Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly

President’s Letter...... William L. Saunders

From The Editor’s Desk...... Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. 40 ARTICLES Numbers 3/4 Letter to Pope Francis...... Rev. Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap. Fall/Winter 2017 In Memoriam for Fr. Francis Martin...... Barry Levy The Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch and Other Pro-life Developments in the First Part of 2017...... William L. Saunders The Kingliness of Friendship...... Clara Sarrocco Same-Sex Parenting and the Vindication of Church Teaching....Msgr. Robert J. Batule Pierre Manent and Rémi Brague on the Future of Europe...... Jude P. Dougherty Jesus Christ the Way and the Goal: Accompaniment and Discernment in Christ...... Rev. Robert Imbelli Jesus Emerges from the Historical-Critical Fog...... Jerome D. Gilmartin Durkheim’s Populism...... Jude P. Dougherty

BOOK REVIEWS Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science by Stacy Trasancos...... Laurie Tollefsen The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray...... Jude P. Dougherty Teaching and Learning the Love of God: Being a Priest Today ISSN 1084-3035 by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI ...... Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J. Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World Fellowship of Catholic Scholars P.O. Box 495 by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput...... Thomas W. Jodziewicz Notre Dame, IN 46556 The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation catholicscholars.org by Rod Dreher...... Thomas W. Jodziewicz Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ, editor [email protected] BOOKS RECEIVED Prof. Elizabeth C. Shaw, associate editor [email protected] OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS The President’s Letter From the Editor’s Desk

Friends— by Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J. practical charity. But, given the apparent intractabil- Fordham University ity of the issue in our society, it also seems necessary t is my pleasure to greet you upon the for those who enjoy the privileges of academic life to issuance of this new edition of the Quarterly. n seventh grade, I had the good fortune to have assume its obligations too. It means being prepared for As always, it brings to you some of the best had a teacher who suggested to our class that we discussions and debates with those who hold views thinking of our members—and our guests— keep a list of the books we had read. I’ve done antithetical to our own, and it includes writing seri- Fellowship of Ion important matters related to our Faith and it faithfully ever since—mostly because it is fun ous reviews of bad books. Personally, I would love Catholic Scholars friendship, under the quite capable leadership of Ito look back once in a while and see if I can even to see the pages of this Quarterly have many respect- Scholarship Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Fr. Koterski and Elizabeth Shaw. remember what the books that intrigued me along the ful but hard-hitting reviews of books that need to be in Service to the Church We have just concluded our 40th annual con- way were about. answered. It is an aspect of our métier more honored in vention in Arlington, Virginia, just across the river The value of keeping such a list, however, is more the breach than in the observance. from our nation’s capital. It was a well-attended than mere sentimentality. Each January, when I look over From the title and the cover, I thought that this PRESIDENT'S LETTER...... 2 and successful convention, with top-flight speakers. the list from the past year, I ask myself whether I have book by Colb and Dorf might be one given to plead- Indeed, several people have remarked to me that read enough in my field, and enough novels, and enough ing the case for the babies and the beasts. Thumbing FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK...... 3 they thought it was our best yet! poetry, and enough books that I disagreed with. I doubt through the book, I found some hope of this rising ARTICLES Next year, in a change from our usual pro- that I am alone in reading lots of authors whose views I from the very presence of the term “pro-life.” Perhaps, cedure of having our conventions at hotels, our Letter to Pope Francis...... 6 share. But in this annual examination of conscience, there I thought, the authors were planning to include the convention will be held at Benedictine College in is good reason to say a mea culpa if I haven’t cracked the unborn in the coverage they envisioned to be a part of In Memoriam for Fr. Francis Martin...... 9 Kansas. This is a wonderful Catholic college that I spine of at least a few of the other kind. “animal rights.” It did not turn out to be so. The thesis The Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch...... 11 am sure you will want to see, and it is where the It was one of the summers during graduate school of the book is that it is possible—in fact, to state the The Kingliness of Friendship...... 16 Fellowship’s Vice President, Susan Traffas, teaches. when I really got this point. At a used book store I had thesis more accurately, all but required—to be “pro- Same-Sex Parenting and I also note that our awards will go to board mem- picked up an inexpensive but badly dog-eared copy choice on abortion and fully committed to animal the Vindication of Church Teaching...... 20 ber Fr. Tom Weinandy (Founder’s Award), scholars of Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind. It was heavily rights.” Pierre Manent and Rémi Brague on Nick and Mary Eberstadt (Cardinal Wright Award), the Future of Europe...... 25 marked up with angry comments in thick black ink It is interesting—but ever so sad—to see the au- and Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus from someone who disagreed with Kirk from stem to thors explicitly acknowledge that legal abortion in- Jesus Christ the Way and the Goal...... 29 (Cardinal O’Boyle Award). I am sure you will want stern. What roused my admiration was not the nature of volves the deliberate destruction of a human life and Jesus Emerges from the Historical-Critical Fog...... 35 to be present to hear from the awardees, as well as the marginalia, but the brute fact that the annotator— then give their reasons for approving the practice. How- Durkheim’s Populism...... 48 the other speakers. The dates are September 28-30, whoever it was—had kept on marking up the book to ever much the moral foundations of our culture have 2018. Please make plans now to attend! BOOK REVIEWS the very last page. weakened as the culture has grown more regressive, it is Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide There was no indication of any change of mind apparent from a volume like this that these authors feel Cordially, to Navigating Science...... 51 or any lessening of the choleric reactions. I could not that the times still require academic justifications to be William Saunders The Strange Death of Europe: help, however, admiring someone who disagreed so provided for repugnant positions. Immigration, Identity, Islam...... 52 profoundly and yet rendered the author the honor of The tactic here is one that we have seen now for Teaching and Learning the Love of God: reading and thinking with him to the end of the book. several generations. Prof. William Brennan of St. Louis Being a Priest Today...... 54 There is an incredible civility in the practice that could University wisely identified it years ago as semantic Strangers in a Strange Land...... 55 counter the dismissive witticisms, enraged soundbites, gymnastics. For Brennan, that strategy was threefold: The Benedict Option...... 55 and unfair judgments of the present era. using misleading terminology to hide the reality, di- Lest I have nothing to report in this category next viding up the actual tasks involved in the destruction BOOKS RECEIVED...... 58 January, I recently decided to read a book that I would of innocent human life among diverse people so as just as soon have passed over when it crossed my desk to minimize the pangs of conscience, and getting re- OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS...... 59 in the philosophy department. It is a book with a thor- spected authorities like politicians, physicians, clergy, oughly awful thesis called Beating Hearts: Abortion and and professors to lend their authority and prestige to Animal Rights by Sherry F. Colb and Michael C. Dorf the approval of practices that contradict the received Reminder: Membership dues will be mailed out (Columbia University Press, 2016). I did not expect to wisdom of society about the nonnegotiable immorality the first of the year and are based on a calendar be convinced by it, and I wasn’t. Were it not for the of certain practices. (not academic) year. duty that we have, each in our own way, to try and pro- Colb and Dorf are both professors of law at Cornell tect babies and their mothers, I doubt that I would have University. As an opening gambit they pose a set of stayed with the book. questions that they take to require the thesis described To be sure, there are more direct ways to attempt above. How, they ask, could anyone who condemns to be helpful, beginning with prayer and works of hunting, animal farming, and animal experimentation

2 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 3 From the Editor’s Desk also favor legal abortion? What they take to be an indis- despite the pain that will be inflicted. In their view, effort to turn the rhetoric of the pro-life movement force does not violate the right to life, precisely because putable moral wrong is the mistreatment of any animal. however serious the question of late-term abortions may against itself, as if it somehow really favored the sen- the right to life derives specifically from innocence. As They regard nearly all human use of animals to be an be, forcing a woman to carry a child to term is far more tience principle and the reduction of ethical and politi- a principle of law in our culture, we presume that one exploitation that is unjustified. The problem, as they see problematic as a form of gender-based exploitation. cal issues to cases of competing rights-claims. is innocent until proven guilty. But the protection that it, is how a person with such views can resolve the ap- Since they are unwilling to grant the claim that nascent Now, given the realities of our political situation, we the presumption of innocence gives to each person is parent conflict that might arise in the course of defend- life in its earlier stages exhibits pain-sentience, they do would be ill advised to stop talking about the “right” to forfeited when anyone attacks other innocent human ing the right to choose an abortion, for they see that not find its termination to be problematic. life. But there is a vulnerability in using rights-language beings. After the fact, we use courts to weigh these choice to be at the core of the liberties that are at stake What all this shows, it seems to me, is that we need that can easily play into the hands of the animal rights matters and to determine innocence or guilt, but at the in the current culture wars. to be ready to help our own students be better pre- movement. If it is life as such that has rights, then why moment of an attack and especially in the absence of In writing this sort of book, the authors seem to pared for the defense of human life in those contexts not talk about animal rights? And, from a perspective public authority, it is the violent deed that is the proof sense some hints of confusion about the legitimacy of when the discussion turns to animal rights. First, there that is not treated in this book but that could have been, that justifies the use of lethal force in self-defense and abortion that might be lurking in the minds of those is a need always to use good arguments, always to have why not see the right to life as rendering the death pen- in the defense of others. who have been persuaded to defend animal rights. sound reasons, and always to have clear definitions that alty not merely as wrong in certain circumstances but as The very premise of Colb and Dorf’s book—see- Committed as they are to the notion of animal rights, reflect the truth of things. In trying to read this book as wrong always and everywhere? ing the principle of sentience as the crucial element in they are concerned that a commitment to these rights carefully (but without the angry pen marks!) as the pre- In using the phrase “the right to life,” what we moral evaluation—is unsound. The volume proves to could somehow dent the logic of the Casey decision vious reader of my copy of Kirk’s book did, it seems to really mean is not that every form of life has rights but be one more effort in a culture-saturated campaign to that the abortion right is necessary if one is truly to me that this book is a fine example of the sophisticated that only human beings do, and further, that it is not assign to individual consciences the prerogative of us- have the right to define the meaning of one’s own dangers that occasioned Brennan’s thesis about semantic right for innocent human life ever to be deliberately ing lethal force without having a principled basis for its existence. gymnastics. taken. What is really basic, I think, is a duty never to use. If one were to develop at length the considerations The bulk of the book is given to a discussion of The authors of this volume tirelessly repeat rather harm, and when possible to protect, innocent life that that we have begun to advance here, we could rightly alleged similarities in the strategies deployed by the pro- than genuinely examine certain terms that strike me then generates various correlative rights. The duty conclude that private individuals have no right to use life and the animal rights movements. The authors wor- as truly dangerous on this question. Forcing ourselves here is primarily a universal negative duty, that no one lethal force except to defend the innocent and only in ry about whether a democracy should enact laws against to be clear about the meaning of crucial terms can be may ever legitimately attack the life of an innocent the absence of proper authority. all the things that it might think to be morally bad or decisive for understanding the errors that books like human being. We do well, of course, to worry about unnecessar- should allocate these matters to individual conscience. these perpetrate. Despite the recurrent attention they From that universal proscription comes the justi- ily inflicting pain on sentient beings, but only because They worry about the social dangers latent in ever al- give to the capacity for feeling pain, for example, they fication for talking about the right to life. But a mo- doing so arbitrarily risks dulling our own consciences lowing the law to be a teacher of morals, and they liken accept without examination the notion that the unborn ment’s thought shows how this really works. Those who in this area. Once we see that rights only emerge from efforts at placing legal restrictions upon abortion to the have “potential human life” rather than are already actual have innocent human life in their care have a duty to duties— in this case, the duty never deliberately to at- prohibition movement of the early twentieth century human beings with various potencies (abilities, capacities) protect it, whether it be the parents of small children tack innocent human beings— there will be no reason and the inadvertent creation of the Mafia. that are at various stages of development. or the police of a given community. To do their duty, at all to think about animal rights, and much reason to Ceteris paribus, these are good questions that would Here one finds a telling point that needs to be they may end up needing to use lethal force against an make careful distinctions about any use of lethal force. worry the likes of Augustine and Aquinas as much as brought to full light. The process of growth and matu- aggressor who threatens innocent life. Presuming here, The definitions and principles at the core of Colb and Hume and Singer. But all of these considerations de- ration of the unborn cannot be adequately understood to be sure, a carefully elaborated protocol for when and Dorf’s book cannot make such distinctions. We will do pend on their more basic point: the identification of the on the model of the construction of something out of how lethal force may be used by civil authorities, we well to have them ready by reading and reflecting on proper criterion for one’s moral evaluations. For Colb parts like a car or a computer, so that it only becomes can see that there will be times when the use of lethal books that we may not like reading, like this one. ✠ and Dorf, what matters is the sentience principle. The what we want to make when it is sufficiently assembled capacity to feel pain seems to them decisive in provid- that it can do something, or in this case feel something. ing what they consider a principled distinction between Human development is an unfolding of something beings deserving of legal protection and those not that is already actually an instance of the kind and a deemed worthy. member of the species from its earliest nascent moment. To their credit, the authors do not simply ignore the If we have learned anything from the violence against evidence that pro-life advocates have brought into pub- human beings that has been justified by the practice lic discussion in recent years: the pain felt by the unborn of semantic gymnastics in the course of the twentieth whose lives are taken by abortion. But they regard leg- century, it is that we dare not allow verbal counterfeits, islative efforts to restrict late-term abortion on grounds even when spoken by respectable authorities, to hide of fetal pain as a concession to their own position, for to the reality of the defenseless whose existence is judged • argue in this way seems to concede the point that the inconvenient. sentience principle is the correct criterion. Claiming this A second point that reading this volume elicited point as their own, they concede that there will be times from me is the need to reiterate the correlation of du- when the lives of some animals may have to be taken, ties and rights. There is something clever here in the

4 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 5 Letter

July 31, 2017 the importance of Church doctrine. Again and again Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola you portray doctrine as dead and bookish, and far from Letter to Pope Francis the pastoral concerns of everyday life. Your critics have Your Holiness, been accused, in your own words, of making doctrine an by Rev. Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap. The next morning I did all of the above and by ideology. But it is precisely Christian doctrine—including the time I met my seminarian friend for lunch what write this letter with love for the Church and the fine distinctions made with regard to central beliefs Dear Friends and Colleagues, I had asked the Lord the following night was no lon- sincere respect for your office. You are the Vicar like the Trinitarian nature of God; the nature and pur- ger in the forefront of my mind. However, toward the of Christ on earth, the shepherd of his flock, the pose of the Church; the Incarnation; the Redemption; n November 1, CRUX published a end of the meal an archbishop appeared between two successor to St. Peter and so the rock upon which and the sacraments—that frees people from worldly ide- IChrist will build his Church. All Catholics, clergy and ologies and assures that they are actually preaching and news article concerning a letter I sent parked cars right in front of our table (we were sitting to Pope Francis on August 9, 2017 (see outside). I had not seen him for over twenty years, laity alike, are to look to you with filial loyalty and teaching the authentic, life-giving Gospel. Those who CRUX: https://cruxnow.com/vati- long before he became an archbishop. We recognized obedience grounded in truth. The Church turns to you devalue the doctrines of the Church separate themselves Ocan/2017/11/01/ex-bishops-doctrine-chief-says-dark- one another immediately. What made his appearance in a spirit of faith, with the hope that you will guide from Jesus, the author of truth. What they then possess, ness-coming-light-francis/. I wanted to send this letter even more unusual was that because of his recent her in love. and can only possess, is an ideology—one that conforms to you personally, as well as to tell you how I came to personal circumstances I would never have expected Yet, Your Holiness, a chronic confusion seems to to the world of sin and death. write this letter. to see him in Rome or anywhere else, other than in mark your pontificate. The light of faith, hope, and love Third, faithful Catholics can only be disconcerted At the end of this past May I was in Rome to at- his own archdiocese. (He was from none of the above is not absent, but too often it is obscured by the ambi- by your choice of some bishops, men who seem not tend a meeting of the International Theological Com- mentioned countries.) We spoke about his coming to guity of your words and actions. This fosters within the merely open to those who hold views counter to mission, of which I am a member. I stayed at Domus Rome and caught up on what we were doing. I then faithful a growing unease. It compromises their capacity Christian belief but who support and even defend Sanctae Marthae. Since I arrived early, I spent most of introduced him to my seminarian friend. He said to for love, joy, and peace. Allow me to offer a few brief them. What scandalizes believers, and even some fel- the Sunday afternoon prior to the meeting on Monday my friend that we had met a long time ago and that examples. low bishops, is not only your having appointed such in Saint Peter’s praying in the Eucharistic Chapel. I was he had, at that time, just finished reading my book on First there is the disputed Chapter 8 of Amoris men to be shepherds of the Church, but that you also praying about the present state of the Church and the the immutability of God and the Incarnation. He told Laetitia. I need not share my own concerns about its seem silent in the face of their teaching and pastoral anxieties I had about the present Pontificate. I was be- my friend that it was an excellent book, that it helped content. Others, not only theologians, but also cardinals practice. This weakens the zeal of the many women and seeching Jesus and Mary, St. Peter, and all of the saintly him sort out the issue, and that my friend should read and bishops, have already done that. The main source of men who have championed authentic Catholic teach- popes who are buried there to do something to rectify the book. Then he turned to me and said: “Keep up concern is the manner of your teaching. In Amoris Laeti- ing over long periods of time, often at the risk of their the confusion and turmoil within the Church today, a the good writing.” tia, your guidance at times seems intentionally ambigu- own reputations and well-being. As a result, many of chaos and an uncertainty that I felt Pope Francis had In the light of Jesus fulfilling my demanding “sign,” ous, thus inviting both a traditional interpretation of the faithful, who embody the sensus fidelium, are losing himself caused. I was also pondering whether or not I want to make two comments. First, I decided to write Catholic teaching on marriage and divorce as well as confidence in their supreme shepherd. I should write and publish something expressing my Pope Francis a letter, which I intended then to publish one that might imply a change in that teaching. As you Fourth, the Church is one body, the Mystical Body concerns and anxiety. On the following Wednesday unless he adequately addressed the issues I raised. Al- wisely note, pastors should accompany and encourage of Christ, and you are commissioned by the Lord him- afternoon, at the conclusion of my meeting, I went most two months after having received my letter, I did persons in irregular marriages; but ambiguity persists self to promote and strengthen her unity. But your again to St. Peter’s and prayed in the same manner. That receive an acknowledgement from Vatican Secretariat about what that “accompaniment” actually means. To actions and words too often seem intent on doing the night I could not get to sleep, which is very unusual for of State informing me that the letter had been received. teach with such a seemingly intentional lack of clar- opposite. Encouraging a form of “synodality” that al- me. It was due to all that was on my mind pertaining This was simply an acknowledgement and not a re- ity inevitably risks sinning against the Holy Spirit, the lows and promotes various doctrinal and moral options to the Church and Pope Francis. At 1:15 a.m. I got up sponse to my concerns. Second, I find it significant that Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is given to the Church, within the Church can only lead to more theological and went outside for short time. When I went back to not only did the Lord fulfill my demand for a sign, but and particularly to yourself, to dispel error, not to foster and pastoral confusion. Such synodality is unwise and, my room, I said to the Lord: “If you want me to write also did so in, what I believe, a very significant manner. it. Moreover, only where there is truth can there be in practice, works against collegial unity among bishops. something, you have to give me a clear sign. This is He accomplished it through an archbishop. By utiliz- authentic love, for truth is the light that sets women and Holy Father, this brings me to my final concern. what the sign must be. Tomorrow morning I am go- ing an archbishop, I believe, that Jesus’ fulfillment of my men free from the blindness of sin, a darkness that kills You have often spoken about the need for transparency ing to St. Mary Major’s to pray and then I am going request took on an apostolic mandate. the life of the soul. Yet you seem to censor and even within the Church. You have frequently encouraged, to St. John Lateran. After that I am coming back to St. If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel mock those who interpret Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia particularly during the two past synods, all persons, es- Peter’s to have lunch with a seminary friend of mine. free to contact me. Obviously, you are free to share the in accord with Church tradition as Pharisaic stone- pecially bishops, to speak their mind and not be fearful During that interval, I must meet someone that I know above with whomever you choose. throwers who embody a merciless rigorism. This kind of what the pope may think. But have you noticed that but have not seen in a very long time and would never May the Lord Jesus bless you and all the work you of calumny is alien to the nature of the Petrine ministry. the majority of bishops throughout the world are re- expect to see in Rome at this time. That person cannot do on behalf of his Church. Some of your advisors regrettably seem to engage in markably silent? Why is this? Bishops are quick learners, be from the United States, Canada, or Great Britain. May Jesus bless you. Take care. similar actions. Such behavior gives the impression that and what many have learned from your pontificate is Moreover, that person has to say to me in the course of your views cannot survive theological scrutiny, and so not that you are open to criticism, but that you resent it. our conversation, ‘Keep up the good writing’.” To m must be sustained by ad hominem arguments. Many bishops are silent because they desire to be loyal Second, too often your manner seems to demean to you, and so they do not express—at least publicly;

6 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 7 Letter In Memoriam privately is another matter—the concerns that your this darkness, the Church will humbly need to renew pontificate raises. Many fear that if they speak their herself, and so continue to grow in holiness. mind, they will be marginalized or worse. Holy Father, I pray for you constantly and will Fr. Francis Martin I have often asked myself: “Why has Jesus let all of continue to do so. May the Holy Spirit lead you to this happen?” The only answer that comes to mind is the light of truth and the life of love so that you can by Barry Levy Francis attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, that Jesus wants to manifest just how weak is the faith dispel the darkness that now hides the beauty of Jesus’ Meier Clinics, Rockville, MD Massachusetts, and studied economics. He then joined of many within the Church, even among too many of Church. St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, where her bishops. Ironically, your pontificate has given those Even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you. he was ordained as a Cistercian on December 23, who hold harmful theological and pastoral views the Sincerely in Christ, In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings 1956. He later became a priest of the Madonna House license and confidence to come into the light and ex- of Christ for the sake of his body, the church. I became a community in the Diocese of Pembroke, Ontario, in pose their previously hidden darkness. In recognizing Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap. minister of this church through the commission God gave which he was incardinated on October 15, 1969. In me to preach among you his word in its fullness. 1978, he became a member of the Mother of God —Colossians 1:24 Community in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and became the community chaplain in 1997. his text sums up for me how Fr. Francis In recent years, Fr. Francis held several positions: November 1, 2017 lived, and the reason for the profound in- Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the Domini- fluence he had on so many, myself and my can House of Studies in Washington, D.C.; Senior Fel- WASHINGTON—Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of In saying this, we all must acknowledge that legitimate family included. Fr. Francis’s life bore the low at the Intercultural Forum for Faith and Culture at Galveston-Houston, President of the U.S. Conference of differences exist, and that it is the work of the Church, the Thardship of the Gospel. “In season and out of season” the John Paul II Cultural Center in D.C.; and Cardinal Catholic Bishops, has issued the following statement on the entire body of Christ, to work towards an ever-growing he focused on the reality of the living Jesus. Through Adam Maida Chair in Biblical Studies at Sacred Heart nature of dialogue within the Church today. understanding of God’s truth. prayer, personal sacrifice, and the preaching of the Word Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. In the past, he of God, Fr. Francis proclaimed the power of the Cross taught at the Gregorian University in Rome, Ecole Full statement follows: As Bishops, we recognize the need for honest and humble to change lives, especially his own. As a result, he spent Biblique in Jerusalem, and the Catholic University of discussions around theological and pastoral issues. himself to the end making the Scriptures come alive in America in Washington, D.C. He also taught at the “The departure today of Fr. Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M., We must always keep in mind St. Ignatius of Loyola’s an extraordinarily real way. For nearly eighty years, from Franciscan University of Steubenville and the John Paul Cap., as a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine and “presupposition” to his Spiritual Exercises: “…that it age 7 until his passing from this life on August 11, 2017, II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Wash- the publication of his letter to Pope Francis gives us an should be presumed that every good Christian ought to be Fr. Francis was dedicated to hearing, doing, and pro- ington, D.C. A long-time member of the Fellowship of opportunity to reflect on the nature of dialogue within the more eager to put a good interpretation on a neighbor’s claiming the Word of God. Catholic Scholars, Fr. Francis was the recipient of the Church. Throughout the history of the Church, ministers, statement than to condemn it.” This presupposition should I first met Fr. Francis at the Atlantic City Charis- 2011 Cardinal Wright award. He received his Licentiate theologians and the laity all have debated and have be afforded all the more to the teaching of Our Holy Father. matic Convention in 1977, the year my wife and I were in Sacred Theology from St. Thomas Pontifical Univer- held personal opinions on a variety of theological and married. As was the case with countless others, I was sity in 1959. Fr. Francis earned his Doctorate in Sacred The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is a pastoral issues. In more recent times, these debates thoroughly impacted by his preaching. He shared about Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1978. collegial body of bishops working towards that goal. As have made their way into the popular press. That is to his experiences proclaiming the Word of God, particu- During that period of time in Rome, Fr. Francis Pastors and Teachers of the Faith, therefore, let me assert be expected and is often good. However, these reports larly in Jerusalem, and I was so impressed that I told my served as an advisor to Cardinal Suenens during the that we always stand in strong unity with and loyalty to are often expressed in terms of opposition, as political— wife, “This is someone who can help us deepen our life Second Vatican Council. He had come in contact with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, who “is the perpetual and conservative vs. liberal, left vs. right, pre-Vatican II vs. of faith.” Fr. Francis was, at the time, a member of Ma- the Catholic Charismatic Renewal at Madonna House visible source and foundation of the unity both of the Vatican II. These distinctions are not always very helpful. donna House Lay Apostolate in Combermere, Canada. and recognized how the work of the Council was to bishops and of the whole company of the faithful” My wife and I, like many others, imagined how great it reach the laity through that movement of the Spirit. Christian charity needs to be exercised by all involved. (LG, no. 23).” would be to live in community with him. Little did we Fr. Francis became a leader in the renewal. He preached know that six years later this would come to pass when at the summer conferences at Steubenville for priests we joined Fr. Francis to live in the Mother of God and deacons for many years. His teaching and spiritual Community. It was there that he became our friend, direction renewed the spiritual lives and ministries of priest, confessor, spiritual director, intellectual mentor, countless laity and many clergy. In the summer of 2010, and brother for thirty-four years. a few weeks after vesting me at my diaconal ordina- Fr. Martin was born on October 20, 1930, in New tion, he suffered a massive heart attack in an airport York City. At 7 years of age he knew that he was called in Copenhagen, while traveling home from serving as to preach the Word of God. As a child he was known spiritual director for a retreat. He never fully recovered, to gather the neighborhood kids and teach them but he was able to return to active ministry for one last about the bible. He credited his family, and especially drive to the goal line: preaching, teaching, and spear- catholicscholars.org his holy Aunt Mary, for their influence in his life. Fr. heading the Word Proclaimed Institute, which offers

