THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION of Many Things

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION Of Many Things

well remember where I was on abortion. “The Catholic public official,” 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 the evening of July 16, 1984. I he said, “lives the political truth most Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 had settled into our modest living Catholics through most of American Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 I www.americamagazine.org room in Massachusetts to watch the history have accepted and insisted on: facebook.com/americamag Democratic National Convention with the truth that to assure our freedom we twitter.com/americamag my Dad. He wasn’t a Democrat, but must allow others the same freedom, he had nurtured a lifelong interest in even if occasionally it produces conduct President and Editor in Chief Matt Malone, S.J. politics, one he bequeathed to his fourth by them which we would hold to be Executive Editors son. By 1984, at the age of 12, I was sinful.” Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy following the comings and goings of That is an inarguably true statement. Managing Editor Kerry Weber the U.S. Senate the way my brothers The history of Catholic political action, Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. followed the box scores for the Red Sox. as well as our current prudential Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent That summer night, which became choices, attests to it. Yet no one was Kevin Clarke an early morning on the East Coast, arguing then that every sinful act should Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. Governor Mario M. Cuomo of New be proscribed by law. The argument Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent York delivered the convention’s keynote was and remains that there are some Gerard O’Connell address to a packed hall and a watching acts that are held by Catholics to be Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. world. This was the sort of event sinful that should be proscribed by Engagement and Community Editor everybody watched back then, mainly law, not simply because the church Elizabeth Tenety because there was nothing else to watch: views them as sinful but because they Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura involve grave matters of life and death. Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., every network—all three of them—was Joseph McAuley broadcasting the speech. Homicide, assisted suicide and rape are Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder good examples—as is abortion, in the Mr. Cuomo’s speech was a rhetorical Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., tour de force, a blistering indictment judgment of many people. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. of the Reagan presidency, which had The argument Mr. Cuomo needed to Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider, Robert David transformed the country, Mr. Cuomo make at Notre Dame was why abortion Sullivan argued, not into the shining city on was different from those other morally Correspondents John Carr (Washington), Antho- a hill of which Mr. Reagan so often grave issues. Why should we exempt ny Egan, S.J. (Johannesburg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy Padgett (Miami), Steven spoke, but into “a tale of two cities,” abortion from the list? Why is it an Schwankert (Beijing), David Stewart, S.J. (London), where “there is despair, Mr. President, imposition on another’s freedom to Judith Valente (Chicago), Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. in the faces you don’t see, in the places codify a moral judgment with regard (U.S. Church) Moderator, Catholic Book Club you don’t visit in your shining city.” It to abortion but not with regard to Kevin Spinale, S.J. was the moral duty of government, Mr. economic policy? To put it another Editorial e-mail Cuomo argued, to protect and empower way: Why is government action morally [email protected] those who were living in the shadows required in his convention speech but of life. The longtime ABC News not in his Notre Dame speech? What is Publisher and Chief Financial Officer Edward commentator David Brinkley said it was the decisive difference? Spallone. Deputy Publisher Rosa Del Saz. Vice President/Advancement Daniel Pawlus. Devel- one of the greatest convention speeches I wish Mario Cuomo had answered opment Coordinator Kerry Goleski. Operations he had ever heard. It sure felt that way those questions. His answers may not Staff Chris Keller, Glenda Castro. Advertising to me. It still does. have proved satisfactory, but they would contact [email protected]; 212-515-0102. Subscription contact/Additional copies When I learned on New Year’s Day have added a lot to the conversation. [email protected]; that Governor Cuomo had died at the If any public figure of the last five 1-800-627-9533 age of 82, my mind flashed back at once decades could have done that, it would © 2015 America Press, Inc. to that night. I also thought, however, have been he. He had the smarts and of another of Mr. Cuomo’s speeches, he had the conviction. “We believe in the one delivered at Notre Dame a mere a government strong enough to use two months after his triumph in San words like ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ and Francisco. There Mr. Cuomo made the smart enough to convert our noblest case for the “I’m personally opposed to aspirations into practical realities,” he it but don’t wish to impose my morality once said. Amen, Mr. Cuomo. R.I.P. Cover: Composite image Shutterstock.com/ on another” argument concerning Matt Malone, S.J. America Contents www.americamagazine.org Vol. 212 No. 3, Whole No. 5076 February 2, 2015

Theological education 16 Following Faithfully The Catholic way to choose the good Michael G. Lawler and Todd A. Salzman 21 theology’s New Turn A survey of contemporary movements Thomas P. Rausch 25 the Unbelievers An overview of “religious atheism” Drew Christiansen 30 redeeming the Bible Can Scripture be a source of unity rather than division? Pauline A. Viviano 16 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Liberté 6 Reply All 9 Signs of the Times 12 Column Family Time Nathan Schneider 34 Vatican Dispatch Francis Chooses Electors Gerard O’Connell 35 Vantage Point Cuba Sí, Castro No! The Editors 25 36 Philosopher’s Notebook How Not to Preach John J. Conley 47 The Word The Work of the Kingdom John W. Martens

BOOKS & CULTURE

37 music Sing, Rap, Praise BOOKS God’s Traitors; The Ten Commandments; Ten African Cardinals

ON THE WEB Gerard O’Connell reports from Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and Mathew N. Schmalz visits the Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu. Full digital highlights on page 20 and at americamagazineorg/webfeatures. 37 CURRENT COMMENT

use of solitary confinement for inmates under the age of The Ongoing Ebola Crisis 21 on Rikers Island, which has come under heightened As the Ebola crisis fades from the headlines in the United scrutiny after tragic inmate deaths and several investigative States, its devastation is still a daily reality for West reports exposed routine abuse and neglect at the second Africans. With over 30 new Ebola cases every day and largest jail in the United States. over 8,000 dead, the disease continues to severely affect Pope Francis, in an address to the delegates of the the African population and economy, particularly in Sierra International Association of Penal Law, described the Leone, Liberia and Guinea. In an effort to slow its spread, isolation at high security prisons as torture inflicted governments in the hardest-hit countries have shut down with no “specific objective…a genuine surplus of pain schools, sealed borders and even banned citizens from added to the actual suffering of imprisonment.” There public gatherings, measures that hurt already impoverished has been much debate in this country about whether the regions and struggling economies. Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation tactics abroad These actions have also led to significant losses in areas amounted to torture. It is time for Americans to consider like agriculture, construction, arts and tourism. According the troubling treatment of prisoners closer to home as well. to the World Bank, countries in West Africa will lose an estimated $4 billion in economic activity in 2015. Along with these economic losses, over 500,000 people have gone Have Mercy hungry because of Ebola’s effects on farming, a number that A statement issued on Dec. 22 by the German Bishops’ is expected to double by March. School shutdowns have Conference suggests that the church there is prepared to led to a rise in crime. Teenagers roam the streets and police assume a vanguard role in the pastoral care for divorced officers, either too distracted by the fight against Ebola and remarried Catholics. The pope has argued that the de or fearful of contracting the disease, are not providing facto excommunication, as he has described it, of divorced adequate levels of supervision and enforcement. and remarried Catholics must end, though how to end The United Nations World Food Program has given it without damaging doctrine on the indissolubility of over 20 million pounds of food to these nations, but more marriage remains uncertain. needs to be done. While the threat of the Ebola crisis Some bishops advocate streamlining the current spreading to the United States and other Western nations annulment process, which is perceived to be burdensome has been all but extinguished, attention still must be given and unsympathetic, as the only doctrinally sound path to the true victims of the epidemic. forward. But the majority of German bishops, perhaps emboldened by the pope’s sentiments on the issue, Solitary Nation now favor “differentiated solutions that do justice to To its supporters, segregated housing in prisons is a vital, the individual case and under certain conditions allow commonsense security measure that protects inmates admission to the sacraments.” That position has raised and correctional officers from dangerous individuals, concerns far beyond the German church. Can the one, holy, and the mentally unstable from themselves. To its catholic and apostolic church continue to be so described if opponents, solitary confinement constitutes cruel and conferences begin to strike off on their own on fundamental unusual punishment. Last year state legislatures, courts matters? The disaffection experienced by the divorced and and corrections departments found the middle ground in remarried is the source of great spiritual and psychological various reform efforts. According to the Marshall Project, pain. Responding with mercy merits the acceptance of some a nonprofit news organization dedicated to criminal justice degree of risk. It could be that careful local experimentation issues, 10 states passed 14 measures in 2014 that limit or on this difficult pastoral challenge is warranted, even wise. abolish solitary confinement for juveniles or the mentally The German bishops’ statement is a welcome addition to ill, improve special housing conditions or reduce the this important dialogue. Prudence requires, however, that proportion of inmates kept in segregated units. pastors everywhere proceed with caution. As this magazine These are all encouraging developments, and momentum has previously argued, any change to the regulations should seems to be keeping up in the early weeks of 2015. In also account for the men and women who have derived January the Pennsylvania prison system introduced new spiritual benefit from their fidelity to the church’s current diversionary treatment units to house mentally ill inmates discipline and should not be seen as a revolutionary gesture who would otherwise end up in “the hole.” In New York on the part of a few, but rather as a response of the entire City, the Board of Correction announced it would end the church to the signs of the times.

4 America February 2, 2015 EDITORIAL Liberté

n the aftermath of last month’s rampage in France—17 protecting. people died at the hands of three Muslim terrorists, who Charlie Hebdo relied Iwere subsequently killed by French police—many strident heavily on blunt provocation supporters of Western civilization turned their anger and fear as a rhetorical and stylistic on the Muslim world as a whole. In Germany record numbers device, to the point that came out for demonstrations against immigration; in France its staff acknowledged and retaliatory attacks struck mosques and Muslim-owned accepted the possibility businesses; and in the United Kingdom politicians seized on of a violent reaction. Should the state have intervened, for the violence to issue sneering rejections of multiculturalism. their protection and out of sensitivity to France’s Muslim After enduring years of terrorist strikes by Islamic communities, to restrain the magazine’s cartoonists and extremists—from Sept. 11, 2001, to Jan. 7—the West appears editors? Despite the senseless violence that terrorized Paris, now trapped in a reactionary loop, defaulting to military America continues to believe that restraints on speech should and rhetorical responses that do little to terminate this be set through dialogue and civic consensus, not by government unwarranted and increasingly perilous clash of civilizations. or religious edict. Any insistence that journalists, filmmakers, In the wake of the Paris attack, shaken citizens and leaders cartoonists, etc., bend Western norms of free speech to the are calling for deeper scrutiny and control of Muslim expectations and sensitivities of specific communities to the communities in the West and an immigration blockade that point of snapping those norms should be rejected. But plenty would presumably end any further weakening of Christian of room remains for the mutual respect and sensitivity sought and secular hegemony in Europe. Those ambitions neatly by the pope. Still, there will always be outliers whose views dovetail, of course, with the aims of Muslim extremists, require not acceptance but protection. whether on the front lines in Syria or operating behind the “Political correctness” was one of the labels applied scenes in Saudi Arabia. They would like nothing more than in the effort to identify a cultural debility that somehow a mindlessly vigorous reaction from the West to buttress an encouraged this violence, the sociopathy of the terrorists ideology whose life-breath is conflict. themselves being deemed insufficient explanation. But is A more promising response to this latest outrage was it mere political correctness to say that it is irrational and a national examination of conscience of sorts undertaken unjust—as well as counterproductive—to treat all members in France, where the persisting isolation and deficit of of the Islamic world as a threat because of the actions of a opportunity of Muslim communities have become a blight minority among them? Most victims of Islamist extremism, that crosses generations. Indeed, such self-reflection would after all, are other Muslims, just as are most of the people prove a benefit elsewhere. While Western media focused fighting—and dying—to put down Islamist terror. almost exclusively on the hostage drama in Paris, hundreds, A more mature reaction to such violence is required. perhaps thousands of people were being slaughtered by Boko Extremism and hopelessness are the enemies that must be Haram militants in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State. The contained, not a faith or a people. There are extremists in every imbalance of coverage suggests an inequity in the valuing culture and every nation, who must be pursued as criminals, of news—and people—that has implications extending far not treated as cultural or ethnic types that justify widespread beyond editorial offices. suppression. And not every incident of terrorism, no matter Pope Francis has frequently condemned the invocation how outrageous, amounts to an existential standoff between of faith as a justification for violence, and he did so again in the West and Islam. the wake of the attacks on the staff of the French satirical Outreach and sensitivity to likely allies in the Islamic weekly Charlie Hebdo. But the pope took a step back from a world, whether they make their homes in the Middle East full-throated defense of free expression, suggesting that some or the Middle West, cannot be denigrated as self-flagellating subjects, religion for example, should be off limits. While his political correctness. Today, on the contrary, they may be off-the-cuff remarks may have been insufficiently nuanced, it strategically the wisest path forward. Just now, extremism is not hard to be sympathetic to the pope’s concerns. Freedom is a plague on both our houses—the West and Islam—and of expression is an absolute right, but it does not come without the best way to delegitimize it is through more dialogue and

Photo: shutterstock.com/ C loud M ine Amsterd a m obligations. Communal harmony is also a social good worth cooperation, not deeper recrimination and resentment.

February 2, 2015 America 5 REPLY ALL a Bounty for U.S. Tables,” 12/7/14). Israel is harshly condemned.” The situation is not pretty. Many are How lightly, though, does Mr. Davis not simply coming here to “improve” slight perpetual Palestinian provoca- Why They Come their situation but are escaping a certain tions. Hamas’s thousands of random Re “A Nation of Immigrants” (Editorial, life of slavery that we should abhor. rocket attacks on southern Israel al- 1/5): I agree the issue of illegal immigra- John Adams lowed civilians mere seconds to seek tion is more complex than a border fix. Online Comment secure shelter. Its dozens of tunnels Shouldn’t we ask: why do they come? One-Sided Story burrowed deep into Israel would have I had the mistaken impression back Jesuits are known for rigorous thought facilitated murder and kidnapping. in the days of the Clinton administra- and logical analysis. “Majority Rules” Palestinian media are awash in inces- tion that Mexican farmers would wel- (12/22/14), Mark Davis’s emotive sant incitement against Israel and Jews. come the North American Free Trade review of Max Blumenthal’s , Goliath Terrorists are lauded as “martyrs”; any Agreement. I thought U.S. companies exhibited neither. Assertions that concessions are anathema. would be working on both sides of the for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Echoing Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Davis border for the good of all. Now I see Netanyahu “only Jewish suffering mat- questioned Israel’s very legitimacy, these so-called “illegals” as more like ref- ters” or that he “constantly evokes the unwittingly revealing the key to con- ugees, fleeing from conditions that we Holocaust to oppose a Palestinian tinuation of the conflict. Arab refus- as U.S. citizens help create and main- state,” preferring “a status quo in which al to countenance a sovereign Jewish tain. We continually wash our hands the subservient population is man- Mideast state has been a constant since like Pilate. The Los Angeles Times had aged,” are utterly unsupportable, vi- the rejection of the United Nations a report on the produce we buy from cious libels. Really risible is Mr. Davis’s Partition Plan in 1947. Israel has often Mexico (“Hardship on Mexico’s Farms, pitiful contention that “any criticism of seriously offered peace. When will the Arabs finally say yes? Status Update Richard D. Wilkins Readers respond to “Marketing There is nothing in this article spe- Syracuse, N.Y. Motherhood: The Meaning of Vocation cific to “motherhood”—it’s really Holy Families in a Secular World,” by Elizabeth just an article about parenting. The Re “A More Perfect Union,” by Helen Stoker Bruenig (1/5). assumption that only mothers see parenthood as a calling is not only in- Alvaré (12/22/14): We are the godpar- As a mother of four children ages accurate but very sexist and supports ents of two boys adopted from Vietnam 7 and under, I really appreciated the antiquated notion that it’s up and Guatemala. One parent has served this article’s perspective. There are to the mother to raise the children. as president of his parish council and a great number of competing voices Thankfully there is a new generation is now a lector and choir member. The trying to prescribe parenting meth- of fathers who are actively invested other parent has chaired the parish li- ods. And as a parent, you are judged in parenthood. I work full time, but turgical committee, served on the dioc- for your choices almost everywhere, I also take my kids to school, feed esan liturgical commission and is now a from people at the store to your own them, change them, play with them eucharistic minister. Both of these gay relatives. But the best thing I have and put them to bed nearly every men have also taught religious educa- found is to attune fully to the chil- night. The times are a-changin’. tion classes. Baptized and confirmed, dren I have—not the ones I wish I Kevin Mallon the boys have progressed through the had and not someone else’s—and parish catechetical program. The old- make decisions based upon their er is a sophomore in a Catholic high Since Ms. Bruenig pulls out the old individual needs and strengths. school, and his younger brother will Max Weber arguments, can I remind Parenting is a humbling experience. join him for middle school at the same folks that Protestantism should not Stephanie Dahl campus. Their family is a role model for be identified with capitalism? Some complementarity as described by Helen I wouldn’t dream of downplaying Protestants celebrate capitalism, as Alvaré: a spousal analogy of “God’s the value of motherhood, but single, do many Catholics. I’m not among identity and relationship to humanity” childless women are invisible in the the pro-capitalism Protestant crowd, and of “marriage and family life as the church. Or rather, they are very visi- and I do not believe there is anything school of learning the meaning of life ble, but the church neither sees nor ac- in the essence of Protestantism that as loving mutual service and sacrifice— knowledges them as having any value. lends itself to capitalist ideology. Maria Evans Rachel Jennings Jesus’ way of life.”

