but Christians had able opinion and brag about liberat- long understood that the Bible was ing high-school students from their not to be taken literally. St. Augustine, religious upbringing is interesting in himself, distinguished among three itself. The antecedents of his view are levels of interpretation: literal, figura- indeed more interesting. One would tive, and moral. The theory of evolu- have to look hard to find a philoso- tion arrived on the European scene pher who claims to have evidence when the philosophical empiricism of that God does not exist. Yet belief in the 18th century was prepared to use the non-existence of God is fairly

38 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 widespread, particularly in a class that where the postulated entities of one a newly commissioned reactor at Los Dennett calls “bright.” As Dembski generation became the encountered Alamos. Pauli, in a realistic manner, points out, the term “bright” is used ones of another. The encountered is was seeking an explanation, reason- as a synonym for “atheist” or alterna- routinely explained by that which is ing from effect to unseen cause, but tively for “Darwinist.” It is also used not encountered. In the lifetime of clearly he was out of line as judged deliberately to suggest an affinity our fathers, if not in our own lifetime, by reigning positivistic canons. with an 18th century movement that the molecular structure of a solid was Dennett, knowingly or not, has has come to be known as the En- a mere postulate, a crude analogue to revived an ancient debate, playing the lightenment. represent what was thought should be role once assumed by Epicurus (341- From the vantage point of clas- the case according to the evidence at 270 B.C.), who aimed to free the sical antiquity, the Enlightenment hand. Today an electron microscope human being from fear of the gods was anything but that. The brights can take directly interpretable pictures and the threat of punishment in an that Dennett urges to come out of of atoms within solids. Now we can afterlife. He deployed atomic physics the closet may well be advised in understand why some solids behave to eliminate divine causation from the interest of self-esteem to remain as insulators, others as semiconduc- the world as well as the possibility in the closet where their dim light tors, and still others as metals. To use that the soul could survive the death may seem bright. Why promulgate a another example, with nuclear mag- of the body. Yet he did not deny the view for which there is no evidence? netic resonance imaging we are able existence of the gods altogether, given Claiming that most scientists sup- to determine sodium and phosphorus the widespread belief in their exis- port the view provides no evidence concentrations in compounds such tence; rather he reinterpreted their for the view itself. The existence or as fats and carbohydrates in the liv- nature, identifying them as idealiza- non-existence of God is not a ques- ing tissues of the human body. Causal tions or eternal models of behavior tion that arises in any of the natural inference, which produced various for which human beings might strive. sciences. The Enlightenment fathers 19th -century models of the cell and Thus, brights in Dennetts words were more cautious in advancing its components, turns out to be in the “even teach Sunday school and He- their views. David Hume, who awak- 20th century a close approximation brew classes,” no doubt in the spirit ened the somnambulant Kant by of the inferred structure. of Epicurus. challenging the principle of causality, An amusing episode in the annals The shallowness of the Epicurean in much the same way as Locke had of science may illustrate this point. position was, of course, recognized challenged the principle of substance, Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 postulated in antiquity. Cicero (106-43 B.C.), in drove reason into a doubting and the existence of an undetected par- page after page of works such as On skeptical mode, but even Hume left ticle to account for phenomena he the Good Life and On the Laws, cas- open the need for private medita- could not otherwise explain. Perhaps tigates Epicurus for his unwarranted tion of a religious sort. Unlike the tongue in cheek, he apologized in atheism and the destruction of an British empiricists, the ancients from the atmosphere of the same aca- accepted moral order, calling him “an Plato to Plotinus and beyond had no demic Zeitgeist that Dennett seeks effeminate pleasure lover.” Clement of trouble reasoning to a self-thinking to promote. In correspondence with Alexandria (ca. 150-215 A.D.), who intellect, a summum bonum, a first ef- a colleague, he wrote, “I have done obliged his students, in their attempt ficient cause, an ultimate final cause, a terrible thing. I have postulated a to understand the implications of Sa- and an immaterial intellect. Design in particle that cannot be detected.” In cred Scripture, to read all of the pagan nature hardly had to be postulated; it supporting Pauli, the Italian physicist philosophers, nevertheless declared was taken to be self-evident. Without Enrico Fermi baptized the hypotheti- that “the only completely useless sect an acknowledgment of the intellect’s cal particle “neutrino,” or “little neu- is that of Epicurus.” It seems to be a ability to move from effect to cause, tral one,” but his paper was rejected law of history that periods of high from the observed to the unobserved, by the prestigious journal Nature as rational achievement are followed by from the seen to the unseen, there is “too speculative and remote from periods of doubt, only to give way no way to demonstrate the existence reality.” The first experiment to hunt to a resurgence of confidence in the of God or, for that matter, much of for the neutrino was called “Project intellect’s ability to navigate once what we take for granted in theoreti- Poltergeist.” In 1956 Clyde Cowan again in difficult metaphysical terrain. cal physics. and Fred Reines found a definite Perhaps the present is the trough of a The efficacy of causal reasoning trace of the elusive neutrino as a re- Pyrronism that has been in the mak- is dramatically seen in those sciences sult of experiments performed with ing since the Enlightenment.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 39 BOOK REVIEWS