8 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 9 Articles homiletic helps to priests and deacons. Then, beginning diaconate and a deepened Catholic approach to healing around 2015, having spent himself in the service of the in my psychotherapy practice. Gospel, Fr. Francis began more deeply “filling up in his There are many characteristic sayings of Fr. Francis The Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch own flesh…the sufferings of Christ,” preparing to meet that his students remember him by. He was known to him face to face. begin his courses by telling students, “In this class the and Other Pro-life Developments In the spirit of renewal Fr. Francis would often Lord is going to heal your epistemology.” Very few say that the first modern mind you have to preach the knew what he was talking about, but many experi- Gospel to is your own. He did this faithfully, and in enced the healing of the modern mind that Fr. Francis in the First Part of 2017 the course of his own “hearing the Word of God with ardently promoted. Other similar sayings included: faith,” Fr. Francis brought many souls with him. He “Faith is as real as revelation is personal,” and “Faith is once said to the Lord, “I’ll trade you every sin I’ve got a way of knowing. It is a prophetic interpretation of by William L. Saunders to Congress and a child of Haitian immigrants. After just to know you better.” One time he described an reality.” When people would express admiration for his Americans United for Life the talk—wildly cheered and appreciated by the large image he received in prayer of a chain being lifted from grasp of biblical languages, he would say, “Most of the Originally published in National Catholic Bioethics crowd—the March itself commenced, finishing at the the mud. He understood that the higher one link was saints never knew Hebrew or Greek, and they are in Quarterly 17, no. 2 (Summer 2017). steps of the Supreme Court. lifted, the more links it would take with it out of the heaven. A lot of scholars knew Hebrew and Greek, and President Trump tweeted, “The March for Life is mud. I was one of those links that his work and sacrific- I don’t know where they are right now!” March for Life so important. To all of you marching—you have my full es lifted up. In community, in celebrating the liturgy, in The title of one of his books, The Life-Changer, support!” prayer meetings, and through the Pastoral Institute, Fr. describes Fr. Francis well. His transformational presence anuary witnessed two large marches in the District Francis brought his scholarship and spirituality to others constantly pressed those who listened to him toward of Columbia. One was the Women’s March on Pro-Life Consequences of seeking to deepen their spiritual lives, meeting people holiness: toward the intimate, personal knowledge of JWashington on January 21. Although it was sup- posed to be an inclusive event for all women, pro- where they were, working hard at communicating in a the Persons of the Trinity. He taught me how to pray the 2016 Elections life women were barred from involvement. way that would most effectively reach what he called and “do theology on my knees,” a favorite theme of his. he elections in the fall of 2016 were of immense The second march came a few days later, on January “the average Sunday golfer in the pew.” He introduced His teaching in hermeneutics and biblical studies always importance to the pro-life cause. First, at least 27. It was the annual March for Life, protesting the us to Catholic biblical and philosophical scholarship aimed at the “reality that the text is talking about.” His nominally pro-life (Republican) majorities were Supreme Court’s creation in 1973 of an unrestricted T and to the Magisterial documents that would move us doctoral dissertation was on the biblical theology of the elected in both houses of Congress. Second, Pence’s and right to abortion in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. to “renew our minds,” which Fr. Francis considered a encounter. For me, the Word of God took on a kind of This year’s March for Life differed from others in a Conway’s boss, Donald Trump, who ran at least in part precious gift to be cherished and protected. His circle human form in the way that Fr. Francis lived, suffered, major respect. For the first time ever, the vice president as a pro-life candidate, was elected president. That means of influence extended throughout the world by way of preached, healed, and taught. Our hearts indeed burned of the United States addressed the marchers. Introduc- that pro-life laws can be passed in Congress and signed his writing, teaching, preached retreats, and conferences, within us as Jesus living in Fr. Francis brought the texts ing him, his wife, Karen, reminded the crowd that “this into force and effect by the president. including those he organized at the Mother of God to life. He always taught that the liturgy was the native is not our [family’s] first March!” The vice president’s We shall see what legislative pro-life initiatives Community and the Word Proclaimed Institute. home of the Scriptures, and he never tired of teaching speech reflected his long-time pro-life commitment: eventually become law, but priorities announced by Among the many wonderful conferences organized us how to move toward contemplative prayer through “Life is winning in America.…I have long believed that congressional leaders include defunding Planned Par- by Fr. Francis, the Mother of God annual Healing Sym- the practice of lectio divina, into a personal encounter a society can be judged by how we care for our most enthood and enacting the Pain-Capable Unborn Child posium stands out in my memory. Many scholars were with Jesus. vulnerable—the aged, the infirm, the disabled, and the Protection Act (H.R. 36), which bans abortion after invited to share from their areas of expertise, stimulating Fr. Francis Martin will be sorely missed by his unborn.…I urge you to press on.…We will not rest twenty weeks (with a few exceptions). a fruitful dialogue among Catholic biblical scholarship, family, friends, the Mother of God Community, the until we restore a culture of life for ourselves and our Regarding Planned Parenthood, Congress and the philosophy, spiritual theology, contemporary approaches Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and priests and stu- posterity.”1 president acted together to revoke a regulation put in to psychotherapy and neuroscience, along with the dents around the world who were influenced by his Vice President Pence was preceded at the podium place by President Obama in the last few days of his Orthodox spiritual tradition. (Fr. Francis was himself spiritual direction and penetrating understanding of by presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway. She asked the presidency. Obama’s rule prohibited a state from redi- bi-ritual and engaged in a long-standing dialogue with the Scriptures. He always acknowledged the giants crowd what it means to be pro-life: “It means to stand recting federal Title X family-planning funds away from the Orthodox tradition through his close personal on whose shoulders he stood: St. Thomas Aquinas, up, stand tall, and stand together on behalf of babies abortion providers to other providers, something many friendship with Bishop Joseph Raya.) Professor Origen, St. Augustine, Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von in the womb. It is no coincidence that the first right states wanted to do. Under the Congressional Review Kenneth Schmitz, another dear friend of his, who died Balthazar, and his professors, including Fr. Stanislas cited in the Declaration of Independence is the right to Act, Congress, by a simple majority in each house, may one week after him, was also a close collaborator in Lyonnet. Fr. Francis has faithfully passed on their life.…It is God-given….So, to the March for Life 2017, revoke a regulation imposed during the last six months the thought and direction of the Healing Symposium, legacy of scholarship, prayer, and fellowship. In your allow me to make it very clear: We [the Trump adminis- of the previous administration. Although it took a tie- as were Bob Schuchts and Mary Healy. This collabo- charity, please continue to pray for him, that the Lord tration] hear you. We see you. We respect you.”2 breaking vote by Pence in the Senate, Congress voted ration was one of the richest associations of my life may bring him to the fullness of the place that Jesus Pence and Conway were speakers at the program to revoke Obama’s rule, and Trump signed the new leg- with Fr. Francis. Out of it grew my vocation to the has prepared for him. ✠ preceding the March. Another memorable speaker was islation in mid-April, meaning states may now redirect Mia Love, the first black female Republican elected family-planning funds away from abortion providers

10 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 11 Articles

such as Planned Parenthood.3 In 1993, Gorsuch had served as a judicial clerk for Justice human life.” Scalia famously derided this as the “sweet norms, such as that legislation be “prospective” and “of Regulations not subject to the Congressional Re- Kennedy following the retirement of Justice Byron White, mystery of life” passage. Scalia was an originalist, who general applicability,” meaning that it does not target a view Act can be changed under the Administrative Pro- for whom Gorsuch also clerked at the time. (Both White did not believe judges were free to expound on a word particular person for harsh treatment?) Or should the cedures Act, but such changes require a fairly lengthy and Gorsuch are Colorado natives.) After the swearing- like “liberty”; rather, for originalism the meaning of the Court develop the meaning of the substantive provisions “notice-and-comment” rule-making process and thus in, Gorsuch immediately “assumed his seat” and on April word is limited to that provided by the original text, the as it thinks best? If so, that is “substantive due process.” are more difficult and require more time. This is appar- 17 began hearing oral arguments in pending cases. One actual language and structure of the text. Since the text This issue was central to the hearings before the Sen- ently the case with the HHS contraception mandate, of the cases to be argued that week was Trinity Lutheran is silent on abortion, Scalia would not find in it such a ate Judiciary Committee during the Gorsuch nomination. which was adopted by Health and Human Services in Church v. Comer, a case involving religious liberty under right. Those who disagree with Scalia, such as Justice Time and again, Gorsuch was asked if certain unenumer- 2012 pursuant to notice-and-comment rule-making and the Constitution. (The state of Missouri claims it may Kennedy, believe justices should interpret words such as ated rights, like abortion, were protected by the Constitu- which threatens the very existence of Catholic and oth- deny all state funds going to any “church-related” entity, “liberty” as they think best for society. This philosophy is tion. Gorsuch took a limited view of the judicial role—a er organizations that refuse to provide insurance cover- including funds for resurfacing playgrounds at preschools called by its admirers “living constitution” and by its de- judge should decide only the case before him, and since age for contraceptives and abortifacients. pursuant to a state constitutional provision.) tractors “judicial activism.” Scalia was an originalist, and the way an issue is framed depends on the factual context On the other hand, anti-life executive orders can Few, if any, nominees have ever had a more impres- Gorsuch is rightly put in the originalist camp. As he said of the particular dispute, as well as how the arguments be reversed by the president acting alone. Trump did so sive resume than does Gorsuch. After receiving his un- during his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Com- were presented by each side of the dispute, it is not appro- within days of his inauguration. On January 23, he rein- dergraduate degree from Columbia University, where he mittee, the starting point is the “plain text . . . read as a priate for a nominee to say how we would decide a fu- stated the Mexico City Policy, which bars federal funds was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he reasonable citizen would.” Thus, Gorsuch was opposed ture case.11 Frustrated senators asked him if precedent, that from going to organizations that promote or provide attended Harvard Law School, graduating with honors. chiefly because of his judicial philosophy. is, the holding in one or more prior cases, gave a right to abortions overseas.4 (The policy, which was first insti- Subsequently, he received a doctorate from Oxford Uni- There are a few things to note about this argument abortion. Gorsuch, of course, conceded that is true (that tuted by President Ronald Reagan, had been rescinded versity under the direction of one of the world’s leading over judicial philosophy. Originalism insists that rights is, decisions such as Roe do exist). Gorsuch admitted the in 2009 by President Barack Obama.) jurisprudential scholars, John Finnis. Later, after President must be enumerated in or clearly implied by the text of Court had had numerous opportunities to overturn those Another significant consequence of the elections is George W. Bush nominated him, he was unanimously the Constitution. If they are not, any recognition of such decisions but had not done so. However, he would not go that many executive posts will be filled by the president, confirmed by the Senate to serve as a judge for the Tenth putative rights is left to the states. If rights are to exist as so far as to say he would not vote to do so, as these sena- some requiring Senate approval. Although a significant Circuit Court of Appeals. He served there for over ten national rights, they must be added by the people to the tors wanted him to do. Indeed, he noted that precedent number of important posts remain unfilled, noted pro- years before being nominated by President Trump to the text of the Constitution through the amendment process. is not always entitled to deference; it depends, in part, on life figures are in place. For instance, former congressman Supreme Court. The American Bar Association gave him (This is the way the Constitution itself provides for it to whether the prior case was rightly decided, that is, wheth- Dr. Tom Price now heads HHS,5 and former senator Jeff its highest rating of “well qualified.” be changed.) The Constitution does not give the power er it was based in the Constitutional text.12 Sessions is now attorney general and leads the Justice And yet his nomination was subject to the first par- to the Supreme Court to add new rights. All the Consti- The viewer of those televised hearings before the Department. Price will oversee the overhaul of Obam- tisan filibuster in history. What are the reasons for that? tution says about the Supreme Court is that it is one of Judiciary Committee can be forgiven if he sensed a kind acare and, inter alia, the elimination of its anti-life aspects. What do they tell us about the potential significance of three coequal branches of government with the power of of dance going on. For the viewer would be correct— Sessions is a strong opponent of legalized abortion: “I the Gorsuch confirmation? review. The Constitution does not say that the Court is there was, indeed, a story behind the story, so to speak. It firmly believeRoe v. Wade and its descendants represent First, of course, Gorsuch replaced Scalia. While Sca- to resolve all controversies. It does not say that the Court is a story with a long history, and it concerns particularly one of the worst, colossally erroneous Supreme Court lia was well known to be a pro-life justice, it would be should interpret words as the Court thinks is best. It does one substantive issue: abortion. decisions of all time.”6 Appointees like Price and Sessions more accurate to say that his judicial philosophy made it not make the Court the policy-making branch of gov- As noted, the “right” to abortion was really created will play a major role in shaping how the Trump admin- clear to him that there was no right to abortion in the ernment. The Constitution separates national power into by the Court from vague guarantees of liberty in the istration both removes anti-life measures and takes posi- Constitution. Remember, the reason there is a right to three coequal branches. The policy-making power is re- Constitution. Since the Court is poorly placed to de- tive steps to build a culture of life. abortion in America is because the Supreme Court said served to the Congress, who, with its resources and large cide disputed matters of public policy, its abortion deci- the Constitution provided for it. The Constitution itself, staffs, is better able to determine facts, and is better able sions have spawned an unending public protest (such as however, does not contain the word “abortion.” None- to resolve conflicts among the competing preferences the March for Life). Though the Court demanded that Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch theless, the Court said the “due process clause” provides of different groups through the familiar horse trading of those protests cease in its 1992 decision in Casey, they robably the most important pro-life appointment for such a right.8 The due process clause is a portion of legislative politics. If courts take this role, they usurp the did not: this year was, for instance, the forty-fifthcon - so far is that of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme the Fourteenth Amendment. The relevant language of legislative role and effectively deprive the citizens of the secutive March for Life. Court. section 1 of the amendment says, “Nor shall any state right to rule themselves through the representatives they Since most Americans did not support, and never P 10 Gorsuch was nominated a few days after the March deprive any person of life, liberty or property without elect (and can “un-elect”). This is why judicial activism have supported, the unlimited abortion rights created by for Life to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in due process of law.” In Roe and Doe and in a subsequent is also sometimes called judicial policy making—refer- the Court in Roe and Doe and sustained by Casey, sup- February 2016. Gorsuch was confirmed on April 7 on a case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld Roe, the ring, that is, to judges making policy without the Consti- porters of abortion rights turned to the Court to pro- vote of 54 to 45, in which three Democrats joined the Supreme Court said that the word “liberty” includes an tutional right to do so. tect them. The idea was that what elections would not Republican majority.7 He was sworn into office in a pri- essentially unlimited right to terminate a pregnancy.9 In One can understand the dispute over the Fourteenth produce (a pro-abortion majority of Congress) could vate ceremony at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Casey, the Court defined “liberty” thus: “At the heart of Amendment’s meaning in this light. Is a Court supposed be achieved by carefully controlling the make-up of the John Roberts on April 10, and in a public ceremony later liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of exis- to apply a procedural rule? (That is, was the process by nine judges on the Court. Thus, abortion supporters that day at the White House by Justice Anthony Kennedy. tence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of which the state acted in accordance with appropriate sought to ensure that the Court contained pro-abortion

12 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 13 Articles judges, and abortion opponents pledged to choose judges Democrats are, of course, in the minority in the Sen- presidential election, Bush should not nominate anyone, leaving the issue to the states to decide. who would overturn Roe. ate. But they have more than forty votes and could thus allowing the election to decide the president who would However, the Court in Obergefell v. Hodges appeared This first became evident in 1987, with the nomina- successfully employ a filibuster in normal circumstances. fill the seat. The Republicans simply followed that advice to call into question the continuing validity of those tion of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court by Ronald However, the Republicans, learning from the thirty years’ after the death of Scalia, and the issue of Supreme Court decisions. Indeed, if the living constitution philosophy Reagan. Bork was a formidable intellectual, whom ev- war over judicial nominations in which they were con- nominations was an important part of the 2016 presi- reigns on the Court, it is difficult to see how the liberty eryone expected to have a significant effect on future stantly outmaneuvered by the Democrats, stated they dential campaign, as noted above. (The Senate majority interest under the Fourteenth Amendment would fail Supreme Court decisions. Within minutes, Senator Ed- would employ the nuclear option themselves, eliminating leader Mitch McConnell stated before the election that to provide a right to end one’s life. The nomination and ward Kennedy went onto the Senate floor to claim that the Supreme Court filibuster this time. Democrats, who he would hold hearings on any Supreme Court nomina- confirmation of Gorsuch ensures that when that issue the confirmation of Bork would force women to have support abortion rights and want to protect them, faced tion from Hillary Clinton if she were elected.) arises in the future, as it will, Justice Gorsuch will bring back-alley abortions. Kennedy was determined to ensure a dilemma: employ the filibuster against Gorsuch or save While the elimination of the Supreme Court fili- his scholarship and his judicial philosophy of original- a pro-abortion majority on the Court. it for the next nominee? From a certain perspective, the buster can be lamented, it was inevitable. Democrats ism to bear on its resolution. ✠ This began the battle over the Court, and it has Gorsuch nomination was unimportant, for he was only themselves—including their nominee for vice president, continued for thirty years. During this time, Democrats replacing one of four conservatives on a Court that also Tim Kaine—had pledged to abolish it once they re- ENDNOTES blocked many nominees of Republican presidents, even contains four liberals and the essential “swing” vote, Jus- gained control of the Senate. The reason, again, is abor- those to the lower or inferior courts just below the Su- tice Kennedy. A fifth conservative will be needed to es- tion. To protect it, Democrats decided to make sure the 1 Mike Pence, “Remarks at the March for Life,” January 27, 2017, Federal News Service transcript, C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/. preme Court, the courts of appeal. How did they do this? tablish a majority. The next nomination, when it comes, Court was composed of judicial activists who would 2 Kellyanne Conway, “Address at the Annual U.S. March for Life Rally,” After all, the president nominates and the Senate con- is likely to be for one of the liberals or for Kennedy and continue to find abortion a matter of substantive due transcript from audio, American Rhetoric, http://www.americanrhetoric. firms. So one might think that if the president is pro-life will thus be for “control” of the Court. process under the liberty guarantee of the Fourteenth com/. and the Senate is likewise, a nominee of such a president The Democrats chose to filibuster Gorsuch. This was Amendment. In any case, the fact is that the Consti- 3 Colin Dwyer, “Trump Signs Law Giving States Option to Deny Funding for Planned Parenthood,” NPR, April 13, 2017, http://www.npr.org/. would be confirmed. But things were not so simple. a poor choice from some perspectives, since it meant the tution is silent about the filibuster. The filibuster was 4 John McCormack, “Trump Reverses Unpopular Obama Executive Ac- The minority had a right, under Senate rules, to “extend Republicans would eliminate the filibuster and it would created under Senate rules as a product of a traditional tion on Abortion by Reinstating Mexico City Policy,” Weekly Standard debate,” that is, to keep talking for as long as it wished; not be around when needed to stop control of the Court sort of civility that once prevailed in the Senate but has (January 23, 2017), http://www.weeklystandard.com/. another term for this is “filibuster.” A majority facing a passing to the conservatives with a future nomination. evaporated in the battle over abortion. Since elimination 5 Steven Ertelt, “Senate Confirms Pro-Life Rep. Tom Price as HHS Secre- tary despite Planned Parenthood’s Objections,” LifeNews.com, February filibuster can end debate, but only if it can muster sixty However, the raw political fact is that the Democrats of the filibuster is consonant with the Constitution, it 10, 2017, http://www.lifenews.com/. votes; otherwise, the filibuster continues, preventing a could not prevent the final elimination of the filibuster. may more properly be called the constitutional option 6 Steven Ertelt, “Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions:Roe v. Wade ‘One vote on the underlying nomination. Under the procedural maneuver Democrats employed rather than the nuclear option. of the Worst Supreme Court Decisions’ Ever,” LifeNews.com, January 10, When Democrats’ blocking of nominees through under Harry Reid, mentioned above, Republicans could 2017, http://www.lifenews.com/. actual or threatened filibusters became acute during the change the Senate rules simply because they were in the 7 Ariane de Vogue and Dan Berman, “Neil Gorsuch Confirmed to the Assisted Suicide Supreme Court,” CNN, April 7, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/. presidency of George W. Bush, Republicans threated to majority, and Republicans had said they would do so. So 8 The Supreme Court provided an alternative source, the Ninth Amend- change the Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster (mean- if the Democrats held off on the filibuster until the next orsuch’s doctoral dissertation concerned assisted ment: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be ing a simple majority vote would end debate, and a sec- vacancy, the Republicans would simply change the rules suicide. It was subsequently published as The construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” However, this has not been developed in subsequent cases, which uniformly rely on ond majority vote would confirm a nominee). The press then. Still, an argument could be made that the Demo- GFuture of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Writ- the Fourteenth Amendment. referred to this as the “nuclear option,” suggesting that it crats should have held off, because later, when control of ten when Oregon was the only state to have legalized 9 Doe, which said abortion could be chosen for any reason, made that was a drastic last step. However, moderate Democrats and the Court was at stake, there would be a better chance assisted suicide, it is a very thorough review of the law choice subject only to the assent of the abortion provider, who obviously Republicans struck a deal to allow some nominees to of provoking widespread popular political backlash that and an in-depth consideration of the arguments in favor has a financial interest in seeing that an abortion takes place. 10 As Gorsuch said during the hearing, “Notice [of what the law is] is the be confirmed, and the Republicans never proceeded to would cause the Republicans to refrain from eliminating and opposed. In a scholarly way, Gorsuch puts forward key to the rule of law.” Citizens should not be held accountable to rules eliminate the filibuster. the filibuster. for consideration the chief argument against legalizing of which they could not reasonably be aware. He also noted that “if Subsequently, in 2013, when Republicans were In the event, Democrats filibustered Gorsuch, one assisted suicide—the principle that the intentional kill- judges were secret legislators…the very idea of government by the people would be at risk.” 13 blocking some of Obama’s nominees, Senate majority of the most qualified nominees in history, a man who is ing of an innocent human being is always wrong. 11 Gorsuch was following the so-called Ginsburg standard, under which a leader Harry Reid employed the nuclear option. Extend- hardly an ideologue but who is surely an originalist. Sadly, many states and localities have proceeded to nominee does not speculate about future cases. As current Justice Ruth ing the metaphor, Reid’s act might be called a “tactical There was a good deal of talk by the Democrats legalize assisted suicide since publication of the book, Bader Ginsburg said during her confirmation hearings in 1993, “A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would nuclear strike,” for it did not completely eliminate the about needing to level the field after the way Republicans including, recently, the District of Columbia and Colo- show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case; it would filibuster but left it intact for Supreme Court nomina- treated the nomination of Merrick Garland following rado. display disdain for the entire judicial process.” tions while eliminating it for lower court and administra- Scalia’s death. The narrative was that Republicans had The reason these jurisdictions could even consider 12 Gorsuch coauthored a book with twelve other judges on the proper use tive branch appointments. shamefully treated Garland by refusing to consider his the question whether to legalize assisted suicide is be- of precedent, Law of Judicial Precedent. He frequently remarked that he would act in accordance with the analysis in that book, whose coauthors Thus we come to the Gorsuch nomination. Presi- nomination, either through a committee vote or a vote cause the Supreme Court in 1997, in the twin decisions include liberals and conservatives. dent Trump ran squarely on the issue of Supreme Court by the entire Senate. However, while this has a certain in Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill, refused 13 This statement, on its face, appears to implicate abortion as well as appointments. He pledged to nominate someone from surface plausibility, the Democrats themselves, during the to recognize, as a matter of substantive due process, a assisted suicide, a fact not lost upon Senate Democrats. For instance, Senator Diane Feinstein raised it in her first round of questions. However, one of two lists he received from conservative legal and presidency of George W. Bush, had stated that, should a federal constitutional right to assisted suicide under the Gorsuch refused to speculate on how he would decide the abortion issue policy groups. Gorsuch was on that list. seat become vacant on the Court before the upcoming liberty interest of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby if it came before the Court again.

14 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 15 Articles

in her generation. In 1939 she received the Lambeth the Lewis Letters: “[Sr. Penelope] responded by telling Diploma in theology with a thesis on the Hebrew text me [Hooper] that I was dragging my feet over a Brit- The Kingliness of Friendship of the Psalms. In 1940 she was awarded the Archbishop’s ish collection. She propelled me into action by giving License to teach theology. Sr. Penelope was eventu- the fifty-six letters she had from Lewis to the Bodleian by Clara Sarrocco two pence about anyone else’s family, profession, class, ally the author of numerous books, twenty-five on (September 1967).” They are now in the Duke Hum- The Institute of Religious Studies income, race, or previous history. Of course you will theology alone. She translated seventeen volumes of phrey’s Division of the Library. Later the following St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie get to know about most of these in the end.…They the Church Fathers, including several volumes in the year an arrangement was made with Wheaton College will come out bit by bit, to furnish an illustration or Ancient Christian Writers Series, Faber’s Classics on whereby each library would send the other copies of After what we have said, a discussion of friendship would an analogy, to serve as pegs for an anecdote; never for the Contemplative Life, and several in the series on the letters that it managed to collect. naturally follow, since it is a virtue or implies virtue, and their own sake. That is the kingliness of Friendship.1 Cistercian Fathers. In 1970, at the age of 80, she began Since then, the three-volume edition of The Collect- is besides most necessary with a view to living. For with- In his own life, Lewis shared the kingliness of translating Hugh of St. Victor. Following the custom ed Letters edited by Walter Hooper has been published. out friends no one would choose to live, though he had all friendship with Sr. Penelope, CSMV, whom he often of the order, many of her works were published simply Volume 1 covers the years 1905 to 1931, volume 2 1931 other goods. referred to as his “elder sister in the faith.” Lewis, a man under the name of “A Religious of CSMV.” to 1945, and volume 3 1946 to 1963. Sr. Penelope’s let- — Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 8.1.1155a3-6 of letters like Shaw, and Sr. Penelope, a scholar in her Sr. Penelope wrote The Wood: An Outline of Chris- ters are in volumes 2 and 3. own right like Dame Laurentia, began corresponding tianity in 1935. The book went through four editions The letters that Lewis received from his many cor- istory tells of many friendships, but few in 1939. Sr. Penelope also corresponded with Thomas with the last one coming out in May 1970 at the re- respondents no longer exist. Lewis explained the reason are as unlikely as the friendship between Merton beginning in 1965. The letters were concerned quest of the Episcopal Book Club. The stated purpose in a letter to Don Luigi Pedrollo of the Verona Fathers, George Bernard Shaw and Dame Lauren- with the writings of Isaac of Stella, a twelfth-century of the book is “to help people whose view of the wood dated January 3, 1961. The Verona Fathers were compil- tia McLachlan, a religious in the Benedic- monk, theologian, and philosopher. They can be found of Christianity is sometimes obscured by the trees.” The ing a dossier on Fr. John Calabria in preparation for Htine community of Stanbrook Abbey. The drama The in Merton’s somewhat controversial book The Hidden book’s three sections (Creation, Fall, Restoration) have his beatification and asked Lewis if he had any of Fr. Best of Friends, written by Hugh Whitemore, is based on Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious the aim of showing God’s hand in the created world, in John’s letters. Lewis replied: “I wish I could send you the years of correspondence between Shaw and Dame Experience and Social Concerns.2 the Bible, and in history. In the preface she notes: copies of the letters which the Venerable Fr. Don John Laurentia. His high regard for her was such that in 1924 Sr. Penelope Lawson was an Angligan nun. She was I know that there are many faithful Christians who Calabria wrote. But I have neither the letters them- he dedicated his play St. Joan to her. born Ruth Penelope Lawson on March 20, 1890, in are vaguely uneasy about the status of the Bible. They selves nor copies of them. It is my practice to consign Dame Laurentia was very much the equal of Shaw’s Clent, Worchestershire, the daughter of the Reverend are haunted by the idea that somehow it got discred- to the flames all letters after two days…not because I famous wit and cynicism. She was elected Abbess at Robert Lawson, Vicar of Clent. At the age of nine she ited…, but you have no cause at all to fear.…The esteem them of no value, but because I do not wish to Stanbrook in 1931 and was a leading expert on music entered the Worcester High School, later to be known Bible is all right, and always will be. Our Lord Jesus relinquish things often worthy of sacred silence to sub- and medieval manuscripts. Pope Pius XI awarded her as the Alice Ottley School. It was there that she devel- Christ is not only the Word of God Incarnate, but he sequent reading by posterity.”6 Fr. John was beatified by the Bene Merenti medal for her work on Church music oped a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and a love is also the Word of God en-scriptured (sic), and all the Pope John Paul II on April 17, 1988 and canonized by and the restoration of Gregorian chant in England of Latin and Greek. In her spiritual autobiography, Med- scholars and critics and doubters in the world can- him on April 18, 1999. An atheist, Shaw indulged with her the polemics of itations of a Caterpillar, published in 1962, Sr. Penelope not dis-inspire Holy Writ.…Approach it in simplicity, The first of Sr. Penelope’s letters is dated August 9, their disparate positions in many enjoyable and lengthy attributes to her experiences at the school the primary believing in the Holy Spirit, asking him to guide you 1939. Surprisingly it does not relate to Lewis’s religious letters. One day, well into years of their friendship, Shaw influence in developing her interest in religious life. and you will find Christ there.4 writings but to his science fiction. According to A. N. received a formal announcement bearing the name of At the age of twenty-two, after spending some time at Another of Sr. Penelope’s books, The Coming: A Wilson, “[i]t was not, however, of learned matters that Dame Laurentia, followed by a set of dates. In an un- Oxford, Ruth entered religious life at the Convent of Study in the Christian Faith (1974), was originally pub- she first wrote to Lewis but of science fiction. She had characteristic display of sincere emotion, Shaw bared St. Mary the Virgin. The community had its beginnings lished in two parts. Part 1 was called The Coming of the enjoyed Out of the Silent Planet: “At ordinary times we his soul to the Sisters at the Abbey. He offered his con- in the mid-nineteenth century. It was one of the first Lord (1953), and part 2 As in Adam (1954). She wrote: do not read novels at all, as you may imagine, but the dolences and indicated how much he would miss her, Anglican religious orders founded since the Reforma- ”The theme of this book is that of the Incarnation, in right novel at the right moment can have a real spiritual for she had become his true friend. Shortly afterward tion and dates its beginnings to the time of Tractarians, the Spirit, in the Sacraments and in the Judgment, there value.”7 Sr. Penelope continues: “[Out of the Silent Plan- he received a reply from Dame Laurentia herself, who who adhered to the High Church movement.3 She is a single Coming, and that of Man in his entirety to et] provokes thought in just the directions where I have indicated that she was very much alive and that the took the religious name of Penelope, was professed heaven.…It will be a combination of the modern and always wanted to think.…There are bits—the relations announcement was sent in celebration of her Golden in 1915, and was assigned to the community’s training critical with the traditional and typological.…It aims of the unfallen creatures with Oyarsa, their social order, Jubilee in religious life. It was a delightful moment for home for girls, where she worked for six years. Sr. Pe- only at starting people on a train of thought.…Its pur- their peaceful awareness of the spiritual world—which Dame Laurentia, who outlived Shaw by three years. nelope spent four years teaching before being relieved pose…[is to] send them all back to the Bible.”5 are more lovely and more satisfying than anything I C. S. Lewis never commented on Shaw’s unlikely of this duty on account of ill health. Many of Lewis’s correspondents expressed the have met before.”8 friendship with Dame Laurentia, but what he wrote in The convent was located in Wantage, only about desire to place his letters at the Bodleian Library in Lewis’s August 9, 1939 response indicated that he The Four Loves describes, albeit inadvertently, the rela- fifteen miles from Oxford, which allowed Sr. Penelope Oxford. Before this was accomplished, however, Profes- was preparing to write a sequel to the novel. He con- tionship between Shaw and Laurentia: to continue her studies in theology and the Middle sor Clyde S. Kilby asked Sr. Penelope if she would con- fided that the inspiration for the book came from a In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what Ages at Keble College. Her work brought her a reputa- tribute her letters to the Wade Collection at Wheaton student who honestly believed in interplanetary colo- he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares tion among scholars as the best translator from Latin College. According to Hooper’s 1988 revised edition of nization and that the scientific hope of defeating death