6 America February 2, 2015 We don’t accept all Ms. Alvaré says, derstand the need for vocations. As a helps us look to the future with hope. but we agree that complementarity bishop, his concern must of necessity Anthony Maciorowski must “begin with the radical equal- focus on priests and consecrated reli- Online Comment ity of men and women”—as long as gious. Yet I wonder if priestly and reli- Poet Pride that radical equality acknowledges gious vocations would be better served Angela Alaimo O’Donnell is identified the God-given sexual orientations of by first focusing attention on the in her columns as a writer, professor and these men and women and all that priesthood of the people as a starting associate director of American Catholic entails. Our two godchildren are not point. At baptism, all the faithful are Studies at Fordham University—but being raised by their biological parents consecrated priest, prophet and king this description is incomplete. It does but by their gay parents, who through and called to serve Christ. Nourished not allude to her as a published poet their complementary (though not in by the Eucharist and strengthened by of note. Too many poets in the United the reproductive sense) and loving confirmation, this consecrated priest- States seem to hide or be hidden be- relationship have created a family life hood of the people constitutes the hind a spiritually secondary descrip- every bit as authentic and holy—and, entire wellspring from which all vocation, when their immortality will be in yes, life-giving—as that of any hetero- tions flow—married, single, religious their poetry rather than in their essays sexual relationship we know of, includ- and ordained. or their classroom experience. ing our own. While consecrated religious and the America’s Chicago correspondent, Casey and Mary Ellen Lopata sacerdotal priesthood have specific and Rochester, N.Y. Judith Valente, is also a prize-winning necessary roles within the church, so poet. Mary Oliver, perhaps the only too do permanent deacons and those woman in the United States who can Celebrating Mass called to the married and single life. As In “Family in Focus” (12/8/14), the live well exclusively from her income as Bishop Burbidge so aptly points out, a poet, has written an introduction to Rev. Robert P. Imbelli writes that the the Year of Consecrated Life is indeed practice of eucharistic adoration is “in- one of Ms. Valente’s volumes of poetry. a wonderful opportunity to gratefully Some of us know that people look tegral to the process of discernment we remember that all Catholic men and will undertake” ahead of the synod in at you funny if you identify yourself as women have been consecrated—some a poet, but let’s not let these women be 2015. Instead of eucharistic adoration, to the priesthood of the people, some we might help ourselves as the people shy or be shy for them. With writers to sacramental priesthood. Together, like them and Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., of God by first better understanding the people of God are indeed diverse, the eucharistic celebration we partici- America enhances the literary and cul- and each in his or her own way wit- tural dimension of this reader’s life. pate in weekly—the Mass. nesses to the good news of Jesus and Ernest C. Raskauskas Sr. While the Second Vatican Council Potomac, Md. did much to help us understand the Letters to the editor may be sent to America’s editorial office (address on page 2) or letters@ Eucharist, we still lag in demonstrating americamagazine.org. America will also consider the following for print publication: to all how central this service is. I have comments posted below articles on America’s Web site (americamagazine.org) and posts even heard some ask that a Mass not on Twitter and public Facebook pages. All correspondence may be edited for length. be celebrated at their funeral since “it is so impersonal.” We have not learned that the Eucharist is the heart of who we are. Rather, we have surrounded it with politics and bad news instead of the good news that it is. So we continue to propound marriage as the sym- bol of Christ and his church, while knowing little about either of them. Bill Mazzella Online Comment

All Are Called I appreciate Bishop Michael F. Burbidge’s thoughtful piece, “The “And I promise to stop gambling. By the way, Father, Ongoing Call” (11/17/14), and un- any chance you know who God likes in the big game?” rtoon: bob eckstein c a rtoon:

February 2, 2015 America 7 8 America February 2, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Manila, Philippines ed this country.” Then they will be able to bring together “the moral resources” Pope Urges Government Response that are needed to face today’s problems and pass on “a society of authentic jus- To Poverty as ‘Moral Imperative’ tice, solidarity and peace.” Later, during Mass at the Manila Among School Children. Pope Francis made time in Manila on Jan. 16 to Cathedral, Pope Francis said, “The visit with the young residents of a home for former street children. church in the Philippines is called to acknowledge and combat the causes of deeply rooted inequality and injustice that mar the face of Filipino society, plainly contradicting the teaching of Christ.” He told the country’s bishops and clergy that “the Gospel calls Christians to live lives of honesty, integrity and concern for the common good.” He put them on their guard against “the great danger” of “a certain materialism that can creep into our lives and com- promise the witness we offer. “Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters,” the pope said. By doing so, he added, “we will see things in a new light and thus respond with honesty and integrity to the challenge of proclaiming the Gospel in a society that has grown comfortable with eginning the second leg of his South Asian journey, Pope Francis did not social exclusion, polarization and scan- mince words when he addressed government and church leaders of the dalous inequality.” BPhilippines on Jan. 16. A day after his triumphal arrival from Sri Lanka, he Departing from his text, he said: “The called on them to combat and eliminate “scandalous” social inequalities and injus- poor are at the center of the Gospel; tices as well as the corruption that is widespread in this archipelago of 100 million they are at the heart of the Gospel. If people, more than 50 percent of them mired in poverty. we take away the poor from the Gospel, During a speech at the Presidential Palace, he told President Benigno Aquino III then we cannot understand the whole and the nation’s other political and civic leaders that if they are to face “the demands message of Jesus Christ.” of the present” and “pass on to the coming generations a society of authentic justice, Pope Francis’ concrete concern for solidarity and peace,” they must “ensure social justice and respect for human dignity.” the poor reappears again and again, and This is a “moral imperative,” he added. this day in Manila was no exception. Well aware of the resistance to social reform by a number of the powerful and After Mass he visited a center near the very rich families in this land, the Jesuit pope, who has seen something similar in cathedral where he met former street Argentina, told state authorities that “reforming the social structures that perpetuate children; he talked with them and em- poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of heart and mind.” braced them before imparting his bless- Then, in a message that goes right to the heart of the problems with the Filipino ing. One does not have to walk far in political system, marked as it is by family dynasties, cronyism and corruption, this metropolis of 10 million people Francis said, “It is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstand- to see the poor Filipinos the pope is ing for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good. In this way they speaking about. will help preserve the rich human and natural resources with which God has bless- This same poverty has forced 10

February 2, 2015 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES million Filipinos to emigrate to find Francis’ forceful call for this is timely pope would feel the accompaniment of work elsewhere. The need for social and, given his moral authority, it could lay Catholics and religious and organi- justice and elimination of inequalities be a game changer. zations in different parts of the world,” is an urgent need in this country. Pope Gerard O’Connell Ottaro said. “We hope that it would be a living document, that it would not Climate Change end up on shelves, that it would be lived and preached.” Catholic Environmental Group The movement’s introductory statement draws from Scripture and Debuts as Pope Visits Philippines Catholic social teaching. It underscores worldwide campaign is emerg- in the issue. It’s not something new,” the importance of action to mitigate ing among Catholic individuals said Pablo Canziani, senior scientist climate change backed by prayer and Aand organizations concerned at Argentina’s National Scientific and reflection. “Our collaboration echoes about climate change and protecting Technical Research Council, adding the global dimensions of the Catholic the environment. The Global Catholic that Pope Francis understands that the Church and a shared sense of respon- Climate Movement went public on Jan. issues of climate change and human de- sibility to care for God’s beautiful, 14, coinciding with the visit of Pope velopment are intertwined. “You have to life-giving creation. We are inspired Francis to the Philippines. work on both together,” said Canziani, by church teachings and guided by the Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of who discussed technical climate change virtue of prudence—understood by St. Manila, Philippines, planned to de- issues several times with Pope Francis Thomas Aquinas as ‘right reason ap- liver the global Catholic effort’s belief when the pope was archbishop of plied to action,’” the statement said. and mission statement to the pope in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “So in light of growing scientific ev- a private meeting sometime during The movement includes nearly idence and real-world experiences, we two dozen Catholic offer our prayer for God’s healing grace Storm damage. The destroyed cathedral in Palo, leaders and organiza- as we work in the world to care and ad- Philippines—Typhoon Haiyan was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. tions in Africa, Asia, vocate for the needy and all creation,” it Australia, North said. America and South The organization plans to invite America. U.S. partners Catholics to fast and pray for solutions include the Franciscan to climate change during Lent. Patrick Action Network, Carolan, executive director of the U.S.- CatholicEcology.net, based Franciscan Action Network, Catholic Rural Life, said a rolling fast is being planned with GreenFaith and the Catholics in a different country each Leadership Conference day centering their actions on the envi- of Women Religious. ronment during Lent. One day also will The new organi- be set aside for Catholics worldwide to zation will connect fast and pray together. the pope’s Jan. 15-19 visit to the coun- people around the world to carry out Carolan said the organization try, said organization leaders. While programs rooted in Catholic teaching formed after various Catholic organi- in the Philippines, the pope planned on environmental concerns, said Allen zations from around the world partic- to meet survivors of one of the most Ottaro, co-founder and executive direc- ipated in the People’s Climate March powerful tropical cyclones ever record- tor of the Catholic Youth Network for in September in New York. “It’s all ed. Typhoon Haiyan, fed by warming Environmental Sustainability in Africa, part of the global mission of protect- of the ocean, which scientists attribute based in Nairobi, Kenya. ing creation,” he explained. “We’re all to human-induced climate change, The effort also is meant to support connected, and we’re seeing more and devastated a wide swath of the central the pope as he prepares an encyclical more that what happens to somebody Philippines in November 2013. on the environment, anticipated in July, in Bangladesh affects someone in the Pope Francis is “deeply interested Ottaro said. “I would imagine that the United States.”

10 America February 2, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Pope Suggests Limits NEWS BRIEFS On Free Expression Donna Markham, an Adrian Dominican sister, has Asked by a French reporter on a flight been chosen to succeed the Rev. Larry Snyder as the from Sri Lanka to the Philippines on new president of Catholic Charities USA, beginning Jan. 15 to compare freedom of religion in June. • Surprising even the people who have been and freedom of expression as human promoting the sainthood of Blessed Junipero Serra, rights, Pope Francis condemned vio- Pope Francis announced on Jan. 15 that he hopes to lence in the name of God but said free- canonize the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan in dom of expression should be limited September. • On Jan. 12 German bishops “totally” by respect for religion and that mock- distanced the church from an anti-Islamic move- Donna Markham ery of faith can be expected to provoke ment that staged mass demonstrations in Dresden violence. Pope Francis linked his an- and other cities, but they also urged a better understanding of public swer to the attacks Jan. 7 at the offices fears and opinions. • A panel of theologians advising the Vatican’s of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, apparently Congregation for Saints’ Causes voted unanimously on Jan. 8 to rec- in retaliation for the newspaper’s pub- ognize El Salvador’s assassinated Oscar Romero as a martyr, de- lication of cartoons mocking Islam’s claring that the archbishop had been killed “in hatred for the faith.” Prophet Muhammad. “One cannot • In an interview published in late December, Bishop Johan Bonny of offend, make war, kill in the name of Antwerp urged the church to find ways to recognize same-sex re- one’s own religion, that is, in the name lationships in which “exclusivity, loyalty and care are central to each of God.” The pope said freedom of ex- other.” • The Rev. Father Noor Alqasmosa, a Syriac Catholic, warned pression was a “fundamental human that funding will soon run out to feed and house thousands of Iraqi right” like freedom of religion, but one Christians who took refuge in Jordan from Islamic State militants, that must be exercised “without giving adding that the Iraqis increasingly feel hopeless and abandoned. offense…. One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith; one cannot make fun of faith.” The pope must humanize the conflict by foster- itself, Pope Francis said. “Markets and said those who “make fun or toy with ing more interaction between Israelis financial speculation cannot enjoy ab- other people’s religions, these people and Palestinians. Peace will only come solute autonomy,” he said. There must provoke…. There is a limit. Every reli- when all parties respect the fact that be “programs, mechanisms and proce- gion has its dignity.” the Holy Land is sacred to three faiths dures aimed at a better distribution of and home to two peoples.” They add- resources, job creation and the integral Human Dignity ed, “Many tens of thousands of fami- advancement of those who are exclud- lies in Gaza lack adequate shelter. In ed,” Pope Francis said in a recently In the Holy Land the latest freezing weather, at least published interview. “We cannot wait The path to peace in the Holy Land two infants died of exposure. The any longer to fix the structural causes requires respect for the human continuing blockade dramatically im- of poverty, to cure our society from rights and dignity of both Israelis pedes rebuilding and contributes to a disease that can only bring on new and Palestinians, said bishops from desperation that undermines Israelis’ crises,” he said. While noting the posi- Europe, South Africa and North legitimate hopes for security. It also tive outcomes of the current globalized America, gathered in the Holy Land creates intolerable levels of unemploy- economy in lifting many people from on Jan. 15 as the Co-Ordination of ment and pushes ordinary people into poverty, the pope said it also “con- Episcopal Conferences in Support of deeper poverty.” demned many others to die of hunger.” the Church of the Holy Land. “After While globalization raised the level of the failed negotiations and ensuing Markets Alone Are global wealth, income disparity also in- violence of 2014, we urge public of- creased and new forms of poverty have ficials to be creative, to take new ap- Not the Answer emerged, he said. proaches, to build bridges, not walls,” The world cannot wait for an econom- the bishops wrote in a statement. “We ic system that will cause poverty to fix From CNS, RNS and other sources.