Modern paganism differs from its religion in their hearts.” defensive. Impressive chapters by Mi- ancient forms. The ancients may have In another passage, Santayana chael John Denton and J. Budzisewski been ignorant of the teachings of proffers this assessment, “Not only not only offer devastating critiques of Christ which were to come later, but does the decay of religious faith let Darwinism but show clearly that evo- their disciples were open to Christi- loose all sorts of moral license, but lutionary change requires direction. In anity. The paganism of contemporary the inevitable rebellion of the pas- the classroom, theories of evolution philosophers is directed not merely sions, noble as well as base, against must be taught for what they are, hy- against the intellectual confidence of any external control, because people pothetical explanations for empirically the high periods of classical antiquity wish to be free to do as they like encountered natural phenomena, but but against Christianity itself. The with good conscience.” The resulting Darwinism has to be exposed as spe- use of criticism within the confines moral decline and eventual political cious philosophy masquerading as sci- of the university is one thing; the chaos, Santayana feared, may beg for ence. quest for power through channels of resolution by the fiat of a dictator. popular opinion is another. Indeed, “The modern mind,” he continues, the quest for power may be the root “is liberal and romantic; but a state Caring for a Dying Loved One: A of the skeptical impulse. If there are of society and a discipline of the will Comprehensive Guide, by Robert no natural standards against which inspired by pure reason would be nei- Fischer. Staten Island, NY. Alba House behavior and policy are to be held ther romantic nor liberal. It would be 2005. xx + 97, soft cover $9.95 accountable, then the will of those sternly organic, strictly and tradition- Healing Questions and Answers for in power becomes paramount. The ally moral, military and scientific. The Those Who Mourn, By Rev Terence P. current resentment of politicians and literary enemies of Christianity might Curley, D.Min. Staten Island, NY. Alba bureaucrats to reminders that they are soon find reason to pine for the broad House 2005. xvi + 103, softcover $9.95 accountable to a moral order is a case margin of liberty and folly by which in point. Christianity, in merry Christian times, Reviewed by John Adam Moreau, Ph.D., Current efforts to prevent any was always surrounded.” Santayana’s Mobile, AL mention of the Christian sources of magisterial volume, Dominions and European culture in the yet-to-be Powers, from which these passages n Caring for a Dying Loved One adopted European Constitution are are taken, could profitably be read Robert Fischer, a nurse and a for- by no means innocent in intent. One by Dennett’s Albrights as well as by Imer Naval Nurse Corps officer, lays is reminded of an oft-repeated adage, members of those parliaments about out invaluable counsel about dealing “Those who control the present con- to vote on the European Constitu- with a dying person who—let’s say it in trol the past; those who control the tion. The omission of any reference to plain English—would try to bully and past control the future.” The rewriting Christianity may be a fait accompli, control the person caring for him. of the past has become an industry but Santayana could remind anyone It is an unsettling idea but of course on both sides of the Atlantic as uni- willing to listen of the historic role one knows it to be true. The dying versity presses bring out one volume of Christianity, its beauty and moral person was human and flawed before after another ignoring the classical import when judged even from a he took to his death bed and he is just and Christian sources of Western cul- forthright naturalistic standpoint. as much or more so as he nears death. ture. The “upward filtration of a new Space does not permit the ex- Enter the compelling idea that the spirit that of an emancipated, athe- amination of each of the fourteen dying person also has responsibilities istic, international democracy” that essays that constitute this volume. to those caring for him, and it is the the American philosopher, George Together they make clear that the use duty of the person caring for the dying Santayana foresaw three quarters of of Darwin in defense of a naturalistic person to set limits regarding lines the a century ago is upon us. Materialist world view has no place in a biol- dying person may not cross. though he was, he found the prospect ogy classroom. The use of Darwin to Otherwise, writes Fischer: “The appalling. Recognizing the impor- challenge personal accountability to ‘emotional vampire’ can convert the... tance of religion to society, he wrote, a natural moral order is unconscio- care giver into an ‘emotional cripple.’” “Modern materialists, I confess, have nable. There is evidence that the Dar- He goes on: usually had vulgar and jejune minds; winians, who heretofore have been “The emotional vampires can be but not so the ancients who were ma- highly successful in quashing dissent emotionally dysfunctional, mentally terialists by nature and not foolishly in academic and intellectual circles unstable, or demented loved ones. They hostile to popular religion or without are, if not in retreat, at least on the are difficult to deal with in the best

40 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 of times, but can be little less than a A fascinating passage, the above, Christian. We remember in this ritual nightmare when they are sick. They are since it makes one wonder about the action the words of baptism: ‘See in generally self-centered, co-dependent, experience of a dying person not in this white garment the outward sign demanding, materialistic, paranoid, the state of grace. of your Christian dignity. Bring that angry, controlling, hateful.... As for Father Curley’s commend- dignity unstained into the everlasting “In their self-centeredness, for able book, it was written, he says, life of heaven.’” whatever the pathology, they believe to avoid what he says is the mumbo To the layman; volunteers and the world exists for and through them jumbo and jargon found in such lit- professionals who help the dying; re- alone. When they cannot live life on erature. He succeeds. Among his sev- ligious orders, and doctors and nurses their own terms they become very eral impressive professional endeavors I suggest that if you put these two frustrated and act out their frustration.” has been as president of the Board works with two others you have just The person providing the care, says of Trustees of the National Catholic about a perfect library. Fischer, has his own packet of emo- Ministry to the Bereaved. One of the two is Arise from Dark- tions and he needs to do an ongoing Page after page has rewarding ness: What to do when Life Doesn't gut-check by reminding himself he reading, and the section I found most Make Sense by Benedict J. Groeschel, does not have to justify his actions. engaging was that on ritual. He dis- C.F.R. wherein he makes the sharp Setting limits is of course done cusses its role in grief and mourning comment, “...grief is the price of with both inflexible firmness and love and he address the specific rules and love.” and respect. guidelines of the church. The other is Dom Hubert van This book is free of psycho babble “We express our rituals by word Zeller’s Suffering: the Cathollic Answer. and is carefully attentive to the subjects and action,” Fr Curley writes. “Reli- The Cross and Its Meaning for You one expects and needs covered such as gious rituals are a body of ceremonies wherein he starkly turns the “why prayer, the stages of grief, forgiveness, or actions which help us express our me?” question on its head and thus and, new to me, an emphasis that it connectedness with God and one embraces “why not me?” often is crucial to tell the dying person another. Through these rituals we I am grateful to authors Fischer his family will get along without him. communicate our beliefs, our hopes and Curley for not trying to explain An obvious example: A dying woman and our concerns in a formal way.” the unanswerable—why creatures torn by how her children will fare. This book is the resource for grieve and mourn. Dogs and ele- I don’t recall ever coming across those readers who continue to be phants and some other critters, appar- quite the following experience about scandalized and disconsolate about li- ently do so, and we know that man which Fischer writes this way: turgical abuses. The book is a lode of does. I can only hazard that we grieve “There are instances when your information on the rules and guide- and mourn because of our fallen and loved one appears to be communi- lines about funerals and the events scarred nature. cating with family members already leading to them and following them. God didn’t have to make it that departed, with celestial creatures such For those of us who say we think way. Just as he could have made grass as angels, or with Jesus or the Blessed we’ll go postal if we attend one more orange or there to be no oceans, he Virgin. slovenly hideous sham-like funeral could have made us immune. But “They may be experiencing two and who want the right things done we are not immune and can only realities simultaneously, the reality of after death the right way this book is guess why. Possibly, Calvary could not this world and that of the next. These where to turn. make sense if men did not grieve and people often describe the beauty of the Subjects such as vigil, funeral mourn. next world in terms of colors, peace, or liturgy, rite of committal, and up to the wonderfully warm and bright light what point do secular symbols play that draws them closer to it. an acceptable role are concisely dealt “Our first inclination is to think that with. Often I found myself glad to they are confused or delusional or that know where I could get a useful ex- they have become distant and detached. planation if ever I need one. Example: Often they cannot explain the things “The pall,” writes the author, they are experiencing which only com- “reflects the clothing of the person pounds the doubt of those who do not at baptism when a white garment is share what they are experiencing.” used to designate the new life of the

