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The National Catholic Weekly Jan. 24-31, 2011 $3.50 of Many Things THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY JAN. 24-31, 2011 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES eviews of All Things Shining character, Acastos, make the case that (Simon and Schuster) have got genuine religion transforms us. EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Christiansen, S.J. me ruminating again on the Religion, Acastos says, “is beyond us, Rforms of religion today. The book, by it’s more real than us, we have to come EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT the philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and to it and let it change us, religion is MANAGING EDITOR Sean Dorrance Kelly, explores possibili - spiritual change, absolute spiritual Robert C. Collins, S.J. ties for religious experience in our secu - change.” Being religious means “always EDITORIAL DIRECTOR lar age. David Brooks brought the book looking further and deeper,” feeling Karen Sue Smith early notoriety by focusing on “whoosh - “everything matter[s] and every second ONLINE EDITOR ing up,” the collective emotion experi - matter[s].” Maurice Timothy Reidy enced by fans at sport spectacles, as the It is on another issue that Murdoch CULTURE EDITOR authors’ paradigm of religious experi - differs most emphatically from the James Martin, S.J. ence in contemporary America. authors of All Things Shining . They LITERARY EDITOR “Whooshing up” may demean the reject any unitary experience and regard Patricia A. Kossmann Dreyfus-Kelly argument more than it monotheism as a cultural dead-end. POETRY EDITOR merits. To be sure, the collective experi - They want readers to settle for some - James S. Torrens, S.J. ence of sports is very real and expresses thing more modest: relishing everyday ASSOCIATE EDITORS itself in all sorts of ways besides the enjoyments. As Michael Roth summa - Kevin Clarke cheers of the arena: in jerseys and jack - rizes their view, “When we try too Kerry Weber ets, stories of heroes and collections of hard, we lose touch with the world.” Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. relics. To be fair, moreover, even if Writing off religion as “trying too ART DIRECTOR Dreyfus-Kelly do not distinguish the hard” shows that the promoters of the Stephanie Ratcliffe Super Bowl from a Nazi rally, collective new paganism do not understand reli - ASSISTANT EDITOR emotion does provide one, limited gion. Orthodox religion condemns Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. mode of self-transcendence. As excesses of effort as in Pelagianism and ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR Wesleyan University’s president, scrupulosity. But being religious also Regina Nigro Michael Roth, notes, the two philoso - involves a holiness that both refines and GUEST EDITOR phers try to evoke “whatever stands integrates one’s personality and one’s Francis X. Hezel , S.J. beyond us that requires our gratitude.” experience of the universe. As Acastos Just a few years ago Charles Taylor, tells Socrates in Murdoch’s dialogue, BUSINESS DEPARTMENT in A Secular Age , identified the “festivi - “Religion is believing your life is a PUBLISHER ty” of mass events as an aperçu on the whole....” There is “a reverence for Jan Attridge sacred, but he was thinking of pilgrim - things—a religious person would care CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER ages to Taizé and World Youth Days, about everything....” Socrates reflects Lisa Pope events already laden with some reli - back, “So a religious person sees life as ADVERTISING gious significance, different in kind an interconnected whole, and a religious Julia Sosa from arena spirituality. They demand man would feel responsible for the more of the participant: the exertion of quality of all his thoughts and experi - 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 travel, especially on foot, the burden of ences, even his perceptions....” repentance and the challenge of taking What is integrating and unifying for Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 on a new way of life—in short, conver - religious people is not some theological E-mail: [email protected]; sion. It is the personal cost of such framework but their experience of holi - [email protected] activities and the risk of transformation ness in others and the striving for holi - Web site: www.americamagazine.org. Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 of character inherent in them that dis - ness in their own lives, and through the © 2011 America Press, Inc. tinguishes them from the cheap grace of prism of that holiness the overwhelm - being whooshed up in a stadium wave. ing holiness of God. The antidote to They place demands on the self in a nihilism in our secular age is not the way being a sports fan does not. ersatz religion of the playing field but Another philosopher, the late Iris the real holiness of flesh and blood men Murdoch, in a fictional Platonic dia - and women. “Deep calls to deep” (Ps Cover: A bicycle rider’s view of the logue broadcast on the BBC, has her 42:8). DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J. Dolomites. Shutterstock/imagestalk CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 204 No. 2, Whole No. 4919 JaNuary 24-31, 2011 TRAVEL AND PILGRIMAGE 15 CYCLES OF LIFE Finding your daily joy is as easy as riding a bike. Ginny Daly with Mary Daly Gorman 19 ACCIDENTAL PILGRIMS The editors reflect on their spiritual encounters around the world. 