February 2, 2015 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

dispatch | London in the United Kingdom. In Britain, in 2015 there will be a Light Piercing Shadow in 2015 general election in May. All the early media commentary agrees in predict- he first days of January always pope will once again underline urgency, ing that the outcome is entirely un- cast their shadow over the reminding world leaders that inaction predictable. One intriguing forecast Tcoming year’s events, just as is not an option and that “the time to sees the vibrant Scottish National the final dwindling days of December find global solutions is running out.” Party entering a coalition, holding encompass and focus the year just end- As he has stated about challenges the balance of power in the House ing. We’re meant to look back, if not in posed by other social issues, like hu- of Commons and demanding further anger, at least with relief that we got man trafficking and the refugee crisis, devolution of powers to Edinburgh, as through it, and it seems, each year with the pope will stress the need for collec- promised but not delivered in the days an increasing sense that things are get- tive action and trust. A clear link will before September’s no vote in the ref- ting worse, not better. be drawn between poverty and care erendum. At this time of year, there Yet what draws the eye is the issue seems always to be a human di- of poverty, particularly among the saster to shock us. Ten years ago The encyclical of Pope working poor. People are speaking it was the Indian Ocean tsuna- out. The Anglican archbishop of mi; this year it was the Asian Francis on ecological Canterbury in December said that Airlines air disaster, the attacks concerns will be one he found the predicament of poor in Paris, Ebola, the Islamic State working families in a way more and the latest horrors endured source of bright light. shocking than what he’d seen in a by desperate refugees adrift on recent visit to Congo. This might the Mediterranean. But the light not be the only, or even the main, that shone over Bethlehem gestures to for creation, between human ecology issue in the election, but it will be the divine wisdom born into this cha- and natural ecology. The encyclical prominent and the voice of faith will os, one that simultaneously attracted will be controversial and will ask much be heard. human wisdom from a far country, of each of us and of the church in the When those who follow Christ in bearing gifts. United Kingdom and everywhere. the Ignatian tradition look back, for It is hard, as I write in these first Additional light comes from those example, at the end of the day or at days of January, so short and dark in in the front line of the fight against the end of the year, they know always this hemisphere, to trust that wisdom Ebola, especially a young Glaswegian to look forward in hope too. Using St. or to see that light. There is a lot of nurse. Returning for Christmas from Ignatius’ popular prayer exercise the shadow. service in Sierra Leone, she fell ill with examen, which takes the stuff of our Where, then, might light pierce the Ebola herself and was immediately daily existence as the matter for prayer, shadow in 2015? transferred from Glasgow to a spe- they know to begin their review by The anticipated encyclical of Pope cialist hospital in London. The U.N. asking the good Spirit for light to see Francis on ecological concerns will be secretary general and the head of the their recent lives as God did and to one source of bright light. We know U.N.’s anti-Ebola unit think there is a end it by looking ahead consciously in that it will pull no punches; this pope long way to go in combatting this out- a hopeful spirit, avoiding fear. doesn’t do that. It will be an energizing break and that the world’s response If we have noticed God’s wisdom challenge from a pontiff who has no has been inadequate. But there are and light in what we have reviewed, intention of retreating into a privatized people like this young health profes- we can confidently expect more of the world of religious purity, untainted by sional who will forgo Western home same as we look ahead. Remembering messy reality. One Jesuit writer in the comforts to help the sufferers. Little to be grateful helps us to avoid being United Kingdom predicts that the of their bravery and selflessness made overcome by those shadows and to be its way into the screaming headlines just a little bit better equipped to bring David Stewart, S.J., is America’s London that focused entirely on this first “out- wisdom and light into the real world of correspondent. break,” as one tabloid put it, of Ebola 2015. David Stewart

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Nathan Schneider Family Time or a country whose politicians Witness Against Torture, a campaign that is created out of thin air. make so much of “family values,” to close the Guantánamo prison camp That time is becoming even more Fit’s perplexing that the United and end the war on terror’s detention scarce. Among professionals, the work- States remains the only industrialized and interrogation practices. She’s a day is becoming longer as the email on country on the planet with no require- stay-at-home mom, but her husband our phones brings the office into every ment for paid parental leave. Parents does much of the cooking. Living sim- waking hour. Retail and food-service not lucky enough to have a job that of- ply on his social worker’s paycheck, workers, meanwhile, have less control fers a few paid weeks off must choose they purposely keep their income be- over their schedules because employ- between those vital first days with low the federal tax threshold to avoid ers use software to optimize shifts for their newborns and the paycheck that contributing to the government’s short-term profits rather than healthy, provides for them. Since our health outsized military budget. They go to sustaining workplaces. care system is still largely tied to full- a Unitarian Universalist Technology was time work, a parent who wants to be church together; but when supposed to free us; at home part of the week may have to she goes to Mass, she pre- the colonial-era preach- give up access to a doctor. The time it fers smells and bells over A simple life er Jonathan Edwards takes to be a parent, it turns out, can the guitar hymns of her is enough imagined that, for be costly. childhood. She tries to be a Christians of the future, Frida Berrigan learned the pre- nonviolent mom, but some- to make “there will be so many ciousness of family time early on. Her times she loses her cool and one seem contrivances and inven- parents, Phil Berrigan and Elizabeth has to repent for dumping tions to facilitate and McAlister, were the first couple of the water on little Seamus’s like a expedite their necessary Catholic peace movement and spent 11 head. radical. secular business that of their 29 years of marriage separated Berrigan’s presence, in all they will have more time by prison bars. Her wise, delightful that she does at home and for more noble exercise.” new book, It Runs in the Family, recalls for the world, is a choice. Instead, we’ve used our that uncommon upbringing in light of She left a job at a think tank and with contrivances and inventions to squeeze her first few years as a mother. (As one it the false prospect of having every- more time out of one another. of her editors at the online publication thing. She made the choice to value Time is holy. That’s why the Third Waging Nonviolence, I had a small time over money. “It is a humbling, Commandment insists that some of role in its gestation.) A priority that human, hard choice,” she writes. But it be set aside for God. Without time, runs throughout the book is time. choosing time also means that she can there is no worship, no real democracy, “My husband and I made a choice help out at her local food co-op and no nourishment of families. Freedom to live on one salary,” Berrigan writes. work in the garden and write a book. is a platitude without the time to exer- “We don’t have a lot of extra money, With less she can do more. cise it. So is talk of family values with- but we do have more time for family, Many of our stranger perversions out valuing families’ time—for fathers for each other, and for the world.” have to do with abundance and scar- as well as mothers, for high schoolers With her own family, she makes city. Las Vegas keeps its fountains as well as infants. some choices differently than her par- running in the desert while we turn In lieu of a society that treats time as ents did—choices at once radical and off the water for struggling Detroiters the gift that it is, Frida Berrigan is keep- traditional. She doesn’t risk long pris- surrounded by the Great Lakes. ing up her own family’s tradition of be- on sentences, but she’s still a leader of Homelessness is on the rise in New ing a sign of contradiction. Other fam- York City even as there are enough ilies’ ways of valuing time may not look empty apartments to house everyone. like hers. But in any case it’s strange Nathan Schneider is the author of Thank You, Anarchy and God in Proof. Website: We give up vast portions of the finite how today a simple life is enough to TheRowBoat.com; Twitter: @nathanairplane. time of our lives to get hold of money make one seem like a radical.

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Following Faithfully The Catholic way to choose the good By Michael G. Lawler and Todd A. Salzman fter much free and honest talk—what Pope embraced Aquinas’s judgment on the inviolability of con- Francis in his final address to the Synod on science: “In all his activity a man is bound to follow his the Family last October praised as “a spir- conscience faithfully, in order that he may come to God, for it of collegiality and synodality”—and the whom he was created. It follows that he is not to be forced to revelation of significant divisions among act in a manner contrary to his conscience. Nor, on the other Athe world’s bishops, we now await the ongoing discussions hand, is he to be restrained from acting in accordance with in preparation for the second session of the Synod on the his conscience, especially in matters religious” (No. 3). In the Family in October. Unfortunately, none of the synod fathers 1960s, such words were seldom heard in Catholic magiste- sought to defend the long-standing Catholic way to make rial circles, but the undoubted reality is that they are ideas a moral choice, namely, individual conscience, the “law in- that are deeply rooted in the Catholic moral tradition and, scribed by God” in human hearts, “the most secret core and indeed, are constitutive of it. sanctuary of man...[where] he is alone with God whose From Aquinas we learn that conscience is related to rea- voice echoes in his depth. In a wonderful manner conscience son. Reason distinguishes humans from all other animals, reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neigh- and together with the will is deeply involved in the process bor” (“Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern of coming to truth. All knowledge begins with experience World,” No. 16). and proceeds through understanding to judgment and deci- The Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, who at the time was a theo- sion, which is actualized in action. Conscience is the rational logical expert at the Second Vatican Council, commented on act of practical judgment that something is right or wrong, this passage: “Over the pope as the expression of the binding to be done or not done. It acts in two ways. It directs us to do claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one’s own or not to do something; and, if some action has been done, it conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if neces- tests whether that action is right or not right. sary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and Two Approaches to Conscience ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond In a church that is truly catholic or universal, we find differ- the claim of external social groups, even of the official church.” ent theological approaches to many noninfallible teachings. Thomas Aquinas, in his book ofSentences (IV, 38, 2, 4), Here are examples of two major approaches to conscience established the authority and inviolability of conscience in through the teachings of two well-known moral theologians. words similar to Father Ratzinger’s: “Anyone upon whom The theologian Germain Grisez holds that the only way to the ecclesiastical authorities, in ignorance of the true facts, form one’s conscience is to conform it to the teaching of the impose a demand that offends against his clear conscience church. “In morals,” he writes, “a faithful Catholic never will should perish in excommunication rather than violate his permit his or her own opinions, any seemingly cogent deliv- conscience.” For any Catholic in search of truth, no stron- erances of experience, even supposedly scientific arguments, ger statement on the authority and inviolability of personal or the contradictory belief of the whole world outside the conscience could be found, but Aquinas goes further. He in- faith to override the church’s clear and firm teaching.” For sists that even the dictate of an erroneous conscience must Professor Grisez and theologians who agree with him, in- be followed and that to act against such a dictate is immoral. cluding St. John Paul II, conscience is ultimately about obe- Seven hundred years later, the last hundred of which dience to church teaching. John Paul’s apostolic exhortation saw the rights of individual conscience regularly challenged “On the Family” is wholly rooted in the truth of sexuality in the church, Vatican II’s “Decree on Religious Freedom” and marriage as taught by the church and the obligation of the laity to make that truth their own and to obey it, a position he strongly reinforced in his encyclical “The Splendor Michael G. Lawler is the emeritus Amelia and Emil Graff Professor of Truth.” of Catholic Theology at Creighton University. Todd A. Salzman is a professor of theology at Creighton University. They are the co-authors of The The revisionist theologian Bernhard Häring, C.Ss.R., is Sexual Person (Georgetown University Press). diametrically opposed to that stance. In the context of his

16 America February 2, 2015 com p osite hoto: shutterstock.com/ r a 2studio, meric

overall approach to moral theology, which stresses God’s ings of moral goodness and truth. summons to all women and men to goodness and each indi- What Pope Francis writes in “The Joy of the Gospel” is vidual’s response of a moral life, conscience, “man’s innermost profoundly pertinent here: “Differing currents of thought in yearning toward ‘wholeness,’ which manifests itself in open- philosophy, theology, and pastoral practice, if open to being ness to neighbor and community in a common searching for reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the goodness and truth,” must be free and inviolable, and “the church to grow, since all of them help to express more clear- church must affirm the freedom of conscienceitself .” Church ly the immense riches of God’s word. For those who long doctrine is at the service of women and men as they use for a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leav- conscience in their search for goodness, truth and Christian ing no room for nuance, this might appear as undesirable wholeness; conscience is not at the service of doctrine. “It and leading to confusion. But, in fact, such variety serves to staggers the imagination,” Häring writes, “to think that an bring out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible earthly authority or an ecclesiastical magisterium could take riches of the Gospel.” We hold with Aquinas that the mor- away from man his own decision of conscience.” al life and the spiritual life are not separate. The Christian An important, and sadly oft-ignored, corollary flows from moral life is also the Christian spiritual life, and the strategy the foregoing. One lone theological voice does not make a of ethics and moral theology, according to Aquinas, “is not tradition; and if a sincere and right conscience is inviolable, primarily to assist us in making good decisions or to help us then the sincere and right consciences of theologians like in resolving problems of conscience,” still less to win points both Grisez and Häring are inviolable. Both stances must in debate. No, in response to God’s call, its goal is “the total acknowledge this broad Catholic conscience-tradition and transformation of ourselves into people who can call God’s open themselves to mutual dialogue in the search to expand kingdom their home.” and deepen their own and the diverse Catholic understand- The judgment of conscience, then, comes at the end of a

February 2, 2015 America 17 rational process of experience, understanding, judgment and science flowing from it are both deemed to be vincibly igno- decision. This process includes a natural, innate grasp of moral rant, and therefore culpable, and cannot be morally followed. principles that Aquinas calls synderesis. He never makes these If “the reason or conscience is mistaken through voluntary principles clear anywhere, for he believes they are self-evident error, whether directly or from negligence,” Aquinas posits, and indemonstrable. To make a right “then because it is a matter a person decision of conscience on a moral ought to know about, it does not ex- question involves both a grasp of first Prudence is a cardinal cuse the will from evil in following principles, like “good is to be done and virtue around which the reason or conscience thus going evil is to be avoided,” and the gathering astray.” If the error cannot be as- of as much evidence as possible, con- all other virtues pivot, cribed to some moral fault, then both sciously weighing and understanding the understanding and the practical the evidence and its implications, and integrating agents and judgment of conscience flowing from finally making as honest a judgment it are deemed to be invincibly igno- as is humanly possible that this action their actions. rant and non-culpable and not only is good and to be done and that the can but must be followed, even con- alternative action is evil and to be avoided. A moral action is trary to ecclesiastical authority. Subjects are bound not only one that comes as the outcome of such a process. to conscience but also for conscience—that is, they must do all in their power to ensure that conscience is right. Prudential Judgments There is one final consideration to be added here. The Since conscience is a practical judgment that comes at the morality of an action is largely, though not exclusively, con- end of a rational, deliberative process, it necessarily involves trolled by the subject’s intention. A good intention, giving the virtue of prudence, the virtue by which right reason is alms to the poor because the poor need help and to help applied to action. Aquinas locates prudence in the intellect them is the right and Christian thing to do, results in a mor- along with synderesis and conscientia. Synderesis provides the ally good action. A bad intention, giving alms to the poor first principles of practical reason; prudence discerns those because I want to be seen and to be praised by men (Mt 6:2, principles, applies them to particular situations and en- 5; see Lk 18:10-14), will result in a morally bad action. ables conscientia to make practical judgments that this is the right thing to do on this occasion, with this right intention. To Know Together Prudence, therefore, needs to know both the general moral A decision of right conscience is clearly a complex process; principles of reason and the individual situation in which and although it is an individual process, it is far from an human action takes place. It is the task of prudence to mon- individualistic process. The Latin wordconscientia literally itor the process of deliberation and judgment to ensure, for means “knowledge together,” perhaps better rendered as “to instance, that this is the right occasion, the right person and know together.” It suggests what human experience univer- the right intention for reaching out in compassion toward sally demonstrates, that being liberated from the confin- the poor. Prudence is a cardinal virtue around which all oth- ing prison of one’s individual self into the broadening and er virtues pivot, integrating agents and their actions. challenging company of others is a surer way to come to Unfortunately, in the human condition all judgments, right knowledge of the truth, including moral truth, and even the most prudential practical judgments of conscience, right practical judgment, including moral judgment, of can be in error. Ethicists note that there are two poles in what one ought to do or not do. This communal search every moral judgment. It is always a free, rational human for truth, conscience and morality builds a sure safeguard person or subject who makes a judgment, so one pole of the against both an isolating egoism and a personal relativism judgment is a subjective pole; but every judgment is made that negates all universal truth. The community-related- about some objective reality—poverty or sexual activity, for ness of consciences has been part of the Christian tradi- instance—so there is always also an objective pole. The sub- tion since Paul, who clearly believed in the inviolability ject arrives at his or her judgment either by following the ra- and primacy of conscience and who wrote to his beloved tional process outlined above or by negligently shortchang- Corinthian Christians that the “stronger” members of the ing that process. community in conscience should be sensitive to and careful If the rational error of understanding and judgment can of the “weaker” members, whose consciences might easily be ascribed to some moral fault, taking “little trouble to find be “defiled” by the stronger conscience’s most conscientious out what is true and good” (“Pastoral Constitution on the actions (1 Cor 8:7-13). Church in the Modern World,” No. 16), for instance, then At this point a final and sometimes pressing question the wrong understanding and practical judgment of con- arises. Among the communities to which Catholics belong

18 America February 2, 2015 is the Catholic Church. Though that statement appears out that when the church is conceived as a hierarchical insti- obvious, when we try to clarify it further by asking what is tution, obedience to church authority is called for; when it specifically meant by “church,” it actually becomes less clear, is conceived of as a communion, dialogue and consensus are for there are several distinct meanings of the word in con- called for. These same two answers to our question continue temporary Catholic theology. For our purpose here, we fo- to be offered in the church today. cus on the two major ones: church as institution and church The holy people of God, “The Dogmatic Constitution on as communion. Between the two Vatican councils (1870 the Church” teaches, share in Christ’s prophetic or teaching -1963), the dominant understanding of church was the in- office. “The body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the stitutional, hierarchical one. In 1964, with the publication of Holy One, cannot err in matters of belief. Thanks to a su- Vatican II’s “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” a new pernatural sense of faith which characterizes the People as model, or more accurately a renewed model, became avail- a whole, it manifests this unerring quality when from the able—namely, the model of church as a communion of the bishops down to the last member of the laity, it shows uni- “people of God” (No. 9-17). versal agreement in matters of faith and morals” (No. 12). The ecclesiologist Yves Congar, O.P., demonstrated that the The Holy One referred to is, of course, the Holy Spirit of communion model of church effectively prevailed in the West God, “the Spirit of truth” whom Jesus first promised (Jn 14: during the first 1,000 years of Christian history, whereas the 16-17; 15:26) and then sent to the apostles and to the en- hierarchical model dominated only between the 11-century tire church (Jn 20:22). That sending is both signified and reformation and Vatican II. These two models continue to be effected in the Catholic Church by the anointings in the available to anyone who asks about church teaching and con- sacraments of initiation. Each and every Catholic, therefore, science and they confuse the answer to a final question here: carries within herself and himself the Spirit of truth to lead How are Catholics to behave in conscience when their under- her and him into all truth, including moral truth. Therefore, standing of a noninfallible teaching of the magisterium differs as John writes to the faithful of old, “The anointing that you from that proposed by the magisterium—as the majority of received from [Christ] abides in you, and so you do not need Catholic faithful now do, for instance, on contraception and anyone to teach you...his anointing teaches you about all Communion for the divorced and remarried? Congar points things” (1 Jn 2:20, 27).