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 41 BOOK REVIEWS

Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology four approaches, which Sri articulates bestowed great honor upon the of Mary’s Queenship, Edward Sri, as follows: 1) proof-texting based on mother of the ruling king. This is (Steubenville: Emmaus Road, 2005) pre-conceived notions of Mary’s royal visible above all in the narrative of 1 office; 2) establishing the doctrine & 2 Kings. In the case of Bathsheba, Reviewed by Thomas P. Scheck, PhD, by means of logical inferences; 3) mother of Solomon, we encounter a Research Associate, The Jacques Maritain “extra-biblical” typologies of femi- queen mother whom the king (Solo- Center, University of Notre Dame nine royal figures (such as Esther and mon) honors by rising in her pres- Wisdom); 4) the salvation-historical ence, bowing to her, and seating her his exegetical monograph is approach which sees Mary within the at his right hand. Clearly she shares in the first title in “The Letter context of relevant OT passages that the king’s royal authority and holds T& Spirit Project,” a new se- are subsequently discussed. Without the most important position in the ries, launched by Scott Hahn and the completely dismissing the validity of kingdom, second only to the king. St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, the first three approaches, Sri favors She serves as an advocate for the that aims to advance the work of bib- the fourth, and feels that there are no people and a counselor for her son. lical theology by publishing studies on good grounds for allowing the bibli- Sri argues that the theme of the key themes in Scripture from literary, cal roots that animate our theology of royal mother-figure is intentionally historical, and theological perspectives. Mary’s royal office to remain in ob- developed or alluded to in Isa 7.14 Hahn is the general editor of the series scurity. The weakness of this chapter and Gn 3.15. In the former pas- and has written the Foreword to the is that there is little evidence of first- sage, the prophet offers the House of present work. Sri’s thesis is that there hand engagement of patristic texts, David a sign of a Davidic son who is rich scriptural support for viewing as is found, for example, in Hugo would manifest God’s faithfulness to Mary, the mother of the Messiah, as Rahner’s, Maria und die Kirche, 1961. the people of Judah in a time of dy- a queen-mother (Hebrew: Gebirah) Chapter two is, in my judgment, nastic crisis. The prophecy explicitly figure in accordance with the OT the most important and intriguing links the royal son with his queen Davidic kingdom traditions (Gn 3.15, chapter in the book. Here Sri exam- mother. Similarly, Sri relies on the Isa 7.14, 1 & 2 Kgs) that are evoked or ines the OT concept of the Queen best insights of modern exegesis of alluded to in such texts as Mt 1-2, Lk Mother, a personage clearly of great Gn 1-3 to demonstrate that these 1.26-45 and Rv 12. Consequently, Sri important in the Ancient Near East chapters, when informed by Ps 8 and asserts, the Catholic doctrine of Mary’s in general and in the Davidic dynasty other OT texts describing the Da- queenship in heaven and her share in in particular. The basic idea is that, vidic dynasty, are suffused with royal Christ’s rule over the Church is solidly owing in part to the polygamous imagery. Accordingly, the author of grounded in Scripture and salvation nature of ancient Near Eastern king- Genesis, according to Sri, is portray- history. Sri argues his case calmly and doms, the mother of a king played ing Adam and Eve as royal figures convincingly in this concise book, an important role in the political, who have been given a mission to which distills to 116 pages (plus 74 military, economic and cultic affairs rule over all creatures. In such a con- pages of endnotes) his doctoral disser- as well as a key part in the process text, Gn 3.15 can be read as a prom- tation from the Pontifical University of dynastic succession. In fact, the ise of a future kingly figure who will of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. The king’s mother was often more im- crush the head of the serpent in the author, an Assistant Professor at Bene- portant than his wife, and generally same way that Davidic kings would dictine College in Atchison, Kansas, is it was the king’s mother who ruled subdue their enemies. In the midst of conversant in all relevant literature in as queen, not his wife. One can see these royal images, the mother figure English, Italian, French and Spanish, the prominence of the Persian queen in Gn 3.15 is intimately linked with though I found no references to Ger- mother in Dn 5.10-12, where she is the royal seed, who will bring about a man works. the one who takes charge of the criti- future eschatological victory over the Chapter one sets the context for cal situation and gives the counsel serpent. the exegesis that follows in chapters that is immediately carried out. My What Sri’s explanation essentially two and three by summarizing com- suspicion is that the consultation of implies is that typological exegesis mon antecedent approaches to the other ancient texts, such as Aeschylus’ of Scripture is embedded in the OT doctrine of Mary’s queenship in the Persians, would further corroborate texts themselves, a point that Hahn Catholic tradition (liturgy, popular pi- the importance of the queen-mother also makes in the Foreword. Symbolic ety, magisterial teaching, and the Fa- in antiquity. imagery is employed throughout thers). This chapter is based primarily Sri argues that, like her ancient Gn 1-3 in a way that makes a strict on secondary works and examines near eastern neighbors, Israel too literalist interpretation of these texts