16 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 17 Articles could be a real rival to Christianity. Ironically, because True to his word, the next month (November to mistake mere disappointment in wh. there is much Sr. Penelope’s book The Coming of the Lord: A Study the prospect of war loomed so large (Germany invaded 1940) Lewis followed up with Sr. Penelope: wounded pride…for true repentance. I ought to have in the Creed was published in 1953. Lewis wrote: “I am 16 Czechoslovakia March 1939) some of the students were Well—we have come through the wall of fire and devoted a Screwtape letter to this. simply delighted, excited and most grateful…the best rethinking their areligious speculations. Lewis noted find ourselves (somewhat to our surprise) still alive Lewis sent his hand-written manuscript of The theological book by anyone I have read for a longtime. that only two of the sixty reviewers realized that the and even well. The suggestion about an orgy of ego- Screwtape Letters to Sr. Penelope for safe keeping because You are…the only person I ever met who gives me real idea of the fall of the Bent One was not a fictional cre- ism turns out, like all the enemy propaganda, to have the only other copy was in the hands of his publisher light on the Old Testament.…And many, many thanks ation of his own: “I believe this great ignorance might just a grain of truth in it, but I have no doubt that the and he was afraid that it might be destroyed in a for St. Bernard’s conception of the Palm Sunday pro- be a help to the evangelization of England: any amount proper method of dealing with that is to continue the bombing raid. Years later Sr. Penelope offered to send it cession.”20 of theology can now be smuggled into people’s minds practice, as I intend to do. For after all everything— back but in his reply, he stated that they could sell it on In the last two letters he wrote to Sr. Penelope under cover of romance without their knowing it.”9 even virtue, even prayer—has its dangers and if one the remote possibility that anyone would want it and before his final illness Lewis answers her obvious ques- Sr. Penelope had sent Lewis a copy of her book heeds the grain of truth in the enemy propaganda one the money could be used for a charitable cause. When tions: Yes, he has been made Professor of Medieval and God Persists. He indicated how much he valued it and can never do anything at all.13 the convent needed funds for the renovation of St. Renaissance English at Cambridge, and “Yes, it is true, asked her for information on a point she makes about Lewis continued the practice of weekly auricular Michael’s Chapel, they reluctantly sold the manuscript I married.…She is Joy Davidman whose Smoke on the the “crossing” of the nomadic and agricultural religions. confession for the remainder of his life. His confes- to the New York Public Library. It is now in the Berg Mountain you read.”21 In response to her questions, he recommends George sor was Fr. Walter Adams of the Society of St. John the Collections located on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Lewis’s last letter to Sr. Penelope was two months MacDonald and Charles Williams as suitable reading for Baptist known as the Cowley Fathers. When Fr. Adams the Main Research Division. before his death in 1963. He was seriously ill and had the convalescents who were in her care. died, Lewis wrote to Fr. John Calabria, his other spiri- In many of the other letters by Lewis to Sr. Penel- just revived from a coma. He wrote, “[P]erhaps the The relationship between Sr. Penelope and Lewis tual confidant, just how devastated he was over Fr. ope their conversations turn to their academic work, almost continuous prayers of my friends did it.…Ought was one of contemporary scholars sharing interests in Adams’s death. their writing, and the difficulties in publishing. He tells we to honour Lazarus rather than Stephen as the pro- each other’s writings, but it was also more than that. For One year later Sr. Penelope sent Lewis a pic- her that he wishes to dedicate Perelandra to the Com- tomartyr? To be brought back and have all one’s dying Lewis it was a spiritual connection and it greatly helped ture of the face of the Shroud of Turin. Lewis wrote: munity of St. Mary the Virgin and that That Hideous to do over again is rather hard.”22 Sr. Penelope, his him on his road to a deeper Christian faith. “Thank you so much for the head of Our Lord from Strength has been unanimously damned by all review- “elder sister in the faith,” outlived her dear friend and In the same letter he wrote: “Though I’m forty years the shroud. It has grown upon me wonderfully…the ers. He has been given a sabbatical in order to finish spiritual brother by fourteen years. She died in 1977 at old as a man I’m only about twelve as a Christian, so it great value is to make one realize that He was a man, his Oxford History of English Literature in the XVI Cen- the age of 87. would be a maternal act if you found time sometimes and once even a dead man. There is so much difference tury, and unfortunately the book he planned to write It is only from Lewis’s letters to Sr. Penelope that to mention me in your prayers.”10 between a doctrine and a realisation [sic].” Lewis kept with J. R. R. Tolkien never came about. “My book we can infer what she wrote to him. The high regard In return for God Persists, Lewis sent Sr. Penelope the picture of the face of the Shroud on the wall in his with Professor Tolkien—any book in collaboration he had of her as a scholar and writer is obvious, but a copy of Pilgrim’s Regress. She noted his satire on High bedroom for the remainder of his life. with that great but dilatory and unmethodical man—is more noteworthy is the influence she had on his spiri- Anglicans and this prompted Lewis’s response in No- Poignantly in the same letter he continued: “I am dated, I fear, to appear on the Greek Kalends!”17 The tual life. It far supersedes in depth the correspondence vember of 1939: “[B]ut I am still not what you’d call writing, really for company, for I’m a sad Ass at the book was to be titled Language and Human Nature. that Shaw had with Dame Laurentia. Lewis confided high. To me the real distinction is not between high and moment. I’ve been going through one of those pe- Another book that Lewis had hoped to write but was to Sr. Penelope his very cri de coeur and always asked for low but between religion and supernaturalism & sal- riods when one can no longer disguise the fact that forced to abandon was a book on prayer. “I have to her prayers and respected and accepted her advice. Al- vationism on the one hand and all watered-down and movement has been backward not forward. All the sins abandon the book on prayer; it was clearly not for me.” though he told her he was neither high nor low church, modernist versions on the other.”11 one thought one had escaped have been back again as He took it up again about ten years later and it became he gradually began to accept some of the religious By October 1940, Lewis had progressed in his strong as ever.”14 In a following letter he wrote: “I am Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer. It was written about practices of the High Church. Both he and Sr. Penelope spiritual development, in part because of Sr. Penelope’s ashamed of having grumbled. And your act was not that six months before he died and was published posthu- must have seen this momentous change with gratitude influence and prayers. He wrote to her: of a brute—in operation it was more like that of an mously in 1964. to God for giving him the joys of the sacramental life of the Anglo-Catholic Church: I am going to make my first confession next week, wh angel for…you started me on a quite new realisation of By 1951 Lewis had come into some of the joy- 15 [sic] will seem odd to you, but I wasn’t brought up what is meant by being ‘in Christ.’” fulness of his Christian faith. He wrote: “Everything [T]he best forms of friendship involve conversations to that kind of thing. It’s an odd experience. The deci- At this point in his life Lewis was undergoing a without, and many things within, are marvelously about the highest things, about truth, the truth that sion to do so was one of the hardest I have ever made: difficult time both in his home life and spiritually. He well at present. Indeed (I do not know whether to be is. If we cannot or will not have the truth, we cannot but now that I am committed (by dint of posting the confided to Sr. Penelope in November 1941: more ashamed or joyful at confessing this) I realise that be friends together in anything more than a passing letter before I had time to change my mind) I begin I think what really worries me is the feeling…that until about a month ago I never really believed…in sense—something that is contrary to the nature of to be afraid of the opposite extreme—afraid that I am there’s really nothing I so much dislike as religion— God’s forgiveness. What an ass I have been both for not friendship itself.…Our lives are not just ephemeral merely indulging in an orgy of egoism. However, quod that it’s all against the grain and I wonder if can really knowing and for thinking I knew.”18 discussion groups. They are made manifest in stories ubique quod ab omnibus. (“Let us hold on to that which stand it! Have you ever had this? Does one outgrow it? Again in 1951 Lewis had just read Simone Weil’s that have a beginning, middle and end. They must has been believed everywhere, always by everyone.” St. Of course there is no intellectual difficulty. If our faith book Waiting on God. He critiques it for Sr. Penelope: finally be judged to be complete, a truth that is Vincent of Lerins)…[T]hose who resist most violently is true then that is just what it ought to feel like, until “Erroneous in many ways, but I have rather fallen in likely the most important thing we can know about 23 in words are often those who go away and think it the new man is full-grown…What you say about ‘dis- love with it. The fragment at the end, about the sons of ourselves. ✠ over most fruitfully.12 appointed with oneself’ is very true—and a tendency Noah, wd. interest you especially.”19

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ENDNOTES 9 The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II—Books, Broadcasts and the War, is not so obvious but it is just as important. “Men and a while for the public to be educated properly on issues 1931-1949, ed. Walter Hooper (San Francisco: Harper, 2004), 262. women have very different ways of thinking and re- in which there is a heavy ideological investment. 10 Letters 2:263-64. 1 C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960), sponding that affect judgment, preference, and conduct. To appreciate the ideological investment in social 103. 11 Letters 2:285. They complement one another, making up for one issues, we need to go back to 1992, when in an address 2 Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton 12 Letters 2:452. on Religious Experience and Social Concerns (New York: Farrar Straus 13 Letters 2:453. another’s deficiencies and accentuating one another’s before the Commonwealth Club of California, then- 3 Giroux, 1985), 477-81. 14 Letters 2:495. strengths.” Vice President Dan Quayle dared to criticize a popular 3 On 1 January 2013 eleven of the sisters of the community of St. Mary the 15 Letters 2:497. Psychological complementarity is crucial because it television series called “Murphy Brown” for the lead Virgin, including the Mother Superior, left the convent at Wantage to join the Roman Catholic Anglican ordinariate for Britain, the Personal 16 Ibid. exerts enormous influence. Sociologist David Popenoe character’s decision to have a child outside of marriage. Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 17 The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III—Narnia, Cambridge and contends that generally Quayle’s speech drew immediate protest from the ad- Joy 1950-1963, ed. Walter Hooper (San Francisco: Harper, 2007), 6. 4 Sr. Penelope Lawson, The Wood: An Outline of Christianity fathers express more concern for the child’s long-term vocates of family redefinition and he was lampooned (London: Mowbray, 1971), vii-viii. 18 Letters 3:123. in the national media for taking the position that all 19 Letters 3:158. development, while mothers focus on the child’s im- 5 Sr. Penelope Lawson, The Coming: A Study in the Christian Faith parenting arrangements are not the same. The next (London: Mowbray, 1974), 4. 20 Letters 3:316-17. mediate well-being.…The disciplinary approach of 6 The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis—C.S. Lewis & Don Giovanni Calabria, 21 Letters 3:837. fathers tends to be ‘firm’ while that of mothers tends year, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, writing in The Atlantic trans. and ed. Martin Moynihan (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 22 Letters of C. S. Lewis, revised and enlarged edition, ed. Walter Hooper to be ‘responsive.’ While mothers provide an impor- Monthly (as it was known then), weighed the evidence 1998), 105-06. (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1966), 508. tant flexibility and sympathy in their discipline, fathers on different family structures and outcomes for children 7 A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis—A Biography (New York: Norton, 1990), 174. 23 James V. Schall, S.J., “The Shadow Over all Politics—Friendship & the provide ultimate predictability and consistency. Both and concluded that the traditional structure produced 8 Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis Companion & Guide (San Francisco: Harper, Fullness of Reality,” New Oxford Review 84, no. 1 (January/February dimensions are critical for an efficient, balanced, and 1996), 719. 2017): 46. the best outcomes for children. Whitehead adduces that 4 humane childrearing regime. [a]ll [the] evidence gives rise to an obvious conclusion: These parental influences—precisely in their maleness growing up in an intact two-parent family is an im- and femaleness—allow a developing child to appropri- portant source of advantage for American children.… ate the multifaceted dimensions of life and integrate [T]he intact family offers children greater security Same-Sex Parenting and the them accordingly. The problem with having two fathers and better outcomes than its fast-growing alterna- or two mothers is that it offers only a one-way or uni- tives: single-parent and step-parent families. Not only Vindication of Church Teaching lateral assimilation of life. In effect, it would be a double does the intact family protect the child from poverty dose of the same thing that would come from having and economic insecurity; it also provides greater non- same-sex parents. economic investments of parental time, attention, and by Msgr. Robert J. Batule Same-sex marriage is like same-sex intercourse. In an Instruction of the Congregation for the Doc- emotional support over the entire life course.7 St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie What nature precludes cannot be made up for in tech- trine of the Faith entitled Considerations Regarding Propos- The inescapably good news, according to Whitehead, is nology without, at the same time, undercutting the very als to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual that children fare best when they grow up in an intact, onald H. J. Hermann contends that the meaning of the state (marriage) or the act (marital). The Persons, there is the following warning: two-parent family. As she indicates above, the growing Catholic Church has it all wrong when intrinsic character of marriage cannot be feigned be- “[T]he absence of sexual complementarity in [homo- alternatives of single-parent and step-parent just do not it comes to same-sex marriage. Hermann cause the intrinsic character of the marital act cannot be sexual unions] creates obstacles in the normal devel- produce outcomes for children on par with the two- not only approves of same-sex marriage feigned. Authentic marriage and authentic marital acts opment of children.”5 What is missing, the document parent family. The leading cause of the surge in alterna- Dbut also takes issue with any notion that the children belong together; we cannot have one without the other. points out, is the experience of either motherhood or tives is no secret. Throughout the 1970s and well into of same-sex partners do not fare as well as the children The Pontifical Council for the Family in 2000 took fatherhood. In reference to the children adopted by the 1980s, divorce rates soared across all sectors of the raised by their own biological mothers and fathers.1 In up a consideration of homosexual unions in view of the those in homosexual unions, the document cautions that culture.8 Familial disruption became as commonplace this article, I wish to focus on Hermann’s second point, fact that many people today (in some places, a majority these children are “[placed]…in an environment that is in America as familial preservation. And of course when that is, his denial of the difference in outcomes between of people now) have come to see so-called homosexual not conducive to their full human development.”6 parental break-ups occur, there are profound and lasting the children whose parents are male and female and marriage as equivalent to traditional marriage. The Pon- Such appraisals on the part of the Church’s Magis- repercussions for the children. those whose parents are of the same gender. To start, tifical Council calls the demand to grant marital status terium are admittedly not highly specific, but they are In her in-depth study on the family nearly twenty- though, I would like to offer some comments on the to unions between two persons of the same sex “con- clearly negative. This is an important matter for a few five years ago, Whitehead does not hide the long-term first kind of difference we encounter in family life, the trary to common sense” and stipulates that the condi- reasons. First, the Church makes a judgment and does negative effects of divorce on children. She writes, difference between spouses. tions for the “interpersonal complementarity between not assume a “wait and see” attitude. She knows by way Since most children live with their mothers after di- Same-sex marriage lacks complementarity: the male and female…at both the physical-biological and of anthropology and is confident in making a judgment vorce, one might expect that the mother-child bond specific, nontransferrable gifts that only a male and a the psychological levels” are lacking.2 regarding the precepts of the natural law. Second, the would remain unaltered and might even be strength- female can bring to the union of marriage. Spouses are The complementarity on the physical-biological data of the social sciences corroborates Church teach- ened. Yet research shows that the mother-child bond not just supposed to be equal in marriage but different level is obvious enough to see. All that is necessary ing on general principles, provided that tendentious is also weakened as a result of divorce. Only half of too. Difference makes possible the union of marriage, is that we look at a man and a woman and note that testing and analyses are discounted. Third, the fog of the children who were close to their mothers before for without it all we have is a coupling that is hard to physically and biologically they are different from each political correctness is no match for the bright light of a divorce remained equally close after the divorce. distinguish from other couplings in human affairs. other. The psychological aspect of complementarity the truth. The latter wins out all the time even if it takes Boys, particularly, had difficulties with their mothers.

20 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 21 Articles

Moreover, mother-child relationships deteriorated over In 2012, Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the Uni- Regarding the no difference thesis propounded by make of it. As we have already seen, once you redefine time.…The only group in society that derives any versity of Texas, published his findings on the differ- Patterson and repeated by Hermann, a revision would complementarity to mean only psychological and benefit from these weakened parent-child ties is the ences he found with the children of parents in same-sex seem to be in order. “Differences,” Sullins argues, emotional differences—omitting the biological-physical therapeutic community. Young adults from disrupted relationships. Using the “New Family Structures Study,” “are manifestly present.”21 These differences are “sub- component—you can also redefine marriage, giving it families are nearly twice as likely as those from intact Regnerus reports numerous consistent differences be- stantially increased depressive symptoms, anxiety and then a wholly idiosyncratic character. And even if the families to receive psychological help.9 tween the children of parents in same-sex relationships daily distress, and lower educational achievement and outcomes for children are not as favorable for those With such gloomy prospects for the children of and the children who are raised by biological mothers school connectedness.”22 Based on his findings, Sul- with same-sex parents, this factor will unlikely deter the divorced parents, some people see in homosexual mar- and fathers and who are married to each other.14 He lins declares that “much of the received social science men and women who lead with uninhibited wills. To be riage a remedy or cure. After all, they argue, if homo- states emphatically that “the empirical claim that no wisdom about [same-sex parenting] is mistaken.”23 rather blunt about it, the attitude is: I want what I want sexual parents stay together, would not their children notable differences exist must go.”15 In an interview That Sullins presents evidence to rebut the no differ- and on my own terms. I do not have to conform to fare better than those children whose gender-different with Christianity Today, Regnerus spells out what these ence position is important enough. However, it would someone else’s version of reality. parents split up? Well, perhaps that might be the case differences are. Among other things, the young adult be a mistake to pass over too quickly other matters to Another crucial matter raised by Sullins is related to if parents staying together were the only criterion that children of lesbian and gay parents are which his research calls attention. I start with the ter- terminology as well. He holds that the operational ben- produced favorable outcomes for children. We already more apt to report financial and employment difficul- minology Sullins employs. efits—which he cites as greater stability, financial resourc- know, however, that favorable outcomes for children ties, to finish less schooling, feel more ambivalence He writes above that there are operational benefits es, and relational security—do not float free, as quoted are related to complementarity in marriage. Yet, accord- about their family experiences while growing up, in opposite-sex marriages that cannot be severed from above, “in a manner that can be independently conveyed ing to Donald Hermann, complementarity is a fluid smoke more, have more run-ins with the law, and the man-woman relationship. What he is arguing here to another kind of relationship.” What Sullins is saying concept; it means whatever you want it to mean at the report more sexual partners and greater victimization is that the male-female dynamic belongs by nature to here is that there is no transference from marriage as we time. For he claims “homosexual couples express psy- than those children from biologically intact, stable marriage. The opposing view of marriage, namely, that have known it traditionally onto any other arrangement, chological and emotional differences which form the marriages.16 two persons of the same-sex are just as much spouses in this case same-sex relationships. Herman insists, to basis for their complementarity.”10 For Hermann, the Curiously, there is not a single reference to Reg- as opposite-sex couples, proceeds from a “kind of func- the contrary, that there is transference. The transference biological and physical dimension of complementar- nerus’s published research in Hermann’s article. What tional thinking.” is made possible because something does “float free” for ity is utterly immaterial. But how can that be? Some accounts for this omission, I do not know. What I am This truth, brought out into the open by Sullins’s Hermann and that is an understanding of gender. As people try to redefine reality by revising the language able to say, however, is that another sociologist, D. Paul research and commentary, places us at the center of the complementarity is fluid and as human nature is unfixed that we use to describe things. Sullins, has also studied the differences in outcomes conflict over marriage today. Is there a nature, a hu- according to Hermann, it makes perfectly good sense to Substituting his own partial understanding of mari- between the children of same-sex partners and the chil- man nature that sets boundaries for our choosing or him that gender be likewise fluid and unfixed. tal complementarity is not Hermann’s only mistake, dren of opposite-sex parents. He presents his findings not? Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George In his book Strangers in a Strange Land, Archbishop however. He makes a second one in the research he in two articles published in 2015, which is a year after think that there is indeed a human nature and that mar- Charles Chaput weighs in on what we have come to marshals to bolster his position in favor of the no differ- Hermann’s article was published. riage surely participates in it. As such, there is an objec- call gender ideology. Gender ideology is the effort to ence argument. Let me explain. In one article, Sullins reports that “[c]hildren with tive core to marriage, they say, and it is fixed by our deny any intrinsic connection between biology and the Back in 1995, Charlotte Patterson published an same-sex parents in the United States were more than nature as embodied, and it is sexually reproductive.24 meaning of human sexuality. Chaput avers that gender article in which she admits that “the social science liter- twice as likely to suffer ADHD (attention-deficit That there are certain fixed aspects of our nature ideology “repudiates reality. People don’t need to be ature contains no published studies examining the de- hyperactivity disorder) than were children with is a key notion for the understanding of marriage that ‘religious’ to notice that men and women are different. velopment of children adopted by openly lesbian or gay opposite-sex parents.”17 In a second article, Sullins re- Girgis, Anderson, and George present. But that is not The evidence is obvious. And the only way to ignore it adults.”11 Yet this admission does not preclude her from views three studies that “present some of the strongest how a lot of people see human nature today, and so is through a kind of intellectual self-hypnosis.”26 Ignor- remarking later in the same article that “[o]verall, the evidence in support of the no difference thesis”18 and they tend to have a changeable view of marriage. In all ing reality has precipitated a crisis with two recogniz- picture emerging from social science research on chil- “re-analyzes [the] original data in order to confirm or likelihood, a majority of people in the United States able dimensions. It is a crisis first of personal identity dren with lesbian and gay parents is very positive. Based counter [the] findings with a greater degree of confi- now view marriage as a malleable construct, as some- and then of morality. And each is inextricably bound up on the research literature, there is no reason to believe dence that has previously been the case.”19 Sullins con- thing utterly pliable and therefore leaving the interpre- with the other. that children of lesbian or gay parents are behind their cludes that tation of the marital institution entirely up to our will. Concerning personal identity, it is clear that chil- 12 peers in any aspect of personal or social development.” [I]t does not appear that the operational benefits of In an address to the Roman curia before Christmas in dren develop and mature into their own selves. They Well, which is it? There aren’t any published stud- marriage that accrue to opposite-sex couples are sev- 2012, then-Pope Benedict XVI describes the new but are never just extensions of their parents even though ies, or there are? As if that confusion is not enough, erable from the man-woman relationship. It may be false understanding of marriage that prevails in many they bear resemblances—physically and psychologi- Hermann cites Patterson as an authority in defense of that the kind of functional thinking that underlies the quarters right now. He contends that “people dispute cally—to the mothers and fathers who gave them life. his own position.13 If we grant for a moment that there argument that the two forms of marriage relationship the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily Children grow up to have their own personalities and were studies around in 1995 supporting the no dif- are analogous is mistaken, and the beneficial factors identity, that serves as a defining element of the human their own lives, and that is what gives them separation ference argument, we must acknowledge that nearly that are observed in man-woman marriage—greater being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not from their parents. Without that separation, children twenty years passed between the publication of Patter- stability, financial resources, relational security—do something previously given to them, but that they make could never assume truly personal identities on their son’s article and the publication of Hermann’s article. not float free in a manner that can be independently it for themselves.”25 own. We understand this as an exercise in freedom. But A lot can change in twenty years! conveyed to another kind of relationship.20 For many people, parenting, too, is what you freedom is a fragile gift and it can always be misused. In

