Bookshelf - Bibliography

National Catholic Reporter, May 23, 1997 by William C. Graham

"So, where are you from?"

"Berkeley."

"Oh, I used to live there. Too many people. Why do you live in Berkeley?"

"My husband's in graduate school."

"What's he studying?"

"Theology."

"Never heard of it."

With this outstanding snippet of dialogue culled from an Internet chat room conversation, Phyllis A. Tickle introduces her God-Talk in America (Crossroad, 258 pages, $24.95 hardback). A religion editor for Publishers Weekly, she characterizes her writing as a folk dance for "professional religionists," those who "are paid to watch from the sidelines," as well as for her "fellow Americans who are dancing in their own spaces on the floor and would like for a few minutes to see the whole pattern of which they are a part."

She sees a change under way in religion, theology and spirituality, with religion being created in streets and kitchens rather than in seminaries or cathedrals. She concludes that "faith in America today and the god-talk that is its most audible expression are still a constellation of millions of shining parts, each an integer in its own right and each the luminous guardian of its own light."

From Cincinnati's justice-promoting Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk comes Bringing Forth Justice: Basics for Just Christians (Paulist, 73 pages, $5.95 paperback). Pilarczyk writes that we need to understand the relationship between justice and charity, and to have some idea how each is called to pursue justice: "We need to be clear about these matters because justice is too important to be played by ear."

Classes, study groups, and thoughtful individuals will appreciate this fine little book. Look for the discussion or reflection questions at the end of the 11 chapters, as well as "Appendix 1: Just a Few Readings."

Rome and the New Republic: Conflict and Community in Philadelphia Catholicism Between the Revolution and the Civil War, by Dale B. Light (University of Notre Dame Press, 448 pages, $48.95 hardback), considers a series of confrontations between Catholic bishops and dissenters, both lay and clerical, that troubled Catholicism in Philadelphia for over 50 years.

Light, who teaches at Penn State, suggests that the Philadelphia conflicts can best be understood as a competition among several models of church organization. He finds the complexity of Catholic thought further complicated by the intrusion of secular ideologies, ethnic antagonisms, class interests, and personal and political rivalries. This scholarly look at the developing Catholic church in Philadelphia is interesting, well written, impressively documented, and an important contribution to American Catholic history.

David L. Schindler gives the thesis of his Heart of the World, Center of the Church: Communio Ecclesiology, Liberalism, and Liberation (Eerdmans, 322 pages, $37.50 hardback): "the trinitarian communio, present in the sacramental communio that is the essence of the church, reveals the meaning of all being in its full integrity, and thereby reveals as well the inner logic and dynamic of the Christian presence in the world."

Schindler criticizes John Courtney Murray "regarding political order," Richard Neuhaus, Michael Novak and George Weigel "regarding economic order," and Theodore Hesburgh "regarding the academy." The "burden of the book, in its critical thrust," according to Schindler, is that "the dominant Catholic engagement with Anglo-American liberalism typified in the work of Murray and his contemporary disciples has not situated itself deeply enough within the horizon of the [Second Vatican] Council's `new' communio vision."

Scholarly disciples of Hans Urs von Balthasar and the communio ecclesiologists may delight in this study. Others may find the prose turgid and stance provocative.

I have never before encountered anyone who did "not think John Donne got it quite right when he said that no man is an island." But G. Michael McCrossin, in Broken Arrows: Growing Faith in a Changing World (Sheed & Ward, 172 pages, $10.95 paperback), asserts that "we are all islands, quanta of energy in the sea of creation." We can, he believes, "transcend our limits and connect with one another. It is our birth right, if we are open to it, to walk on water."

McCrossin spent 13 years as a Jesuit, later completing both a doctorate in theology and a law degree. He reports that his book began as therapeutic exercise to help himself understand "where I had come from, where I was and, perhaps, where I was going." Finding himself "adrift in an uncharted ocean," he sorts out his thoughts, and offers them after it "occurred to me that others might find some resonance with their own situation in these pages."

I found his confessions quite interesting for a different reason. I sometimes wonder what the priests who left in the 1960s have been up to in the years since, and here is a door I was pleased to have opened.

Even readers who can't get enough of this intrigue might consider the following subtitle more than they want to know: The Inside Story: Journey of a Former Jesuit Priest and Talk Show Host towards Self-Discovery, by Neil McKenty (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec: Shoreline Press, 160 pages, paperback). Lots of therapy stories in this description of a "journey about toxic religion, sex and celibacy, drinking and depression." McKenty believes that his tale may help others "on their own journey to wholeness." Perhaps.