 WE CAN HAVE PEACE IN THE HOLY
LAND: A Plan That Will Work, by
Jimmy Carter. Simon and Schuster.
182 pp. $27.
Reviewed by the REV. LAWRENCE M.
VENTLINE, a Catholic priest for 33 years,
now on special assignment for the Archdiocese
of Detroit. A board-certified professional
counselor and founder of www.interfaithwork.com, he holds a doctor of
ministry degree from St. Mary’s Seminary
and University, in Baltimore, Maryland,
and is a longtime columnist for The
Detroit News.
FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
lays out here a path toward ending
bloodshed and resolving conflict in the
age-old Israeli-Palestinian
situation.
In 13 chapters, five appendices
and an index, Carter
directs a hopeful and courageous
agenda for peace at
his current successor, President
Barack Obama.
Carter’s own religious
roots and the reconciling
efforts that went into the
Camp David Accords between
Israel and Egypt three
decades ago buttress his
positive tone in We Can Have Peace.
His story line of current and past
conflict in the region, earlier peace
attempts and various world leaders’
roles for peace in the troubled land
passionately and enthusiastically paints
a portrait of peace.
The concluding chapter calls for a
return to pre-1967 borders in a shared
Jerusalem and for Arab refugees to have
the right to go back to occupied territories,
which would mean an end to
settlement expansion.
From the Mediterranean to the Jordan
River and from Lebanon to the
Sinai, hopes for one state emerge,
although Israeli leaders fear that such
a plan could lead to the end of Israel.
And Palestinians are caught between
Fatah and the fundamentalist Hamas
ideologues—without an agreed-upon
leadership with which to negotiate.
Holy Land is the neutral name that
the religiously rooted Carter draws from
his Christian tradition to describe the
land between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean. I noted with chagrin,
however, that Carter makes no proposal
for the holy place claimed by
Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims
as Haram al-Sharif.
Despite so many shortcomings in
past policies, the author implies that
President Obama’s thrust into peace
pleas would require him to separate
support for Israel from support for
Israel’s policies. That is what
Carter did to achieve peace
between Israel and Egypt.
As global hope swells
with Obama’s vision, like
Carter’s courageous and
studied initiative, the current
U.S. administration
has an opportunity and a
responsibility to bring the
warring factions to the table
once more.
With his religious sensitivity
and awareness
of this embattled Holy
Land, Carter suggests that
American religious leaders
can best help the situation
by promoting reconciliation
among the Jewish, Christian
and Muslim children of
Abraham. This would transcend
political solutions that
are still limping along for
resolution in this decades-old
war.
The spilled blood in the
Holy Land still cries out to God—an
anguished plea for peace, as Carter
wrote in an earlier work. Carter’s much-needed
plan is dedicated “to people of
faith who still trust that God, with our
help, will bring peace to the Holy
Land.”
Pilgrims and ambassadors for peace
can sit together at tables in the Holy
Land with countless interfaith clergy,
and leaders of warring factions can converse
to heal the divide that the United
Nations has failed to mend.
You can order WE CAN HAVE PEACE IN THE HOLY
LAND: A Plan That Will Work from St. Francis Bookstore.
JEAN VANIER: Essential Writings, edited by Carolyn Whitney-Brown.
176 pp. Orbis Books, U.S., $16/
Novalis, Canada, $21.95.
Reviewed by BRIAN WELTER, who teaches
ESL (English as a Second Language) to
adults in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and writes for a variety of Catholic publications.
He recently received a D.Th. from
the University of South Africa with a study
on Pope John Paul II.
JEAN VANIER is the Canadian founder
of L’Arche, an international grassroots
organization that invites people with
physical and mental disabilities to live
with “assistants” in a family atmosphere.
He has spent decades thinking
out loud about the spiritual and philosophical
journey of this organization
and what it means.
This book contains many
gems of wisdom that we’ve
come to expect from Vanier.