February 2, 2015 America 19 The International Theological Commission, an arm of the To repeat the opening of this essay, no Catholic is “to be Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently taught forced to act in a manner contrary to his conscience. Nor... (“Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church,” 2014) that the is he to be restrained from acting in accordance with his faithful “have an instinct for the truth of the Gospel, which conscience, especially in matters religious” (“Declaration enables them to recognize and endorse authentic Christian on Religious Freedom,” No. 3) or moral. Joseph Ratzinger doctrine and practice and to reject what is false.” The “instinct pointed out that “not everything that exists in the church for the truth” the commission refers to is the “sensus fidei” so must for that reason be also a legitimate tradition.... There emphasized by the Second Vatican Council. “Banishing the is a distorting as well as legitimate tradition.” The long ad- caricature of an active hierarchy and a passive laity,” the com- herence of the church to teachings on the taking of inter- mission continues, “and in particular the notion of a strict est on loans, slavery and religious freedom are well-known separation between the teaching church (ecclesia docens) and examples of distorting moral traditions that it now rejects. the learning church (ecclesia discens), the council taught that Father Ratzinger concluded to what is obvious: “conse- all the baptized participate in their own proper way in the quently tradition must not be considered only affirmative- three offices of Christ as prophet, priest and king. In par- ly but also critically.” TheCatechism of the Catholic Church ticular it taught that Christ fulfills his prophetic office not repeats the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and only by means of the hierarchy but also via the laity.” The at- places both the council’s and the church’s teaching beyond tainment of moral truth in the Catholic tradition, therefore, doubt: women and men have “the right to act in conscience involves a dialogical process in the communion-church in “a and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions” spirit of collegiality and synodality” from the “bishops down (No. 1782). In his homily at the synod’s closing Mass, to the last member of the laity”; and when that process has Pope Francis told the assembled bishops that “God is not been conscientiously completed, both the highest bishop afraid of new things. That is why he is continuously sur- and the last member of the laity are finally “alone with God, prising us, and guiding us in unexpected ways.” The au- whose voice echoes in his depths” (“Pastoral Constitution thority and inviolability of a well-informed and therefore on the Church in the Modern World,” No. 16) and has to well-formed conscience is not among those new things; it make that practical judgment of conscience that this is what is the long-standing Catholic way to choosing the true and I must believe or not believe, do or not do. the good. A

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20 America February 2, 2015 Theology’s New Turn A survey of contemporary movements By Thomas P. Rausch

he words had a vaguely alien sound: postcolonial, mujerista, queer, eco-theological. But as TI sat on our theology department’s hiring committee and read applicants’ dossiers, it was clear that the thinking behind these labels is shaping the work of many who are finishing doctoral studies in theology today and are moving into the schools. Disciplines once considered marginal now dominate the academy. When I began my own theological studies after the Second Vatican Council, Catholic theology was moving out of the seminaries and into the universities and graduate schools. The church’s traditional emphasis on neo-Scholasticism, a method once described by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as “far removed from the real world,” had already given way to the work of theologians whose work had so enriched the council. Among them were Karl Rahner, S.J., Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Küng, Karl Barth and especially the French ressourcement theologians Yves Congar, O.P., Henri ciliar ferment in Latin America, the new practitioners of the de Lubac, S.J., Jean Daniélou, S.J., and Marie-Dominique theology of liberation were already emphasizing a radically Chenu, O.P., who sought to recover the formative biblical, contextual theology, rooted in the social realidad of their of- patristic and liturgical sources of the Catholic tradition. ten oppressive societies and based on praxis. If these theologies were different from the abstract, non- historical arguments of the neo-Scholastics, they were still Postcolonial Theory largely European works, universal in conception, focused on The postmodern ethos also found expression in the work the church and its tradition as understood in the West. But of the postcolonial theorists. Concerned about the negative already the theological horizon was changing. Influenced by impact of Western colonialism on literature, history, politics, the postmodernist ethos, theology was becoming increasing- cultures and their peoples, they seek to “decolonize” or “de- ly pluralistic, contextual and postcolonial. With the postcon- construct” Western ways of knowing as well as the restric- tive identities constructed on mutually exclusive “binaries,” Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., is the T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic male/female, white/black, first world/third world, hetero-

Theology at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, Calif. sexual/homosexual and so on. But postcolonial theory is not com p osite im a ge: shutterstock.com/ meric

February 2, 2015 America 21 easy to grasp. It employs an abstract, postmodern language and mujerista theologies, for black and Hispanic women re- and a lexicon of bewildering terms. Its practitioners speak spectively. A second generation of postcolonial critics, among of difference, agency, whiteness, hybridity, homogenization, them Kwok Pui-lan, Tina Beattie, Gale Yee and Musa Dube, recoding, social location, heteronormativity and hegemony, highlighted new concerns like hybridity, deterritorialization, and they employ strategies like deconstruction, dispossess- hyphenated or multiple identities and the relations between ing of the self and border crossings. They have moved be- race, colonialism and patriarchy. They saw the biblical story yond the identity politics of the 1980s and early ‘90s to a of Rahab the prostitute, for example, in the second chapter focus on culture, which for them involves more than geogra- of the Book of Joshua, as a story of the sexual and territorial phy, politics, religion and ethnicity. They see it as a complex dispossession of native women. web of relationships shaped by race, class, gender and sexu- More radical secular feminists argue that not just gender ality that influences our thinking and results in privilege and but our understanding of nature itself is socially construct- marginalization. ed. Concerned to reject the claim that anatomy is destiny, Thus postcolonial theorists challenge Western, universal- they end up failing to acknowledge the significance of the ist ways of thinking that ignore social location, the effects body, denying any real meaning to nature. These feminists, of colonialism and its new form of globalizing capitalism, including some Christians, show a resistance to theology which displaces women, people of color and others who are more characteristic of the Enlightenment, even to the extent different, creating modern diasporas. Their method is de- of silencing the voices of women of faith. construction, not to destroy but to reveal the exclusionary Not all feminists are allergic to theology. Tina Beattie character of imperialism and privilege and the constructed argues that the feminist theological body is neither the dis- character of much that is considered normative, making embodied body of the gender theorists nor the essentialized room for the disadvantaged other. body of some Catholic feminists. Rather it is a sacramental Many of them are determinedly secular, ignoring the body whose true meaning, notwithstanding its questioning power religion still holds for people in the Southern of the patriarchal and clerical dynamics of exclusion and Hemisphere, although, as Susan Abraham ironically ob- control, is to be found through its incorporation into the serves, their work reflects a “neocolonial” secular culture in Christian story in prayer, worship and daily life. She cites, its efforts to eliminate the religious. As postcolonial theory though in a critical way, Pope John Paul II’s theology of the became increasingly popular in the academy, its methods bodily self as gift precisely in our creation as male and fe- soon began moving into the church. Two areas of theolog- male. ical concern particularly influenced by postcolonial theory are feminist studies and queer studies. Queer Studies Another movement, queer studies—which developed in Feminist Studies the early 1990s out of feminist studies, with its argument While biblical scholarship was long dominated by the uni- that gender and sexual identities are socially constructed— versalist approach of the historical-critical method, in the sought to deconstruct conventional notions of “heteronor- 1980s a new feminist hermeneutic emerged, developed mativity.” Reclaiming the term queer as a term for studies on to uncover the suppressed presence of women in New homosexuality is deliberately provocative, and some of its Testament texts. At the same time, others began to elabo- practitioners are clearly hostile to Christianity. But many rate a feminist spirituality, raising consciousness by shar- are practicing Catholics who are also homosexual. They ing personal stories, particularly about their experience of represent a community that in spite of a number of positive disempowerment, and taking women’s embodied existence statements from the U.S. bishops—“Always Our Children,” seriously, including aspects of female sexuality often ignored for example (1997)—are often marginalized in the church. by religion, for example childbirth and menstruation. They Their language is frequently off-putting, speaking of “queer- also emphasize the goodness of the material and the bodily, ing theology” or even “queering Christ.” They see homosex- including nonhuman nature, and thus ecology—what is of- uality as a socially constructed category of exclusion. Their ten called eco-feminism. intention is neither to attack the church nor to reject all By the late 1980s and early 1990s, postcolonial theorists, sexual norms but to make room for those whose gendered many of them women of color, began to challenge these early and sexual identities make them “other” by finding resources feminists. They noted the liberal and secular framework of within the tradition that may have been overlooked. their work, that it was largely a Western phenomenon. It as- Theologians working in this area, like Carter Heyward, sumed a universalist posture, embracing all women, not rec- Robert Gros and Gary David Comstock, seek to reconfigure ognizing the privileged position the theologians enjoyed by the valuing of Christian relationality beyond reproductive reason of their whiteness. Early efforts included womanist difference, stressing the inability to set limits to the church’s

22 America February 2, 2015 inclusivity by setting boundaries that may be based on privation, which means that God is its beginning, its continuing ileged notions of normativity. And they stress that human existence and its goal. Without God’s intentionality, creation relationality reflects the relationality of our triune God. would cease to exist, for God not only sustains it at every Graham Ward seeks to move to a broader understanding of moment but in some mysterious way brings it to completion relationality by reflecting on the “displacement” of the risen in the divine life. body of Jesus into the church, which in the process becomes Sister Johnson argues that Greek dualistic thinking led multigendered—not just male and female, but embracing to the medieval distinction between the natural and the su- many expressions of being sexual. This is exemplified in the pernatural, with the result that nature was excluded from now ubiquitous use of the initials L.G.B.T.: lesbian, gay, bi- the realm of grace. The modern era transformed the bib- sexual and transgender. lical mandate from “dominion” over nature (Gen 1:26) to Thus Graham Ward argues that being male or female ex- domination. Nature was to be used, not cared for; and as ceeds its anatomical reference; the malleability of the body Europeans began to colonize other lands, they assumed the opens up to a broader, eschatological sociality that signifies right to dominate their darker-skinned, indigenous peoples. partnership, covenant, fellowship and helpmates. For him, Sister Johnson goes on to uncover the Spirit’s life-giving same-sex relationships reveal a love that goes beyond biolog- presence in the natural world, in a creation groaning like a ical reproduction on the way to the redemption represented woman in childbirth, longing to be set free (Rom 8:18-25). by the coming of the kingdom. Thus he envisions the church And she reminds us of Pope John Paul II’s words, “respect as an erotic community: “Our desire for God is constituted for life and for the dignity of the human person extends by God’s desire for us such that redemption, which is our also to the rest of creation, which is called to join humanity being transformed into the image of God, is an economy of in praising God.” So dominion is not quite right; we are a desire.” community with creation, a complex, mutually dependent network of living beings, an ecosystem reflecting the glory Eco-theology of God. Other theologians are focusing their concerns on the life of Besides their concern for the protection of the planet, our fragile planet. Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., asks what has some eco-theologians have taken on the cause of animal happened to our belief that the natural world is God’s cre- welfare, appealing to the example of Mahatma Gandhi and

February 2, 2015 America 23 Albert Schweitzer. Gandhi’s principle of ahimsa, nonvio- rated and citing at several points the concerns of the bishops lence, embraced the animal kingdom as well as the human. of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Also unprecedented was Gandhi’s principle influenced Schweitzer, the Protestant the survey on contraception, same-sex unions, cohabitation, theologian who spent most of his life tending the sick in marriage and divorce sent by Rome to all the bishops of the Africa. From his youth Schweitzer had shown concern for world in preparation for the Synod of Bishops on the Family animals. Later he wrote, “There slowly grew up in me an un- this October. shakeable conviction that we have no right to inflict suffer- In July the International Theological Commission re- ing and death on another living creature unless there is some leased a study, “The Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church.” unavoidable need for it.” This conviction grew into reverence Reflecting on the “sense of the faith” both of the individual for all living things, from the amoeba to the human, and led believer and of the whole church, the study called attention him eventually, like Gandhi, to embrace vegetarianism. to “the role played by the laity with regard to the development of the moral teaching of the Church,” commenting that A New Conversation the “magisterium needs means by which to consult the faith- As the Catholic Church begins to function more and more ful” (Nos. 73-74). Even more remarkable, it responded af- as a world church, there will be new tensions between the firmatively to the question of whether separated Christians postcolonial churches of the global South and those of the should be understood as participating in and contributing West, the periphery and the center, and with those who feel to the sensus fidelium in some manner (No. 86), suggesting their inclusion is less than full. The church needs to em- that the Catholic Church might learn something from other brace all God’s children, women and men, gay and straight, churches. the gifted, the wounded and hurting, and those on the mar- How is the sensus fidei formed? The study recognizes that gins. it cannot be reduced to an expression of popular opinion. The There are signs that a new, broader and much needed study points to active participation in the liturgical and sac- conversation has begun under Pope Francis. He has spoken ramental life of the church as fundamental, in addition to lis- several times of the jurisdictional status of episcopal confer- tening to the word of God, openness to reason and adherence ences. He mentioned this again in his apostolic exhortation to the magisterium. A deeper appreciation for the sensus fidei “The Joy of the Gospel,” saying that their status, including means that the church is becoming a true communion, not a genuine doctrinal authority, has not been sufficiently elabo- structure of the teachers and the taught (No. 4). A

24 America February 2, 2015 The Unbelievers An overview of ‘religious atheism’ By Drew Christiansen

n his apostolic exhortation on evangelization, “The Joy ic materialism as the de facto metaphysic of contemporary of the Gospel,” Pope Francis wrote about the centrality science and Western culture (Mind and Cosmos, 2012) was of dialogue with the world for evangelization. We must a cause célèbre among American intellectuals. No less a chal- dialogue, he insisted, even with those who hold errone- lenge to contemporary philosophy was Nagel’s charge, in his Ious views, because they possess insights that are gifts for us 2005 essay entitled “Secular Philosophy and the Religious as well. In that spirit, I review here several works of “religious Temperament” and a 2007 book of the same name, that the atheism,” books whose unbelieving authors take religion se- discipline had turned its back on one of the classic tasks of riously. I do so in the hope of exploring the possibilities of philosophers—to help people make sense of their lives. dialogue with a qualitatively different breed of atheist than Nagel’s “religious temperament” consists in the desire to the polemical atheists of the first decade of the century. make a whole of our lives, including integrating them with the cosmos. After a review of modern philosophers, Nagel Religion in Question concludes that an “evolutionary Platonism” would best satis- For many years Thomas Nagel has been a leading figure in fy that need. He favors Plato for the aspirational (transcen- American philosophy. In his later years, he has become a gad- dental) element in his philosophy; and from Darwinism, fly to his fellow philosophers. His deconstruction of scientif- the accepted scientific view of modern culture, he makes the human ascent part of the cosmic story. Drew Christiansen, S.J., is Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development at Georgetown University and a former editor in Reading the tentative conclusion of his argument, I nat- chief of America. urally thought of Teilhardian spirituality, which can surely