42 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 unlikely from an exegetical point of For Sri, in contrast, “there is no rea- The Heretic view. This is not to say that Sri denies son to exclude the importance of Isa Reviewed by Glenn Statile, the literal and historical truth of the 7.14 for Lk 1.31.” This strikes me as St. John’s University texts in question, but he stresses their an insight that is so obvious it scarcely rich symbolic significance and oppos- requires proof. f I may be permitted the heresy es a crassly literalistic interpretation. Finally Sri tackles the highly sym- of giving undue heed to Caesar, I Using Scripture to interpret Scrip- bolic text in Rv 12 which describes Ipropose to divide my review into ture, Sri effectively shows the double the woman clothed with the sun who three parts. entendre and symbolic nature of the gives birth to a male child who rules Ralph McInerny praises The Her- language. the nations. Sri finds echoes of Gn etic, a first novel by William Baer put The upshot of Sri’s examination is 3.15 in this passage and concludes out by PublishAmerica in 2004, as that the queen-mother figure plays an that Rv 12 portrays this drama as a worthy of comparison with the liter- important role in the OT. In David’s climactic fulfillment of Gn 3’s de- ary achievements of those regularly kingdom, she held an official position scription of the serpent’s war with included in the pantheon of great in the royal court, shared in her son’s the woman and her royal messianic Catholic novelists of the last cen- reign, and served as advocate and offspring. After discussing various in- tury: such as Evelyn Waugh, Graham counselor. She appears proto-typi- terpretations of the difficult text, Sri Greene, Georges Bernanos, Francois cally in Gn 3.15 and is linked with finds that while the woman in Rv 12 Mauriac, Walker Percy, and Flannery the promise of future salvation found primarily refers to God’s people, she O’Connor. This is high praise indeed. in Isa 7.14. All of this sheds a great also can be understood as the mother I would raise the bar by adding that deal of light on the NT. I found Sri’s of Jesus, when the text is read in the Baer’s novel is also the quintessential exegesis of these OT passages both light of other canonical texts. And Catholic literary response, would stimulating and persuasive. He draws since she is the mother of the Davidic that it were also an antidote, to Dan on a plethora of modern OT exegetes Messiah (cf. Rv 12.5), “the queen- Brown’s scurrilous and misleading from various theological persuasions, mother tradition of the Old Testa- bestseller—The Da Vinci Code. While including both liberal and conserva- ment can shed light on the woman’s Brown employed heresy and made- tive Protestants. The latter, it seems to queenly position.” to-order facts to create a thriller me, have very seldom been engaged In brief, I find the present mono- which discredits the Church and by modern Catholic exegetes and it is graph an outstanding example of her doctrine, Baer plunges into her- good to see Sri doing it. canonical exegesis of the Bible. It esy head first in order to show that Chapter three of Sri’s analysis capitalizes on the best insights of God is always at least a step ahead of completes the canonical investiga- modern exegesis without capitulating all those religious discontents who tion by explicating the queen mother to dubious conjectures that emanate would prefer to interpret history from figure in the NT portrayal of Mary. from the modern school. The author the perspective of a fallen pride than Here the best insights of modern stresses the unity and coherence of from the promontory of a faithful and exegesis are cited to demonstrate that the Christian canon; he reads Scrip- uplifting providence. In the case of Mt 1-2, Lk 1, and Rv 12 link the Da- ture within the living tradition of the novel’s protagonist, Bryce Sinclair, vidic Messiah with his queen-mother the whole Church; and he is atten- a young American journalist living in the context of rulership. Mt 1-2 tive to the coherence of the truths in Rome, the long arm of the Lord clearly places Jesus in the context of of the faith among themselves and reaches out to provide a helping hand the Davidic kingdom and highlights within the whole of revelation. In to a lost soul spiraling downward in Mary’s role as the mother of this new other words, the author operates with a free fall of apostasy and personal Davidic king. Likewise Lk 1.26-45 Catholic principles of exegesis. More- despair. As part of the prophetic nar- show the evangelist to be depicting over, his book reads well, and the rative structure of the book, involving Mary as the mother of the Messiah- author appears to possess both humil- the fulfillment of a set of deathbed King who is closely associated with ity and confidence. The topic of the predictions in Fatima made by the the fulfillment of the Davidic promise investigation was well-conceived, and priestly namesake and uncle of the given above all in Isa 7.14. Here Sri his thesis is, for the most part, con- younger Bryce, the reader becomes dissents, thank God, from his princi- vincing. For all these reasons, I com- a privileged witness to some elegant pal exegetical guides, R. Brown and mend the book and hope to use it as spiritual steps on the pathway to J. Fitzmyer, both of whom question a text in my Foundations of Theology paradise in the overall choreography whether Isa 7.14 stands in the back- course. of divine providence at work in the ground of Luke’s infancy narrative. world. In the words of another liter-

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 43 BOOK REVIEWS ary Brown, this one a product of the ceptable; yet she, and we presumably, with a counter-cultural voice. fertile mind of G.K. Chesterton, the would classify her own two novels Ralph McInerny is not the only seemingly lost young Bryce will be and many short stories as Catholic important contemporary Catholic found, pulled back into the bosom of even though her Catholic charac- novelist at Notre Dame. My friend the Church with but a twitch upon ters are few and far between. Which Valerie Sayers, a distinguished novel- the thread. brings up the further question of ist who heads the Creative Writing whether a Catholic novel must be program there, takes a more flexible II) Before moving on to a brief syn- written by a Catholic. Alan Paton, of approach to the problem of the Cath- opsis of the novel in the next section, Cry the Beloved, Country fame, also olic novel than does Father Lauder. it is perhaps fitting to pause and re- wrote a novel entitled Too Late the If Father Lauder endorses what we flect upon the genre of the Catholic Phalarope, which pits the social and might dub the Strong Definition of the novel. For while we seem to invoke political commitments of Dutch Re- Catholic Novel then Valerie Sayers this term more and more nowadays, formed Afrikaners of the post-war espouses the Weak Definition, which it is rarely with the assurance that period in South Africa against the stipulates that a novel should be rec- accompanies constant use. Does the more liberal and progressive social ognizably propelled by the message of Catholic novel actually exist, and if so, vision of the South African Anglican the gospels even if it doesn’t explicitly what is its essence? As Hamlet might community. Should such a Christian deal with easily identifiable Catholic note, that is the question. Moreover, novel, or even a secular novel, be themes. Also, for her, novels in which it is a question that has stimulated a considered non-Catholic, while still Catholicism is itself the problem good deal of debate in Catholic lit- not being uncatholic in the topics it should not necessarily be dismissed as erary circles in recent years. From a broaches? non-Catholic, since what is valuable, philosophical perspective one would War was certainly an important or hurtful, about a book is the result have to at least inquire whether a focal point for the development of of the thinking it stimulates in the novel which qualifies as Catholic the so-called Catholic Novel in the faithful. To twist the arm of the post- must fulfill any necessary and suf- last century. Evelyn Waugh’s Brides- modernists a bit, the Catholic novel is ficient conditions. The first use of the head Revisited paints a ravishingly a sacred space that extends beyond the term, just like the inaugural use of the beautiful word portrait which depicts written word and the author’s inten- term Big Bang in modern cosmology, a waning British aristocracy with the tions, to include the community of was not descriptive in intent. It made brushstrokes of a fervent Catholic readers who confer meaning upon it. its debut as a term of derision for the sensibility, while his later Catholic novels of Francois Mauriac. trilogy brings us to the brink of the III) All this being said, it is my view While he certainly knows the dif- post-war era. Vatican II provided a that The Heretic should qualify as a ficulty of meeting the strict definition subsequent prism through which Catholic novel from the perspective he imposes upon the wildly popular Catholic artists could imaginatively of every Catholic. It is also refresh- Catholic Novel seminars which he conceive a relationship between the ing to have a book whose emphasis is has conducted in the Diocese of faith and the modern world. Some upon the Church as mysterious rather Brooklyn over the last dozen or so of the novels of David Lodge, for than militant, although this is not to years, Father Robert Lauder of St. example, immerse themselves in post- denigrate the social dimension of the John’s University not only looks for conciliar concerns while the lone Catholic novel which goes back well novels that deal with sacramental, novel of Michael Novak entitled The over sixty years to works like Christ in liturgical, or moral principle(s) of Tiber Was Silver captures the moment, Concrete and many others. In 2005 we the Church, etc., but moreover do so in the life of a young seminarian in celebrate the 400th anniversary of the in an affirmative way. For example, Rome, when the pastoral foundation publication of Part I of Cervantes’ Don Graham Greene’s Big Four overtly for what we now call the new evan- Quixote, often referred to as the first Catholic novels – The Power and the gelical springtime was just about to modern novel. The recently deceased Glory, The End of the Affair, The Heart begin. One prevalent hypothesis from Catholic philosopher and mystic Fer- of the Matter, and Brighton Rock, satisfy years ago credits the decline of the nando Rielo also characterized it as a his definition, whereas Joyce’s Portrait Catholic novel to the Church’s em- Catholic novel whose main purpose of the Artist as a Young Man does not bracement of modernity as marked was to reinvigorate the mystical soul measure up. According to Flannery by the Council. According to this of Spain which dates all the way back O’Connor, novels which present view the vitality of the Catholic nov- to the origins of the pilgrimage to the the faith as mere props or furniture el prior to the Council was directly shrine of St. James. While the Catholic would not qualify, which seems ac- proportional to its capacity to speak novel boasts a marvelous past, books