22 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 23 Articles the Christmas address of then-Pope Benedict XVI to ENDNOTES the Roman curia in 2012, the Holy Father asserts that “the child has become an object to which people have 1 Donald H. J. Hermann, “Defending the Public Good and Traditional Pierre Manent and Rémi Brague 27 Society: Non-Scriptural Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage,” a right and which they have a right to obtain.” This Valparaiso University Law Review 49, no. 1 (2014): 36. point the Church enunciated twenty-five years before 2 Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and ‘De Facto’ Unions on the Future of Europe in Donum Vitae, when it was a matter of giving or with- (2000), 23. holding moral approval to the use of certain technologi- 3 Rob Schwarzwalder, “Complementarity in Marriage: What it is and Why cal means to bring about the conception and the birth it Matters,” Family Research Council Issue Analysis (October 2013), 3. by Jude P. Dougherty “Latin Christianity had achieved a comprehensive, sac- of children.28 Whether it is the conception, the birth, or 4 David Popenoe, Life Without Father (New York: Free Press, 1996), 145-46. School of Philosophy, The Catholic University of America ramental world view based on truth claims about God’s 5 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Pro- the rearing of children, it is legitimate to raise the ques- action in human history, centered on the Incarnation, posals to Give Legal Protection to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (2003), thers have addressed the topic, but among life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Intellec- tion of personal identity. For the freedom to be creative 7. is not the same as the freedom to create oneself.29 6 Ibid. cultural historians, political theorists Pierre tual life was vibrant, if sometimes contentious, variously We all ask: Who am I? Where do I come from? Can 7 Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, “Dan Quayle Was Right,” The Atlantic Monthly Manent and Rémi Brague bring to its dis- institutionalized not only in universities but also in I answer these questions confidently and satisfactorily 271, no. 4 (1993): 27. cussion uncommon knowledge and astute monasteries, at princely courts, and among participants 8 See the United States Department of Commerce, Census Bureau’s Oanalysis.1 The future may not be ours to see, but there in the religious Republic of Letters.”5 when my conception, birth, and rearing have effec- Statistics on Divorce for 1970 through 1985. In 1970, the divorce rate was are certain unmistakable trends that can be discerned. tively shielded my mother or father from me? And if 33 percent. By 1980, it had jumped to 52 percent. See also The Wither- One of the unintended effects created by the Ref- per chance I have a name for my mother or my father, spoon Institute’s Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles (2008) for a Europe has lost contact with the Hellenic and Christian ormation was the problem of knowing of how to know brief discussion of the sharp rise in divorce rates in the United States of sources of its being, and this will have severe conse- what true Christianity is. The quandary arose from the what is the likelihood I could ever have a relationship America during the 1970s and into the 1980s. quences for its future. open-ended range of rival truth-claims that followed with her or him given the circumstances of my concep- 9 Whitehead, 19. Eighty-five years ago the Spanish-born American tion, birth and rearing? 10 Hermann, 34. diverse exegetical interpretations of sacred scripture. And if doubt and confusion regarding personal 11 Charlotte Patterson, “Adoption of Minor Children by Lesbian and Gay philosopher George Santayana, speaking of the West, Reason alone, like scripture alone, proved incapable of identity are not enough, there is the matter of moral Adults: A Social Science Perspective,” Duke Journal of Gender Law and wrote: “The shell of Christendom is broken. The un- discerning or devising answers to life’s large questions Policy 2, no. 191 (1995): 196. responsibility. And this is no small matter since it is cov- conquerable mind of the East, the pagan past, the in- that gained pervasive consensus. There was no shared 12 Ibid., 200. ered by one of the Ten Commandments: Honor your dustrial socialist future, confront it with equal authority. agreement about substantive common goods, nor were 13 Hermann, 35. On the whole, life and mind is saturated with a slow there reliable means for answering the question. An father and your mother (Ex 20:12). How well is the 14 Mark Regnerus, “How Different Are the Adult Children of Parents Who Fourth Commandment observed, realistically speaking, Have Same-Sex Relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures upward filtration of a new spirit—that of an emanci- important paradox characteristic of modern liberalism 2 with the complications wrought by IVF, surrogacy, and Study,” Social Science Research 41, no. 4 (2012): 752. pated, atheistic, international democracy.” emerged as that ideology demands adherence to the adoption by same-sex couples? 15 Ibid., 766. In an interview reported in The Wall Street Journal view that there can be nothing prescribed about what Benedict XVI warns about wanting to usurp the 16 Katelyn Beaty, “The Regnerus Affair,”Christianity Today 56, no. 9 (2012): of May 26, 2017, Manent says much the same thing. citizens should believe, how they should live, or what 53. There Manent tells Sahrab Ahmari: “We have a big they should care about. work of God the Creator in thinking that one can cre- 17 D. Paul Sullins, “Child Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ate oneself. By denying the Maker himself, the pontiff (ADHD) in Same-Sex Parent Families in the United States: Prevalence problem with Islam. And it is impossible to solve it For Manent, origins are bound to be obscure, but allows, man is stripped of his dignity as a creature of and Comorbidities,” British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research 6, no. through globalist, individualist, rights-of-man mantras.” certain things can be said. In Manent’s judgment mo- God.30 As we all know, not stripping away the dignity of 10 (2015): 997 In his attempt to understand the root causes of dernity is a project that was formulated and implement- 18 D. Paul Sullins, “The Unexpected Harm of Same-Sex Marriage: A Criti- Europe’s decline, Manent employs the term “moder- ed first in Europe, and yet one that was intended from the person but upholding it is the preeminent work of cal Appraisal, Replication and Re-analysis of Wainright and Patterson’s the Church in every age. And as always, for this impor- Studies of Adolescents with Same-Sex Partners,” British Journal of Educa- nity” to designate the intellectual climate that prevails the beginning to affect all of humanity. It has proven to tant task, the Church is guided unfailingly by her social tion, Society and Behavioral Science 11, no. 2 (2015): 3 among the elites in Europe and North America. To be a movement destined never to arrive at a term. doctrine. 19 bid. examine modernity he looks to its origins. We have Developing a theme from his The City of Man, The Church’s social doctrine is of a single piece 20 Ibid., 20. been modern for several centuries, he declares. “We are Manent probes Western history: “If we are meant to un- 21 Ibid. with her anthropology. She reads human nature in a modern and we want to be modern.”3 In what century derstand the modern project, we must begin with the 22 Ibid., 18. did we become modern? In the sixteenth? The seven- city, for it is in the city that people deliberate and form certain way, and while always taking account of histori- 23 Ibid., 21. teenth? Or was it the eighteenth? cal change, the Church knows that it is not possible to 24 Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George, What is Marriage? projects for action. It is in the city that people discover surrender unchanging principles without at the same (New York: Encounter Books, 2012), 48. Brad S. Gregory, author of the comprehensive study that they can govern themselves and learned to do so. time abdicating her divinely appointed role of Mother 25 Pope Benedict XVI, “Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia” (De- The Unintended Reformation, is convinced that moderni- They discover and learn politics.…The city is the shap- and Teacher. What may seem to some then like inter- cember 21, 2012). ty dates to the Protestant Reformation.4 The Reforma- ing of human life that made the common thing appear, changeable roles among adult males and females is re- 26 Charles J. Chaput, Strangers in a Strange Land (New York: Henry Holt and tion succeeded in the sense that it provided an alterna- and the execution of the common thing in a plurality Company, 2017), 93. ally a negation of the essence of fatherhood and moth- 27 Pope Benedict XVI, “Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia.” tive way of grounding Christian answers to life’s central of cities hostile to each other and divided within.” erhood. That wisdom has to be offered even if it flies in 28 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae (1987). questions. Thus it offered a basis for living a Christian The political form that succeeded the city was the the face of so-called progressive values. Let the Church 29 Pope Benedict XVI, “Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia.” life ideologically and socially separate from the Roman empire. With the coming of Christianity, a third form offer that wisdom because she is the pillar and founda- 30 Ibid. Catholic Church. came about: one created by the Church, for it is at once tion of truth (cf. 1 Tim 3:15). ✠ “On the eve of the Reformation,” Gregory writes, a city and an empire. Europeans soon found themselves

24 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 25 Articles confronted by competing authorities. “They were fictional individual, postulated as existing in a state of under the state as it soon did in Luther’s Germany. Roman culture is essentially a passage, in a way, an aq- assailed by prestigious and contradictory words—the nature in which all war against all. From that postulate Like Paul Valery before him, Rémi Brague insists ueduct. The relation of Europe—as Christendom—to words of Bible, the words of the Greek philosophers, Hobbes derived the myth of social contract theory and on the recognition of another dimension of Europe the Old Testament is in a sense a “Roman” relation. the words of the Roman orators and historians—and all that flows from it, including a limitless set of claims that is sometimes overlooked, namely, the contribu- Christians themselves are essentially Roman insofar as they did not know which to retain.”6 about human rights. tion of ancient Rome. He credits Rome not only for it is from Rome that they have their Greeks, to which With Luther’s revolt, the authority of the Word of In Manent’s judgment, modern political science its sense of law but for its role as a transmitter of the they are tied by an invisible hand. In the light of this God itself became divided between competing inter- in its founding moment failed to acknowledge the Hebrew and Greek contributions to European civili- somewhat romantic analysis, Brague can justify his dic- pretations of the scriptures and competing visions of actual experience of those living within Christianity. By zation. In a work published in English as Eccentric Cul- tum that “Christianity is to the Old Covenant what the the true intellectual tradition of the Church. Ironically, preventing access to a prepolitical human experience, ture: A Theory of Western Civilization Brague argues that Romans are to the Greeks.”18 the scriptures are accessible only through the mediation Hobbes constructs a new political order. Lost in his Europeans have failed to recognize, value, and defend We know that Christianity played a major role in of the Church, and in the first instance in the language political theory is the experience of those living in the what is a unique culture with consequences for the the shaping of the European Community after World of the Church, Latin. Luther’s revolt created a spiritual real world, a world informed by Christianity. A contem- rest of the world.13 War II, especially under the influence of Konrad upheaval, but also and inseparably a political revolution porary example of political theory based on a gratu- He begins his treatise with an attempt to define Adenauer, Robert Schuman, and Alcide De Gasperi. and an insurrection. The various European nations se- itous postulate can be found in John Rawls’s Theory of what we are talking about when we speak of “Europe.” That influence has waned as time has gone by, and lected the particular Christian confession under which Justice.10 For an example in the sphere of contemporary It is a geographical entity to be sure. As to its content or today the European Union is little more than a set they chose to live and imposed it on their populations. politics, we find that President Emmanuel Macron of character, Europe is a whole set of historically identifi- of trade agreements and an enormous bureaucracy. Thus, says Manent, the confessional nation became one France has proven to be equally utopian in his commit- able facts that have taken place within the geographi- As to the future of Europe, Brague (like Manent) of history’s political forms. ment to open borders and to a centralized European cal space we call Europe. Thus Husserl can speak of is convinced that the cultural task awaiting Europe Europe produced modernity, and for a long pe- government. “European sciences,” and Heidegger of “Occidental consists in becoming Roman again. riod of time Europe was its master and owner. Today, Developing a theme from his earlier work, Meta- metaphysics.”14 Obviously mere residence on the Con- Europe must also become conscious of its intrin- Bacon and Descartes reign in Shanghai and Bangalore morphoses of the City, Manent makes an interesting ob- tinent does not make one European. Confronting the sic and global value, that is, of its exceptional nature, at least as much as in Paris and London. Manent notes servation when he speaks of empire, church, and state.11 fact that many immigrants from the Middle East and of its eccentric character, as it faces both internal and that within Europe, in spite of the multiple treaties that He identifies what he calls the four great moments in North Africa refuse to assimilate and choose instead to external barbarians. It must again become conscious created the European Union, civic cooperation is feeble the history of humanity: Jewish law, Greek philosophy, retain their own culture and live under their own law, of its worthiness, of its role as messenger and servant. and the religious word almost inaudible. “Europe finds Christianity, and Democracy. “The four great spiritual Brague insists: “A European is one who is conscious of “It must regain or become once again the place where itself militarily, politically and spiritually disarmed in determinants not only follow a chronological succes- belonging to a whole. One is not a European without one recognizes an intimate relationship of man to a world that has armed itself with the instruments of sion but also mark the major stages on the gradient of wanting to be one.…The frontiers of Europe are solely God, a covenant that descends to the most carnal di- modern warfare. It soon will be wholly incapable of increasing universality.”12 cultural.”15 mensions of humanity, that must be the object of un- defending itself.”7 In drawing his study to a conclusion, Manent is Further, Brague argues, “a culture is defined in failing respect.”19 In his words, “[b]y renouncing the political form wistful. Is it possible, he asks, to imagine a new stage, relation to the people and to the phenomena it consid- Amplifying that judgment, he writes: “For Europe that was its own, Europe has deprived itself of the as- the result of a mediation of Christianity and the mod- ers to be its other.”16 To the extent that it is Occidental, to remain itself it is not necessary that everyone who sociation in which European life had found its riches ern conception of humanity? By way of an answer, he Europe is the “other” of the Orient. As Christian it is inhabits it recognize explicitly that they are Christians.” meaning.”8 Manent’s emphasis on the city follows his finds the building blocks in certain solidarity between the “other” of the Muslim world, and to the extent As to its future, Brague hopes that in spite of the cul- recognition that a degree of cultural unity is required Jewish law and Christianity, and between Christianity that it is Latin Christendom, it is the “other” of the tural problem created by its immigration policy, Europe as the foundation of a body politic. However one might and Greek philosophy, insofar as these various accounts Byzantine world. “Byzantium,” says Brague, “never will remain a place that recognizes the separation of the prefer certain cosmopolitan aspirations, one cannot all provide a rational concept of the divine. One could thought of itself as European. It always thought of itself temporal and the spiritual, where each recognizes the truly be a citizen of the world, he maintains, nor even also cite certain common conceptions of human nature as Roman.”17 legitimacy of the other in its proper domain.”20 of Europe. An identifiable civic good can only be the as well. The cultural realities that one designates in this way Pierre Manent and Rémi Brague are not alone in fruit of a coherent, sustainable tradition within a ho- By contrast, the “Religion of Humanity,” under- do not limit themselves to the European space, neither taking a dim view of Europe’s future. In his book Hu- mogenous population. stood from the modern perspective, has left behind in their origin nor in their ultimate expansion. Given man Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts In accounting for the left turn taken by contempo- Jewish, Greek, and Christian notions of the divine. the question “Who are we as Europeans? Greeks or and Sciences, 800 B.C.–1950, Charles Murray summed up rary liberal political theory, Manent finds it necessary to “Modernity,” writes Manent, “by embracing Humanity, Romans, or Jews or Christians or in a sense a little bit his conclusion when he asserted that “Europe’s run is distinguish between two versions of modern political has expelled the highest idea to embrace the largest idea of each?” Brague is convinced that Europe is essentially over.”21 Although pessimistic, Manent stopped short of theory, one emphasizing science, the other experience. which is the idea of humanity itself.” Roman. The Roman character of Europe is found in its Murray’s conclusion. Brague calls for a “Counter En- There is the political science of Hobbes, Spinoza, and What happens, Manent asks, when the Church is sense of order, in the patriarchal family, and in its sense lightenment.” Locke, three figures whom Manent identifies as the set aside? As Brad Gregory has pointed out, the spiritual of fatherland. Viewing Europe in the light of its modern history, architects of the modern secular state. “The guiding ministry is appropriated by everyone in what some have To be Roman is to perceive oneself as Greek in it is difficult to believe that the philosophical skepticism spirits of modern politics,” he calls them.9 Arguing not called the universal priesthood. Lost is the mediation of relation to what is barbarous, but also as barbarous in introduced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from experience but from claims to scientific expertise, the Church between man and God. Deprived of a dis- relation to what is Greek. It is to know that what one has so undermined the confidence of a civilization that modern political theory takes its lead from Hobbes’s tinct ecclesiastical order, the Christian community falls transmits does not come wholly from one’s labor. has given so much to the world. Yet, the fact is that it is

26 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 27 Articles now not able to defend itself. Christianity may be on ENDNOTES the defensive in some self-blinded intellectual circles, 1 Pierre Manent is the former Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Jesus Christ the Way and the Goal: but the empiricism of Hume and the fideism of Kant Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Rémi Brague is Professor Emeritus of are easily challenged. It is, of course, a matter of who Arabic and Religious Philosophy at the Sorbonne. Both lecture widely in controls the mass media and the instruments of educa- Europe and the United States. Accompaniment and Discernment in Christ 2 George Santayana, “Winds of Doctrine” in The Works of George Santayana tion. We teach the young to use “critical intelligence” (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932), 3. when it would be more useful to promote appreciation 3 Pierre Manent, Metamorphoses of the City: On the Western Dynamic (Cam- of the inherited.22 bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). by Rev. Robert Imbelli be considered the “first among equals.” As I have writ- Ephraim Karsh, author of A History of Islamic Impe- 4 Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Boston College ten, the reason is simple and straightforward: “Unless rialism, offers a prediction about the future in a telling Secularized Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012). God revealed himself fully through Jesus Christ in the 5 Ibid., 189. passage: “Only when the political elites of the Middle Holy Spirit, then the Church is without foundation 6 Manent, Metamorphoses, 6. Let us listen to him say: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the East and the Muslim world reconcile themselves to 2 7 Ibid., 13. life.’ If you seek the truth, hold fast to the way; for the way and the liturgy is a merely human construct.” Thus Dei state nationalism, foreswear pan-Arabic and pan-Islamic 8 Ibid. itself is the truth. The goal and the way are the same… Verbum’s crucial assertion that “[i]n Christ, the mediator dreams, and make Islam a matter of private practice 9 Ibid., 23. through Christ you come to Christ. and fullness of revelation, the deepest truth about God rather than a tool of political ambition will the inhabit- 10 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University -- Saint Augustine, Tractates on John, 13, 4 and human salvation is made clear to us”3 serves as the ants of these regions at least look forward to a better Press, 1971). golden thread binding the documents of Vatican II into future, free of would-be Saladins.”23 The reference here 11 Manent, Metamorphoses, 304. a coherent pastoral-theological vision. Revelation is far is to the twelfth-century sultan of Egypt and Syria. To 12 Ibid. more than a series of didactic propositions (however his credit President Donald Trump said as much in his 13 Rémi Brague, Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization (Notre 1. The Christological Hermeneutic Dame, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2002). crucial these may be). It is the person of Jesus Christ speech in Saudi Arabia on March 21, 2017. 14 Ibid., 21-22. of the Second Vatican Council himself, the Word incarnate, who recapitulates all God’s That may be true, but it is also true that with the 15 Ibid., 6. purpose and action for humankind. retreat of Christianity and the threatened loss of cul- 16 Ibid., 17. John O’Malley, in his history of Vatican II, articu- ermit me to begin autobiographically. Through tural and national identity among the member states of 17 Ibid., 21-22. lates an important principle for the interpretation of the the European Union, Saladin’s dream of conquering the 18 Ibid., 189. a happy (providential!) chance, I began my theo- Council’s documents. He writes: “the documents of Vat- Continent may yet be accomplished through popula- 19 Ibid., 54. Plogical studies in Rome in October 1962. The ican II…implicitly cross-reference one another: they are tion growth favorable to Islam. ✠ 20 Ibid., 189. Aula Magna of the Gregorian University echoed to the coherent with one another and play off one another.” 21 Charles Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts hybrid Latin of such luminaries as René Latourelle, As a historian, O’Malley finds this mutual coherence a and Sciences, 800 B.C.-1950 (New York: HarperCollins, 2004). Francis Sullivan, Juan Alfaro, and Bernard Lonergan. But 22 John Courtney Murray, decades ago, provided a useful insight when he unique feature in the history of ecumenical councils. defined the barbarian as a threat to the life of reason embedded in law the students’ attention was, for the most part, riveted And he continues: “Recognition of the intertextual and custom. “The perennial work of the barbarian,” he held, “is to un- upon what was taking place outside the classroom in an character of the sixteen documents is therefore…an es- dermine natural standards of judgment, to corrupt the inherited wisdom even larger Aula Magna, the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica, by which people have always lived, and to do this not by spreading new sential step in constructing a hermeneutic for interpret- beliefs but by creating a climate of doubt and bewilderment in which where the Second Vatican Council had just opened. ing the council.”4 clarity about the larger aims of life are dimmed and the self-confidence Almost fifty-five years later, I still remember vividly Now it is my contention that the hermeneutic of the people destroyed.” John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths November 20, 1962, the day when the Council Fathers (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960), 13. in question must be an explicitly Christological her- 23 Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University voted to reject the preparatory schema, De Fontibus meneutic; that the inner coherence of the Council’s Press, 2006). Revelationis, which they considered abstract, scholastic, documents are established by its engaging and profound and insufficiently biblical. As is well known, the vote fell Christocentrism. Indeed, the deepest recovery by the narrowly short of the two-thirds majority needed to Council, in its laborious efforts atressourcement and ag- remand the schema, but Pope John XXIII intervened giornamento, is its re-Sourcement: its theological and spiri- and reconstituted the Committee under the new joint tual reappropriation of and witness to him who is the chairs, Cardinals Ottaviani and Bea. From this Commit- Source of its life, its liturgy, and its mission—the Lord tee there emerged one of the final documents approved Jesus Christ, Dominus Iesus! by the Fathers in November 1965: Dei Verbum the Dog- Allow me to recall just a few of the salient Chris- matic Constitution on Divine Revelation. As many tological “cross-references” that permeate the Council’s attest, that November day marked the true beginning documents. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, of Pope John’s Council. Yves Congar, for one, expressed Lumen gentium, famously begins “Lumen gentium cum sit the thankful astonishment of many when he wrote in Christus”—“Since Christ is the Light of the nations, this his journal: “I never would have believed it!”1 Holy Synod, gathered in the Holy Spirit, earnestly de- I have argued elsewhere that Dei Verbum, one of the sires to enlighten all men and women with the bright- catholicscholars.org four constitutions promulgated by the Council, should ness of Christ.” There is no hesitancy, no qualification

28 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 29 Articles here, only pure kerygma. Yet how many times, even Finally, one of the Council’s final documents, Ad rather than toward the crucified and risen Lord who 3. The Christo-logic of in more tutored circles, does one meet people who gentes, the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the constitutes and nourishes his ecclesial body through the say deprecatingly, “How can the Church, with all its Church, contains this terse, summary statement. “The sharing of his Eucharistic body.10 Accompaniment and Discernment failings, presume to be the light of the nations?” The Church’s mission is to lead all people…to full participa- New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson Council’s Christocentric proclamation is thus com- tion in the Mystery of Christ.”8 Thus, though Vatican (who can by no means be labeled “conservative” in n a remarkable essay, penned in occupied France pletely obscured. II has often been called a Council whose primary con- matters theological) has issued a bleak, but compelling, during the darkest days of the Second World War, One need not linger over the evident point that cern was the Church, I maintain that its great accom- assessment of our situation. He wrote: “the truth of Henri de Lubac proclaimed his faith in “La Lumière I 17 Sacrosanctum concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred plishment was precisely its “re-Sourcement,” its experi- the Gospel concerning Jesus the Lord has been eroded du Christ”—the “Light of Christ.” Significantly, the Liturgy, is Christologically saturated. Let one quote ential and personalist recovery of the centrality of Jesus over a period of centuries, not through direct attack by essay twice cites a sentence of St. Irenaeus, that the edi- stand for myriad instances. “It is through the Liturgy, Christ and its bold proclamation of the Mystery of Jesus Christianity’s cultured despisers, but through a steady tor perceptively uses as epigraph to the entire volume. especially the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that Christ to the modern world.9 process of revision by theologians who seem either un- “Omnem novitatem attulit semetipsum afferens”: “Jesus believers most fully manifest in their lives and to oth- aware of or not to care about the consequences of their Christ brought all newness by bringing himself.”18 The ers the mystery of Christ and the true nature of the capitulation to the premises of Christianity’s cultured quote serves as leitmotif for the essay. But more than Church.”5 Perhaps in need of renewed insistence, how- 2. Christological Forgetfulness in despisers.” Johnson does not exempt bishops from their that, it sums up de Lubac’s conviction, derived from ever, is that the “plena et actuosa participatio,” 6 envisioned the Reception of the Council responsibility: their “failure adequately to address the his decades long commitment to ressourcement. For de by the Council, is preeminently a full and active partici- erosion of the heart of the Gospel.”11 Lubac, Irenaeus here recapitulates the defining vision of pation in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ which is However, my persuasion is that the Second Vatican the New Testament. “New teaching, new covenant, new o speak of “Christological forgetfulness” in the the heart of the liturgical celebration. Yet so often, busy- Council did seek to bring into full relief the Christo- commandment, new name, new song, new man, new Council’s reception may, at first blush, appear 12 ing ourselves with parceling out liturgical functions, logical “heart of the Gospel.” The fault, then, lies not life, second genesis of the world.”19 hyperbolic. After all significant books and ar- we risk evading rather than embracing the challenge to T in the Council, but in its reductive and half-hearted At the heart of the gospel and its proclamation is ticles on Christology continue to be published. Liturgi- 13 conversion that such a realization entails. reception and misremembering. Already in 1968 the this overwhelming sense of newness, of eschatological, cal prayers ceaselessly invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the young Joseph Ratzinger voiced his grave concern. He decisive revelation, not in words or deeds only, but in Christ. Roman documents appeal to Christ’s example Church in the Modern World, has become the favored wrote in the preface to the first edition of hisIntroduc - the very Person of the Son. Hence, however important document for those engaged in social justice ministry, at and authority. Yet beneath the placid Christological tion to Christianity: “The question of the real content it is for the Tradition to maintain that God’s revela- times to the relative neglect of other documents of the surface there are also worrisome signs—one might even and meaning of the Christian faith is enveloped today tion is logikos—according to the Word20—that Logos Council. Hence, it is important to highlight the robust venture to call them contemporary “signs of the times.” in a greater fog of uncertainty than at almost any earlier has become flesh, fully human. Revelation, therefore, is Christological foundation that Gaudium et spes lays for I have noted in theological circles and publications period in history.”14 And in the important preface to the personal in the deepest sense; and it aims not merely at the Church’s dialogue with the modern (or, increas- a benign neglect of Dei Verbum, in particular its confes- new edition, dated April 2000, then Cardinal Ratzinger instruction, but at personal transformation: transforma- ingly, postmodern world). The following is a passage of sion of Jesus Christ as the fullness of revelation. This can stated the corrective required: “I am firmly convinced tion of persons in Christ, which is eminently the work singular importance in the Constitution: stem from some feminists’ uncertainty as to whether that a renewal of Christology, must have the courage of God’s “two hands” (Irenaeus again): the Word and the “a male Savior can save women.” It can be found in a The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died to see Christ in all his greatness, as he is presented by Spirit. hesitancy by those engaged in (an otherwise commend- and was raised up for all, can through His Spirit offer the four Gospels together in the many tensions of their My contention is that, in the aftermath of Pope 15 humanity the light and the strength to measure up to able) interreligious dialogue to appear “triumphalist” in unity.” One can sense in this last remark the theolog- Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, invoca- its highest vocation. Nor has any other name under the assertion of Jesus Christ as “universal Savior.” One ical-pastoral urgency that led Benedict XVI to spend tion of terms like “accompaniment” and “discernment” heaven been given to man by which he must be saved. notices a tendency, in a number of quarters, to appeal himself in composing his volumes on Jesus of Nazareth. must probe the unique Christo-logic of these realities. She likewise believes that in her Lord and Master is to “Spirit” language in preference to the particularity of Happily, we all can enumerate examples which To do so, they must be deeply rooted in a spiritual ap- found the key, the center and the goal of all human an appeal to Jesus Christ, so furthering what amounts demand that such negative assessments also be qualified. propriation of the Mystery of Jesus Christ in its radi- history. The Church also holds that beneath all chang- to a soteriological relativism. There are parishes vibrant with rekindled faith. There cal newness and the equally radical transformation to es there are many realities which do not change and But “Christological forgetfulness” can also assume are ecclesial movements whose members have passed which it summons believers. For the Mystery of Christ which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, Who more mundane guises. The precipitous decline in many from a merely notional understanding of Jesus Christ is not separable from the Mystery of our identity in is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. Hence parts of Western society of attendance at Sunday Eucha- to a real life-changing encounter with the living Jesus.16 Christ. As the Letter to the Colossians proclaims: “the in the light of Christ, the image of the unseen God, rist—surely the privileged locus of encounter with the But there is sufficient indication of drift and confusion Mystery is this: Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col the firstborn of every creature, the council wishes to living Lord—is a deeply disturbing sign of the times. to warrant the urgent call of each of the popes since 1:27).21 speak to all men and women in order to shed light on Moreover, the growth of the so-called Nones (whatever Vatican II for a new evangelization, directed not only ad A crucial corollary of this realization is that the the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the the manifold causes of the phenomenon) cannot be extra, but ad intra as well. authentic doctrinal and the authentic pastoral flow from solution to the outstanding problems of our time.7 construed as a sign of robust Christological faith. Even It is in this context of Christological uncertainty this integral and all-embracing Mystery. To separate Jesus Christ is “the key, the center, and the goal of hu- among those who continue to participate in the liturgy that I would raise the pressing issue of how “discern- “doctrinal” and “pastoral” in our accompanying and man history.” Here, indeed, is a radical claim that, as I several commentators, among them Benedict XVI, have ment and accompaniment” are to proceed. discerning is to fail to do justice to the integrity of the shall suggest presently, has been insufficiently echoed warned against a horizontalism in worship, whereby Christian Mystery and vocation. In a pregnant passage amidst postconciliar turmoil and polarization. the focus gravitates toward the celebrating community de Lubac writes:

30 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 31 Articles

One could no more separate the revealed truths from teleion] according to the measure of the stature of the thus becoming, in spirit and in truth, living member of reservations.” Rather he deprecates the false mode of the very Person of the Redeemer, than one could fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). Christ’s body. living that contradicts the new life in Christ who is “all conceive a true and complete idea of the transcendent Thus the accompaniment and discernment upon The contemporary appeal to discernment repeat- and in all” (Col 3:11). newness of Christianity if one did not recognize that, which we are engaged is, of its essence, mystagogic: edly refers to its prominence in the Ignatian tradition Christian discernment, thus, can never be a merely in this Person of Christ, such as the Apostles already leading from the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ into of spirituality. However, apart from rhetorical flourishes, individualistic endeavor. It is always entered into by one show him to us,…the reality of charity and the truth which we are baptized toward the full realization of the one often finds little development of this Ignatian refer- who is a member of the body of the Lord Jesus, “from of dogma are indissolubly united. Charity constitutes Mystery which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. The ence. Let us then draw upon the studies of some com- whom the whole body, nourished and knit together… the reality of this dogma, as this dogma itself consti- Apostle Paul is the master mystagogue: the model of mentators to flesh out a bit the substance of Ignatian grows with a growth that comes from God” (Col tutes the truth of this charity.22 such accompaniment and discernment, both in his sure discernment. 2:19). Ignatius of Loyola, faithful to the Tradition of the One might well translate the passage from Colossians grasp of the Mystery and in his commitment to its re- In his fine book Discernment and Truth, Mark Church, could never countenance a relationship with thus: “the revealed Dogma is this: Christ in you, the alization in the lives of those whom he guides. “I am in McIntosh identifies the crucial contribution of Ignatius Christ that prescinds from Christ’s ecclesial embodi- hope of glory.” labor until Christ be formed in you,” he exclaims to the to the matter in these words: “attunement to Christ ment. To enlist under the standard of Christ is to en- In a recent article, quite in the spirit of de Lubac, Galatians (Gal 4:19). And he assures the Colossians that, becomes the chief means by which a capacity for true gage not in purely solitary combat, but in the ranks of Nicholas Healy writes: “The abiding source and the by his teaching and admonishing, he strives “to present discernment grows.”25 In other words, Christian dis- all those committed by baptism to the struggle against fullness of Christian doctrine is the person of Jesus every man and woman mature [teleion] in Christ” (Col cernment is no neutral, detached exercise. Its authen- the enemy of humankind. Freedom in Christ is ever Christ.…Christian doctrine is summed up and concret- 1:28). To do so, of course, requires authentic discern- ticity depends on the subject’s growing conformity to freedom with and for others. Mark McIntosh com- ized in the figure of the crucified and Risen Lord.”23 ment regarding the true nature of life in Christ. the Lord Jesus, his or her appropriation of the mind of ments perceptively: “Being drawn into the Paschal Mys- And Healy draws out some of the implications of this Christ. In contrast, the more the individual is centered tery will take the form of a difficult and fumbling new recognition when he asserts: “The oft-repeated re- on the ego and its needs, the less valid and free its dis- way of seeing one another and of living for the sake of frain—‘no one is proposing a change of doctrine, only a 4. Discernment in the Spirit cernment will be. True discernment is ever ad majorem one another.”27 change in pastoral practice’—hides a subtle temptation Dei gloriam, not ad majorem gloriam meam. Hence, it Rowan Williams, one of the most acute theological to conceive doctrine as an abstract set of propositions t was already evident, from the days of the early always transpires for the Christian within the sphere and spiritual authors of our day, has written of the Jo- or general rules that do not really address the complex Church, that “not every spirit is to be trusted.” opened by Christ’s Paschal Mystery. It always unfolds hannine view of the Holy Spirit as Spirit of forgiveness, situations of human life.” But such is a disembodied and IHence the crucial imperative to “test the spirits” under the sign of the cross. In this vein the late Jesuit but also of judgment and discernment. “In the Spirit, impersonal understanding of Christian truth, divorced (1 Jn 4:1). And it is also clear that the norm of such theologian Edward Oakes quotes from the Spiritual Ex- judgment is constantly to be pronounced upon ‘the from the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. discernment must be Christological, because the Lord ercises: “In all that concerns the spiritual life, everyone’s prince of this world,’ the dominant destructiveness in Rather, Healy suggests, “A deeper understanding of the Jesus is the very heart of the Gospel. “Every spirit that progress will be in proportion to his surrender of self- unredeemed human relations.”28 The liberation realized incarnational and sacramental dimension of doctrine confesses that Jesus Messiah has come in the flesh is of love and of his own will and interests.”26 through Christ’s Paschal Mystery does not take hold in holds the promise of a renewed form of pastoral care God,” writes John (1 Jn 4:2). Paul concurs. “No one Spiritual discernment is less fixated upon coming us without the ongoing “transcendence of violent and guided by the Spirit of Christ.”24 can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor to a decision, and more concerned with disclosing what oppressive models of relationship,”29 relationships which Let us consider more closely the quotation from 12:3). Of course, such “confessing” cannot be reduced spirit is animating the one discerning. Thus patience define the corrupt ways of the old unredeemed Adam. Augustine that serves as epigraph for this essay. “If you to the mere recital of words. It must be embodied in a and honesty, humility and wisdom are incumbent upon Williams’s insight is a helpful antidote to the wide- seek the truth, hold fast to the way for the way itself is life wholly given to Christ. For “no one of us lives to those undertaking discernment. Ignatius knew too well spread facile invocation of Pope Francis’s “field hospital” the truth. The goal and the way are the same…through himself alone, and no one of us dies to himself alone. that the enemy of humankind can well masquerade un- trope. Unfortunately, its advocates have paid consider- Christ you come to Christ!” As so often with Augus- But if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we der the guise of an angel of light. The length and man- able less attention to the pope as “spiritual pathologist”: tine, one could spend pages unpacking these pregnant die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we are the ner of the Exercises preclude precipitate resolution—a to his careful diagnosis of the diseases that necessitate lines. Here is one sounding, which I trust is faithful to Lord’s” (Rom 14:7-8). For it was to this end that Christ fact a culture of instant gratification can find repulsive. the hospital stay. Thus in the encyclical Laudato si’ Augustine. We journey through and with Christ, the died and lives again: “that he might be Lord both of the Indeed, field hospital admissions may require periods of Francis warns against “a misguided anthropocentrism” crucified, risen, and ascended Lord, to thetotus Christus: dead and the living” (Rom 14:9). prolonged recuperation. whereby “humans place themselves at the center. They Christ the Head together with those who are sharing It is in this determinate Christological context that For all the classic spiritual writers of the Christian give absolute priority to immediate convenience and in his life as members of his body. We are not traveling Paul’s evangelical exhortation must be heard: tradition are painfully aware of our proneness to self- all else becomes relative.”30 Francis also decries the “use from an abstract idea or a moral ideal to a greater re- Therefore, I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of deception. Hence their insistence on the grace of a and throw away logic” that derives from “the disordered alization of that idea or perfecting of that ideal. We are God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy spiritual guide, a soul friend, who can gently counter desire to consume”31 so sadly characteristic of contem- traveling, and hence accompanying, from a living Per- and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual worship the ego’s stratagems. Already the Letter to the Colos- porary culture. son to the fulfillment of the identity of that Person as [logikén latreian]. And do not be conformed to this age; sians contains a remarkable depiction of the “old self” In Evangelii gaudium the Pope laments that “the the new man, the eschatos Adam (1 Cor 15:45), the Head but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Thus [palaion anthropon]. This is the self prey to evil desires: individualism of our postmodern and globalized era of a renewed human race. So in the dense language of you can discern what is the will of God: what is good, impurity, wrath, covetousness, slander. In an intrigu- favors a lifestyle which weakens the development and Ephesians, we shall continue to accompany and discern acceptable, and perfect [teleion] (Rom 12:1-2). ing injunction, Paul insists: “do not lie to one another!” stability of personal relationships and distorts fam- “until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge In short, the Apostle exhorts Christians to undergo (Col 3:8). I cannot but think that the Apostle intends ily bonds.”32 It is impossible to read Francis’s cultural of the Son of God, to the completed person [eis andra transformation, by taking on the mind of Christ and more than mere garden variety untruths or “mental diagnoses without seeing them as sketching so many

32 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 33 Articles modern manifestations of Paul’s “being in the flesh,” ever bears the marks of his passion and, as Williams 14 Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 22 Theology in History, 216. I have slightly modified the translation in accord standing in stark contrast to the new life “in the Spirit” insists, “evades our surface desires and surface needs, and 2004), 31. with the French original, published in Henri de Lubac, Affrontements 15 Ibid., 29. Mystiques (Paris: Éditions du Témoignage Chrétien, 1949), 207-08. that Christ enables and calls us to embrace. will not subserve the requirements of our private dra- 16 See the reflections in Joseph Ratzinger,New Outpourings of the Spirit: 23 Nicholas J. Healy Jr., “The Spirit of Christian Doctrine,” Communio 43, Here, then, are laid bare dimensions of our present mas.” Every liturgical encounter with the crucified and Movements in the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007). no. 2 (Summer 2016): 233. cultural context which both require and also obstruct risen Lord calls believers to forgo the effort “to inter- 17 The essay may be found in Henri de Lubac, Theology in History (San 24 Ibid., 236. See also the excellent article by José Granados, “The Synergy authentic discernment in the Spirit. In such a context pret his story in light of ours and presses us to interpret Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 201-20. The editor of these collected of Doctrine and Life,” Communio 43, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 104-22. 34 essays, recognized the singular importance of “The Light of Christ” by 25 Mark A. McIntosh, Discernment and Truth: The Spirituality and Theology of discernment will perforce be, in good measure, coun- ourselves in the light of the Easter event.” placing it as the epilogue to part one of the book. Knowledge (New York: Crossroad, 2004), 68. tercultural, revealing Christ’s Church to be a “contrast In our exodus, our spiritual venturing forth, our 18 Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, IV, 34, 1. Pope Francis cites this very 26 Edward T. Oakes, “Experience and Divinization,” in A Theology of Grace in society.” For it must contend with the ferocious and accompanying and discerning, it is only through Christ declaration of Irenaeus in the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 11, Six Controversies (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), 199. that we can truly and safely come to Christ. For he available at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhorta- 27 McIntosh, Discernment and Truth, 140. often deadly spiritual deficits of our contemporary tions/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii- 28 Rowan Williams, Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel (Harrisburg, cultural catechumenate whose intensity and all-perva- alone is the way, the truth, and the life. ✠ gaudium.html. See my essay “Christ Brings All Newness: The Irenaean PA: Morehouse, 1984), 53; italics in original. Vision of Evangelii Gaudium,” in PATH, Journal of the Pontifical Acad- siveness leaves the ecclesial catechumenate at a decided 29 Ibid., 52. disadvantage. ENDNOTES emy of Theology 13, no. 2 (2014): 367-76. 19 Theology in History, 209. De Lubac is here quoting with full approval 30 Laudato si’, 122, available at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/ Léonce de Grandmaison. encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si. 1 Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical html. Press, 2012), 195. 20 Certainly an important theme for Benedict XVI. See his “Regensburg 5. Ongoing Conversion 31 Ibid., 123. 2 Robert P. Imbelli, Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Meditations Address,” available at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/ 32 Evangelii gaudium, 67. for the New Evangelization (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014), xv. speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_uni- versity-regensburg.html. he Apostle Paul, peerless mystagogue and dis- I am honored that Jared Wicks, S.J., one of the foremost interpreters of 33 Williams, Resurrection, 62. Vatican II, has cited approvingly these words. See Jared Wicks, “Vatican II 21 This phrase from Colossians serves as a key point of reference in Louis 34 Ibid., 84; italics in original. cerner of spirits, freely acknowledges in his in 1965: Bringing in an Ample Harvest of Renewed Doctrine and Direc- Bouyer’s classic Introduction to the Spiritual Life, reprinted with an intro- most personal and affect-laden Letter: “I have tives of Service,” in Josephinum Journal of Theology 22, nos. 1-2 (2015): 13 n. duction by Michael Heintz (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2013). T 23. not yet been perfected [teteleiomai].” The new life in Christ has not yet been fully realized in me! “But I 3 Dei Verbum, 2 4 John O’Malley, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard strive to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has University Press, 2008), 310. made me his own.” Therefore, “forgetting what lies 5 Sacrosanctum concilium, 2. behind, I stretch forward to what lies ahead”: the tran- 6 Sacrosanctum concilium, 14. scendent call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:12–14). 7 Gaudium et spes, 10. These lines from Philippians stand at the very center 8 Ad gentes, 5. of Gregory of Nyssa’s profound spiritual-theological 9 For a fascinating account of the theological trajectory that led to the Jesus Emerges from the Council’s revitalized understanding of revelation, see Jared Wicks, “The synthesis. They also serve as reminder to all the baptized Fullness of Revelation in Christ in Dei Verbum,” in Josephinum Journal of that conversion is not a once and for all reality, but a Theology 23, nos. 1-2 (2016): 176-204. Historical-Critical Fog daily necessity. “Hodie” serves as cantus firmus for every 10 For the urgency of restoring Christocentrism to Catholic liturgical celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. “If today you celebration see, of course, Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000). hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts!” (Ps 95:7-8). by Jerome D. Gilmartin scholars tend to believe that Mark was the first Gospel 11 Luke Timothy Johnson, “On Taking the Creed Seriously,” in Handing on nd The risen and ascended Lord remains the ongoing the Faith: The Church’s Mission and Challenge, ed. Robert P. Imbelli (New Author, The 7-Step Reason to Be Catholic, 2 Edition: written. Matthew, whoever he was, probably wrote point of reference guiding and sustaining the ongo- York: Crossroad, 2017–second printing), 66 and 70. Science, the Bible and History Point to Catholicism next, using Mark as a source. Luke, whoever he was, ing transformation of the Christian. Jesus Christ’s real 12 Most recently Matthew Levering has argued at length and persuasively wrote next, using both of the previous Gospels as well for the Christological hermeneutic that characterizes and structures presence and agency is, for the believer, the “never- the documents of Vatican II. He states his intent: “I hope to shed light as other sources. In addition to these Gospels, the schol- failing source of affirmation, challenge, enrichment and upon the very heart of the Council’s dogmatic and pastoral contribu- Catholic Religious Studies 101 ars say that there is one more source to which we can enlargement.”33 All disciples, the greater like Paul, the tions: namely, its insistence upon the centrality of Jesus Christ within the look in our search for the historical Jesus. It is called ‘Q,’ modern pluralistic, technologically advancing, and historically conscious lesser like many of us, must ever learn Jesus afresh, de “ elcome to this Catholic university and a hypothetical document that has never been found but world.” See Matthew Levering, An Introduction to Vatican II as an Ongoing to Religious Studies 101—The Gospels. principio. So we join the Apostle in prayer. “May Christ Theological Event (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America one that is supposed to be a list of sayings of Jesus. Later I know that many in this class have been come to dwell in our hearts through faith. Rooted and Press, 2017), 11. W this semester we’ll consider The Gospel according to John, 13 It is sobering and instructive to read the discernment of Henri de Lubac taught that the Gospels were written by apostles who grounded in love may we have the strength to com- (a theologian whose spiritual wisdom is rightly prized by Pope Francis). about which the scholars tell us that it was probably not were eyewitnesses (Matthew and John) and by Mark 2 prehend, with all the saints, the breadth and length, the Already in 1965 he feels compelled to distance himself from the newly written by John the apostle.” height and depth of the love of Christ—to know that founded journal Concilium because “the orientation of the Review did (Peter) and Luke (Paul). But most biblical scholars to- “But professor, didn’t the apostle Matthew write not correspond to what its title had led me to expect.” And ten years later day say that they are not sure who wrote these Gospels. which surpasses knowledge—and thus may we be filled he decries “the noisiest part of postconciliar theology” which “is moving his Gospel in the Hebrew dialect before leaving with all the fullness [pleroma] of God” (Eph 3:18-19). farther and farther away from the norms of the Catholic faith and from the They may tell us that there are historical indications Jerusalem?” But this love, as the mystics testify, is a living flame very teachings of Vatican II.” Indeed, “it supports and accelerates that vast that Mark wrote what he heard Peter preach, but they “Maybe,” the professor replies, “but biblical scholars phenomenon of the Church’s ‘self-destruction’ and ‘inner-apostasy,’ indi- of love, which cauterizes that it may heal, inflames so cated so many times these past ten years or so.” See Henri de Lubac, At the usually claim that evidence within the Gospel calls that believe that whoever wrote the only text of Matthew we as to transform. The living Lord, whom we encounter, Service of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 345 and 148. into question.1 Whoever Mark may have been, these have, the canonical Greek Matthew, probably used Mark

34 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 35 Articles as a source. The apostle Matthew would not have need- Q manuscript has ever been found, (c) no early Church Evans, among its best-known Protestant proponents, TSH/AG, thereby casting doubt on everything in the ed a source. For this and other reasons scholars believe Father ever refers to it, and (d) the idea is fraught with did not attempt to identify the writers of the synoptic synoptic Gospels. Matthew was written later, anonymously. These four internal problems.4 Gospels, but at least he did not rule out the possibility Pope Pius XII would have been astonished to read Gospels are part of the biblical canon, and the Church Numerous examples of the same or some similar that Mark may have been written before the year 70.9 what Brown wrote in 1985: calls upon all Catholics to accept them on faith. In this text in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark indicates that no one of the evangelists was an eyewitness to the class, however, we will study them not from the stand- one used the other as a source. Scholars differ on which The Dominance of the Markan ministry of Jesus. Rather the evangelists were ‘second point of faith, but primarily using the historical-critical of them wrote first. In defense of their hypothesis that generation’ Christians.16 method; specifically, we will use the Markan priority “Mark wrote first,” proponents of the hypotheses of Priority Hypothesis in most Brown also discredits the statement on the question Two-Source Hypothesis.” Markan priority and of two sources (Mark + Q) ask: Catholic Centers of Higher by such Church Fathers as Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, “Why would the apostle Matthew—certainly literate as Augustine, and Jerome: a former tax collector and an eyewitness to almost ev- Learning [B]ut unless those writers [Church Fathers] had his- The Unwarranted Dominance of erything Jesus said and did as Peter was—need to have he doubt-inducing anonymous Gospel variant torical information they cannot answer historical Markan Priority and the copied or paraphrased Mark’s account of what Peter questions.17 preached?” The answer, according to many Markan of the Markan priority Two-Source Hypoth- Two-Source Hypothesis esis (TSH/AG) was introduced into Catholic Brown was the author of twenty-five books, many priority proponents, is that Matthew would not have T of them promoting the doubt-inducing TSH/AG. His needed to do so. Therefore, according to this hypoth- centers of higher learning soon after the Second Vatican re the canonical Gospels historically authentic? 878-page Introduction to the New Testament was published esis, Matthew’s Gospel was probably written not by the Council ended in 1965 by the Sulpician priest Ray- If so, why do great numbers of college students in 1997, the year before his untimely death. He had apostle Matthew but by some unknown later writer mond E. Brown, S.S. (1928-1998) through his many lose their faith in the biblical Jesus? To answer served on the Pontifical Biblical Commission under A who did need to do so. Further, these scholars hold as books and lectures. Brown specifically cast doubt on this question, it may be helpful to consider certain 10 Pope Paul VI (1972—1978) and was again appointed to historically doubtful anything in Matthew that is not in the possibility that the apostle Matthew (and apostle points in the history of biblical interpretation. 11 that body in 1996, two years prior to his death, by Pope Mark and most importantly the notion that Jesus was John ) wrote a Gospel, cast doubt on Mark as the hear- Although earlier scholars had long studied textual er and writer of what Peter preached,12 and cast doubt John Paul II. And yet as early as 1975, Brown cast doubt similarities among the four Gospels and tried in various initiating Petrine primacy in the one Church he was on the primacy of Peter: founding: “Thou art Peter and upon this Rock…” (Mt on Luke as the close companion of Paul and writer of way to explain the texts that we have, few Christians 13 we [members of the Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue] 16:18-19). They regard as problematic the verses that Acts and the Gospel that bears his name. before the mid-nineteenth century doubted that the In 1912 the Pontifical Biblical Commission had did come to significant agreement that much of affirm the words of Jesus about this (“One flock…One Gospels were four independently written accounts of given Catholic scholars permission to discuss the Mar- what is peculiar to Matthew in that Caesarea Philip- Shepherd” [Jn 10:16]), just as 500 years later many of the extraordinary life and ministry of Jesus Christ, writ- kan priority Two-Source Hypothesis in the context of pi scene [“Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will our Christian brethren who separated from the Catho- ten by eyewitness-apostles like Matthew and John and Church Tradition, but it forbade them to advocate this build my Church…”?] is probably post-resurrection- lic Church by the Reformation find them problematic. by “apostolic men” like Mark (Peter) and Luke (Paul). hypothesis. By that point Protestant biblical scholars al in origin.18 Attempts to increase the credibility of non-Markan By the late nineteenth century, however, soon after had favored it for decades. In 1943, in Divino afflante But there are scholars who come to other conclu- verses in Matthew and Luke by attributing them to Q the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870, Protes- spiritu, Pope Pius XII granted Catholic biblical scholars sions. In The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (1987), the are unhelpful to resolve such issues, for (as these schol- tant scripture scholars began to scrutinize the first three that long-awaited permission to employ the historical- French Hebraist Abbé Jean Carmignac presented com- ars acknowledge), Q is hypothetical. synoptic Gospels using the historical-critical method critical method, but he stipulated that in that endeavor pelling evidence that the canonical Greek Gospels Mat- In Dei Verbum and the Synoptic Gospels, Bernard initiated by Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). In 1943 Pope the scholar must study not only Greek but also Hebrew thew and Mark, and some of the sources of Luke, were Orchard, O.S.B., a twentieth-century scripture scholar, Pius XII gave Catholic scholars permission to use this and must “diligently apply himself so as to acquire daily translations from a Semitic language, probably Hebrew 3 provided a sharp critique of the idea of Markan prior- method. Since then many hypotheses have been pro- a greater facility in biblical as well as in other oriental but possibly Aramaic. The is the sort of evidence that was ity. He lists thirty books dealing with the weaknesses of posed to account for the numerous instances in which languages.”14 called for in Divino afflante spirituand by the Pontifical Markan Two-Source Hypotheses.5 And Brant Pitre, a identical or similar wording is found in two of the syn- The Pontifical Biblical Commission also encour- Biblical Commission when they insisted on a Semitic- contemporary biblical scholar, pointed out in 2016: optic Gospels and sometimes in all three. aged the study of Semitic languages like Hebrew and based study. In An Introduction to the New Testament Brown Despite serious unresolved difficulties, Markan pri- Finally, there are so many internal problems with the Aramaic in their 1993 document “The Interpretation mentions “J. Carmignac” in a footnote, thereby indicating ority—the theory that Mark wrote the first of the three [Markan priority] Two-Source Theory that E. P. Sand- of the Bible in the Church” when they wrote: “[T]he that he was aware that Carmignac’s conclusions strongly synoptic Gospels and that both Matthew and Luke ers and Margaret Davies once concluded: “Of all the study of…the Semitic mode of composition allows for indicated an early Semitic origin for Matthew, Mark, and used Mark as a source—is taught in most colleges and solutions, this one [the Two-Source theory], which re- a better discernment of the literary structure of texts, some of the sources of Luke, almost certainly within the 6 7 universities today. To account for non-Markan content mains the dominant hypothesis, is least satisfactory.” , which can only lead to a more adequate understanding lifetime of those Gospel writers, and thus making it al- in Matthew and Luke, most such scholars posit a second In view of the resolute refusal of most scholars to of their message.”15 most certain that they were written personally by those source, a hypothetical collection of the sayings of Jesus reject or even question the idea of Markan Two-Source Despite the requirement of Pope Pius XII and the evangelists. However, rather than attempting directly to called “Q” (German: Quelle, source). But postulating priority despite the many unresolved difficulties, David encouragement of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, refute the evidence for such early Semitic origin—which the existence of Q is problematic for several reasons: (a) L. Dungan referred to it as the Teflon[®] hypothesis.8 many Catholic exegetes have proceeded primarily would discredit Markan priority in favor of Matthean Some scholars posit relatively few Q sayings while oth- The Two-Source Hypothesis is now considered the from the Greek, with only passing reference (if any) priority—Brown arbitrarily differentiated between the ers posit many. Further (b), as Brant Pitre points out, no best working hypothesis in Protestant academia. Craig to Hebrew and Aramaic and have generally affirmed apostle-eyewitness Matthew and, in his view, the later