February 2, 2015 America 25 be described as an evolutionary Platonism. But apparently since the 19th century, Western intellectuals of many sorts Teilhard was not within Nagel’s intellectual horizon, for have tried to supply for the absence of faith in Western cul- Nagel makes no mention of him. He makes no attempt, ture. The book is a veritable encyclopedia of unbelief and moreover, to explore how other religious thinkers may have atheistic religion. What unites most of the authors, though developed a similar holistic system of thought. Instead, with- not all, is the attitude that “the ‘transcendent’ impulse must be out real explanation but only a couple of conditional dismiss- resisted.” Watson aims to show that over the last two centu- als, he walks away from the question he has so ably explored. ries, many people have found a great many ways to live fulfill- Given the remaining options—atheism, humanism and the ing lives without God. He favors the formula of the Canadian absurd—Nagel cavalierly responds, “The absurd has my vote.” philosopher Mark Kingwell. “Happiness,” Kingwell writes, “is But in Mind and Cosmos, Nagel took up the question of about the ability to reflect on one’s life and find it worthwhile.” transcendence once again. He ar- I was particularly impressed by gued for the insufficiency of the Neo- We must acknowledge Watson’s wide-ranging treatment of Darwinian point of view and admitted poetry: Mallarmé and Valéry, Herder “teleological elements” are necessary to that a deficit of and Rilke, Yeats and Heaney, Owen understand our place in the universe. and Auden, Neruda, Stevens and But once again he demurred, saying, freedom in Catholic Milosz. For its devotees, poetry has “In the present intellectual climate, become a surrogate for religion. For such a possibility is unlikely to be tak- culture is an obstacle to Stefan Georg, the powerful heart of en seriously.” modern men and poetry was praise, the pinnacle of wor- Nagel signaled a discontent among ship. “The purpose of poetry,” wrote nonbelieving philosophers with the women hearing the Wallace Stevens, “is to make life com- dry agnosticism that had become plete in itself.” And again, “it is the role the orthodoxy of their profession. In Gospel. of the poet to supply the satisfactions Ronald Dworkin’s last book, Religion of belief.” Without God (Harvard, 2013) the late legal and political phi- Watson gets some things wrong and misses others. He re- losopher professed a belief in “the mystery and beauty of life” peatedly treats Søren Kierkegaard, a critic of bourgeois reli- not explained by scientific naturalism. Nonetheless, he held gion, as if he were a nonbeliever rather than a radical Christian. that one might accept the mystery without positing the exis- His treatment of Whitehead omits the philosopher’s Religion tence of God. For Dworkin “religious atheism” is not an oxy- in the Making and his masterful chapter “Peace,” the crown- moron. Atheists are religious when they wonder at the mys- ing—religious—emotion of civilization, in Adventures of tery of life and make a meaningful whole of their own lives. Ideas; and he leaves the misimpression that Michael Polanyi As with Nagel, Dworkin demonstrates no interest in what played at religion rather than making a significant contribu- contemporary religious thinkers might have to say. There is no tion to the reconciliation of science and religion. He also un- dialogue with theology or religious intellectuals more broadly. derplays the full power of “presence” in George Steiner’s art criticism. Steiner is not one of those who resist the impulse to Doing Without God transcendence. His writing shows he fully appreciates its lure In addition to philosophical arguments for taking religious but holds back from surrender. longings seriously, like those of Nagel and Dworkin, there But Watson does not hide the recurring dissatisfaction have been rich studies of how philosophers and others have of seculars with the incompleteness of their solutions. More filled the cultural lacunae created by the loss of religious faith. than a few of his secular figures are “melancholy atheists, un- One of the earliest and most influential was Alain de Botton’s believers with guilty consciences,” as a biographer of Rilke de- popular Religion for Atheists (2012). De Botton, a practical scribed the poet. “[E]ven atheists,” Watson concedes, quoting philosopher and essayist, identified a range of enjoyments Dworkin on religious atheism, “can feel ‘a sense of fundamen- that, in their dismissal of organized religion, atheists denied tality.’” He cites Jürgen Habermas’s defense of religion as “the themselves. They included music, including the joy of sing- outcome of a history of reason” along with science. Religions ing with others, art, architecture, community and festivity, articulate, Habermas wrote, “an awareness of what is lacking as Charles Taylor calls it. To satisfy these needs, de Botton or absent” in our lives. In the end Watson leaves unbelievers founded a Sunday assembly where non-believers can savor only slight consolation. “In modern society,” he concludes, “it is these enjoyments unburdened by any creed. easier—less of a burden—to be secular than to be religious.” More recently, the intellectual historian Peter Watson, in The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Seculars as Exemplary Believers Death of God (Simon and Schuster, 2014), has explored how, Simon Critchley falls into a category all by himself. There is

26 America February 2, 2015 no one quite like him on the American philosophical scene. the end God is swallowed up, as by a black hole, by the end- A political philosopher, he believes political change requires lessly self-emptying self. faith; but, ironically, unbelievers who have undergone a paradoxical inner transformation, not religious believers attached No Substitute for the Real Thing to creeds and churches, are the ones who possess genuine In Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice (Belknap/ faith. Harvard, 2014) Martha Nussbaum, one of the pre-eminent Critchley’s The Faith of the Faithless is a demanding set moral and political philosophers working in the United of essays combining an eclectic set of philosophical sources States today, examines the way civil religion has been uti- with mystical and Pauline texts. The philosophers include: lized to evoke positive political virtues, like loyalty, patri- Rousseau, Badiou, John Gray, Heidegger and Benjamin; the otism, compassion and, remarkably, love. The historical religious figures: Marguerite Porete, Paul and Kierkegaard. foundations of her argument lie in the efforts of 19th- and The overture to the book is an account of the Christianity of 20th-century intellectuals, like Auguste Comte and John Oscar Wilde, who, Critchley relates, underwent a transforma- Stuart Mill, to develop civil religions to provide the social tion in prison, so that in sin and repentant suffering he experi- cohesion religion had previously given. But she concedes enced “an infinite ethical demand.” That demand was the focus that civil religion can supplement religion but not supplant of a previous Critchley book, Infinitely Demanding (2007). the real thing. “[B]y now,” she writes, “we have reason to As a political philosopher, Critchley holds that only think that under conditions of freedom there will remain self-denying love can provide the glue that will hold a just a plurality of religions and secular doctrines of life, many of society together. But what interests him most in this book is which will continue to attract allegiance.” not the political question but the spiritual transformation of What we need in real life for spiritual uplift, Nussbaum the human subject, as reflected in the purgative moments in believes, is a vividness of experience not found in academic mystical ascent and the paradoxical moves of philosophical philosophy, a richness that religion provides. Rabindranath religion. Tagore, the Indian poet, philosopher and educational theo- Critchley concludes with a reading of Kierkegaard’s Works rist, is the author from whom Nussbaum draws the greatest of Love. What matters is “the rigor” of one’s love. Has one inspiration. To her eyes, Tagore’s “religion of man” has the “hacked away” at the self, or, rather, is one constantly hacking advantage of sensitivity to culture and individual expression, away, so as to make room for the “other”? One must be “striving” continuously—“at every moment”—in “a process of decre- ation and impoverishment” to empty oneself to love’s invasion. It is unbelievers, not those of any de- nominational faith, Critichley contends, who are better able to live this rigorist faith with the constant “urgency of active engagement.” For “without security guar- antees or rewards,” the “faithless” are able to give themselves in an unmediated way to Kierkegaardian inwardness, where they “abide with the infinite demand of love.” Critchley’s claim that unbelievers in his sense, “the faithless,” are exemplary believers is at once the most daring and dubi- ous assertion he makes. For the band of seculars willing to give themselves over to self-abandonment on the model of Porete or to unrelenting acts of faith following Kierkegaard would be very few indeed. There is no space for intersubjectivity, no mention of friendship or communion. Even the other in Kierkegaard’s triad of the self-God-and-other vanishes, and in

February 2, 2015 America 27 gifts earlier philosophical civil religions neglected. secular, may prove a commonwealth we can share together. Nussbaum also notes that Roman Catholicism, unlike the Christians have as much to learn from it as to impart to it. philosophies of Comte or Mill, has “very shrewdly” respect- 2) Essential Starting Points. Finding comprehensive mean- ed and incorporated elements of traditional cultures into the ing for our lives (Nagel) and encountering the mystery in practice of its own faith. Likewise, the church’s acceptance which we live (Dworkin) are serious religious questions. of artists like “a J. S. Bach, an El Greco, a Gerard Manley Engagement with such questions opens ground for common Hopkins” reveals an openness to “the exercise of imagination pursuit of the most basic questions in philosophical and fun- with personal integrity,” which philosophical civil religions damental theology. They are questions that theologians have suppress in the interest of uniformity of expression. Unlike also examined. There is progress to be made in pursuing them Nagel and Dworkin but like de Botton, Nussbaum esteems in common. Some clearing of the ground will be necessary the aesthetic enjoyments religion provides as well as the to overcome simplistic anthropomorphic notions of God, a more specifically religious benefits, like the broadening of fault not just of the New Atheists but of more sophisticated sympathy, shared devotion, models of life (saints) and espe- unbelieving thinkers as well. Nonetheless, dialogue on such cially the cultivation of prized affections and virtues. questions offers an opportunity to share religious experience What is lacking in religion and constructed civil religion and explore the profound yearnings that run through it. alike, though Mill and Tagore wrestled with it, she observes, Clarifying how and why the experience of mystery and is the fostering of personal freedom in the context of com- transcendence leads Christian thinkers to believe in God but munity and a shared worldview. In the end, her plea is that does not inspire secular thinkers to do the same is in order. I a human politics requires emotional engagement of a public am not naïve enough to believe that such conversations will with fellow citizens. It may be done perhaps in some con- lead nonbelievers to see the light. Where secular thinkers are structed religions, like Tagore’s, or in traditional religions sensitive to faith, there is every reason to clear away as much within a liberal state; and it can also be promoted with a misunderstanding as possible and for Christian thinkers to pedagogy of emotions Nussbaum attempts to provide in the share with them their explorations of the same phenomena, rest of her book. even as they hear unbelievers unravel their doubts. 3) Philosophy and Religion as Ways of Life. Thinkers like Five Lessons for Dialogue Comte, Tagore and de Botton demonstrate that philosophy The new openness to religion among both professional phi- can be more than an ivory-tower intellectual exercise. It can losophers and those we might call philosophers of life is good also serve, as the late Pierre Hadot reminded us, as “a way news for Christians concerned about dialogue with the sec- of life” concerned with living and dying well (Philosophy ular world. The hostile polemics of the New Atheists are be- as a Way of Life, 1981/95 What Is Ancient Philosophy?, hind us. Times are ripe for better informed, serious dialogue 1995/2002). One form of existing interfaith dialogue is in- between believers and religiously sensitive intellectuals. Here termonastic dialogue, where monks and nuns of the world’s are five lessons I take away from these books for dialogue great religions come together to share their styles of prayer with unbelieving artists and intellectuals. and ways of life with one another. Ecumenical monasteries 1) The arts as a commonwealth. The fact that many sec- like Taizé and Bossey, moreover, where Christians of dif- ular thinkers—like de Botton, the philosophers of religion ferent denominations and searchers with none at all share a and Nussbaum—see the arts inspired by faith and lived in common life together, have met with interest and approval liturgical celebrations as goods they are missing out on and from both the Holy See and people who are religiously un- need to provide for themselves in community suggests that affiliated. With its charism of unity, Focolare opens its com- the arts provide a field in which Christians and nonbeliev- munities to Muslims and atheists as well as to non-Catholic ers have gifts to share with one another that may provide for Christians, where the guests, in their own ways, share the life fruitful encounters. of the Focolarini. In past centuries apologists spoke of employing pagan These mixed communities are facts of our “secular age,” as learning as a propaedeutic to understanding the faith as “the Charles Taylor describes it, where religious boundaries are spoliation of the Egyptians.” In these more ecumenical times, more porous and fluid than in the past. Is it inconceivable, we speak of gifts we share. What is missing in many cases is then, that well-formed Christian believers and “religiously not just true appreciation for the gifts of unbelievers but basic musical” philosophers might come together to explore phi- knowledge of the culture of the other party. For that reason, losophy and religion as ways of life rather than as competing there is a genuine need of a sharing of gifts of one another’s systems of ideas? Exploring ways of life together might open spiritual cultures. Catholics, for example, need to acquaint up alternative ways of knowing, prompt both sides to express themselves with the poetry, music and art of Nussbaum’s lib- their deepest convictions, and so press Christians to express eral symbolic universe. In that sense, the arts, Christian and their faith in more articulate, understandable ways.

28 America February 2, 2015 4) A More Perfect Religious Freedom. The hardest chal- cal “The Light of Faith.” lenge that religiously attuned philosophers present to The religious question has come to maturity among some Christian believers, and particularly to Catholics, has to do secular thinkers at least. It is time for Christians to engage with religious freedom. It is not just a problem for Christians, them, trusting, as Pope Francis has said, that the Spirit works either. As Nussbaum explains, the philosophers of civil re- in the world as well as in the church and that there are gifts ligion and other liberals like Mozart also wrestled with the for both in mutual engagement. A problem and found only partial answers. After the Second Vatican Council, John Courtney Murray, S.J., argued that just as the council had articulated the case for religious freedom from state coercion, the time had come to formulate the case for freedom within the institutional church. A Catholic theology of freedom will not ape the individualism of secular liberal culture. Catholicism is a personalist, communitarian and creedal tradition, so any theology of ecclesial freedom will be colored by those dimensions of the faith. Nevertheless, the liberal tradition and secular philosophy more broadly do challenge us to develop, in theory and practice, a more adequate and ample conception of the freedom of persons and groups than we presently have. We must acknowledge that a deficit of freedom in Catholic culture is an obstacle to modern men and women hearing the Gospel. Likewise, for many contemporary Catholics the same deficit in freedom is an impediment to whole-hearted disci- pleship, resulting in avoidance, resentment and cognitive dissonance within individuals and harmful divisions within the one body of Christ. Our capacities to live the Gospel fully and proclaim it boldly are stunted by insufficient respect for mature religious freedom within the church. 5) Faith, Truth and Mysticism. The most remarkable development for me among the religious atheists is Critichley’s appropriation of “faith” for unbelievers. Dialogue with nonbelievers on the modes of religious knowing might help clarify what Christians mean by faith. Furthermore, including mysticism, as Critichley does, may help further illuminate faith as “personal knowledge” of God, a theme that Pope Francis (building on the work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) explored in the encycli-

February 2, 2015 America 29 Redeeming the Bible Can Scripture be a source of unity rather than division? By Pauline A. Viviano

have cringed every time—during 45 years of studying Testament the foreshadowing of events and persons of the and teaching Scripture in Catholic universities and di- New Testament (typology); it enabled the early church to oceses—I heard Scripture being quoted out of context “redeem” offensive and obscure texts by looking for meaning and used in support of any number of opposing posi- not in the “letter” of the text but in its “spirit” (allegory). Itions. The Bible has been dragged into arguments to justify war and to argue for pacifism, to support slavery and to op- Meaning Matters pose it, to keep women “in their place” and to insist on their In the long history of Christian interpretation of the Bible, liberation, and most recently to support government pro- most theologians were comfortable accepting both literal grams subsidizing the poor and to eliminate such programs. and spiritual interpretations of the biblical text, even if an Is it possible to use the Bible sensibly or must it continue individual theologian had a preference for one side or the to be a weapon of division in a community whose found- other, but matters began to change with the Reformation er prayed that “they may all be one” (Jn 17:21)? To address and later the Enlightenment. The Reformers, following in this question we must step back to consider what constitutes the steps of Martin Luther, who had an aversion to alle- a sensible use of the Bible; to do that, we must enter the gorical interpretation, stressed the literal sense of the text, murky and confusing world of biblical but it was a “literal sense” determined interpretation. in accordance with Protestant theolo- Even a precursory look at the history gy. Later theologians, influenced by the of biblical interpretation reveals a morass Enlightenment, were also concerned of complementary and conflicting ap- with the literal sense, but it was the liter- proaches to the biblical text. At the risk of oversimplifying, al sense as it could be determined from within the historical there are those methods focused on discovering the literal and literary contexts of the text under consideration. The sense of the text and those that delve beneath the surface of exaltation of reason over faith, the discoveries resulting from the text to discover a spiritual sense, a meaning relevant to improved methods of archaeology, advances in the studies of the people for whom the Bible is sacred text. The literal or ancient languages and manuscripts, the increasing rigor of plain sense refers to what the text actually says as this can scientific inquiry—all had a part to play in the emergence best be determined. The spiritual sense refers to a “deeper” of the historical critical method, which is not one method meaning of the text. Though at times there were as many as but a collection of methods that seek to interpret a text from seven spiritual senses, these eventually coalesced into three: within its historical, social and literary contexts. Its concern the allegorical sense, which included what is now called ty- is the literal sense of the text, but the literal sense as un- pology; the moral sense; and the anagogic sense. derstood against the backdrop of the age and author who The anagogic sense, which focuses on what the biblical produced the text. text has to tell us about heaven, has not been prominent in The Catholic Church, in response to the Protestant the history of interpretation, possibly because there is so lit- Reformation, continued to endorse the multiple senses of tle about the afterlife in the Bible. The moral sense is alive Scripture and insisted upon magisterial oversight with re- and well. Preachers seeking to make the biblical text relevant spect to issues of interpretation. But even in the Catholic to the people in the pews often draw out the moral sense Church a concern for the literal sense began to dominate. of the text to endorse certain attitudes and behaviors. The St. Thomas Aquinas already had given considerable weight allegorical/typological sense involves a search for hidden to the literal sense, stating that “all the senses are founded meanings. It enabled the early church to connect the Old on one—the literal—from which alone can any argument Testament and the New Testament, finding within the Old be drawn, and not from those intended in allegory” (Summa Theologiae I, 1, 10, ad. 1). Nearly seven centuries later in Pauline A. Viviano is an associate professor of theology at Loyola 1943, in the encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu,” Pope Pius University Chicago. This article is part of America’s series “The Living Word: Scripture in the Life of the Church,” co-sponsored by the American XII sided with Aquinas on the importance of the literal Bible Society. sense in his exhortation: “Let the Catholic exegete under-