27 HAVE FAITH, WILL TRAVEL The volunteer journey Kerry Weber 15 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Religious Freedom 2011 8 Signs of the Times 12 Column Light Switch Margaret Silf 30 Poem The Secret Place Louis Templeman 42 Letters 45 The Word Happiness Now; Undiluted and Undimmed 19 Barbara E. Reid BOOKS & CULTURE 29 IDEAS Seeking the sacred in Prague BOOKS Freedom; Master of Disguises; Peregrino ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Michael O’Neill McGrath , O.S.F.S., right, discusses art and faith on our podcast, and Jake Martin, S.J., reviews the TV shows you should be watching. Plus, additional travel reflections from the editors. All at americamagazine.org. 29 CURRENT COMMENT struggled with his demons for years on the streets. Will Growth Bring Influence? It is admirable that Americans rush to respond to an The Dream Act died in the Senate in December and with individual’s need when they know his story. It is too bad that it hopes of federal immigration reform anytime soon. Yet the millions of other hard-luck tales—of missed opportuni - the political muscle of Latino-Americans is poised for ties, fractured childhoods, substance abuse and mental ill - steady growth. Demographics have seen to that. ness—that tell the individual stories of the nation’s poor and Nationwide, the number of Latino voters has grown suffering people cannot likewise be uploaded to YouTube. markedly. Of the 20.9 million Latinos eligible to vote in Maybe if we knew the stories of more hurting people—even 2009, six million had become eligible since 2000, primarily those who are not as talented as Mr. Williams—we would because they turned 18. The authors of The 2010 not dismiss our responsibility to them so easily. Maybe we Congressional Reapportionment and Latinos, just published would not allow cultural fabrications and caricatures to by the Pew Hispanic Center, describe coming waves of a excuse our indifference to the needy, the drug-addicted, the “U.S.-born Latino youth bulge.” Much of it will take place undocumented migrant. Here’s to more stories on YouTube in states that have gained or soon will gain Congressional that offer accurate and sympathetic depictions of the indi - seats and Electoral College votes. vidual humanity of suffering people among us. May these Precisely how that growth will produce political influ - digital vignettes reveal the true faces and stories of the ence, however, depends on reapportionment—the once-a- nation’s poor and migrant people and prod us toward a more decade process of redrawing Congressional districts in the humane and reasonable discussion of personal and commu - states according to the most recent census figures, in this nal responsibility in the future. case the U.S. Census of 2010. Some states have lost repre - sentatives, others have gained. It is politically significant Apocalypse When? that Latinos make up more than 15 percent of the elec - torate in all the states that gained seats. The percentage of For nervous types (and some fundamentalists) preoccupied Latinos is much higher in Florida and Nevada, two crucial with the end times, as predicted (or not) in the Book of swing states, and in Texas, which gained four seats. How Revelation, the recent revelations that hundreds of birds had will Congressional districts be drawn to even out the pop - mysteriously fallen from the sky in Alabama came as worri - ulation of each? Will areas dense with Latinos be gerry - some news. Around the same time, fish began to die in a mandered to dilute their influence? Or will Latino growth nearby lake in inexplicably large numbers—100,000 by some areas become new districts, as envisioned by law, able to counts. The most logical explanation for the dropping birds field candidates of their own? was that they had been severely disoriented by fireworks at Latinos should carefully monitor the redistricting pro - the New Year. But that did not explain the hundreds of cess and express their concerns because the ramifications other dead birds in Louisiana, felled by odd blood clots, nor of redistricting last a decade or longer. Surely representa - the estimated two million dead fish in the Chesapeake Bay tion in government is too precious a right to be taken for nor the 100 tons of fish that washed up on a Brazilian shore. granted, especially now. What’s going on? Will the end times be like an M. Night Shyamalan horror movie. Not so fast. Some of these odd events may be explicable A YouTube Uplift (fireworks disorienting birds, collisions with electrical wires The story of Ted Williams, a golden-voiced homeless man and the like).
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