44 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 like The Heretic bode well for its fu- in the book. As with the serialized task of reading the book. Needless to ture. Baer’s book is but one of a le- novels of a previous era, each new say it ends happily: despite a murder, gion of post-conciliar Catholic novels revelation from the heretic is contin- a miraculous conversion, a treasure that puts the lie to Ortega y Gasset’s uous with its precursor, thus priming hunt, a spiritual betrothal in Fatima so claim that the novel form has reached the reader’s expectation for what is to pure that one can even begin to ap- a point of exhaustion. come. preciate why Gabriel Marcel believed Structure: the marriage bond could be used to The Heretic consists of 211 pages Synopsis: prove the existence of God, heresies and is divided into three parts, each The action begins in Rome on so sordid that even a devotee of the of these being further subdivided Thursday, August 3rd. The specific Black Mass might blush, a spine tin- into four chapters apiece. It is literally year is not specified. Bryce Sinclair, a gling visit to the giardini vaticani, plus possible then, even for the reader of handsome young American journal- the very real possibility that the her- average speed, to finish the book in ist living and working in Rome, is etic could be the vicar of Christ him- a single sitting. I confess that it took courting Angelina Parenzo, an Ital- self. Not to mention that our Lord me three. According to the implica- ian beauty who spent a good deal of might have survived the crucifixion tion from his blurb on the back cover her youth living in the United States. by arranging for Simon of Cyrene of the book it took Ralph McIn- They are both lapsed Catholics. A to die in his stead. Please accept my erny just one. But to borrow a line marriage proposal is pending when apology. Knowing the pleasure of from former Senator Benson to an Bryce is suddenly and unexpectedly which you would be deprived should unsuspecting Dan Quayle, I am no summoned to the Vatican by Car- I continue with more details of the Ralph McInerny. The first section of dinal Visconte. While meeting with plot leaves me with no other alterna- the book is entitled Confession, the his Eminence they are joined by the tive but to desist. Oscar Wilde once second Penance, and the third After- pope who tells Bryce of the impend- said that he could resist everything math. Thus the novel is framed by a ing death of his namesake and uncle, except temptation. I only hope that simple structure that facilitates the Father Bryce Sinclair, in Fatima. what I have said is sufficient to tempt communication of its content in part Young Bryce arranges for some time you to try a Catholic literary experi- by promoting the proper mood of off and flies to the city of the famous ence that you will long remember expectation as the book progresses Marian apparitions on Friday, August and never regret. from the admission of guilt in part 4th. I, to the requirement of suffering as He is whisked to the bedside of compensation in part II, to the ty- his uncle, a leading Catholic theolo- All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story ing up of loose ends in conformity gian as well as a personal friend and of How the Vatican Really Thinks with the Dantescan significance of confidante of Sister Lucia, the lone John L. Allen, Jr., Doubleday: New commedia as an ultimate alignment surviving Fatima visionary. Father York, (2004) of life with the will of God in part Sinclair is also reputed to possess the III. To me this is reminiscent of the gift of prophecy. The dormition scene Reviewed by Rev. Brian Van Hove, S.J., sequence of poems which chronicles which then unfolds is frightening. White House Retreat, St. Louis, Missouri the religious development of T.S. El- Father Sinclair seemingly confesses iot, who moved from the abyss of The to being the heretic who has been e have heard the expres- Waste Land, to the repentance of Ash publishing extremely popular, seduc- sion “fair and balanced.” Wednesday, to the spiritually soaring tive and heretical anti-Catholic tracts WJohn L. Allen, Jr., in this and searing harmonies of the Four under a pseudonym for years. There book about the Roman Curia has ac- Quartets. As each reader will discover, are two other priests at the vigil, one complished just that, despite working the novel is further driven by a tem- a Cardinal, another the long time for the National Catholic Reporter. He poral symmetry which reinforces Jesuit assistant of the dying Father claims to be a mediator between two the sense that events are propelled Sinclair. With his last breath the latter cultures, that of the Holy See, which by providence, not coincidence. The issues a prophecy: one will become a he tries to interpret in a professional technique of third person narra- saint, one the pope, one will be con- way, and that of the English-speaking tion used to chronicle the unfolding demned to hell, while one will serve world. events in the life of Bryce is periodi- the prophet. How much Mr. Allen should be cally interrupted by the first person believed is, of course, up to you the confessions of a heretic whose exact To find out what transpires after this reader, but genuine notes of sympathy identity remains unknown until later I leave you with the very pleasant for the Vatican’s way of life punctuate