30 America February 2, 2015 com p osite hoto: shutterstock.com/ a meric

take the task, of all those imposed on him the greatest, that itself. The literal sense from a fundamentalist perspective namely of discovering and expounding the genuine meaning becomes an insistence on the factual accuracy of the Bible, of the sacred books. In the performance of this task let the which it takes to be inerrant in all its claims. interpreters bear in mind that their foremost and greatest Historical critical biblical scholars insist that they are also endeavor should be to discern and define clearly that sense concerned with a literal interpretation of the biblical text, of the biblical words which is called literal” (No. 23). The but they insist that the meaning of text can best be deter- encouragement to Catholic biblical scholars to use histori- mined by understanding that text from within its historical cal critical method to determine the literal sense of the text and literary context. If they focus on a text by Isaiah, for was confirmed by the “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine example, they seek to understand what the author intended Revelation” of the Second Vatican Council (No. 12). The and how the audience of the time would have heard Isaiah. spiritual sense of Scripture, though of historic, theological They are also sensitive to whether the text is prose or poetry, and liturgical importance, had been set aside: “The allegor- whether it is history or story or essay, whether the author is ical interpretation of Scripture so characteristic of patristic using metaphors and speaking figuratively. They recognize exegesis runs the risk of being something of an embarrass- that the biblical text contains historical, scientific and even ment to people today” (“The Interpretation of the Bible in theological errors, for it reflects the knowledge of the people the Church,” 1993, No. 173). responsible for its production and transmission; the biblical text is from a people who had a different world view and Interpreting the Bible Today limited historical and scientific knowledge. It is difficult, if In some ways the present situation with respect to the in- not impossible, to reconcile these two different ways of un- terpretation of biblical texts still seesaws between those derstanding the literal sense of a text. who prefer the literal sense and those who prefer the spir- The second complication emerges from a more nuanced itual sense, but the situation is more complicated and more understanding of the role of the reader in the process of in- polarized today. It is complicated in two ways: by the rise terpretation. Concern with the spiritual sense of the biblical of fundamentalism and by a more nuanced understanding text arose because this ancient text was believed to be rele- of the role of the reader in the process of interpretation. vant to believers who lived centuries later and for whom that Fundamentalism arose as a response to historical critical text was now considered sacred text. The gap between the method which called into question the historicity of many ancient world of the text and the contemporary world of its of the biblical stories and also challenged some doctrines of readers needed to be bridged, and a search for the spiritual the Christian church. Fundamentalism makes claims to be a sense of the text filled in that gap. Today, instead of speak- “literal” interpretation of the biblical text, but it owes more ing of a “spiritual” sense, we recognize that readers bring to to the ideology of the 19th century than to the biblical text bear upon a text under examination their own issues and

February 2, 2015 America 31 concerns, their own worldview, and these have an impact on bogged down by “Did it happen this way?” can we explore, in even the most objectively guided search for meaning. the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as pre- The emphasis on the role of the reader has led to the sented in the Gospels, what it means to be human? Can we proliferation of new “isms” in the field of biblical interpre- agree that it means to live in obedience to God and to “lose tation: liberation criticism, feminist criticism, post-colo- oneself ” in the love of the other as Jesus did? Can we explore nialism, the new historicism. These various approaches to what it means that we have been reconciled, that we have the biblical text take into account been be forgiven, that we have the role of class, culture, ethnic- access to God in Christ? Can we ity and race, gender or politics Readers bring to bear upon talk about what it means to say in the formation of texts and in that “God is love” and what love their interpretation. Many of the a text their own issues and means and how we as a commu- practitioners of these “isms” em- concerns, and these have nity of believers mediate God’s ploy historical critical or literary self-giving love to this world? critical methods, but what makes an impact on even the most Can we explore what resurrec- them distinctive is that the text is tion means and its implications explicitly read through a particu- objectively guided search for our lives as Christians? As a lar lens that shapes the meaning biblical scholar I find the histori- “found” in a text. I include here for meaning. cal questions of great interest and also readers who insist on the im- of great importance, but in the portance of a “faith hermeneutics” or theological approach interest of dialogue can we agree to disagree on the conten- to the interpretation of the Bible, a position best represent- tious issues and focus on what unites us as believers who ed by Pope Benedict XVI. This approach privileges faith or seek to love God and love our neighbor? theological doctrine as the lens through which to interpret This brings me to my second question: how do we nego- the biblical text. Though these interpretive stances are not tiate between what the text meant and what the text means? the same as the spiritual interpretation of the patristic peri- I find it problematic to draw a dichotomy between what a od, they share with the patristic period a search for meaning text meant and what it means. If what a text means is not that is relevant to the “people in the pew.” The opposition integrally connected to what a text meant, then we can say here is between what the text meant (the historical critical anything we want about the meaning of any text. If this is meaning) and what the text means (the concern of the peo- the case, why read one text as opposed to another? We must ple in the pew). also recognize that not every text will have meaning for us Two questions emerge from this historical summary: today because our world is too different. We need to rec- How do fundamentalists talk to historical critical interpret- ognize that the Bible speaks with many voices representing ers, and how do we negotiate between what the text meant various responses to changing historical situations. It says and what the text means? I doubt that fundamentalists and many things about who God is and what God is about. historical critical interpreters will ever agree, for their basic There is no one image of God and no one response on God’s presuppositions stand in opposition; but instead of arguing part in the Bible. The Bible says many things about what it about whether the creation stories of Genesis are scientific is to be human, and it is not always consistent in what it pre- accounts or myths, can we agree that we are creatures depen- scribes in the laws and in its wisdom writing. It all too often dent upon a Creator and explore what that means? Instead reflects the limited understanding of its own time and place. of getting bogged down by debates regarding the historical We live in a very different time and place. We need to enter accuracy of the patriarchal narratives, of the Exodus with its into dialogue with these voices of the past, but at the same plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, of the conquest and time we need to take our experiences into account and bring subsequent history of Israel, can we focus rather on what it that to bear upon the biblical text as we address the issues of means to be called, to be saved, to be a covenanted people war, patriarchal systems, the economy, social roles, etc. We (Genesis through Kings)? Can we learn from the prophets hear the many voices in the Bible, but as believers our voices the importance of loyalty to God (Hosea, Jeremiah) and of also need to be heard. We learn from the Bible what it means living in justice (Amos, Isaiah, Micah)? Can we learn from to be the people of God, but as believers our experience is Israel how to pray in joy and sorrow, in need and in thanks- also of values to today’s community of believers. We find in giving (Psalms), and how to find God reflected in the world the Bible the revelation of God’s love expressed in the Old (Israel’s wisdom traditions)? Can we move beyond the sim- Testament and most fully in the gift of his Son in the New, plistic notions of suffering and sin as the author of Job did but God’s love is also expressed in our world. It is expressed and as Jesus did in the New Testament? Instead of being through us as we live in God’s love. A

32 America February 2, 2015 February 2, 2015 America 33 VATICAN DISPATCH Francis Chooses Electors ope Francis is engaged in a slow electors from the United States that countries did not have cardinals before. but determined process to re- has built up over the past half centu- Above all else, however, Francis is Pmake the College of Cardinals ry. This goal is more achievable over looking very carefully at the pastoral and renew the electors who will choose the next three to five years. Today, the profile of the man to whom he gives his successor. His aim is to increase the United States has 11 electors, where- the red hat. In Italy, for example, in the college’s universality by affirming the as Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines 2014 and 2015 consistories he has care- churches on the peripheries, to correct have far fewer cardinals but many more fully chosen pastors who are prayerful, present imbalances and to ensure there Catholics. Francis could reduce the courageous, open-minded, humble men is a variety of suitable candidates to number of electors from the United with a simple lifestyle, not careerists or succeed him at the next conclave. States to single digits in that time ideologues, pastors committed to the He is remolding the college through frame by making fewer U.S. cardinals culture of encounter, not men of con- carefully measured steps, but he may as the current crop cease to be electors frontation. The identikit of these and have to increase the overall number of by reason of age. future cardinals in this papal electors if he wishes to reach all Pope Francis is reduc- Francis is pontificate can be found these goals within five years. ing drastically the number in the Argentine pope’s First of all, he is moving away, slow- of cardinals in the Roman remolding programmatic docu- ly but surely, from the Eurocentrism Curia. In the past they ex- the College ment, “The Joy of the that has been the hallmark of the ercised enormous influence Gospel,” and in the talks College of Cardinals for centuries (in in the conclaves. Today they of Cardinals he gave to the nuncios which Italians were always the over- count for some 25 percent through at the end of June 2013, whelming bloc). He is doing this in a of the electors. But as he in- and to the Congregation variety of ways. In Italy, for example, he dicated in last December’s carefully for Bishops in February has broken the career system and the interview with Elisabetta measured 2014. unwritten tradition according to which Piqué (my wife) for La Following this appointment to certain major sees au- Nación, with the reform of steps. month’s consistory tomatically brought the red hat with the Roman Curia only the there will be 125 car- it. So he has not made the patriarch heads of the congregations will be cardinal electors, 31 of them created by of Venice or the archbishop of Turin a dinals. That would reduce their number Pope Francis, divided as follows: 57 cardinal, but he has given red hats to significantly. Europeans (including 26 Italians), the bishops of the dioceses of Perugia, On the other hand, the pope “from 15 Africans, 14 Asians, 15 North Ancona and Agrigento. the end of the world” knows what it Americans (Canada 4, U.S. 11), 22 He is seeking, moreover, to reduce means to be on the periphery and to from Central and South America the number of red hats in Europe by not count for much at the center. He (including Mexico), 2 from Oceania placing the old continent (excluding is conscious that many churches and (Australia and New Zealand). Italy) on a par with Asia and Africa church leaders living in the peripheries It is becoming clear, however, that in the 2014 and 2015 consistories. He are often in great poverty or in conflict even if Francis follows his current log- actually gave one more red hat to Asia situations, but up to now they have ic, he will not be able to substantially and Latin America than to Europe (ex- not counted much when it comes to correct the European and Italian im- cluding Italy) in 2015. decision-making in Rome. He wants balance among the electors within five He is also seeking to correct the to affirm their full citizenship in the years unless he increases the overall imbalance in the number of cardinal church, so in the 2014 and 2015 con- number of electors from the present sistories he assigned red hats to prelates 120 to 140 or more and assigns the ex- Gerard O’Connell is America’s Rome from Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nicaragua, tra red hats to those outside Europe. correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of Panama, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, That possibility cannot be ruled out. the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. Tonga and Myanmar. Most of these Gerard O’Connell

34 America February 2, 2015 VANTAGE POINT: 2008 Cuba Sí, Castro No! The Editors

ime has accomplished what from the Castros, Cuba and the United any future Cuban government that the a U.S.-supported invasion, a States could face an enormous wave of United States will not support efforts Tcrushing economic embargo, attempted immigration to the United toward repatriation of land or econom- the collapse of the Soviet Union and States, straining American resources ic assets and is willing to bury its his- any number of external and internal while further damaging Cuba’s pros- torical grudges, much as we have done catastrophes could not: the removal of pects for economic prosperity. Much in recent years with the government of Fidel Castro from direct control over as South Korea has done in prepara- Vietnam. the people of Cuba. Suffering from tion for the eventual fall of Pyongyang, The United States can also recog- failing health, Castro has finally ceded so too must American politicians and nize the legitimate accomplishments power after five decades. The appar- diplomats work for a “soft landing” for of the Castro regime, including its ent political demise of El Jefe offers a Cuba in the coming years, helping its achievements in education, health care unique opportunity for the people of people make the transition from a so- and racial harmony. The Cuban peo- Cuba and for their closest neighbor to cialist state to a market economy with ple may seek capitalism’s prosperity, the north to pull out of a half-century a minimum of economic and political but not at the expense of socialism’s spiral of enmity and antagonism. disruption. gains. Any careful transition to new Fidel is not the only Castro in Cuba, A useful first step will be a measured economic structures should not repeat nor the only hard-liner; his brother easing of the American economic em- the mistakes the United States made Raúl has been the de facto ruler of the bargo, which has played just as much a in Russia and Eastern Europe after the country for two years now. February role in the economic privation of Cuba cold war, endorsing an economic free- elections elevated Raúl to the office of as the most misbegotten of Castro’s for-all but failing to support local social the presidency and other hard-liners policies. It is also a relic of a bygone institutions. Changes in Cuba provide a to positions of greater power, muting age, begun as a bulwark against social- chance for the United States to restore expectations of rapid change. But Raúl ist revolution but now little more than the international reputation so dam- has spoken publicly about the need for an expression of an irrational grudge. aged by the war in Iraq. With Cuba, structural changes in Cuba, and is be- Worse, it has given Castro a raison America can show that its seeming ar- lieved to favor more widespread eco- d’être. Recent years have seen Canadian rogance is matched by appropriate mu- nomic reforms. His advanced age also and European investment in the Cuban nificence. suggests his rule will not be a long one, economy growing, while the vast re- John F. Kennedy, whose support and a new generation of younger Cuban sources of the Cuban-American com- for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion con- leaders may soon take on more respon- munity are not directed toward its own vinced Castro that the United States a ntes sibility. roots. Should the sitting president lift could not be trusted, nevertheless once Cuba is blessed with prodigious nat- the embargo, there is no question that spoke to the newly free nations of the ural resources and a well-educated pop- many Cuban-Americans would be out- world in words of particular pertinence ulation, but is bedeviled by the same raged and express their dissatisfaction now, promising that “one form of colo- forces (including a brain drain of skilled demonstrably. President Bush is in a nial control shall not have passed away professionals to other Western nations) unique position to make such a poten- merely to be replaced by a far more iron that have brought low so many of its tially unpopular choice, since his status tyranny.” Fidel Castro has long accused Caribbean neighbors. Should Cuba’s in- as a lame duck gives him some freedom the United States of seeking to return ternal security apparatus break down in from traditional political pressures. Cuba to a colonial outpost of its impe- the aftermath of any transfer of power While it is important to recognize rialist ambitions. The actions we take a n , cub 2014. S hutterstock.com/unmillonedeelef the legitimate grievances of Cuban toward Cuba in the next few years can v This editorial originally appeared in America exiles in Florida and elsewhere, the be our chance to assuage similar reser- on March 10, 2008. United States will need to make clear to vations among the Cuban people. Photo: h a