36 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 37 Articles unknown “Matt” whom Brown asserts wrote the Gospel Luke omit the name of the beggar while including, decades ago, I must have said something about Pope John ministry of Jesus. Rather the evangelists were ‘second according to Matthew: for example, the names Joanna and Susanna in another Paul II. I wasn’t prepared for his response: “The Pope generation’ Christians.”25 Clearly the TSH/AG—pur- Whether somewhere in the history of Matt’s sources passage? (Lk 8:3)] may be Bishop of Rome, Jerry, but he has no author- sued essentially without the Semitism study called for something written in Semitic by Matthew, one of In fairness to Fr. Brown, the reader will do well to con- ity outside Rome. There is no biblical basis for it.” “But by Pope Pius XII and the Pontifical Biblical Com- the Twelve, played a role we cannot know. (emphasis sult his book An Introduction to the New Testament for his Father,” I objected, “don’t we read in the Bible, ‘Thou art mission—has been a faith-undermining force in our added)19 full defense of assumptions that are foundational to the Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church?’” “Yes, seminaries, our colleges, our parishes and, indirectly, in Ignoring the many Semitisms evident in Matthew, TSH/AG as he promoted it in his books and lectures. Jerry, that’s in Matthew,” he said, “but those words giv- virtually every Catholic home. Mark, and the sources used by Luke enabled Brown and ing Peter primacy are not in Mark’s account of the same Writing as Pope Benedict, Ratzinger faulted other exegetes to assign a late date for these Gospels scene at Caesarea Philippi. So we have good reason to the Markan priority Two-Source Hypothesis but still and to assert that they are anonymous, thereby casting Friendship with Jesus Is Now doubt that Jesus gave Peter primacy.” supported the validity of historical-critical exegesis. serious doubt on their historical authenticity.20 “Like Clutching at Thin Air” and Here is an excerpt from a message I received As an alternative to the TSH, however, he encouraged In An Introduction to the New Testament,21 Brown Faith Is “Driven out of Catholic recently from a Catholic priest taught by Fr. Brown: “canonical exegesis”: attempts to cast doubt on the notion of the Gospels Dear Jerome, ‘Canonical exegesis’—reading the individual texts of of Matthew, Mark, and Luke as eyewitness accounts by the Bible in the context of the whole—is an essential Campuses” I was taught the Historical-Critical Method in the claiming that the discrepancies within these Gospels are dimension of exegesis. It does not contradict histori- seminary in the 1970’s…[by] Fr. Raymond Brown. not consistent with an eyewitness origin. [My responses n 2002, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger noted that cal-critical interpretation, but carries it forward in an [H]e saw toward the end of his life how this method to his questions are within brackets]. For example: the Two-Source theory, that is, the Markan prior- organic way toward becoming theology in the proper could destroy Catholic Faith in people rather than 26 How could eyewitness John (chap. 2) report the ity Two-Source Hypothesis, is “accepted today by sense. I 22 build it up. I saw seminarians lose their faith in my almost everyone.” Four years later, as Pope Benedict cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of the min- class when exposed to the unbridled use of this meth- Surely many Catholic scholars who now teach the XVI, he wrote with deep concern: istry and eyewitness Matthew (chap. 21) report the od. Many were converted by this method to hetero- TSH/AG view that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are prob- cleansing of the Temple at the end of the ministry? As historical-critical scholarship advanced…the dox teachings or beliefs. Others lost their faith and ably anonymous, and therefore subject to doubt, would [Both Matthew and Mark report such a cleansing late figure of Jesus—became increasingly obscured and left the seminary. For me, and by God’s grace, some- welcome canonical exegesis. Doing so would allow in Jesus’s ministry. Could not Jesus also have done this blurred.…All these attempts have produced a com- where someone indicated that even if the Scriptures them to teach with confidence the historical reality of early, as John reported? With Jesus doing “more things mon result: the impression that we have very little were not written by eye-witnesses to Christ, the oral Christ and his biblical teachings in the context of the than the books of the world could contain” (Jn 21:25), certain knowledge of Jesus and that only at a late stage tradition certainly came from them [and] it was the whole Bible. Sadly, the TSH/AG arguments that the can we not excuse these three evangelists for noting did faith in his divinity shape the image we have of Risen Lord inspiring the written text and so Christ, synoptic Gospels are of anonymous, second generation only one such cleansing, though there may have been him. This impression has by now penetrated deeply the Risen Lord was completely active in this process. origin remain prominent. Until they are refuted, faithful two?] into the minds of Christian people at large. Intimate But it would be easy to be manipulated by the HCM Catholic educators may find it difficult to accept- ca Since Matt has a Sermon on the Mount and Luke friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is to abandon the Catholic Faith in favor of some Ecu- nonical exegesis. As an alternative to the TSH/AG, the 23 has a similar Sermon on the Plain (Matt 5:1; Luke in danger of clutching at thin air. menical Church with loose doctrines or dogmas. The Matthean priority Two-Gospel Hypothesis (TGH) is 6:17), there must have been a plain on the side of the Is it coincidental that it was the doubt-inducing TSH/ HCM calls into question not only the infancy narra- faith-affirming, consistent with Catholic teaching, and mountain. [In his three-year ministry, is it improbable AG that has been taught as the best working hypothesis tives but also the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the lends itself well to canonical exegesis. that Jesus gave similar sermons on a mountain and on in most Catholic colleges and universities since soon Virgin Conception and birth, not to mention miracles The Catechism of the Catholic Church—the “sure a plain?] after the close of The Second Vatican Council in 1965? of Christ and his physical death and resurrection. norm for teaching the faith,” as expressed by Pope John It really opens old heresies already resolved by the Since Matt has the Lord’s Prayer taught in that sermon As if to emphasize (then) Pope Benedict’s point, Paul II, states: Church. And Catholic exegetes who use this method and Luke has it later on the road to Jerusalem (Matt Wolfgang Grassl wrote in his 2014 essay “How can we [T]he Gospel was handed on in two ways: “orally ‘by simply make the same mistakes of liberal protestant 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4), the disciples must have forgotten save Catholic Higher Education?”: the apostles…’” [and] “in writing ‘by those apostles and scripture scholars of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it, causing Jesus to repeat it. [Again, is repetition of this Faith has been, and continues to be, driven out of other men associated with the apostles who, under the which radicalized many believing Protestants and important prayer by Jesus improbable?] Catholic campuses.…The few remaining [Catholic inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the pushed them to fundamentalism and literalism that faculty members] are becoming lonely, increasingly message of salvation to writing.’”27 Mark 10:46 places the healing of the blind man after actually began to be institutionalized in the 1920’s.… isolated from the centers of influence, and sometimes Jesus left Jericho, while Luke (18:35; 19:1) places it The Fathers of the Church can never be left out of The Vatican II document Dei Verbum at §19 affirms even embattled.…God has largely been driven out of before Jesus entered Jericho. [Here Mark seems to have the equation! what the Church has always held when it states: the academic enterprise.…[T]oo many Catholic uni- copied Luke’s second-hand account almost verbatim. Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute versities are now Catholic in name only.24 Peter, as an eyewitness, may have corrected Mark’s This good priest does not mention which doubt-in- constancy maintained and continues to maintain, that account while noting that the miracle occurred as I have no data on the extent to which Catholic clergy ducing historical-critical hypothesis Brown was teach- the four Gospels just named, whose historicity she un- Jesus and the twelve were leaving Jericho and add- leave their parishioners “clutching at thin air” in regard ing in the 1970s when this priest was a seminarian. It hesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the ing the beggar’s name, Bartimaeus, of which Luke to Jesus. I can only hope that few Markan priority pro- may or may not have been based on what Brown wrote Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and was apparently unaware. If Mark was written first, as ponents are as candid with their parishioners as a former the following decade while advocating the TSH/AG: taught for their eternal salvation, until the day he was Brown believed, and Luke copied from Mark, why did pastor of mine was with me. As I sat in his office a few “no one of the evangelists was an eyewitness to the taken up (Acts 1:1-2).…Whether they relied on their

38 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 39 Articles

own memory and recollections or on the testimony of None the less, most scholars continue to use the relate the promise of Jesus that Peter and the other cal approval of the early Church. A strong indication, those who “from the beginning were eyewitnesses and Two-Source Hypothesis as the “best working hy- apostles would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve then, that Matthew’s Gospel is authentic. We have the ministers of the Word,” their purpose in writing was pothesis.” The reasons given for this vary. But the tribes of Israel. Silence in Mark on this matter is another attestation of St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) that we might know the “truth” concerning the things most recurring one is that all major alternatives ap- example of Peter’s prudence in what he preached with that John did, in fact, approve the other Gospels before of which we have been informed (cf. Lk 1:2-4). pear to be fraught with even greater difficulties than the Emperor’s officials listening. writing his own: “John, last of all, seeing that the plain In full accord with the Catechism and Dei Verbum, those associated with the Two-Source Hypothesis. (2) If Peter’s ministry in Rome had not ended facts had been clearly set forth in the Gospels, and be- some young Catholics have been taught that the four Among these difficulties the only one which appears to be abruptly with imprisonment and martyrdom under ing urged by his acquaintances, composed a spiritual Gospels really do faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son so serious as to block a shift away from the Two-Source Nero about A.D. 67, he would have preached a more Gospel under the divine inspiration of the Spirit.”32 of God, taught for our eternal salvation. Catholic An- Hypothesis in the direction of its major rival, the Two-Gos- complete Gospel. According to St. Clement of Alex- And if Jesus never established Petrine primacy (as swers, EWTN, and many other fine organizations and pel Hypothesis, is the difficulty in imagining how one can andria (c. 150-215), Peter was still living and approved in Mt 16:13-19), consider the probable response of the explain the omissions Mark has made from the Gospels of individual Catholics have embraced the New Evan- Mark’s Gospel before Mark promulgated it. Peter may Church at Corinth upon receiving, in an authenticated Matthew and Luke on the assumption that the author of gelization endeavor. But many Catholic colleges and have given that approval to Mark after Peter was ar- letter from St. Clement, who was Bishop of Rome in Mark has derived his Gospel largely from those two earlier universities undermine that endeavor and severely test rested and during his brief imprisonment before being about the year 96-98, these words of admonishment, Gospels. (emphasis added)29 (if not actually shatter) the faith of students by casting martyred by Nero.30 In any event, Peter’s arrest would clearly from a superior to a subordinate: Why would Mark, having Matthew and Luke at doubt on the Gospels with the TSH/AG, for it is taught have cut short his preaching before he had time to These things, beloved, we write unto you, not merely hand, have omitted important teachings of Christ found as the “best working hypothesis.” preach a more complete Gospel. to admonish you of your duty, but also to remind our- in those Gospels? Let me offer a few thoughts that may Farmer suggests that the key difficulty preventing selves. For we are struggling on the same arena, and overcome the block to acceptance of the TGH: exegetes from accepting the TGH as the best solution the same conflict is assigned to both of us.33 Matthean Priority—The Faith- (1) Peter’s prudence in what he preached in Rome, to the synoptic problem is Mark’s failure to include If Jesus had never established Petrine primacy, I Affirming Two-Gospel Hypothesis with the agents of Claudius (41-54) and Nero (54-68) in his Gospel important teachings of Jesus that Mark listening to his every word. In the pericope about Cae- would have seen in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. imagine that the response by the Bishop of Corinth, n contrast to the idea of Markan priority, the no- sarea Philippi in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says to his Clearly all such omissions, even of the Lord’s Prayer, can although more graciously written, might have amount- tion of Matthean priority posits that the Gospel disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, be explained by Peter’s prudence while preaching in ed to: “I might accept such criticism from John, now Iaccording to Matthew was the first Gospel to have “You are the Christ,” and Jesus gives him primacy the belly of the beast, by his abrupt arrest and martyr- head of the Church in Antioch. He is an apostle. But been written. Among Matthean priority proponents, among the apostles and in the Church he is founding: dom, and by what may have been Mark’s intent to limit what makes you think that you, Bishop of Rome, can some have posited the sequence Matthew, Mark, Luke; “Thou art Peter and upon this rock…I will give you his Gospel to what Peter preached—especially if, as admonish me, Bishop of Corinth?” Regardless of any other more recent scholars Matthew, Luke, Mark. In the keys…whatever you bind…whatever you loose…” Clement of Alexandria noted, Peter was still living (and response that may have been written, the existence of this latter view the physician Luke, an associate of Paul, (Mt 16:13-19). The absence in Mark’s Gospel of these in prison?) when Mark “gave his Gospel to those who such a letter from St. Clement, Bishop of Rome and wrote the second Gospel, using Matthew as one of his words of Jesus that give Peter primacy (Mk 8:27-30) had requested it.”31 third successor of Peter, is consistent with Petrine pri- sources. Mark, last of the three, used two Gospels, Mat- would be consistent with Peter’s prudence in not in- There is yet another argument for taking Matthew macy (as indicated in Mt 16:13-19 and with its absence thew and Luke (thus the name of this hypothesis) as cluding them in his preaching in Rome, with Nero’s to have been written before Mark, and it is perhaps in Mk 8:27-30) probably because Peter prudently omit- sources in addition to the preaching of Peter and other officials listening and alert to anything that might the most compelling of all. Let us suppose—since ted it while preaching in Rome with the officials of the sources that Mark may have had. In contrast to the threaten Rome’s authority. those words giving primacy to Peter (“Thou art Peter Emperor listening. Markan priority Two-Source Hypothesis, the Matthean But how, scholars ask, could Peter have failed to and upon this rock…I will give you the keys…” [Mt The same historical reasoning strongly points to priority TGH does not posit Q or any source of sayings preach the Lord’s Prayer, which was at the heart of 16:18-19]) are not found in Mark’s account of the same Matthew as the writer of the first published Gospel and of Jesus that has been postulated but never found. It is Jesus’s teaching? Surely Peter wanted to teach the Lord’s pericope (Mk 8:27-30)—that whoever wrote Matthew as the eyewitness-writer of the “Great Commission” consistent with the view of the early Church that Mat- Prayer to his followers in Rome. But, with the Emper- falsely added them later. Imagine the surprise, more (given by the risen Jesus uniquely to the eleven): “Now thew was the first Gospel written. ThisMatthew , Luke, or’s agents ready to pounce, did Peter prudently delay likely indignation, of other apostles upon reading what the eleven disciples [Judas Iscariot having killed himself] Mark sequence is also consistent with the commentary teaching that perfect prayer—too long as it turned we now refer to as Mt 16:18-19. Certainly John, who went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had of Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215): “[T]he Gos- out—knowing that to preach “Thy kingdom come [a rival heard Jesus at that moment near Caesarea Philippi and directed them.…Go therefore and make disciples of all pels containing the genealogies were written first.”28 kingdom!]; Thy will be done…” [not that of Claudius/ would have known that Jesus did not give Peter pri- nations” (Mt 28:16-20). This, of course, is the biblical The TGH is a further development of the Griesbach Nero!]; “Deliver us…” [overthrow Claudius/Nero!] macy within the Church and over the other apostles. passage that most strongly supports the unique claim of Hypothesis that was introduced in its current form by could well have brought an immediate end to his min- Would the response of John and the other living apos- the Catholic Church to apostolic succession given per- William R. Farmer in 1964. In “The Present State of istry—and his life? Mark first uses the word “kingdom” tles have been quietly to accept this lie of the anony- sonally by the risen Jesus; the succession that was sum- the Synoptic Problem,” after an analysis of five scholarly in his first chapter, possibly during Peter’s pre-Rome mous (according to the TSH/AG) “Matthew” when he marily rejected by Luther and the other Reformers in books, Farmer wrote: preaching: “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15). subordinates them to Peter and Peter’s successors? No. the sixteenth century. [T]here appears to be no longer any theoretical ba- Mark quotes Peter using the word “kingdom” seven- They—certainly John—would have made the decep- Mark also provides an account of the Great Com- sis for the existence of ‘Q,’ and it appears that the teen more times in his preaching, but always in a way tion widely known and thus condemned Matthew’s mission (again uniquely given to the eleven). In Mark old Streeterian [cf. B. F. Streeter] reasons for belief unlikely to prompt the Emperor’s officials to arrested entire Gospel to the dust bin of history. With such it is preceded by the appearance of Jesus “to the eleven in Markan priority are no longer regarded as valid. him. Both Matthew (19:28) and Luke (22:29-30) deception it would never have received the canoni- themselves as they sat at table,” apparently before Jesus

40 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 41 Articles directed them to the mountain to which Matthew who actually wrote Matthew and the other Gospels,35 Dead Sea Scrolls Semitisms acknowledged that Mark was previously in Hebrew, referred. Mark continued: “And he said to them, ‘Go they provide a formidable defense of Matthew as the then there is no difficulty in admitting that Matthew into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole first Gospel written. They demonstrate at many levels Point to Early Hebrew Under- was likewise in Hebrew.47 creation’” (Mk 16:14-20). Mark’s account of the details and in many ways the secondary character of the Gospel pinnings of Matthew, Mark, And Luke: differs somewhat from that of Matthew, as we might according to Mark with respect to the Gospels of Mat- He has clearly composed his Gospel in Greek.…[I] 36 expect, with Mark writing what Peter preached. But thew and of Luke. They point out that nowhere in the and Sources of Luke—and to n his Gospel we find the most unexpected Semitisms note that nothing in Mark’s account threatens the ancient sources is there any evidence that Mark was the sprinkled about in the midst of turns of phrases of a 37 Matthean Priority authority of the Emperor. In Matthew, by contrast, the first synoptic Gospel written, and that the Patristic most elegant Greek [probably because] he was work- Great Commission begins: “All authority in heaven evidence in all cases specifies Matthew as the first Gospel efore the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls ing upon Semitic documents, translated very literally, 38 and earth has been given to me, Go therefore…” (Mt composed and John the last. They also note that Ray- (1947-56) arguments for Markan priority and which he inserted into his own redaction.48 28:18-19). This is one more indication, it seems to me, mond E. Brown and other scholars continued to use ar- against Matthean priority may have seemed Citing more than thirty other scholars who affirmed that Irenaeus and others were correct in that Matthew guments of B. F. Streeter, even though Streeter had been B persuasive. Until then scholars who studied Semitisms the Semitic (either Hebrew or Aramaic) origin of Mat- was the first Gospel written and that differences and discredited and had purportedly altered whole phrases were quite familiar with the Hebrew of the Old Testa- thew, Mark, or sources of Luke, Carmignac wrote: apparent omissions such as this in Mark reflect Peter’s of Mark to make his conclusions appear convincing.39 ment and the Mishnaic Hebrew that developed after The [synoptic] Gospels therefore have been redacted prudence in preaching in Rome with officials of the The Matthean priority TGH has earned peer rec- the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70. Emperor alert to any threat to the authority of Rome. ognition, as noted in The Synoptic Problem: Four Views earlier than is customarily claimed. They are much They seem to have been less acquainted with the He- closer to the events. They have a historical value of Our separated Christian brethren are to be com- (2016). In this book David B. Peabody defends the brew of the middle period in which Christ lived and mended for taking to heart Jesus’s command to “Go Matthean priority TGH against the Markan priority prime importance. They contain the witness of dis- the Gospels were written. The Dead Sea Scrolls enabled 49 make disciples of all nations.” They often do this with Two-Source Hypothesis and two other hypotheses, ciples who followed and listened to Jesus. scholars to translate more precisely the Hebrew and far better results than their Catholic counterparts. But both Markan priority. Carmignac offered the following rebuttal to schol- Aramaic of the time of Christ. often when they do so, they hear it as saying, “The In his book, Why Four Gospels? The Historical Ori- ars who rejected his analysis and instead attributed the As noted, in Divino afflante spiritu Pope Pius XII Great Commission is your commission,” but they seem gins of the Gospels (2001, 2010), after an eleven-point Hebrew/Aramaic Semitisms in the canonical Greek encouraged exegetes to become skilled in Semitic lan- unaware of Mt 28:16 and Mk 16:14-15, in which Jesus overview of the patristic and historical evidence in to the mother tongue of anonymous writers or their guages, (for example, Hebrew and Aramaic) to better gives that Commission only to the remaining eleven support of Matthean priority, David A. Black concludes tendency to imitate the apparent indications of Hebrew interpret Sacred Scripture. There are more than 900 whom he taught intensively day and night throughout that Matthew was always “first in the minds of the early in the Septuagint, the Koine Greek translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, most written in Hebrew, the first his three-year ministry as the predecessors of all later fathers” and that this evidence “utterly fails to support Hebrew Bible done in about the third century before of which were discovered four years after Pius XII’s Catholic bishops and the successors of Peter whom the priority of Mark at any point.” Furthermore, Black Christ: encyclical. The many Semitisms found in the canoni- they would, through time and with Christ’s continu- asks, “How do Markan prioritists deal with this evi- (1) He divided those Semitisms into nine catego- cal Greek of the three synoptic Gospels have led many ing authority (Mt 28:20), elect to lead them and his dence?”40 In the bibliography of this book Black lists ries: Semitisms of borrowing, of imitation, of thought, scholars to conclude that these Gospels are largely Church. 296 books and articles dealing with the synoptic prob- of vocabulary, of syntax, of style, of composition, of faithful translations of documents originally written in The Great Commission of these apostles by Je- lem, including the weaknesses of the Markan priority transmission, of translation, with the added category of Hebrew or Aramaic during the probable lifetimes of sus in both Gospels in the one Church that he was hypothesis. multiple Semitisms; several mixed together. evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Such evidence founding is reflected three centuries later in the The unwarranted dominance of Q—the specu- (2) Then he defended unequivocally the Semitisms points strongly to these evangelists as the writers of lative, never-found sayings of which vary with each of the final three categories (composition, transmission, Nicene Creed. The amplified form, approved one- these Gospels. We have no evidence of fraudulent au- individual speculator—prompted David L. Dungan to translation), each of which he explained at length. half century later at the Council of Constantinople thorship of these Gospels as we have with letters falsely label Markan priority the “headless horseman who rises (3) He continued: “But even in the first five cat- (381) includes: “And (I believe) in…one, holy, catho- attributed to Paul (2 Thes 2:1-3) and “false words” at- across the countryside every Halloween in the light of egories…and especially the sixth (style), the abundance lic, and apostolic Church.” This statement is prayed 41 tributed to John (3 John:9-10). the full moon.” of evidence presented goes far beyond any possibility aloud each Sunday in the Catholic Church, to which Carmignac’s book The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels44 The case for the Matthean priority TGH is con- that the author [writer] was influenced by his mother historically it directly applies. It is also common to all is the result of more than twenty years of studying the cisely explained by Mark Allan Powell in Introducing the tongue or by the prestige of a venerable text.”50 Eastern Churches separated from Rome and—Lu- Dead Sea Scrolls. There he wrote as follows in regard to New Testament in the section entitled “Evidence to sup- This finding by many Hebraist/Aramaist scholars ther’s redefinition of apostolicity in the Reformation 42 Mark: port the Two-Gospel Hypothesis.” The table entitled that the canonical Greek Matthew was a translation of of the sixteenth century notwithstanding—to most “The Synoptic Gospels Compared” provides a three- We have here the literal, carbon copy or transparency 34 an original Semitic (Hebrew or Aramaic) Gospel is Protestant denominations today. column comparison of the content of Matthew, Mark, of a translator attempting to respect, to the greatest important. It is consistent with the report by Irenaeus Matthean priority is demonstrated most persua- and Luke.43 extent possible, the Hebrew text which he had before that the apostle Matthew wrote his Gospel in the He- sively in One Gospel from Two: Mark’s Use of Matthew him.…The invisible soul was Semitic but the visible brew dialect while Peter and Paul were still preaching and Luke (2002), the 426-page book by David B. Pea- 45 body was Greek. (And later)…and the proofs for this in Rome, with Mark writing his Gospel later, after both body, Allan J. McNicol, and Lamar Cope, the research 46 are so numerous that they cannot be doubted. “departed.”51 It is consistent with the report of Irenaeus team of the International Institute for Gospel Studies. And Matthew: that Pantaenus found a copy of the Gospel of Matthew Although these authors do not address the question of Matthew is totally as Semitic as Mark.…[I]f it is in Hebrew in India, apparently brought there earlier by

42 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 43 Articles the apostle Bartholomew.52 It is consistent with David Would John have been concerned that Matthew and The Flawed Rationale for the in The Gospel according to John (Jn 13:23, 20:2, 21:7, and Alan Black’s article, “New Testament Semitisms,” In Luke apparently had different sources for their con- 21:20). To hypothesize this unknown, nonapostle, “Be- which he divides these many Semitisms into twenty- flicting infancy narratives, or that Matthew and Mark “Anonymous Origin” of the loved Disciple” instead of the apostle John in each of one categories.53 It is consistent with the work of J. J. placed Jesus’s driving the money changers out of the Gospel according to John these instances in the ministry of Jesus takes us beyond Griesbach, W. R. Farmer, B. Orchard, O.S.B., and others. Temple near the end of his ministry rather than soon any semblance of credibility. In addition to the other arguments, Semitism-based after it began, as John did? If John observed that one or n support of his TSH/AG, Raymond Brown posit- Manuel Miguens, O.F.M., S.T.D, S.S.D, taught at scholarship now makes it abundantly clear that the faith- another of the other three evangelists had apparently ed what we might call a second-generation pseudo- the Catholic University of America in Washington, building Matthean priority TGH is the best working copied or paraphrased text from another evangelist, but IMatthew, pseudo-Mark, and pseudo-Luke, which the D.C., from 1969 to 1975. As indicated, he held doctoral hypothesis. Can Catholic and other Christian educators that what all had written was true, would he have ob- underlying Semitisms and the above commentary have degrees in theology and scripture. He was skilled in now continue in good conscience to keep the doubt- jected, “seeing that the plain facts had been clearly set shown to be untenable. For the last Gospel, Brown also four biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and inducing Markan priority Two-Source Hypothesis on forth in [those] Gospels,” if they differed only in incon- posited a pseudo-John. In his book An Introduction to the Syriac), as well as Latin, Spanish, English, and four other its tottering pedestal, mindful of what that choice may sequential details? Would John, whose own Gospel is New Testament, Brown wrote: languages. Miguens had this to say about Brown’s cast- mean for the eternal salvation of each student? not strictly chronological, have been concerned that the Was the Beloved Disciple the evangelist? That would be ing doubt on apostolic succession: earlier evangelists’ accounts were to some extent struc- the impression given by Jn 21:20,24: “has written these Brown’s argument is affected (and infected) by con- The Apostle John: Writer of the tured logically or topically? things.” Could this, however, be a simplification by the structions like likelihood, probability, almost certainly, As an apostle who accompanied Jesus throughout redactor who added chap. 21, hardening the more accu- plausibly, it would seem, seemingly, etc. This precau- Fourth Gospel and Guarantor of his entire three-year ministry, John would have quickly rate 19:35?57 The passage [in Jn 19:35]: [“This testimony tion and uncertainty in argumentation is in sharp the Authenticity of the Gospels recognized, and made known in writing to the seven has been given by an eyewitness, and his testimony is contrast to the certainty with which he states his churches in Asia Minor and to the Bishop of Rome, true; he is telling what he knows to be true that you conclusions. Brown appears to be not nearly so certain of Matthew, Mark, and Luke any substantive deviation in Matthew, Mark, and Luke too may have faith”] could mean that the Beloved Dis- of his arguments as he is about what he wants them to from what Jesus actually said and did. Note John’s sharp ciple was not the evangelist but a witness to Jesus and thus prove. [Parenthesis in the published article].59 he long life of the apostle John also adds to criticism of Diotrephes for his “false words” (3 John:9- the source of tradition that has gone into the Fourth It seems we have similar speculation as Brown at- the confidence Catholics and other Christians 10). We know that numerous “gospels” and other such Gospel. The evangelist who wrote that passage could tempts to cast doubt on the apostle John as writer of should have, not only in his Gospel but also in early writings were rejected by those developing the have been a follower or disciple of the Beloved Disciple T The Gospel according to John: the historical authenticity of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. canon two centuries later. Given John’s preeminence in (whom he describes in the third person) and not him- It is well documented that the apostle John lived until the Church, any substantive disapproval of the content self an eyewitness of the ministry.58 “Was [he] the evangelist?”; “impression given”; “Could this, however, be…a simplification?”; “could almost the year 100. Most scholars believe that he wrote of Matthew, Mark, or Luke by him would have disquali- Brown suggests that “the Beloved Disciple was not mean…”; “could have been…”; Jn 21:24 is “less accu- his Gospel about the year 96 or soon afterward, either fied them for the canon. [John] the evangelist.” But at the Last Supper a beloved rate” than Jn 19:35”; “the redactor who added.” during his exile to the Island of Patmos or soon after Translations or not, if, as virtually all biblical schol- disciple was “lying close to the breast of Jesus” (Jn returning to Ephesus in Asia Minor. Some believe that ars agree, all three synoptic Gospels in Greek were 13:23). If, as Brown suggests, this unknown “beloved Again, this precaution and uncertainty in argumen- he fled to Ephesus in about the year 66, at about the completed by the year 96, we can be confident that disciple” who was so intimate with Jesus was not John tation is in sharp contrast to the certainty with which time of the outbreak of the first Jewish war (66-73) and they had John’s approval after his return from exile in the apostle, who was it? Whoever it was, Peter must he asserts that “no one of the evangelists was an eyewit- for the next three decades, except for his brief exile on the year 96, if not before, and thus can be relied upon as have known him well; he asked that disciple who it was ness to the ministry of Jesus. Rather the evangelists were 56 Patmos, supervised the spread of the Gospel throughout authentic accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. who would betray Jesus. A further question would be, ‘second generation’ Christians.” The same subtle method 54 Asia Minor. It is important to note that the doubt-inducing is this a thirteenth disciple at the Last Supper? In both could eviscerate even the Ten Commandments: “Thou In any case, as probably the last surviving apostle, TSH/AG popularized by Raymond Brown, S.S., and Matthew (Mt 26:20) and Mark (Mk 14:17) the “twelve shalt not commit adultery; that would be the impression John would surely have read the Gospels of Matthew, widely taught today in Catholic colleges and universi- disciples” are at the Last Supper. Luke identifies those at given by the sixth Commandment.” “Could the sixth Mark, and Luke. Through Eusebius, St. Clement of Al- ties, depends for its very existence on the three synoptic the Last Supper as “the apostles,” obviously the twelve. commandment be less accurate than the ninth?” “Was the exandria (ca. 150-215) affirms this: Gospels’ being written by anonymous second-genera- John is undeniably one of the twelve. It seems we must redactor who added the tenth Commandment influenced The Gospels containing the genealogies [Matthew tion Christians, not by evangelists Matthew, Mark, and then conclude either, (a) the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, by the seventh?” “The eighth commandment could mean and Luke] [Here, within his quotation of Clement’s Luke. and Luke are wrong, and there were thirteen disciples/ only that we are not to lie when under oath.” statement, Eusebius adds, “he says”] were written apostles at the Last Supper, including John and this un- In contrast to this flawed argumentation for an first…Mark [wrote what Peter had proclaimed and] known “Beloved Disciple.” Or, (b) that Luke was wrong anonymous pseudo-John, we have the clear, well-attest- Having composed the Gospel, he gave it to those who about twelve apostles attending but Matthew and Mark ed statements of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and had requested it. When Peter learned of this, he did were correct in that twelve disciples attended; eleven others affirming John, the beloved apostle who was an not positively forbid it, but neither did he encourage apostles/disciples and the unknown “Beloved Disciple.” eyewitness to the entire earthly ministry of Jesus, as the it. John, last of all, seeing that the plain facts had been But we must then ask, “Which apostle was missing, and author of The Gospel according to John. clearly set forth in the Gospels, and being urged by his why do all four Gospels fail to mention this?” Finally, Markan priority casts doubt on the Resurrection of acquaintances, composed a spiritual Gospel under the there is a reference to the “Beloved Disciple” or “the Jesus, which John affirmed unequivocally in the last two divine inspiration of the Spirit.”55 disciple whom Jesus loved” in four separate pericopes chapters of his Gospel. We find further emphatic affirma-