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 45 BOOK REVIEWS this story. can be contrasted with traditional This pressure for brevity has dove- This book is not an exploration of allegations of secrecy, that Vatican tailed with another demand on public structures, but an exposition of think- finances are actually quite modest in figures: the expectation that leaders ing, a more subtle task, if not nearly scope, and that many who work in be able to comment knowledgably impossible. If anything, the author the curia are quite humble and ob- and succinctly on an increasingly seems indifferent about ecclesiastical scure. broad range of issues. Indeed, the issues which for others of us in the The last half of the book is an sheer number of subjects politicians church are vital and passionate. But application of what we have learned are expected to have at their com- his hope is that the Vatican will evolve to two American situations: the clergy mand certainly limits the ability for a in the direction of more transparency, abuse scandals and the war in Iraq. thoughtful response on any one topic, to avoid misunderstanding and need- Here he shows that neither the Vati- and has increased the dependence less friction. He is no pope-basher. can nor the Americans are wrong, nor of political figures on speechwriters. His goal is harmony. The chapter on are they both always right. There is That, in turn, has tended to remove “Vatican Psychology” is particularly genuine goodwill on both sides, and speakers even further from the con- rewarding and helpful. genuine misunderstandings occur on tent of their remarks—and from their All the Pope’s Men is timely. When both sides. The Vatican often sees “the hearers as well. in 2004-2005 we saw the pope weak- big picture” while the United States The real issue, of course, is wheth- ening physically, his assistants natu- sees rather its own particular needs. er the spoken word truly reveals the rally were delegated more and more The Vatican is sympathetic toward speaker and the vision behind what is of the burden of the governance of America, but at the same time rejects being said. the universal church. Allen writes the “secularized Protestantism” which In The Eloquent President: A Portrait about them from the experience of America represents. The Vatican mis- of Lincoln through His Words, Ronald many conversations and interviews in trusts the unilateralism which the C. White, Jr., Professor of American Rome where he is stationed, unlike American superpower exercises in the Intellectual and Religious History some other “fly in” journalists who world. Allen ends by saying “the re- at San Francisco Theological Semi- come for an occasion. lationship between Rome and Wash- nary, makes the case that Lincoln’s Throughout church history, and ington seems destined to be complex respect for the spoken word enabled especially since the Reformation, and sometimes strained.” But we the message and the messenger to curialists have been reviled for real or take away from this statement a fresh become one, thereby enhancing his imagined practices. Allen is generally understanding of how this can be, an power of communication and persua- positive about the men and women appreciation for those complexities, sion. White examines Lincoln’s key who serve the church in Rome. He and for this much alone the book is speeches, his letters, and his posthu- hopes he has gotten to get “inside to be recommended. mously published “Meditation on their minds” and has interpreted their the Divine Will” in light of Aristotle’s minds to promote genuine under- The Eloquent President: A Portrait “Treatise on Rhetoric.” White’s standing of a unique culture that is of Lincoln through His Words, White, analysis presents a developing portrait very different from Anglo-Saxon ef- R.C., Jr. NY: Random House (2005). of our nation’s 16th President as a ficiency and the corporate approach. Pp. 308. BP. 26.95. politician and statesman, and even as Just because something is different something of a theologian. does not make it suspect. Perhaps Reviewed by (Rev.) Michael P. Orsi, White shows how Lincoln’s he wishes to say with Sir Winston Ed.D., Research Fellow in Law and technique in building a case was Churchill’s remark about democracy, Religion, Ave Maria School of Law developed from his courtroom pre- that “our system may be bad, but all sentations and the experience he the others are worse.” he electronic age has given had gained in debates. The logic of The author lists five top myths rise to a rapid-fire style of Lincoln’s arguments was heightened which must be dealt with. These are Tdiscourse that reduces human by his use of simple and sometimes The Vatican, Who’s in Charge, Vatican communication to something that is folksy language, which he knew Secrecy, Vatican Wealth, and Climb- often less than reflective. In particu- would resonate with the assembled ing the Career Ladder. In short, we lar, the speech of politicians has been group. Lincoln was careful to know learn that the voices in the curia are reshaped by the demands of the mass his audience, and crafted his remarks less than unified, that there is more media for “sound bites” that fit easily to resemble a dialogical encounter decentralization than many suspected, into brief on-air reports and provide with them. Lincoln was acutely aware that there is a genuine openness that punch, drama and simplicity. of the power of words, and was espe-

46 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 cially sensitive to how they impacted refined over the four years of war. He tion in the “Gettysburg Address” to the ear. In their diaries, his aides fre- says, “I claim not to have controlled the values of equality found in the quently recount how the President events,” in other words, admitting “Declaration of Independence,” and read his speeches to them out loud that (to an extent) events had molded in the “Second Inaugural Address,” to determine how they would sound him, especially so in regard to his appealing directly to the God re- to the listener. White examines the position on slavery. He, in effect, says vealed in the Bible, in order to make speeches for content, structural bal- that God had shown him the why of sense of the past divisions and move ance, points of emphasis, and the the war and revealed His will through to the hope of a united future. He types of words used, as well as their historical circumstances. was now speaking as “pastor” to the cadence. In what is widely acclaimed to be nation, citing the prophets, the psalms Aristotle taught that it was words, the pearl of Lincoln’s speeches, “The and the words of Jesus. integrity and the ability to know Second Inaugural Address,” Lincoln Lincoln was eloquent because of one’s audience that gave a speaker not only used the common connec- his ability to use language well, the power. These elements are particularly tion between North and South—bib- connections he made with his audi- obvious in Lincoln’s “Letter to the lical faith—but took the focus off ence, and his gift for painting with Rally at Springfield,” in which he of himself as the speaker, so that words—but most especially because took the opportunity to speak about the “We” of a united nation might of his own moral character. In articu- objections to the recent “Emanci- emerge as the speech’s central vision. lating America’s ideals to the nation, pation Proclamation.” He set forth This is an example of truly inclusive he was persuasive because he him- his case in a very “upfront” manner, language. Addressing a nation built on self embodied those ideals. Lincoln’s presenting his arguments in the form biblical principles, Lincoln now used speeches reveal his soul and the soul of a conversation, discussing the con- commonly held beliefs to make sense of the nation that he believed was tested issues, and giving a defense for of God’s ways, and invoked God’s formed by God and reformed in the his actions—all in a way designed to wisdom to bind the wounds of the course of the Civil War. convince. He then tried to move his nation as the war was drawing to a By applying Lincoln’s lessons, listeners to see the bigger picture for close. contemporary politicians could sig- the future of one nation comprised of White shows an evolution from nificantly heighten the quality of interdependent states. the legal Lincoln of the “First In- their discourse and bring greater Lincoln’s “Little Speech” to Albert augural Address” to the theological insight to current discussions of the G. Hodges speaks to Lincoln’s aware- Lincoln of “The Second Inaugural critical issues confronting our nation. ness that his policies were a product Address.” And he shows how Lin- Let’s hope some of them read this of his growing understanding of the coln tended to draw on the highest book and take the hint. role of the chief magistrate, which he source—jumping over the Constitu- 