February 2, 2015 America 35 PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK How Not to Preach he Vatican has recently be- (the prize-winning athlete), his sixth- It was Easter Sunday in a packed come a fount of advice on grade teacher (too critical) and then church. The preacher began by tell- Thow to preach. Pope Francis’ his dear mother (too distant). As we ing us that Christian hope means apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the cringed into our missalettes, I won- “Tomorrow will always be more Gospel” gives tips on the Sunday ser- dered if Doctor Phil would rush from beautiful than today.” We waited for mon, and the Congregation for Divine the sacristy to take over the bathos in the theological development. The res- Worship’s new Directory on Preaching the sanctuary. urrection of the body? Immortality? analyzes the nature of the liturgical You were not ordained to tell your The last judgment? We received only homily. As a veteran of 60 years in own story. You were ordained to pro- more of the same magical thinking, the pews and 30 years in the pulpit, I claim someone else’s. closer to Hallmark Cards than to the would like to offer my own advice on 2. Rely on the Holy Spirit alone. Gospel according to St. Luke we had how not to preach. There’s no need to prepare. just heard. 1. It’s all about you. Keep the sermon One of the popular Now permit me to strictly autobiographical. Your con- homiletic genres these days offer two positive coun- gregation is dying to know all about is the Magellan sermon. In You were sels to preachers. your last vacation. There’s no need the space of 20 minutes, First, fall in love with to discuss that pesky reading about the congregation is treated not God’s word in Scripture. Abraham and Isaac and the knife. to a tour of the world as ordained Let the great hymn of I recently heard a sermon about a the preacher unloads a cat- creation, fall and re- priest’s socks. Father explained how alogue of random, unrelat- to tell demption become your difficult it is to keep pairs of socks ed thoughts. In one recent your own personal theme song. together. He noted his preferred de- Magellan improvisation, we Walk around in the tergent for washing socks and the ad- learned that Samuel heard story. Bible. Pitch your tent in vantages of using a clothesline over a a noise like a whisper, that it. If possible, learn bib- dryer. He said there was a controversy we should be patient with lical Hebrew and Greek. over whether priests should wear all- the hearing-impaired, that the turn- You are giving your congregation a black socks or whether they could add out for the Christmas bazaar was just word of hope that no government and stripes. (News to me.) We kept wait- great (applause), that recent events in no psychological technique can provide, ing for the spiritual punchline. Was the the Middle East are disturbing and because it is a hope rooted in Christ’s lost sock like the lost sheep in the para- that we should be careful about what conquest of sin and death itself. ble of the Good Shepherd? It remained we post on Facebook. And, oh, there’s Second, love the people addressed a mystery. The sermon concluded with a mistake in the bulletin. The second by your sermon. A distinguished the revelation that he found doing the collection will be taken up for our mu- Protestant preacher once remarked laundry difficult at times. sic ministry, not for scholarships to the that he began each week with an hour On a darker note, I once heard a grade school. in his church. He walked up and down sermon in which the preacher dis- Yes, you are overworked. Still, your the aisle, imagining the various pa- cussed the problem of resentment. parishioners have a right to a begin- rishioners he would see on a typical The theme matched the Gospel, which ning, middle and end in your sermon. Sunday. He asked God to show him featured the apostles’ jealous squab- They hunger for one, clear, sustained how the sermon he was preparing bling among themselves. Warming to insight into Scripture, the fruit of your could actually meet their particular his subject, the preacher described his prayer and study on the biblical lessons. needs and questions. It is in the perse- own resentment against his brother 3. Keep it light. Always prefer the vering study of God’s word and in this sentimental to the doctrinal. Don’t loving intercession for one’s listeners bother the congregation with such that the Holy Spirit really begins to John J. Conley, S.J., holds the Knott Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola complications as the Atonement. Keep teach us how to preach. University Maryland in Baltimore, Md. it beige and soothing. John J. Conley

36 America February 2, 2015 Books & Culture

task. I ultimately chose three books for MUSIC | David Nantais the course (see sidebar). And I supple- mented readings from these texts with Sing, Rap, Praise a variety of articles from an array of sources like Rolling Stone, America, Teaching rock, hip-hop and religion Books and Culture and The Chronicle of Higher Education. dare speculate that few religion of the Catholic Theological Society The students were all expected to courses at Catholic universities of America in 2011, for example, the analyze three songs. The process un- Icover “Pussy Riot’s Theology,” “Nit theologian Michael Iafrate present- folded like this: each student played a Grit ’Hood Theology” and the spiritu- ed his paper, ‘“I’m a Human, Not a song for the class and then offered a al significance of pop star Lorde’s ubiq- Statue’: Saints and Saintliness in the five-minute analysis of the theological uitous tune, “Royals.” These themes, Church of Punk Rock.” Calvin College and spiritual themes in the song. This however, resonate with students in a in Grand Rapids, Mich., holds one of was not simply an exegesis of song course I developed and taught at the the most credible and stimulating con- lyrics but rather a more in-depth dis- University of Detroit Mercy. ferences on religion and music in the cussion of how the various parts of the It began in 2008, when I spent a very United States every two years, and it song (rhythm, timbre, tempo, instru- intellectually and musically stimulat- has attracted a wide range of import- ment choices, tone and, yes, lyrics) all ing weekend at St. John’s University in ant thinkers who continue to add to contribute to communicating some- Collegeville, Minn., with some fellow the ever-growing corpus of work in thing about the “sacred.” theologian-musicians. We played mu- this field. The presentations were at first a bit sic and talked about God and discussed Figuring out which books to use for superficial, but soon the students were how these passions fit together in our my course, which articles to read and able to integrate the reading material, lives. It’s a topic I eventually tackled at how much I needed to dive into his- become more facile with theological book-length (see sidebar), and I began torical theological ideas to buttress our language and offer more substantive to think that the conversation might class discussions was a very difficult explanations. On a few occasions stu- be a fruitful one to have with my students as well. In the fall of 2013, after my proposal for a new class had been accepted, 11 students registered for the class called “Rock, Hip-Hop and Religion.” It was the perfect number of students for a course that relied on a lot of listening, both to music and to each other during discussions. Serious academic attention to popular music and religion has grown significantly in recent years. Some professional theology and religious studies conferences include specialty groups in this area, and several scholars have delivered papers about the in- tersection of popular music NEW EVANGELISTS? U2 performs in Milan, Italy. and the sacred. At the meeting leri a 73 Photo: shutterstock.com/ Va

February 2, 2015 America 37 dents became unexpectedly choked up most notably in Marvin Gaye’s classic a U.S. culture that fears them in the while speaking about the songs—the album “What’s Going On?” post-9/11 era. emotional connection with the music The use of the tambourine, which These tensions result in plenty of could not be repressed by typical aca- plays a prominent role on several frustration for the young Muslim- demic mores. Motown hits, was borrowed from Americans, many of whom were the I soon learned which themes same age as my students, and from the readings captured the the anger and aggression ex- Further Reading on Rock and Faith imagination of these students. pressed in punk served as the Three ideas were particularly Rock-a My Soul, by David Nantais (Liturgical Press) perfect medium for them. Few important to them. The first The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural if any of my students had to was nit grit ’hood theology, Theology, by Daniel White Hodge (InterVarsity Press) face the struggles of the young as outlined by Daniel White Secular Music and Sacred Theology, edited by Tom Muslim punk rockers portrayed Hodge in his book The Soul of Beaudoin (Liturgical Press) in the film, but the dynamic of Hip Hop. Hodge explains that in Personal Jesus: How Popular Music Shapes our Souls, wrestling with the oft-compet- the face of racism, urban decay by Clive Marsh and Vaughan S. Roberts (Engaging ing messages of popular culture Culture) and diminishing opportunities and traditional religious dogma for African-Americans, simplis- Your Neighbor’s Hymnal: What Popular Music is one they found familiar. Teaches Us about Faith, Hope and Love, by Jeffrey F. tic theological responses are not Keuss (Wipf & Stock Pub) One of the persistent chal- sufficient. Why ask God to bless lenges of the course was in Broken Hallelujahs: Why Popular Music Matters to us with more when so many Those Seeking God, by Christian Scharen (Brazos deciding how much histori- have nothing? Why are innocent Press) cal and theological material people being murdered while Call Me the Seeker: Listening to Religion in Popular to introduce. For example, if I criminals are thriving? Music, by Michael J. Gilmour (Bloomsbury Academic) play the song “Mothers of the Hodge points to the deceased Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World Disappeared” from U2’s 1987 hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur of Music, by Jeremy S. Begbie and Robert Johnston masterpiece “The Joshua Tree” as one who professed a nit grit (Engaging Culture) as an illustration of a song that ’hood theology, even in the face Rock and Theology blog archives: addresses a particular social jus- of criticism from his community. www.rockandtheology.com tice concern, I cannot help but He, like many in his generation, delve into the controversy sur- demanded a deeper analysis of rounding U.S. foreign policy in complex social justice issues, showed a black church choirs. Motown also Central America in the 1980s and the strong concern for those who are often played an important role by recording injustices suffered by tens of thousands forgotten and expressed an appreciation numerous African-American religious in El Salvador and elsewhere. That for building a sense of community in and political leaders and releasing would logically lead to the Salvadoran one’s neighborhood. As Hodge states, their speeches for the public. Most martyrs (the church women and the “Let’s pray about it” is an insufficient re- famous among these was an early ver- Central American University Jesuits sponse. There must be action. sion of Martin Luther King’s “I Have especially) and the history and role The second important theme was a Dream” speech, delivered in Detroit of liberation theology in shaping the the role of religion and spirituality in in 1963. Christian perspective on God’s pref- the history of rock and roll, especially Finally, one task of this course was erential option for the poor and suf- as represented by Motown records. I to help students reflect on how their fering. Throughout the semester, my would have failed as a teacher of mu- musical tastes can be integrated with appreciation for my students’ musical sic and religion in the city of Detroit their spiritual practices and religious taste grew. And I was pleasantly sur- had I not organized a field trip to the beliefs. One tool for this is the film prised by the depth of analysis each Motown Museum, the home of the “Taqwacore,” a documentary about of them offered about the music they original Studio A, created by Barry young adult Muslims who play in loved—and the theology they found Gordy. The young African-Americans a punk rock band. The overarching within it. who became the early stars of Motown theme of this film is the clash of cul- came largely from an inner-city evan- tures—immigrant parents attempting David Nantais is an adjunct professor of gelical Protestant community. This is to preserve traditional customs and philosophy and religious studies at University of Detroit Mercy and author of Rock-a My reflected in their singing style and the their “Americanized” children who Soul: An Invitation to Rock Your Religion social justice themes of their songs— explore what it means to be a part of (Liturgical Press).

38 America February 2, 2015 Poems are being accepted for the 2015 Foley Poetry Award. Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem on any topic. The poem should be 30 lines or fewer and not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. FOLEY Please do not submit poems by email or fax. Submissions must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2015. Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular poetry submissions and are not eligible for the prize. POETRY The winning poem will be published in the June 8-15 issue of America. Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues. Notable entrants also may be considered for inclusion on our poetry site, americaliterary.tumblr.com. Cash prize: $1,000 CONTEST Send poems to: Foley Poetry Contest America Magazine 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019

February 2, 2015 America 39 books | Robert E. Scully its disadvantages, but it could also af- ford “the weaker sex” some advantages Class Matters and escape hatches that they could use to their benefit, as Eleanor, Anne and Eliza Vaux discovered. In fact, Queen God’s Traitors Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan Elizabeth herself sometimes shrewdly Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England. Her interesting approach is played the gender card! England to focus on a particular Catholic fam- With regard to distinctions based By Jessie Childs ily, the Vauxes of Harrowden Hall in on class, Elizabethan society, as was Oxford University Press. 472p $29.95 Northamptonshire, over a series of de- the norm in the pre-modern world, cades. This prominent family from the was quite hierarchical, and both the As numerous books, films and televi- Midlands generally tried, like many of nobility and gentry benefitted in var- sion series in recent years have demon- their co-religionists, to maintain dual ious ways from their acclaimed exalt- strated, there is a fascination, both in loyalties: to the ancient Catholic faith ed status. What a commoner could or the scholarly world and among the might not get away with, an aristocrat wider public, with the Tudor period of often could. An intriguing example in- English history in general and perhaps volved the plight of Henry Vaux in the with the Elizabethan era in particular. 1580s. Facing crushing fines, he peti- In the context of the fascinating and at tioned the crown for forbearance based times fanatical Europe of the 16th cen- on an appeal to conscience. Rather tury, with the intersecting currents of surprisingly, Sir William Cecil, Lord the Renaissance, the Reformation and Burghley, the queen’s principal advisor, the age of overseas explorations and interceded for Lord Vaux. Burghley missionary outreach, England general- was known for his strongly anti-Cath- ly overcame certain insular tendencies olic stance, but because of Vaux’s noble and interacted with numerous conti- status and their shared county con- nental developments. nections, Burghley came to the rescue. Yet the Tudor response to the As Childs aptly comments: “His sym- European Reformation(s) was par- pathetic intervention serves as a re- ticularly idiosyncratic. No other minder that no one was predictable in country witnessed such a see-saw as Elizabethan England and nothing was England, moving as it did from so- ever quite what it seemed.” called “Catholicism without the pope” In any event, crucial to the long- during the later years of Henry VIII, term survival of a recusant Catholic to the evangelical Protestantism of the community was the pastoral and brief reign of Edward VI, followed by and the pope on the one hand, and to sacramental role of the clergy. While the reinvigorated Catholicism of the queen and country on the other. When the secular clergy formed the sizable even briefer reign of Mary and finally this proved difficult or nearly impossi- part of the Catholic priesthood in to the Protestant state church under ble, many members of the family were England, the Jesuits, while relatively the “supreme governor,” Elizabeth I. willing to face a series of increasingly small in numbers, exerted consid- Of particular importance, and unlike severe penalties, including potentially erable influence on the mission as a her half-siblings, Elizabeth had a long crippling fines. whole and especially among the upper reign of almost 45 years, giving her re- Nevertheless, it is important to classes. Childs makes clear how much gime the time, resources and pressure point out, as the author consistently the Vauxes and the Jesuits depended to implant if not impose a relatively does here, that persecution, howev- on each other, the former for spiritu- permanent religious settlement on the er real and devastating it could be, al succor and the latter for financial majority of the population. waxed and waned depending on a assistance and protection, including The response of the Catholic mi- range of factors, including the nation- often life-saving priest holes. Among nority varied depending on time, place al and international political and reli- the Jesuits, Henry Garnet, the supe- and circumstances. Jessie Childs has gious climate, as well as the significant rior of the mission, and John Gerard, contributed to the growing scholarship variables of class and gender. Being a perhaps the most successful of the on the Catholic Elizabethans with God’s woman in a man’s world certainly had missioners, were particularly well

40 America February 2, 2015 connected with the Vaux circle of significant historiographical issues and history of the text is the proper start- family and friends. debates, including revisionist views ing point. Yet even these connections were on the creativity of the (short-lived) In three chapters, Coogan gives not always enough. Gerard was cap- Marian Catholic revival. Her views, the histories of the three versions of tured and tortured, though he man- however, concerning the Jesuits’ mind- the Ten Commandments, tracing the aged a daring escape from the Tower set being largely tied to the “Counter” background and treating questions of London and eventually went into Reformation and Philip II’s supposed that would occur to many readers, like exile. Garnet, after 20 years of service “messianic vision” are too one-dimen- the originality and plurality of the doc- on the mission, was ensnared, proba- sional. Still, this is an insightful study uments. Only then does he offer a brief bly unfairly, in the Gunpowder Plot of of the plight of Elizabethan Catholics exegesis of each commandment found 1605 and suffered a traitor’s death by using the extended Vaux family as a in Exodus 20. Coogan moves on to de- being hanged, drawn and quartered. lens through which to view the hero- scribe how the Ten Commandments Childs correctly (and cleverly) char- ics and heartaches of being a religious were received within the early acterizes Garnet and Gerard as man- minority in the late 16th century. This Christian Church—the Decalogue ifesting, respectively, “circumspection expansive case study tells us a lot about alone was considered to be universal and chutzpah.” both “terror and faith in Elizabethan and hence binding on all Christians. Overall, this monograph incor- England.” The Jewish community countered this porates a good range of primary and Christian claim, Coogan notes, by de- secondary sources, though one could Robert E. Scully, S.J., is a professor of claring all the commandments in the always quibble about some significant history and law at Le Moyne College. He is the Torah equally binding. author of Into the Lion’s Den: The Jesuit sources that are not referred to. The Mission in Elizabethan England and Although the author does not of- author is up to date about many of the Wales, 1580-1603 (Institute of Jesuit Sources). fer a hermeneutics for the entire text, his discussion of the abridgements of the text since biblical times points Lúcás Chan to two major issues: the origin of the text and our right to edit or interpret the text. He argues that the Ten Ever Ancient, Ever New Commandments “could not have been divinely given” and that the contents The Ten Commandments in Exodus 34, is known as the Ritual are historically conditioned. His con- A Short History of an Ancient Decalogue. clusion: “With its various versions and Text Another distinctive feature of interpretations of the Decalogue, the By Michael Coogan Coogan’s work is its aim to present a Bible both forces us and even autho- Yale University Press. 192p. $25 short history of this rizes us to continue to ancient text. Coogan do the same—to re- In the past 12 months, at least nine differs from other writ- formulate, to interpret, new books in English on the Ten ers who focus on the and even to ignore and Commandments have been published text’s original meaning to reject.” In this way, a by Christian and Jewish writers, or its present implica- fluid rather than liter- both biblical scholars and ethicists. tions. While he agrees al observance is need- One may wonder what makes the re- with growing scholar- ed, a point he draws nowned biblical scholar and Harvard ly consensus that “[b] in discussing selected Old Testament/Hebrew Bible lec- efore we can decide on subjects: making im- turer Michael D. Coogan’s The Ten the relevance for our ages of God, Sabbath Commandments different from others. time of a text that is observance, slavery and First and foremost is his contention several thousand years women’s subordination that there are three biblical versions old, we should deter- to men. of the Ten Commandments. Coogan’s mine what it meant in These issues aside, claim departs from the common view its original setting, to the remote con- that there are two basic versions, one in its first audiences,” Coogan believes text of Coogan’s work is the ongo- Exodus 20, the other in Deuteronomy that considering the historical (and ing debate over displaying the Ten 5. This third version, which he finds literary) context as well as the ancient Commandments in public places,