44 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 45 Articles tion of that Resurrection only about four decades later Pius XII gave Catholics permission to study the canon- ENDNOTES 28 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 6.14. by Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, who in his youth was a ical Greek Gospels using the historical-critical method, 29 http://www.markgoodacre.org/synoptic-l/FARMER.HTM. 1 Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (1997; New disciple of the apostle John. In his Letter to the Philippians but with the stipulation that they do so after developing 30 Irenaeus wrote: “After their departure [apparently after the death of Peter Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 159. and Paul] Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down Bishop Polycarp affirmed the Resurrection of Jesus five skill in Semitic languages, namely, Hebrew and Aramaic. 2 Ibid., 368-371. to us in writing what had been preached by Peter.” Against Heresies, 3.1.1. 60 times. Two decades later, facing martyrdom, Polycarp Unfortunately, the studies of most historical-critical 3 With the stipulations described on the following page. This is not inconsistent with Mark having received Peter’s permission to publish his Gospel while Peter was imprisoned, though soon to be chose death rather than “blaspheme my king who has 4 The Farrer Hypothesis, “Markan priority without Q,” is outlined on the Catholic scholars have instead proceeded from the martyred by Nero, then publishing it after Peter’s death. saved me.” But, to the spiritual detriment of students, “Overview of Solutions” website: http://www.hypotyposeis.org/synop- Greek with little if any reference to a Semitic substrate. 31 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 6.14. such poignant extrabiblical history is outside the purview tic-problem/2004/09/overview-of-proposed-solutions.html. For more than a half-century a Markan priority Two- 5 https://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/DEISYN.TXT. 32 Ibid. of the Markan priority Two-Source Hypothesis. Source Hypothesis variant that regards the canoni- 6 Brant Pitre, The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ 33 Letter to the Corinthians 7. Trans. John Keith, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. Some biblical scholars who posit Gospel anonymity cal Gospels as anonymous has been widely taught in (New York: Image, 2016), 97-98. 9., ed. Allan Menzies (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896). Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight: http:// claim that it was only later that the titles “The Gospel ac- 7 E. P. Sanders and Margaret Davies, Studying the Synoptic Gospels (Harris- Catholic centers of higher learning. This had been the www.newadvent.org/fathers/1010.htm. cording to…” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were added burg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1989), 117. case for more than four decades when, in 2006, Pope 34 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11049a.htm. Luther attempted to 8 David L. Dungan, A History of the Synoptic Problem: The Canon, the Text, to our earliest copies of those Gospels. But Brant Pitre reclaim apostolicity for Protestantism by defining an apostle as “one who Benedict XVI wrote, “Intimate friendship with Jesus… the Composition, and the Interpretation of the Gospels (New York: Doubleday, brings God’s word.” This claim becomes problematic when “God’s word,” argues against that claim. Citing the research of New is in danger of clutching at thin air.” 1999), 390. Testament scholar Simon Gathercole, Pitre writes: “[N]o for reformers in the sixteenth century and later, contradicts “God’s word” as As the priest taught by Markan prioritist Fr. Ray- 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u-Fq5Jo_9A. Evans: From 13:40 to taught since the time of Christ by the apostles and their consecrated succes- anonymous copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John have mond Brown wrote, “[Brown] saw toward the end of 16:50. sor bishops. For example, “The Eucharist IS the body and blood of Christ” ever been found.…All the ancient manuscripts—without his life how this method could destroy Catholic Faith in 10 Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 210-11. versus “The Eucharist IS NOT the body and blood of Christ.” Such a 11 Ibid., 368-71. “reformed” entity, even if still called a church, would no longer be “one.” exception, in every language—attribute the four Gospels people rather than build it up.” In recent decades other 12 Ibid., 159-60. 35 The following quotation from One Gospel from Two suggests that authors to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” After listing twenty- Peabody and McNicol do not rule out Luke and Matthew as the writers of scholars have developed a formidable case for Matthew, 13 Ibid., 268; 322-27. seven examples of manuscript evidence of various papyri almost certainly the apostle, as the writer of The Gospel the Gospels that bear their names: “And we provided evidence in Beyond the 14 Divino afflante spiritu, 15 and 16. Q Impasse that, in our view, makes it ‘very probable that Luke knew Mat- and codices from the second to the fifth century, all spe- according to Matthew, the first Gospel, and an equally for- cifically attributed to one or another of the four evange- 15 http://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/PBC_Interp-FullText.htm. thew.’” David Dungan, David B. Peabody, Allan J. McNicol, One Gospel from midable case against Markan priority; so much so that 16 Raymond E. Brown, Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine (Mahwah, NJ: Two (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002), 14. lists, Pitre notes, “According to the basic rules of textual David L. Dungan described Markan priority as “resem- Paulist Press, 1985), 14. 36 Ibid., 1. criticism, then, if anything is original in the titles, it is the bling the headless horseman who rides across the coun- 17 Ibid., 20. 37 Ibid., 16. names of the authors.”61 tryside every Halloween in the light of the full moon.”62 18 Raymond E. Brown, Biblical Reflections on Crises Facing the Church(Mah - 38 Ibid., 20. Given Brown’s long-standing commitment to the wah, NJ: Paulist Press International, 1975), 72. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls greatly aided 39 Ibid., 5, 10. TSH/AG, I can understand his attempt to defend it. 19 Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 210, 211. 40 Kindle Location 661. understanding of the Hebrew and Aramaic of the time However, as Pope Emeritus Benedict made clear, in the 20 As an extreme example, Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus 41 David L. Dungan, A History of the Synoptic Problem (New York: Doubleday, of Jesus. Since then many Hebraist/Aramaist scholars Seminar, The Five Gospels casts doubt on the divinity, miracles, and most 1999), 389-90. last fifty years, as historical criticism advanced, the figure of the words of Jesus quoted in the Gospels. (New York: Polebridge Press/ have found compelling evidence for the Semitic un- 42 http://cdn.bakerpublishinggroup.com/processed/esource-assets/ of Jesus became increasingly obscured and blurred, plac- Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993), 16. files/778/original/hyperlink-04-08.pdf?1417381960. derpinnings of the canonical Greek Gospels of Matthew 21 Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 109-11, including footnotes. ing intimate friendship with Jesus in danger of “clutch- 43 http://www.awitness.org/synoptic/mark/mark1.htm. and Mark and sources of Luke, thus dating these Gos- 22 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_docu- ing at thin air.” As noted, during this time the TSH/AG 44 Original published in French: La Naissance des Évangiles Synoptiques pels well within the probable lifetimes of those evange- ments/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030510_ratzinger-comm-bible_en.html. championed by Brown was the predominant historical- (Paris: O.E.I.L., 1984). 23 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the lists and therefore almost certainly written by them. As 45 Jean Carmignac, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels (Chicago: Franciscan critical hypothesis taught in most Catholic universities Transfiguration(New York: Doubleday, 2007), xvi-xix. [J.G.: Pope Emeritus a result, they provide strong support for Matthew as the Herald Press, 1987), 2-3. and colleges, and it remains so today. Benedict did not specify the variant of the Two-Source Hypothesis that first Gospel written and as a probable source for Luke has almost reduced intimate friendship with Jesus to “clutching at thin 46 Ibid., 44. and Mark, and render Markan priority untenable. air.” However, he can be referring only to the Markan priority TSH/AG 47 Ibid., 5. Summary and Conclusion as championed by Brown and widely taught in Catholic centers of higher 48 Ibid., 5, 6. The dark night of doubt-inducing Markan priority education, since the predominant TSH variant in Protestantism does not 49 Ibid.; Carmignac’s signed message summarizing his work; back cover; is over. In its place, instructors in Catholic colleges and explicitly reject the possibility that the apostle-eyewitness Matthew and or the first eighteen centuries of the Christian paperback (1987). After noting in his book that he was influenced by “apostolic men” Luke and Mark wrote those Gospels.] era, believers accepted the four Gospels as au- universities now have a sound scholarly basis for teach- nineteenth-century German exegetes (45), Carmignac speculated that 24 Wolfgang Grassl, “How Can We Save Catholic Higher Education?” thentic accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus ing Matthean priority, in particular the faith-building Mark was the first of the synoptics written (43). Later, however, in #19 of F Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly 37, no. nos. 1-2 (Spring/Summer his “Response to Criticisms” of his book, Carmignac acknowledged that TGH, as the best working hypothesis. Christ. In the late 1800s, however, more than three cen- 2014): 15. In choosing a college, Catholic parents and students may wish according to Irenaeus the apostle Matthew wrote before Mark: “Irenaeus turies after the Reformation, Protestant biblical schol- In Matthean priority we now have Jesus “emerging to consult The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College: https://car- place[d] the composition of Marc after the death of Peter and Paul, so dinalnewmansociety.org/new-edition-newman-guide-makes-searching- ars began to embrace the historical-critical method of from the historical-critical fog” in the synoptic Gospels. shortly before 70…[but] St. Irenaeus…determines the composition [of faithful-catholic-colleges-simpler-ever/. Matthew’s Gospel] before the death of the two apostles.” Against Heresies, biblical analysis. They concluded that The Gospel accord- We also have a clear rationale for believing that the 25 Raymond E. Brown, Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine (Mahwah, NJ: 3.1.1; cited by Eusebius of Caesarea. Carmignac ends this response with, ing to Mark, although written by someone else decades apostle John, the beloved disciple, was the writer of The Paulist Press, 1985), 14. “Must we remind Grelot that these are the theories that must adapt to later, was the first and therefore the most authentic Gospel according to John.63 ✠ 26 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, xix. Canonical exegesis was developed by the sources, not the reverse?” This seems to suggest that Carmignac calls American scholars and popularized by Brevard Childs. Childs described both himself and Grelot to adapt their differing theories to the Matthean Gospel. The writer of Matthew was considered to be not his canonical approach in his Biblical Theology in Crisis (Louisville: West- priority view of Irenaeus. In context however, in the English translation at the apostle but a later unknown writer. Doubt was cast Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Jerome D. Gilmartin. minster John Knox Press, 1970). He applied it in Introduction to the Old least, this is unclear. “Responses to Criticism” is not included in the Eng- on Matthew’s Gospel and that of Luke, especially where Slightly revised for publication. Testament as Scripture (Grove City, PA: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1979). lish translation of Carmignac’s book The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels. For an English translation of Carmignac’s “Responses to Criticism,” contact 27 CCC, #76. either was as odds with the text of Mark. In 1943 Pope Comments: http://7stepcatholic.org. [email protected].

46 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 47 Articles

50 Carmignac, The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels, 40. A special word of thanks to French scholar Marie-Christine Ceruti- examination of social, moral, and psychological not yield to precise observation and measurement. Yet 51 Against Heresies, 3.1.1; cited by Eusebius of Caesarea. If “departed” is an Cendrier, president of the Paris-based Association Jean Carmignac phenomena supporting a given community. he identifies two broad categories of rules: first, those accurate translation and Irenaeus meant “died” this is at odds with the later and author of the book Les Evangiles sont des reportages (The Gospels writing of Clement of Alexander, who wrote that Peter became aware of Were Written by Reporters). Her book is being translated into Eng- The science of morals, he insisted, must be based that apply to all men and, secondly, those that apply the Gospel Mark was promulgating and “did not forbid it” (n. 47). lish. In the first edition of7-Step Reason to be Catholic (2001), after on the study of moral and judicial facts. These facts domestically, that is, family obligations and civic duties 52 Eusebius, History of the Church, 5.10. a brief critique of Brown’s exegesis but unaware of the importance consist of rules of conduct that have been sanctioned by such as loyalty and service. He recognizes that no man 53 Black’s article was published in The Bible Translator 39, no. 2 (April 1988): of Semitisms, I drew the analogy of a worker who uses a cutting a given community. The sociologist will examine how exists who is not a citizen of a state. He recognizes too 215-23. Black’s twenty-one categories of Semitisms were included in torch to weaken a building for demolition and then says, “Look at these rules of conduct were established over the course that the duties of a citizen are not the same in an aris- Michael D. Marlowe, “The Semitic Style of the New Testament,” available this building standing straight and tall; what harm have I done?” In at: http://www.bible-researcher.com/hebraisms.html. writing the second edition (2008), thanks to information provided of time, and determine the interests or causes that gave tocracy as they are in a democracy, or in a democracy as 54 http://www.thebiblejourney.org/the-bible-journey/19-johns-letters-to- by Marie-Christine Ceruti-Cendrier, I was aware that the many rise to them and the useful ends they fulfill. in a monarchy. Given the fact that human groupings are the-believers-in-asia-minor88730/introduction-to-john-his-3-letters/. Gospel Semitisms noted by Carmignac and others strongly indi- In his search for a communal set of beliefs that anterior to the birth of a human individual, the indi- 55 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 6.14. cated that the canonical Greek Matthew, Mark, and sources of Luke could replace what he thought was lost in the aftermath vidual must be conceived of as a component part of the 56 Brown expressed his own doubt that the apostle John was the writer of were translations of earlier Semitic documents almost certainly writ- of the French Revolution, Durkheim was led to the social organism. The Gospel according to John. That doubt is addressed later in this paper. ten by the apostle Matthew and by “apostolic men” Mark and Luke. 57 Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 369. This evidence renders untenable the claim of Brown and others that study of religion in its most elemental form. That study On the subject of rights, Durkheim disputes the 58 Ibid., 369. those Gospels were written later, anonymously. did not lead him to the classical sources of Western cul- postulate that the rights of individuals are inherent: “It 59 Triumph (April 1972). Published from 1965 to 1975 by L. Brent Bozell, ture for an understanding of religion, but to the study is not obvious that the rights of an individual are ipso former senior editor of National Review and author of Conscience of a Thanks as well to the Sulpicians, Province of the U.S., Baltimore, for of primitive religions and totemism as he found it ex- facto his at birth. They are not inscripted in the nature Conservative. their kind permission to quote Fr. Raymond E. Brown, S.S.; to Dr. 60 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0136.htm. David A. Black for his twenty-one categories of Semitisms and per- emplified in Red Indian Pueblo rain dances and in the of things.” It is the state that organizes and makes a 61 Pitre, The Case for Jesus, 15-17. mission to quote from his book Why Four Gospels?; and to Dr. Da- practices of Eskimos and aboriginal tribes in Australia. reality of rights. Rights have to be won in contest from 62 David L. Dungan, A History of the Synoptic Problem: The Canon, the Text, vid B. Peabody and Dr. Allan J. McNicol, coauthors (with Dr. Lamar One cannot fault Durkheim’s method of investiga- opposing forces that deny them. He is not alluding to the Composition and the Interpretation of the Gospels (New York: Doubleday, Cope) of One Gospel from Two: Mark’s Use of Matthew and Luke, for tion, but one must acknowledge its limitation. Dur- conflicting claims on the public purse, but to something 1999), 389. permission to reference their book. The second holder of the U.S. kheim may have had greater success had he chosen more fundamental. Among the forces that he finds 63 Comments on this article are welcome. They may be submitted after the copyright for The Birth of the Synoptic Gospels sold the copyright in article at the author’s website: http://7stepcatholic.org. 2007; the current copyright holder is unknown. to study the mature forms of religion rather than the suppressive of individual freedom are family, church, primitive. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not trade associations, and regional entities. As social life a totemic figure but a Creator responsible for the order becomes more complex and varied, the state is obliged of nature. Durkheim, lacking a metaphysics, is unable to to intervene or provide a counterforce to those enti- reason to an immaterial order, as did Plato and Aristotle, ties, given their propensity to absorb the personalities or even to a Stoic conception of morality. Religion in of their members. The state has the obligation to check Durkheim’s Populism his study is left without a rational foundation. He can the divisive character of these secondary groups. If they only describe what is. were left alone, they would enclose the individual with- Parenthetically we may note that John Henry in their domain and prevent him from assimilation into by Jude P. Dougherty quarters of a century is one that the French psycholo- Newman, no stranger to British empiricism, in his early the larger whole. It is the function of the state to free School of Philosophy gist put to himself perhaps as early as 1904. Seculariza- study of religion, similarly devoted essays to the reason- the individual from patriarchal authority. The Catholic University of America tion in the aftermath of the French Revolution had ableness of faith as actually practiced by the great mass It is the state that organizes and makes a reality of changed the face of Europe. Durkheim asked, “How of believers, while subjecting that faith to a phenom- rights, Durkheim argues. Take away from man all that n recent months the word “populism” has can societies maintain their coherence and integrity in enological analysis. He found in the common man a has a social origin and all that is left is that he is an entered the vocabulary of anyone who has access an era when traditional and religious social ties no lon- spontaneous movement of the mind, involuntarily cul- animal on par with other animals. It is society that has to Western media. What it means is open to ger prevail?” Put another way, absent Christianity, how minating in an assent to God’s existence. Such faith, he raised him to a level above physical nature. The stronger interpretation. It may refer to the interests of the is one to achieve a common moral outlook, a “com- held, is an exercise of reason, “the acceptance of things the state, the more the individual is free. The meaning Icommon man, the ordinary citizen, as distinct from that mon faith,” as John Dewey was later to call it. real which the senses do not convey.” Newman was of “self-government” is that choice is to be made in the of the elite who may govern him. In a sense, it could To answer his own question, Durkheim was led convinced that the unbelief or skepticism observable in context of collective or group consciousness. “A man even be exemplified by the Catholic Church insofar as a social scientist to explore how collective or group his contemporaries was not unlike the belief of Chris- is more free in a throng than in a coterie.” Durkheim as the Church exercises a presence in a worldwide consciences are formed. Between 1898 and 1900, he tians, insofar as it too depended on presuppositions and in effect has provided the ideological platform for the population. It might designate the attitude of those published in the Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale prejudices, although of an opposite nature. He charged Marxism yet to come, the radical absorption of the who resist the deep state as found in Brussels and three essays on the nature of morals and rights. These that typically the skeptic does not decide in accord with individual into the collective. Washington. In any event, the topic offers an excuse to were expanded and developed and eventually published evidence, but instead considers the religious outlook so The irony of Durkheim’s populism is that in his examine the notion as found in August Comte and in in 1937 under the title Leçons de Sociologie Physique des far improbable that he does not have to examine the attempt to free the individual from the restraint of sec- his nineteenth- and early twentieth-century disciple Moeurs et du Droit (in English as Professional Ethics and evidence for it. He cites David Hume’s discussion of ondary institutions and a ruling elite, he renders the in- Emile Durkheim. Hence the title of this brief essay, Civic Morals). Influenced by the positivist sociology of miracles as an example. dividual subservient to the collective will. Belief in the “Durkheim’s Populism.” Saint Simon and August Comte and in accord with In Le Division du Travail, Durkheim acknowledges power of ordinary people, the populace, to attain that A question that has loomed large for the last three that methodology, Durkheim set about the empirical that social solidarity is a moral phenomenon that does collective outlook depends on a strong government.

48 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 49 Articles Book Reviews

Philip Mankowski, in reviewing Philip Eade’s new substantial social element does not identify its own Stacy Trasancos. Particles of Faith: the knowledge accessible to science, attempt to foster and maintain an book on Evelyn Waugh for First Things, brings out an aspirations and self-interest with the good of the whole. A Catholic Guide to Navigating we thereby restrict our intellectual understanding of the major topics of aspect of populism that is relevant to the theme of this Rousseau will speak of a “general will,” in contrast to Science. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria participation in the wider fullness of science as an aid to deepening our presentation. Waugh puts into the thought of one of his Hobbes’s “war against all.” Press, 2016. 160 pp. reality. relationship with the Founder of the characters some insightful remarks. Rip is a protagonist Durkheim follows Aristotle in the recognition that On the other hand, we also limit order upon which all scientific in- in the short story “Out of the Depths.” In contemplat- if a true constitutional order or a true polity is to be Reviewed by Laurie Tollefsen ourselves if we avoid engaging sci- quiry is based. ing the future, Rip is aware that the future may not brought into being, it must merge two opposing so- University of South Carolina entific claims under the false notion With this perspective on science, resemble the past. He puts a question to himself, “What cial tendencies: oligarchy, which he defined as rule by that science inevitably tends toward how do we go about the task of if all the political, cultural and solidities of twentieth the few for the few, and democracy, which is rule of n our increasingly secular cul- atheism. Insofar as science seeks fostering and maintaining an under- century Europe were to disappear? What if everything the many for the benefit of the many. A free society, ture, a culture that often pits truth, we have absolutely nothing to standing of scientific claims with the taken for granted, every compliancy, has been demol- he holds, depends upon its ability to maintain a bal- Iscience against religion under fear in its truthful claims. God, the assurance that we are remaining on ished?” He continues to muse: “Suppose the contingen- ance between competing factions such that no group the guise of contrasting reason with creator of all things, is the source of solid ground in terms of both faith cies of history have made conquering races out of the or interest is permitted to impose a majority dictum. superstition, achieving the appropri- all truth. True scientific claims can and science? Trasancos offers some conquered, and suppose too,” in Waugh’s words, “the Furthermore, in a well-ordered society each separable ate stance toward science can pose an never actually be at odds with our very useful and important guidelines new empires have carried their civilizing schemes to interest group must acknowledge that its own freedom intimidating challenge for the faith- faith. As Trasancos puts it, “Faith and that will be helpful particularly in the barbarous wild that was once Piccadilly and Gros- to prosper depends on the maintenance of freedom for ful Catholic. While we are aware that science are two different manifesta- cases where science and faith can venor Square.” Under such circumstances, Rip sees that all competing interests. As James Madison argued in the we benefit daily from the continual tions of the same reality. When they appear to be at odds. First, we should only the spiritualities may remain unchanged. debates prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the advances of science and technology, seem to have conflicting conclusions, seek to know our faith. In particu- Rip is not depicted as a pious, church-going Lon- United States, representative government must repre- and we have hopes for the benefits it is because our knowledge is not lar, we should know the difference of future advances, we are right to doner, “yet the unsensational gestures and rhythms of sent the society it is called to govern. Freedom cannot complete.” Our knowledge may be between infallible dogmas and theo- feel some unease at an unthinking incomplete with respect to the truths logical opinions in the process of de- the low Mass provide for him a touchstone of intelligi- be secure in a society in which either a tyrannical ma- reliance on what science has to offer of the faith, to scientific claims, or velopment. Any claim of science that bility, a shape in chaos.” The Catholic, for example, may jority or a tyrannical minority is able to impose its will us. Yet, to what extent and in what to both, as they relate to the specific contradicts dogma should be reject- feel at home anywhere in the world where the Mass is on all who dissent from its dictums. Enshrined in the ways should we, Catholic nonscien- issue at hand. ed. But when science is used in aid celebrated. Yes, in spite of the fact, as Stuart Reid put it: American Constitution are multiple checks and bal- tists, engage critically with science? Reality in all its fullness far ex- of developing theological opinion, “The destruction of the old liturgy is perhaps the great- ances, between states and the federal government, and Stacy Trasancos offers both theo- ceeds that to which the method of we are helped to explore and deepen est act of vandalism in history.” This is an aspect of life among the legislative, executive, and judiciary. retical and practical points to help science can be applied; but science our understanding. So this first step that eludes Durkheim’s positivistic method, an aspect The Constitution of the United States remains us approach this important issue in does enable us to grasp important requires that we understand the that provides true freedom. in spite of judicial attempts to undermine its intent. her book Particles of Faith: A Catholic aspects of that reality. At the same nature and content of the relevant Durkheim is right in maintaining that a success- Whether the common consensual values it has for the Guide to Navigating Science. time, human beings can truly flour- Church teachings and theological ful society requires a general consensual agreement on most part enabled for 228 years are likely to survive in Trasancos’s guiding theoreti- ish only in relationship with the discussions. Secondly, we should at- the values that social efforts are designed to achieve. the absence of the Christian moral principles that pre- cal stance is one that should serve Author of reality. That relationship tempt to learn the science. There are Freedom cannot be secure in a society in which any vailed at its adoption remains to be seen. ✠ us in all aspects of our faith, but is ought to be one of dynamic growth, resources that are accessible to the particularly fitting in its bearing on one in which we continually seek nonscientist, such as popular science our relationship to science. God is to know God better, and, as Augus- articles and textbooks. As Trasancos the source and loving creator of all tine has it, thus to love God better, points out, there is no “magisterium things, including the physical world impelling us to know him yet better. of science,” but we can and should in which we reside as embodied be- Trasancos reminds us that if we allow seek out reputable sources of scien- ings, down to the smallest particle of ourselves to be frightened and con- tific information. While as individu- matter and embracing all of history. fused by, or dismissive of, the findings als we might not have the expertise Science attempts to discover truths of science, we are cutting ourselves to make theological or scientific about the physical realm. In so doing, off from an important source of judgments of a high academic nature, science seeks to further our under- knowledge about God, and so rob- we are capable of making headway • standing of God’s creation. Science bing our potential relationship with on a level appropriate to reason- is a powerful tool for its purpose, God of part of its richness. When we able people of faith, with the help of and we should respect it as such. But see the truths of science as reflecting trustworthy sources. we should remember that science is the vast power and intricate care that Trasancos makes a crucial point limited to knowing only the physical God has over his creation, we are about these two steps: we must aspect of reality, while we, as human struck with awe and humble rever- “respect the real theologians and persons, are not so limited. When we ence. So not only should we not find exegetes” and “respect the real scien- catholicscholars.org impose upon ourselves the limits of science a threat to faith, we should tists.” Most of us would not attempt