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 47 BOOKS RECEIVED

If you would like to receive a A Church That Can and Cannot Sexing the Church: Gender, Power, and complimentary copy of one of the Change, John T Noonan, Jr., Ethics in Contemporary Catholicism, books below in order to review University of Notre Dame Press: Aline H. Kalbian, Indiana it for a future issue, please email Notre Dame, IN, (2005), 297pp. University Press: Bloomington, IN your request to Alice Osberger at Living the Catholic Social Tradition: (2005) Paper, 176pp. [email protected] Cases and Commentary, eds. The Soul of Wit: Some Poems, Ralph Kathleen Maas Weigert and Alexia McInerny, St. Augustine’s Press: K. Kelley, Rowman and Littlefield: South Bend, IN (2005), Paper, 96pp. Marriage and Christian Life: A Lanham, MD (2005) Theology of Christian Marriage, Gladly Learn, Gladly Teach: Living Daniel Hauser, Roman and Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity’s Out One’s Calling in the 21st Century Littlefield Group, Lanham, MD Sacred Obligation, ed Mary C. Academy, Ed. John Marson Dunaway, (2005) Boys, Rowman and Littlefield: Mercer University Press: Macon, Lanham, MD (2005) GA (2005) Paper, 181 pp. Seasons of the Soul, Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, Alba House, George G. Higgins and the Quest The Daughter of Eve Unfallen: Mary Society of St. Paul, Staten Island, for Worker Justice: The Evolution of in the Theology and Spirituality of NY (2005), 50pp. Catholic Social Thought in America, John Henry Newman, Nicholas L. John J. O’Brien, Rowman and Gregoris, Newman House Press: Trial by Fury: Christian Social Littlefiedl Group: Lanham, MD Mt. Pocono, PA (2003), Paper, 652 Thought Series, Ronald J. Rychlak, (2005) pp. Acton Institute: Grand Rapids, MI (2004), 87pp. Philosophical Grammar, Ludwig The Truth You Know You Know: Jesus Wittgenstein, ed. Rush Rhees, Verified in Our Global Culture, N. Many Faces, One Church: Cultural trans Anthony Kenny, University Kenneth Rideout, NDX Press: Diversity and the American Catholic of California Press: Berkeley, CA, Nashville, TN, (2005), Paper, 235 pp. Experience, eds. Peter Phan and (2005) Paper, 496pp. Diana Hayes, Sheed & Ward The Church and Galileo, ed: Ernan Catholic Studies, Roman and Breatstfeeding and Catholic McMullin, University of Notre Littlefield: Lanham, MD, (2005), Motherhood: God’s Plan for You and Dame Press: Notre Dame, IN 146pp. Your Baby, Sheila M. Kippley, (2005), Paper, 408 pp. Sophia Institute Press: Manchester, NH, (2005) Paper, 107pp. 

48 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 MEMBERSHIP MATTERS OBITUARY

ather John Arthur Orr had avid E. Sparks, South Bend, Farticle(s) published in the Winter DIN, died May 25, 2005. He 2004 and Spring 2005 (Volumes 131, was 83. David was the former Di- No. 4 & 132, No.1) of the journal rector of Libraries at the University “Sacred Music” which he co-au- of Notre Dame, associate librarian thored with another Catholic, Dr. at Yale University and deputy chief Barbra A. Murphy. of the Science and Technology He was also recently accepted department for the Library of Con- into the doctoral program in Philoso- phy at the University of Tennessee, gress. He is survived by his wife Knoxville where he hopes to write Mary, three sons and a daughter on “ratio” in “Fides et Ratio” of John Paul II (14 September, 1998).

Aquinas College Business Administration Program • Full-time Faculty Position

About Aquinas College Business Administration Position Aquinas College, a small Catholic institution located Aquinas College is currently accepting applications for a full- on a beautiful 92-acre campus in west Nashville, was time faculty position for the Bachelor of Business Administration founded in 1961 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Degree, a young program that seeks to fulfill the challenge of Ex (“Nashville Dominicans”). The Dominican Sisters have Corde Ecclesiae by ‘providing an education in a faith context that more than 140 years of experience providing educa- forms men and women capable of rational and critical judgment tion in a value-centered, Christian learning environ- and conscious of the transcendent dignity of the human person ment permeated with faith. with professional training that incorporates ethical values and a At Aquinas College, liberal arts are at the heart sense of service to individuals and to society’ (ECE #49). of all of our programs of study. In addition to studies in Liberal Arts, we have concentrated our professional Requirements: Applicants must be at least masters prepared degree programs on three areas in which we believe (doctoral preferred) in business administration or a related field. our students can make a tremendous impact on today’s Those who are currently in pursuit of doctoral studies may be culture: business administration, education, and nursing. considered. Teaching experience is preferred. Encouraged by the Church’s message to colleges and Interested candidates should submit the following: 1) resume, universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Aquinas desires “to de- 2) minimum of one-page essay addressing (a) your qualifications termine the relative place and meaning of each of the for the position, (b) teaching philosophy, and (c) how you would various disciplines within the context of a vision of the promote, through teaching, the Mission of Aquinas College as human person and the world that is enlightened by the a member of its community, 3) unofficial transcripts of gradu- Gospel, and therefore by a faith in Christ, the Logos, as ate coursework, and 4) name and contact information for three the centre of creation and human history” ( ECE #16). references. Thus, we consider it important that candidates be committed to the Catholic moral tradition. Catholic Reply to Search Committee, c/o Sister Mary Justin, applicants are preferred, but all applicants are expected Aquinas College, 4210 Harding Road, Nashville, TN 37205. to uphold this moral tradition and the Mission of [email protected] Aquinas College. 615-297-7545 ext 425 fax: 615-279-3892

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 49 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars 28th Annual Convention Renaissance Hotel Suite, Charlotte, North Carolina September 23-25, 2005