February 2, 2015 America 41 like the Supreme Court, a controversy to which he returns at the end of his book. He points out that the Ten Commandments are the “primary text of Yahweh’s contract, his covenant, with the Israelites” resembling an ancient treaty. For some, it is part of the “history of law” and part of the history of the Untied States. So Coogan floats the idea of a modified historical display of the code, without explicit reference to divine origin or formal religious contents. Coogan’s deeper concern, however, is that the North American controversy is really not about the Ten Commandments itself but about im- posing certain human values claimed by religious groups. That, he argues, would contradict the “underlying values of the Bible” and of the Ten Commandments themselves, especially the value of equal respect of others, which are still valid and authoritative today. His treatment of each commandment is both accurate and informative, and in line with the current scholarship (e.g., the actual meaning of Exodus 20:13 points to intentional killing). He also skillfully, through the lens of history, shows what they originally meant for Israelites and how they are related to other Hebrew and contemporary texts. But treating this important ancient text in a concise book format is always a challenge for even excellent scholars. I find this to be problematic when Coogan explores the original meanings of the commandments. Why, for example, does he choose the version in Exodus 20 as the base text if he argues that the Ritual Decalogue is the old- est among the three? Or why does he spend so much time on the first four commandments, which concern respect toward God? By contrast, some of the remaining commandments are treated too briefly to be satisfactory, especially the pro- hibitions on adultery and stealing. At

42 America February 2, 2015 times he misses some necessary ex- S.J., the late biblical scholar and long- increasingly critical of her own post- planations. For example, in discussing time contributor to America, did in 1960s Western cultural assumptions. the commandment against murder, some of his later works, Coogan does As she writes, “discovering the limita- Coogan refers without any explanation us a great favor by introducing one of tions in my thinking has been a grand to those texts that talk about God’s de- the world’s most famous and yet least adventure and a privilege. I have trav- mand for total extermination of the understood ancient texts in a very con- elled into my own heart of darkness entire enemy. We might also expect cise, accessible manner. Coogan’s book and back out into the light of Africa, more substantial arguments to sup- would also serve as a fine complement trying to prove my worth as a writer port his decision to use “kidnap” as an to those recent ones more interest- and as a woman, but learning that the alternative translation for “steal” in Ex ed in the historical reception of the only thing that really matters is love.” 20:15. commandments or even a contempo- Each of the main chapters of Te n Finally, from a Catholic ethicist’s rary understanding of them and their African Cardinals adopts a similar viewpoint, Coogan’s reflection on relevance for us today, like Dominik structure. Dr. Ninham begins by offer- the contemporary meaning of the Markl’s The Decalogue and Its Cultural ing a demographic and statistical pro- commandments may raise some con- Influence and Rabbi Rifat Sonsino’s file of each cardinal’s country before cerns: on what grounds, for example, And God Spoke: Ten Commandments delving into a brief history of the local does he select his subjects for discus- and Contemporary Ethics. Catholic church. Ninham then nar- sion? Moreover, when criticizing the rates her dogged efforts to track down Lúcás Chan, S.J., lectures in Trinity College Catechism of the Catholic Church’s view Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of The Ten each coveted interview subject and on sexual offenses, he seems to think Commandments and the Beatitudes: (where applicable) her experience in that its source is singularly biblical and Biblical Studies and Ethics for Real Life the African country. Each chapter ends and Biblical Ethics in the Twenty-first not also from the natural law tradition. Century: Developments, Emerging with a transcript of her interview with Still, much as Daniel Harrington, Consensus, and Future Directions. the respective African cardinal. To be sure, Ninham’s work includes many valuable insights. Drawing heavily from the late British Catholic his- J. J. Carney torian Adrian Hastings, Ninham’s opening chapter offers an accessible Hasty conclusions synthesis of Catholic history in Africa, explaining the church’s remarkable Ten African Cardinals Ninham’s introduction describes her 20th-century growth in terms of both By Sally Ninham own “outsider” status in great detail. To Western modernization and African Connor Court Publishing. 350p $29.95 summarize, she is a inculturation. Her con- white, upper-middle versations with Cardinal The old maxim states that you should class, highly educat- Emmanuel Wamala of never judge a book by its cover. But in ed wife and mother Uganda and Cardinal the case of Sally Ninham’s Ten African of five, a religious Peter Turkson of Ghana Cardinals, the cover lends ample in- skeptic living in a sec- reveal the captivating per- sight into the book’s content. On the ularized Australian sonalities of two dynam- front are four miniature snapshots context. She has un- ic postcolonial Catholic from Africa, mostly of children. On dertaken the task leaders. the back cover is a giant image of Sally of interviewing her Interviews with Ninham herself. Likewise, Ten African polar opposites—10 Cardinal José Marion Dos Cardinals provides considerable in- African Catholic Santos and Archbishop sight into Dr. Ninham’s personal en- male church leaders Jaime Pedro Gonçalves counter with Africa but considerably serving deeply reli- of Mozambique offer less insight into the complex reality of gious African societ- fascinating personal in- today’s African Catholic Church or the ies. In the process of interviewing “her sight into the Catholic hierarchy’s me- men who lead it. cardinals,” visiting Africa and writing diating role in ending Mozambique’s In this regard, Ten African Cardinals the book, Ninham experiences some- brutal civil war in the late 1980s and reads best as a personal memoir and thing akin to a spiritual awakening. By early 1990s. (The image of a Catholic “insider/outsider” travel narrative. Dr. the end of her journey, she has become bishop riding a motorbike into the

February 2, 2015 America 43 bush to negotiate with rebel leaders the Congolese war through the lens of reflecting on the evident theological is a memorable one.) Even less con- Hutu power propaganda is dangerous- and pastoral differences between fig- ciliatory figures like Cardinal Francis ly misinformed. She spends much of ures like Arinze and Wamala, Ninham Arinze of Nigeria are drawn with full her chapter on Cardinal Bernard Agré forces all of them into one metanar- brushstrokes. As was true for many of Ivory Coast interviewing another rative, arguing that Africa’s Catholic of Ninham’s interview subjects, inter- local bishop, Raymond Ahoua. Ahoua cardinals have adopted “a single ap- national immersion served a critical is especially adept at putting Ninham proach to human suffering and human role in shaping Arinze’s identity as a on the defensive, helping to ensure that struggle that derives from Catholic Catholic leader, even as these experi- Ninham uncritically parrots Ahoua’s doctrine.” Rhetoric trumps reality as ences produced a degree of cultural views to a broader audience. Ninham descends into hagiography: and geographic alienation from his “The truths I assumed were self-evi- “they [the cardinals] alone understand own Nigerian roots. dent about Africa were quite fairly, and the extent of their challenges at home”; Ninham’s interviews are uneven, indeed brazenly, depicted by Ahoua as “all have taken brave stands to keep however. Her chapter on Cardinal an expression of arrogance, a mask for their governments honest”; “indeed Wilfrid Napier of South Africa large- personal insecurity, fear and ignorance they are beloved” by their populations. ly ignores the local Catholic Church’s that derived from my Western, fem- A more balanced conclusion would engagement with apartheid in the late inist origins.” Again, one learns much humanize rather than canonize, diver- 20th-century, one of the more fasci- here about Ninham’s own intellectual sify rather than simply harmonize. In nating narratives in modern Catholic journey, and her self-critical awareness this regard, I would recommend Ian history. Her interview with Cardinal should be commended. But the linger- Linden’s Global Catholicism: Towards Robert Sarah of Guinea lacks depth, ing question is whether Ahoua’s own a Networked Church (Hurst, 2012) for and the chapter on Cardinal Laurent analysis is above reproach simply be- the reader looking for a more nuanced Monsengwo of Congo should have cause he represents the “African other.” study of post-Vatican II Catholic lead- been cut all together. Not only did In her conclusion, Ninham moves ership in Africa. Ninham fail to obtain an interview too quickly to synthesize the voices I should add in closing that I read with Monsengwo, but her analysis of of the African cardinals. Instead of Ten African Cardinals while journey-

44 America February 2, 2015 ing through Rwanda. Building on my own past research on Catholic history in Rwanda, I had returned to the Land of 1,000 Hills to interview dozens of local Catholic leaders involved in post-genocide reconciliation work. It may be that Rwanda is not the best place to read Ninham’s rosy portrait of Catholic leadership in Africa. There are remarkable Catholic leaders in Rwanda, but this country’s history reveals that the church has, to quote one late Rwandan bishop, “feet of clay.” It is tempting to uncritically accept glowing narratives like Ten African Cardinals, especially as a Catholic believer looking for good news beyond the belea- guered Western church. But the reality of African Christianity is far more complex and, dare I say it, more interesting.

J. J. Carney is assistant professor of theology at Creighton University in Omaha and author of Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era (Oxford University Press, 2014).

February 2, 2015 America 45 Studies and Professor of Catholic to or appointment at the rank of full professor. As a CLASSIFIED Studies. The University of St. Thomas invites ap- consequence, we expect to see evidence of superior plications for the director of its Center for Catholic teaching skills, leadership ability and achievement in Books Studies. The person appointed to this position will scholarship that contributes in significant ways to the by Charles de Foucauld: Journey to Tamanrasset, also hold a tenured faculty position in the Department Catholic intellectual tradition. The standard teaching Antoine Chatelard. http://www.brothercharles.org/ of Catholic Studies, to begin September 2015 at the load is expected to be two courses (eight credits) per wordpress/. rank of professor. year, including opportunities to teach on the graduate The Department and the Center for Catholic level. There are also the customary nonteaching duties. ; www. Religion & Civility (faith & reason) Together Studies comprise an integrated project at St. Thomas. Applications should be submitted online at wordunlimited.com. While the Department focuses principally on de- https://jobs.stthomas.edu and must include a cur- gree-granting activities, the Center oversees the work riculum vitae. You will be asked to copy/paste a posi- Positions of three major institutes and a quarterly journal. It also tion-specific cover letter into your application. Principal. St. Ann School in Decatur, Ala., 3-K sponsors multiple lectures and faculty development Applicants should complete the reference section to 8th grade. A dynamic, Christ-centered leader is programs. The director of the Center will be responsi- of the application. No references will be contacted needed to serve as principal at St. Ann School (www. ble for coordinating the work of these institutes as well without first getting the permission of the candidate. stanndecatur.org) in Decatur, Ala. This opportunity is as other forms of outreach within the university and For further information, please contact: Dr. best suited for a forward-thinking professional with the broader community. This will include work with Terence Langan, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, innovative ideas to guide the student body and fac- benefactors and other development activities. University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Avenue, St. ulty toward excellence in academics, faith formation, The Department offers an undergraduate ma- Paul, MN 55105; Ph: (651) 962 6001; t9langan@ service and technology. Relevant experience includes jor and minor as well as a graduate degree (M.A.) in stthomas.edu curriculum/instruction, faculty supervision, financial Catholic studies. In our teaching and scholarship, we Established in 1885, the University of St. Thomas is management and proven innovation in education. are committed to the complementarity of faith and located in the major metropolitan area of Minneapolis- Candidate must be a practicing Roman Catholic. A reason across all academic disciplines, to sustain- St. Paul and is Minnesota’s largest private university. Its master’s degree in educational administration (or re- ing and developing the richness and breadth of the 10,000 students pursue degrees in a wide range of liber- lated field), and Alabama administrator certification Catholic intellectual tradition and to the general prin- al arts, professional, and graduate programs. (or eligibility) preferred. Fluency in Spanish is a plus. ciples articulated in Ex Corde Ecclesiae. We seek candi- Inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition, the Interested and qualified candidates should submit: dates who share these commitments. For the uniquely University of St. Thomas educates students to be mor- (1) letter of introduction, addressing the requirements/ qualified individual, the appointment may be made as ally responsible leaders who think critically, act wise- skills listed above; (2) résumé; (3) names, addresses, the Koch Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies. ly and work skillfully to advance the common good, telephone numbers and email addresses of five pro- We are interested in individuals with competence and seeks to develop individuals who combine career fessional references; and (4) statement addressing the in multiple elements of the Catholic intellectual tradi- competency with cultural awareness and intellectual value of today’s Catholic elementary school, including tion (such as theology, philosophy, history, literature or curiosity. The successful candidate will possess a com- its unique Catholic identity, to: Annunciation of the art). The successful candidate will have formal prepa- mitment to the ideals of this mission. Lord Catholic Church, Principal Search Committee, ration in at least one of these disciplines but will be The University of St. Thomas has a strong com- 3910 Spring Avenue, Decatur, AL 35603; parish@an- expected to give evidence of ability to teach and do mitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion, nunlord.com; or fax to (256) 353-8994. scholarship across disciplinary boundaries. to equal opportunity policies and practices, and to the The successful candidate will hold the Ph.D. principles and goals of affirmative action. In that spirit, Director of the Center for Catholic prior to appointment and be eligible for promotion the University welcomes nominations and applications from a broad and diverse applicant pool. The position will remain open until filled; but to ensure consideration, candidates should apply before Jan. 30, 2015. 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46 America February 2, 2015 THE WORD The Work of the Kingdom Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Feb. 8, 2015 Readings: Jb 7:1–7; Ps 147:1–6; 1 Cor 9:16–23; Mk 1:29–39 “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also” (Mk 1:38)

Our evaluation of work is equivocal. A work for God’s kingdom in the New work for the establishment of the king- person without work is in a precarious Testament, but it is not the case that dom, and this is why we see his mis- situation, financially and emotionally, we can simply pronounce the sion in the context of a balance and being jobless can erode a sense of work of this world unimport- between work and rest. After worth. But those lucky enough to have ant. There is a goodness Jesus heals Peter’s moth- jobs seem always to be plotting when to that inheres in the work er-in-law in the Gospel of retire. Although work is sometimes a of this world, and we Mark, who resumes her burden, it is also necessary. The tension must guard against two own work of service imme- between the need to work and the de- distortions of human diately after she is healed, sire to leave it behind is inherent in the work: that our work be- and after “he cured many human condition. comes an idol, or that we who were sick with various The late John Hughes wrote that reject all work to become diseases, and cast out many “human work has been viewed as hav- idle. demons,” he went to seek his ing a profoundly ambiguous nature Perhaps we can see the own rest in “a deserted place, throughout the Christian tradition. goodness of work most fully in In the Scriptures apparently differing evangelization. The apostle Paul had views lie side by side, and cannot be to work in a trade to support him- PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE easily separated.... Work in some sense self as a tent-maker, according to seems to be inseparable from the nature Acts 18:3, but it was the work of the Travel alongside Jesus in Galilee. Are you

ready to work for the Gospel? a d . dunne of humanity in its aboriginal goodness, Gospel that was most significant for yet this seems not to be necessarily the him. t a rt: same as the work that is characterized Paul, however, refused to take and there he prayed.” Jesus too needed by toil and struggle” (The End of Work). payment for this work of preaching this time of re-creation. Job reflects the relentless toil of hu- the Gospel, stating: “If I proclaim the Yet when Peter and the others man work in his answer to God: “Do Gospel, this gives me no ground for tracked Jesus down—“hunted for him,” not human beings have a hard service boasting, for an obligation is laid on says Mark—Jesus did not complain. on earth, and are not their days like me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim Jesus responded, “let us go on to the the days of a laborer?” Job gives voice the Gospel! For if I do this of my own neighboring towns, so that I may pro- to the negative sense of work as bur- will, I have a reward; but if not of my claim the message there also; for that den, but though work has a more pos- own will, I am entrusted with a com- is what I came out to do.” The New itive dimension, the Sabbath shows us mission. What then is my reward? Just American Bible translation of Mark that work is ultimately relative to what this: that in my proclamation I may captures the Greek of this last phrase Hughes calls the “higher reality of rest.” make the Gospel free of charge, so as more closely, “for this purpose have I The true human goal is life in God’s not to make full use of my rights in the come.” Jesus had work to do and it was rest, yet it seems this too requires some Gospel.” Paul’s work was in the service essential that it get done. work. of the kingdom that all might enter in We ourselves must seek a balance in A distinction can be made between and participate in God’s eternal rest. our own lives, for our work here is nec- the drudgery of daily work and the Jesus himself knew the goodness essary and good, but it is not our final and necessity of work and rest, not just purpose. Our final purpose is to enter our true goal, to rest in contemplation into the kingdom, so that we might en- John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. of God, but in the need to rest from joy eternal rest in God’s presence. Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. human toil. Jesus’ goal on earth was to John W. Martens

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