50 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 51 Book Reviews to make scientific claims without the Sciences,” respectively. These cover Douglas Murray. The Strange The Wanderer Press in 1970. Britain to state that immigrants the end of the century 40 percent of appropriate background and train- the Big Bang, the reality of the Death of Europe: Immigration, Julian Benda makes the case that should speak the language of the the country’s fourteen-year-olds will ing, so turning to the real scientists atomic world, quantum mechanics Identity, Islam. London: Blooms- the most serious form of anarchy is country to which they had migrated. be Muslim. One need not go on. will seem a matter of common sense. and freedom of will, evolution, bury, 2017. 352 pp. the treason of the intellectuals. Benda It took until 2010 for Chancellor Murray is not oblivious to the While some claims being made creationism and intelligent design, uses the term clerc to designate, as Merkel to insist that the laws of the source of Europe’s loss of self-con- as “scientific” are driven by ideo- and the beginning of human life. Reviewed by Jude P. Dougherty a class, writers, men and women land and the Basic Law of Germany fidence, which he attributes to its logical factors, and as such are not For each of these topics Trasancos School of Philosophy, of learning, artists, moralists, and must be observed by immigrants. failure to acknowledge the Christian to be considered genuine scientific applies the theoretical and practical The Catholic University of America churchmen. It is the clercs in his sense, Murray is up to the minute with roots of its own culture. He is at claims, finding sources committed principles laid out earlier. She and not the people of these nations, data supporting his contention that one with John Paul II, who in 2003 to an objective pursuit of science explains the science of these topics iven the widespread public- who have repudiated the value of the elites are out of tune with the wrote, “While fully respecting the is important and doable. However, in ways that are readily accessible to ity accorded this volume by their inherited culture. populace. He cites a study made in secular nature of the institutions, I we are more apt to fall prey to self- the nonscientist, while at the same Gmajor print media, its prin- Pierre Manent, like Murray, is February of this year by Chatham wish once more to appeal to those proclaimed theologians and philoso- time respecting the intelligence cipal thesis is well known. Doug- convinced that Europe is on the House, a London think tank that drawing up the future European phers. Their opinions proliferate and of her readers. For each issue it las Murray, associate editor of the verge of self-destruction because polled 10,000 people across ten Constitutional Treaty so that it will are easily found. So here, too, we is evident that, indeed, we have Spectator, argues in plain English that its democratic nations have surren- European countries. It asked respon- include a reference to the religious must be careful to rely on those who nothing to fear from science and “Europe is committing suicide.” Its dered authority to the centralized dents whether they agreed or dis- and in particular the Christian heri- have the appropriate background and only a wealth of knowledge to gain. leaders have betrayed their peoples government of the European Union agreed with the proposition that “[a] tage of Europe.” Murray is appalled training. The Catechism of the Catho- On a final note, Trasancos makes a by their failure to acknowledge the in Brussels. “The EU’s political con- ll further immigration from Muslim that “[i]ntelligent and cultured peo- lic Church, documents of Church point in passing that offers the po- Islamic threat. “As a result, by the trivances,” he writes, “have become countries should be stopped.” An ple appear to see it as their duty not councils, and the writings of Church tential for a wider application for the end of the life span of most people more and more artificial. With each overwhelming majority agreed with to acknowledge debt, not to shore fathers are excellent sources. approach to science that she advo- currently alive, Europe will not be passing day they recede further from the statement except in Britain, up and protect the culture in which In this pursuit, Trasancos suggests, cates. She states that questions of sci- Europe and the peoples of Europe the natural desires and movements where only 47 percent agreed. they have grown up, but rather to it will be helpful to keep in mind the ence need not divide Christians and will have lost the only place in the of their citizens’ souls.” A nation, he He cites a recent study in deny it, or assail it, or otherwise “system of wills.” God’s will created atheists. Our commitment to truth as world they have to call home.” holds, is the same people living in Dundee, Scotland, where some of its bring it low.” “We may think badly and holds in existence all things. Ra- it extends to the truth of God’s cre- That a state of cultural and politi- the same place, observing the same pupils were asked to list words they of ourselves,” he says, “but we are tional beings have free choice of will ation can give us common ground cal disorder exists within Europe and customs, and abiding by the same associated with Muslims. Among the willing to think exceptionally well of and can affect the physical realm as for conversation. Pursuing science, the United States is widely acknowl- moral principles. In Manent’s judg- words volunteered by the children absolutely everyone else.” matter-movers, imposing their wills then, with confidence, curiosity, and edged and hardly stands in need of ment, Europe’s governing classes, were “terrorists,” “scary,” and “9/11.” Murray finds that most branches on matter, yet subject to the laws of rigor, and teaching our children to Murray’s ample documentation, but without explicitly saying so, aspire to Soon Muslim women were brought of European Christianity have lost nature, laws themselves subject to do so, can provide us a way to en- his contribution is welcome never- create a homogeneous and limitless into the classrooms to correct the the confidence they need to pros- God’s will. Scientists pursue truth gage our culture with meaning and theless for its forceful contentions. human world. In fact, given its pres- children’s views. The children were elytize and some even the faith to within isolated physical systems. significance, while showing that Western nations on both sides of the ent intellectual climate, what distin- told, for example, that 9/11 had believe in their own message. The These systems are not autonomous, people of faith are, simultaneously, Atlantic are confronted by massive guishes Europeans from one another nothing to do with Islam. Church of Sweden, the Church of though for the sake of research they people of reason, not in spite of our immigrations of alien peoples who and from others cannot be evaluated Another example of political England, and the German Lutheran are often studied as such. They are faith, but because of it. refuse to assimilate within their ad- or even publicly discussed. Manent disconnect is provided by the fact Church have become left-wing small parts of a unified whole, par- opted country and demand accom- political entities, promoting diversity ticipating in the wider order of real- • modation for the customs they bring. speaks directly to this issue in a vol- that on New Year’s Eve in 2016, after action and social welfare projects and ity. Keeping this in mind will allow The present volume may be con- ume called Eccentric Culture. more than a thousand automobiles calling for open borders. The mes- us to remember that science is not sidered the latest in a long line of au- By 2015 it was evident that in had been set alight in France, the sage of religion is muted. Texts that equipped to provide proof for the thoritative texts running from Julian Germany low birthrates among the Interior Minister described the night once were preached as the revealed truths of our faith, and we should Benda’s La trahison des clercs (1927), native population and high birthrates as having gone off “without any word of God are now proclaimed in not look to it for that purpose. Hilaire Belloc’s The Great Heresies among immigrants were undermin- major incident.” Murray provides a circumspect manner in order not Trasancos not only provides this (1938), von Hayek’s The Road to ing the culture of German society. It dozens of examples of violence that to offend. clear and helpful path for setting out Serfdom (1944), and Pierre Manent’s was also clear that the immigrants, are explained away by officials or not Finally, the question looms, in in search of scientific understanding, Democracy Without Nations: The Fate mostly Muslims, were failing to reported at all by a complicit press. Murray’s words, “How long can a but she goes on to illustrate how of Self Government in Europe (2007). integrate. This was true of Europe in He is particularly concerned about society survive once it has unmoored we can use this approach to tackle There have been other calls to heed general. Murray writes, “The coun- his native Sweden, given that demo- itself from its founding source and some of the more difficult questions the threat; these are merely the best ties let them in but had no idea what graphic studies show ethnic Swedes drive?” posed to Catholics by science. known. One could add a short trea- attitude to take towards them once becoming a minority in Sweden Parts 2 and 3 of her book are titled tise by Christopher Dawson that they came.” It took six decades of within the lifetime of most people “Questions in the Physical Sciences” indirectly speaks to Murray’s topic, immigration, he claims, for politi- currently alive. Similar studies also • and “Questions in the Biological Tradition and Inheritance, published by cal leaders of France, Germany, and reveal that even in Switzerland by

52 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 53 Book Reviews

Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, spirituality for the priesthood that not forgive sins, but He does. The ordination and on various anniver- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. occasion for gaining a rather ironical with an introduction by Gerhard for decades has been missing even body of this or that man does not saries feature engaging stories—ac- Strangers in a Strange Land: clarity as to the Christian vocation Cardinal Müller. Teaching and in seminary discussions amid the become present, but His does” (40). counts of contemporary martyrs, for Living the Catholic Faith in a today. The public square is celebrated Learning the Love of God: Being a sociological focus on questions This spirituality implies an exacting instance, and reports about the spiri- Post-Christian World. New York: in the popular culture as naked, that Priest Today. Translated by Michael about who should play what roles standard for the priest himself: “But tual hunger of groups of people who Henry Holt and Company, 2017. is, immune from traditional no- J. Miller. San Francisco: Ignatius in the Church. In some quarters, at the same time it is clear that we were deprived of priests for long 271 pp. tions of sexuality, marriage, family, Press, 2017. 384 pp. $24.95, paper. for instance, there has appeared cannot say such words without them years by their communist rulers. Yet and virtue, and thus in contrast with a curiously apologetic stance making demands on our own life the preacher invariably makes clear Rod Dreher. The Benedict Option: orthodox Christianity. Both authors Reviewed by Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J. among the clergy that the Catholic and requiring interior correspon- the lessons about the priesthood that A Strategy for Christians in a agree on the dire circumstances of Fordham University priesthood is not open to women. dence to what we are saying” (41). we need to draw from these stories. Post-Christian Nation. New York: a post-Christian America, and both Without explicitly entering into that If this is not taught to seminarians At the same time there is an atten- Sentinel, 2017. 262 pp. understand American history since his volume is a collection debate, these homilies nevertheless and expected of priests—and sadly tion to bringing out the continuity the 1960s to have been a period in of forty-three homilies that answer various questions about the this has sometimes been the case in between the teaching of the Council Reviewed by Thomas W. Jodziewicz which a comfortable and broad- TJoseph Ratzinger delivered teachings of the Church that some recent years—then “all sorts of busi- and the long centuries of Catholic University of Dallas bottomed Protestant culture was between 1954 and 2000, all in one find embarrassing. While warning ness may continue, but [such priests doctrine. progressively driven from the pub- way or another on the priesthood. against a clericalism that supposes will] lack what is essential, and the One of these homilies, for in- erhaps it is not wise to begin lic square even as its well-intended In addition, there is an appendix that “Father knows best” on any Church then becomes a leisure time stance, stresses the threefold office of a review with a cliché, but it defenders turned toward politics as with the letter that he issued as Pope and every question, they defend a association, and she becomes super- the priest and uses the language of Pis difficult to do full justice a way to save the sacred. This rescue Benedict XVI to inaugurate the Year traditional view of the priesthood fluous” (41). Vatican II’s Presbyterum Ordinis. To to these two books. They are timely, effort seems to have splintered on for Priests in 2009, the 150th anniver- by stressing the decisions that Jesus In addition to sermons from the present the traditional teaching about provocative, perceptive, sober, hope- the rocks of political alternatives (lib- sary of the death of John Vianney, the himself made about the sort of men Chrism Mass, the volume contains the ministry of teaching (“procla- ful, charitable—in short, admirable eral and conservative, left and right) patron saint of parish priests. It also whom he chose for the priestly homilies from various jubilee Masses, mation”), of sanctification (through works of exhortation. Both of them much as the Corinthian community contains an introductory essay by office, the prayer lives that he wanted and a reader might legitimately won- the seven sacraments, and especially begin with reflection on the pro- was split between Apollos and Paul. Gerhard Cardinal Müller, reflecting them to maintain, and the personal der whether the remarks delivered the Eucharist), and of governing found understanding that God has Dreher offers a succinct account on the need for priests to undertake faith that he demanded of them. on occasions of this sort deserve in- (“shepherding”), Ratzinger employs first loved us and is always seeking of the historical background for “how biblical insights much like the fasci- us, and so we need to respond. Our the West arrived at this blasted heath an inner renewal of their commit- In addition, these homilies put clusion. Prescinding altogether from nating account that he gives in Jesus time exhibits a shallow moral relativ- of atomization, fragmentation, and ment to “teaching and learning the into crisp and memorable formulas sentimentality, Ratzinger devotes his of Nazareth about the results of the ism and a materialistic consumerism. unbelief” (45-46). His story ranges love of God” if they are to provide various truths on which priests need homiletic energies at these events to scripture scholar Joachim Jeremias, The American tradition of religious over fourteenth-century nominalism strong witness to the gospel in the to meditate regularly if they want conveying the fruits of his lifelong who used linguistic evidence to con- liberty is not just religious toleration. and the Enlightenment, the indus- face of contemporary challenges. to stay focused on what the faith- research on the Church and on the nect John the Baptist’s proclamation We are being tested, for our ortho- trial revolution, the horrors of the Cardinal Müller’s introduction ful need priests to be. He writes, sacrament of Holy Orders in ways of Jesus as the Lamb of God not only dox Christian beliefs and our sense world wars in the twentieth century, provides an overview of the crisis for example: “No man dare on his that are pastoral and free of academic with the sacrifice of Passover Lamb of the natural law are often dismissed the sexual revolution, and the exalta- that has afflicted the priesthood in own to use the ‘I’ of Christ as his jargon and scholarly baggage. His but also with the Suffering Servant as bigotry and discriminatory, and tion of unrestrained personal desire. recent decades, a crisis whose symp- ‘I’ without blaspheming. No one style in these homilies is somewhat poems of Isaiah. there is risk that upholding them Chaput describes the way in which toms include mixed motivations in can say on his own authority ‘This like that of the three volumes of his This book is a welcome addi- will be held to be illegal. Neither university administrations retreat from the clergy and sociological confusion is my body’, ‘This is my blood’, ‘I Jesus of Nazareth. While the footnotes tion to our growing set of volumes book explicitly cites the Baltimore traditional commitments when stu- about lay and clerical roles as well absolve you from your sins’. And yet in those books show his engagement in English from the pen of the Pope Cathechism’s well-known opening dents and faculty lobby to expunge as failures in theological education we need these words as much as our with the most important biblical Emeritus. It has value both for schol- questions and answers about God any ideas that oppose the destruc- and moral formation. The sermons daily bread. When they are no longer scholarship of recent decades, his arly and for popular reading. and life’s meaning, but both attest tion of traditional morality. Chaput gathered for this volume provide not spoken, the daily bread goes stale and scriptural reflections confine them- to the authentic response to God’s points to the lack of “a moral center only material for priestly reflection social achievements become empty” selves to setting forth a compelling • eternal love: “to gain the happiness of gravity” (143) in the academy, but on retreats and resources for good (40). For Ratzinger, the gift of—the picture of the Lord. I think, for in- of heaven we must know, love, and his charge is actually an indictment of preaching but a vision of the path priestly ministry is one that only the stance, of the way he connects the serve God in this world.” Our world contemporary culture in general, es- needed to resolve the crisis and a set Lord himself can give. role of the scapegoat in the liturgy is becoming ever more problemat- pecially in matters of sexuality. To op- of foundations useful for developing Alluding to the sort of scandals of Yom Kippur in Leviticus with the ic—a “strange land.” pose so-called homosexual marriage, a fruitful theology of the sacrament that have rocked the Church, he way in which the Holy Spirit drives It could be, though, that the ap- he notes, is to be thought intolerant of Holy Orders. comments: “Even if a priest contra- Christ out into the wilderness after parent triumph of a modern secular and closed to the notion that one can In his homilies at the annual dicts these words with his life, they receiving John’s baptism in the river liberalism that aggressively demands be whatever one wants to be. The Chrism Mass in his diocese of are still effective, precisely because Jordan. an affirmation of self-autonomy and forces of change require that everyone Regensburg, for instance, Ratzinger the ‘I’ of Jesus Christ is what matters, In like manner, the sermons on a foundational relativism about “val- acknowledge that the new “meaning” outlines vital elements of a and not the man’s ego. The man does the occasions of diaconal and priestly ues” and personal choice can be an of life is simply self-determination:

54 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 55 Book Reviews

This should surprise no one. struggles the Church endured in a chapter on the anonymous second- simply mocks our cultural chaos. beautiful and good in it. And identity, witness our faith with Sex is profoundly connected this country; a distaste for privi- century “Letter to Diognetus” (205- Both of these roads lead, ironically, always to do so knowing that zeal, and add to the common to human identity. Same-sex lege; and a love for personal and 23). That period in Christian history back to the self—particularly despair, we’re on a journey to our final good as the prophet Jeremiah did. activists can therefore never be institutional asceticism. (188) was also one dominated by an ener- which “sees, quite clearly, that the homeland. Longing for that life This demands humility. It also satisfied with mere tolerance or Dreher mentions his personal getic paganism. It required a nascent things of this world can never fully inspires us along the way. It’s hard requires courage and a refusal to acceptance. They need vindica- passage from Catholicism to Eastern Christianity to seek a foothold in a satisfy us. But despair makes sense to imagine what eternal life with be digested and bleached out by tion—which means the hound- Orthodoxy several times and is care- “strange land”: only if God is not merciful and Jesus God would be like, and maybe the world around us. As Sacks ing of contrary beliefs. And this fully ecumenical in the remedies If today the American soul has did not rise from the dead. That’s why that’s why it can sometimes be so said in 2013, the task isn’t easy. It is exactly the course of events he offers for a Christian revival. He moved away from its biblical despair is a denial of the mercy and hard to hope in it. (163) demands a complex finessing of in places where efforts to ensure would presumably agree with Cha- conscience, the Letter to Diog- the justice of God and of the possibil- To close on an ecumenical note from identities. It involves a willing- religious liberty by law have been put’s outline of the need for con- netus reminds us that the terrain ity of redemption” (153). This land, in one whose ancestors have known ness to live in a state of cogni- attacked as “anti-gay.” This is rich temporary witness to Christ. But his of unbelief may be new, but it’s the end, is not our final destination: much of being strangers, Rabbi tive dissonance. It isn’t for the in irony. Sexual expression, which “Benedict Option” features a vigor- not unfamiliar. Christianity was That, in the end, is our calling Jonathan Sacks counsels, as Chaput faint-hearted. But it is creative. has no mention or standing in ous return to reading the scriptures born in a world of abortion, as Christians: to make Christ reports: (242-43) the Constitution, now routinely and a privileging of St. Benedict’s infanticide, sexual confusion, and known in the world. To hand we can live as a conscious mi- As both books humbly and chari- seems to trump religious practice Monastic Rule for the communities promiscuity, the abuse of power on the hope that fills our hearts. nority in a nation whose beliefs, tably attest, this is a burden that we and teaching, which are explicitly that will be needed in this “strange and exploitation of the poor. To work for God’s justice in our culture, and politics are no longer can share with each other and, most protected under the First Amend- land.” He thinks that they will need The early Christians’ love for nation, honoring all that remains our own, yet still nourish our wonderfully, with our God. ment. (89) to practice self-abandonment, for the Jesus compelled them to choose Neither Chaput nor Dreher is san- sake of others, and to be centered a more excellent way, one that guine about the prospects for reli- in cultivation of order, prayer, work, made them distinct, puzzling, and gious liberty, given the way in which asceticism, stability, community, and sometimes contemptible in the progressive elites (and, to be honest, hospitality (48-77). Rather than pro- eyes of the wider culture. Like nihilists) push forward. How is one moting any sort of sacred ghettoism, the apostle Paul, they let their to “know, love, and serve God in his book counsels being in but not everyday life in society attract this [strange] world”? How is one of the world: others to the Gospel (as in 1 Cor to undertake the obligation to of- The way of Saint Benedict is not 9:22-23). But they did not con- fer Christian witness today in such an escape from the real world form so much that they betrayed “strange” circumstances? but a way to see that world and that Gospel. (213) Archbishop Chaput warns against dwell in it as it truly is. Bene- For Chaput, this “Letter” offers a individualism, institutionalism, and dictine spirituality teaches us to wonderful and challenging descrip- clericalism as he recalls the Catholic bear with the world in love and tion of what it is to be an alien in faithful to their renewal as the Body to transform it as the Holy Spirit an alien land, and yet to see it as part of Christ: transforms us. The Benedict Op- of God’s world and thus a land of [It] means cultivating in our tion draws on the virtues in the pilgrimage in which one can love clergy and laypeople a bet- Rule to change the way Chris- God and one’s neighbor. It provides ter sense of who and what the tians approach politics, church, an opportunity for inculturation: Church is, separate and distinct family, community, education, our “they didn’t abandon or retire from from the culture around us—a jobs, sexuality, and technology. the world. They didn’t build fortress family of families; an intimate (77) enclaves. They didn’t manufacture community of Christian friend- Dreher offers many specific sugges- their own culture or invent their own ship with a shared vocation to tions for living out this Rule today, language. They took elements from sanctify the world; a mother, a including the creation of classical the surrounding society and ‘baptized’ teacher, and advocate; the path Christian schools and the revivifi- them with a new spirit and a new to eternal joy; and an antidote cation of trades in what he sees as way of living” (212). Chaput is sensi- to the isolation and radical indi- a coming prohibition of Christian tive to the sharp edges of his descrip- vidualism of modern democratic participation in many professions. He tion of contemporary America, “but life. It means recovering a sense discusses various examples of “Op- candor is not an enemy of love. And of Catholic history and identity; tion” communities and initiatives real hope begins in honesty” (146). a deepened habit of prayer and now forming in this country. We must, he reminds us, not give in adoration; a memory of the bitter Chaput’s “rule” is to be found in to despair or to a presumption that

56 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017 57 Books Received Officers and Directors (As of February 2016)

Please contact Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J. at [email protected] Silas S. Henderson. Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J.: With an CURRENT OFFICERS PAST PRESIDENTS if you are interested in reviewing any of these titles for the FCSQ. Undivided Heart. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. 290 pp. President Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, SJ, PhD Rev. Kenneth W. Baker, SJ, PhD Keith R. Allen. Interrogation Nation: Refugees and Spies Trent Horn. The Case for Catholicism: Answers to Classic (2008-2014) (1989-1991) in Cold War Germany. Lanham, MD: Rowmand & and Contemporary Protestant Objections. San Francisco: William L. Saunders, JD Associate Professor Littlefield, 2017. 276 pp. Ignatius Press, 2017. 356 pp. Fellow and Director of the Editor Program in Human Rights, Fordham University Homiletic and Pastoral Review Sebastian Athappilly, CMI. The Delusion of Atheism. Derya Little. From Islam to Christ: One Woman’s Path Institute for Human Ecology, Bernard Dobranski, JD William E. May, PhD Bangalore: Dharmaran Publications, 2017. through the Riddles of God. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, The Catholic University of America 2017. (2005-2008) (1987-1989) Michael Augros. The Immortal in You: How Human Vice-President Dean Emeritus and Law Professor Nature Is More than Science Can Say. San Francisco: Pierre Manent. Beyond Radical Secularism. South Bend, Msgr. George A. Kelly Ave Maria School of Law Ignatius Press, 2017. 324 pp. IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2016. Susan Orr Traffas, PhD (1986-1987) Co-Chair, Honors Program Gerard V. Bradley, JD Peter Bartley. Catholics Confronting Hitler: The Catholic Vittorio Messori. Kidnapped by the Vatican? Benedictine College Rev. Earl A. Weis, SJ Church and the Nazis. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2016. The Unpublished Memoirs of Edgardo Mortara. (1995-2001, 2003-2004) (1983-1985) San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. 175 pp. Secretary Professor Professor Emeritus Peter D. Beaulieu. A Generation Abandoned: Why “What- University of Notre Dame ever” Is Not Enough. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2017. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Teaching and Learning Msgr. Stuart W. Swetland, STD Loyola University Chicago the Love of God: Being a Priest Today. San Francisco: President Bernard Dobranski, JD Stefano Campanella. Mercy in Padre Pio. Boston: St. Paul’s, Msgr. William B. Smith, STD Ignatius Press, 2017. Donnelly College (2002-2003) 2017. 166 pp. (1982-1983) Lloyd Sandelands. Love First: Toward a Christian Rev. Thomas Dailey, OSFS, STD Walter J. Ciszek, S.J. With God in America: The Spiritual James Hitchcock, PhD Humanism. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2017. 100 pp. (2002) Legacy of an Unlikely Jesuit. Compiled by John M. DeJak (1979-1981) Professor and Marc Lindeijer, S.J. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2016. James V. Schall, S.J. Catholicism and Intelligence. Professor Emeritus Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Publications, 2017. 165 pp. DeSales University Rachael Marie Collins. Called by God: Discernment and Saint Louis University Ralph McInerny, PhD Preparation for Religious Life. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Dom Paschal Scotti. Galileo Revisited: The Galileo Affair Rev. Ronald Lawler, OFM Cap, PhD (1991-1995) Road, 2017. 195 pp. in Context. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. 312 pp. (1977-1979) Edward Feser. Five Proofs for the Existence of God. Gerard M. Verschuuren. Faith and Reason: The Cradle of San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. Truth. St. Louis: En Route Books, 2017. 298 pp. PUBLICATIONS EDITORS ELECTED DIRECTORS Joseph R. Giandurco and John S. Bonnici. Partners in Life J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B., Humility Rules: Saint Benedict’s Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, SJ, PhD (2014-2017) (2015-2018) and Love: A Preparation Handbook for the Celebration 12-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem. San Francisco: of Catholic Marriage with the New Order of Celebrating Ignatius Press, 2017. 182 pp. Fordham University Rev. Anthony Giampietro, CSB, Betsy Ackerson, PhD Marriage. Boston: St. Paul’s, 2016. 104 pp. editor, FCS Quarterly PhD University of Virginia Robert M. Whaples, ed. Pope Francis and the Caring Office of Development Donald Haggerty. Conversion: Spiritual Insights into an Society. Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute, 2017. Elizabeth C. Shaw, PhD Sr. Sara Butler Essential Encounter with God. San Francisco: Ignatius The Catholic University of America Archdiocese of San Francisco Blessed Trinity Missionary Cenacle Guillaume Zeller. The Priest Barracks: Dachau, 1939- Press, 2017. 243 pp. associate editor, FCS Quarterly 1945. Translated by Michael J. Miller. San Francisco: Dr. Denise J. Hunnell, MD Thomas Cavanaugh, PhD editor, FCS proceedings Ignatius Press, 2017. Human Life International University of San Francisco editor, Teaching the Faith Christopher Tollefsen, PhD Rev. Peter Ryan, SJ, STD University of South Carolina Sacred Heart Major Seminary Rev. Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap, PhD (2016-2019) Dominican House of Studies, Carol (Sue) Abromaitis, PhD Washington DC and Loyola University Maryland Gregorian University, Rome Max Bonilla, STD Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid Grattan Brown, PhD • Belmont Abbey College Rev. David V. Meconi, SJ, DPhil Saint Louis University

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60 FCS Quarterly • Fall/Winter 2017