Breaks and meals are not indicated in this schedule. 10:30 a.m. Session IV: Lumen Gentium : The Once and Future FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 Constitution—Reverend John M. McDermott, S.J., S.T.D., 10:00 a.m. Registration begins Pontifical College Josephinum, and International Theological 12:30 p.m. Convention opens with Holy Mass (at the hotel) Commission 2:00 p.m. Welcome by Dean Bernard Dobranski, J.D., Response: Reverend Matthew L. Lamb, Th.D., Dean, Ave Maria School of Law, and President of Ave Maria University the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars 1:30 p.m. Session V: Dei Verbum: Sacred Scripture since Vatican II Introduction By William E. May, Ph.D., —Rev. William S. Kurz, S.J., Ph.D., Marquette University John Paul II Institute, Program Chairman Response: Stephen F. Miletic, Ph.D., Franciscan University of 2:30 p.m. Session I: Gaudium et Spes: Its Moral Vision Steubenville; Joseph Atkinson, Ph.D., John Paul II Institute and Anthropology—Mark S. Latkovic, S.T.D., 3:00 p.m. Session VI: Dignitatis Humanae: Religious Liberty and Detroit Sacred Heart Major Seminary American Foreign Policy: A Practitioner’s Perspective— Response: Reverend Paul F. DeLadurantaye, S.T.D., Thomas F. Farr, Ph.D., U.S. Department of State (retired) Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College Response: Kevin Hasson, the Beckett Fund 4:00 p.m. Session II: The Christian Anthropology of Vatican II and 4:30 p.m. Membership Meeting Virtual Reality—Sister M. Timothy Prokes, F.S.E., Ph.D., 6:30 p.m. Cardinal Wright Banquet Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College Awards to be presented: Response: Peter Casarella, Ph.D., Catholic University of America Cardinal Wright Award: Gerard V. Bradley, J.D., 7:30 p.m. Keynote Address: Vatican II Today: Forty Years Later University of Notre Dame Law School Reverend Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M. Cap., Ph.D., Cardinal O’Boyle Award: Helen Hull Hitchcock, President, Executive Director, Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Women for Faith and Family, and, Editor, Adoremus Bulletin Practices, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2005 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2005 8:30 a.m. Holy Mass (in the hotel)— 7:00 a.m. Holy Mass (in the hotel) Celebrated by the Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, D.D., Reverend Monsignor William B. Smith, S.T.D. Bishop of Charlotte 9:00 a.m. Session III: Panel on Christian Anthropology and 9:45 a.m. Session VII : Unitatis Redintegratio: Providential Turn or Contemporary Psychological Studies—Dean Gladys A. Historic Mistake?—Kenneth D. Whitehead, Assistant Secretary Sweeney, Ph.D., Institute for Psychological Science, Paul C. Vitz, of Education for Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Ph.D., New York University, and E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Education (retired) Institute for Psychological Science 11:00 a.m. Convention officially ends Comments: Reverend John F. Harvey, O.S.F.S., S.T.D., Founder, Courage

50 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 BOARD OF OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

OFFICERS PAST PRESIDENTS ELECTED DIRECTORS

President DR. WILLIAM MAY 2001-2004 2003-2006 DR. BERNARD DOBRANSKI John Paul II Institute DR. CAROL (SUE) ABROMAITIS (Ave Maria School of Law) 415 Michigan Avenue, PROF. STEPHEN BARR Loyola College 6225 Webster Church Road NE–#290 (University of Delaware) 4501 North Charles Street Dexter, MI 48130 Washington, DC 20017 9 Wynwyd Drive Baltimore, MD 21210 [email protected] [email protected] Newark, DE 19711 [email protected] [email protected] Vice-President REV. MSGR. WILLIAM B. DR. STEPHEN MILETIC DR. ELIZABETH MR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS SMITH FOX-GENOVESE (Family Research Council) St. Joseph’s Seminary, Franciscan University of (Emory University) 801 G. Street, NW Dunwoodie Steubenville 1487 Sheridan Walk Washington, DC 20001 201 E. Seminary Avenue 1235 University Boulevard Atlanta, GA 30324 [email protected] Yonkers, NY 10704-1896 Steubenville, OH 43952- 1763 [email protected] Executive Secretary REV. EARL A. WEIS, S.J. [email protected] REV. J. MICHAEL MILLER, CSB REV. MSGR. STUART W. Loyola University REV. PETER RYAN, S.J. University of St. Thomas SWETLAND, S.T.D. 6525 N. Sheridan Road 3800 Montrose Boulevard Chaplain and Director Chicago, IL 60626-5385 Mount St. Mary’s Seminary Houston, TX 77006 Newman Foundation at Emmitsburg, MD 21727- DR. JAMES HITCHCOCK [email protected] the University of Illinois at 7700 St. Louis University [email protected] Urbana-Champaign REV. STUART SWETLAND 6158 Kingsbury Drive Associate Professor at the St. John’s Newman St. Louis, MO 63112 University of Illinois at Foundation [email protected] 2002-2005 Urbana-Champaign 604 E. Armory Avenue 604 East Armory Ave. GERARD V. BRADLEY DR. J. BRIAN BENESTAD Champaign, IL 61820 Champaign, IL 61820 124 Law Scool University of Scranton fatherstuart@newman (217) 344-1184 x 302 tel Notre Dame, IN 46556 Scranton, PA 18510 foundation.org (217) 344-6606 fax [email protected] [email protected] msgrswetland@ REV. JOSEPH KOTERSKI, S.J. newmanfoundation.org Fordham University, Editor of FCS Quarterly Philosophy PROF. RALPH MCINERNY Bronx, NY 10458 Jacques Maritain Center [email protected]

714 Hesburgh Library PROF. GLENN OLSEN Notre Dame, IN 46556 University of Utah [email protected] 300 S. 1400 E. Room 211 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0311 [email protected]

Extra copies of The Catholic Cit- izen: Debating the Issues of Jus- tice, edited by Kenneth D. White- head, Proceedings of the 26th Annual FCS meeting in Arlington VA, St Augustine’s Press, South catholicscholars.org Bend, IN are available.

FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005 51 EX CATHEDRA

WORD AND DEED

or Plato and Aristotle it was a truism in understanding what he wrote? Joakim Garff’s life of that the good ruler must be a good man. Kierkegaard is huge but one puts it down wishing it Nowadays, such a reminder would likely were even larger; but then Kierkegaard is a special case, be regarded as a partisan remark. But ev- the life he led thematically part of what he had to say. eryone seems convinced that the lives The new biography of P. G. Wodehouse is a de- Fpeople lead casts some light on what they publicly do. light, despite that fact that it must be the sixth or sev- Why else do we gossip? Or read biographies? enth biography of this exquisitely ephemeral writer, Perhaps the two most influential philosophers of whose style drew praise from Belloc and Waugh.It is the 20th century were Martin Heidegger and Lud- the rare writer who, like Wodehouse, survives biogra- wig Wittgenstein, not least perhaps because they both phy after biography, retaining his almost saintly sim- wrote in ways difficult of access. Their works cry out plicity. Do we need to see that the gold of an author’s for interpretation. As for the lives they led, well, the writings was extracted from the muddy creek of his photographs of Heidegger in his Nazi uniform and of daily life, with the emphasis on the mud? Wittgenstein strolling with his boyfriend will affect Art does not require moral virtue. This claim can those with a classical view. Primum vivere, deinde phi- be solidly established. But one can be convinced by losophari. the argument and go on thinking that there is an un- There is no doubt that in this leveling age, the avoidable connection between the bio and the graphy, biographer sees his task as cutting his subject off at the the writer and the life. Even if the life seems an im- knees before lopping off his head. How much infor- pediment and is incommensurate with the achieve- mation on the quotidian affairs of a writer is helpful ment, its relevance haunts us. ✠

Ralph McInerny

Fellowship of Nonprofit Organization Catholic Scholars U.S. Postage PAID Quarterly Notre Dame, Indiana Box 495 Permit No. 10 Notre Dame, IN 46556

Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly

52 FCS Quarterly • Summer 2005