When speaking at the funeral
of Henri Nouwen, he
said: “Sometimes I sensed
in Henri the wounded heart
of Christ, the anguish of
Christ. For God is not a secure
God up there telling
everybody what to do, but
a God in anguish, yearning
for love, a God who is not
understood, a God on whom people
have put labels. Our God is a lover, a
wounded lover. This is the mystery of
Christ.”
Rather than argumentative theology
that tries to convince the reader of
something, Vanier’s thinking draws a
person in slowly. It challenges our common
thinking about people, inviting us
to look with eyes of love, as when discussing
atheists:
“I can really understand people who
proclaim that they do not believe in
God because what they are saying is
that they do not believe in false gods.
They do not believe in a romantic God
that just blesses human beings by making
them rich. They do not believe in
a God who is going to punish them.
Some atheists, who refuse to believe in
these false gods, have a deep sense of
the human heart and a deep sense of
human reality.”
Like many good Catholic spiritual
thinkers, Vanier in these writings identifies
the basic problems with contemporary
society as being the mindless
pursuit of status, wealth and other
material endeavors, at the expense of
meaning, deep relationship and community
life.
Because his words come from the
prophetic life that he has lived, he can
offer the world a true alternative to the
left-wing/right-wing tug-of-war in
which our politicians like to engage. He
long ago came to the realization that
such politics only lead to more confusion
and materialism.
Jean Vanier: Essential Writings begins
with a hearty introduction, part biography,
part reflection on his teachings,
coming to interesting conclusions such
as Vanier’s call to “humanize” disability
rather than “spiritualize” it. Such
organized study and reflection by others
on the teachings of Vanier is important
so that readers can get some sense
of his often-scattered ideas.
Vanier tends to be somewhat disorganized
in his thinking, rather than
outlining things systematically. Perhaps
this reflects his belief that L’Arche
itself is not an institution but a journey.
His reflections are likewise, and readers
can therefore get bogged down in some
of his sentiments. After a while, Vanier’s
various books, like those of Henri
Nouwen, all tend to sound the same.
Yet what Vanier has to say is very
important. He should be read slowly
and meditatively rather than rapidly,
like a history book or a novel. A scattered
collection of his writings is the
ideal showcase for Vanier as a writer.
You can order JEAN VANIER: Essential Writings from St.
Francis Bookstore.
AND GOD SAID, Tee It Up!: Amusing
and Thought-Provoking Parallels
Between the Bible and Golf, by
Gary
Graf. ACTA Publications. 176 pp.
14.95.
Reviewed by the REV. PAUL
DESCH, O.F.M., a preacher
and golfer who still enjoys
doing both. He lives in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
WE HAVE ALL HEARD
jokes about God and golf.
This book brings God and
golf together in a way that
is often humorous, but always
thought-provoking.
As our author explains in his preface,
he is writing for those who love the
game of golf and, at the same time, are
looking for a deeper understanding of
their Christian faith.
These two can come together in surprising
ways as we walk down the fairway
trying to maneuver that little,
white, dimpled ball into a cup with a
four-inch diameter.
The book’s format is obvious
enough—18 chapters, one for each
hole on a golf course. As
each chapter opens, we
are whisked away to some
of the most famous golf
courses in the world. There
we select one hole (corresponding
to the number
of the chapter), which has
challenged the skills of golf
pros for decades.
This is perhaps the most
enjoyable part of the book
for a golf lover. Graf paints
a tantalizing picture of all
the thrills and threats that await us as
we play our way from tee to green on storied golf venues from St. Andrews to
Pebble Beach.
After finishing each hole, we pause
and begin the search for some deeper
religious meaning behind it all. At this
point, things can become a bit tenuous.
For example, the three essential elements
in any day on the links—golfer,
ball and course—suggest the mysterious
unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
in the Trinity. And the four major golf
tournaments of the year lead us to
reflect on the role of the four evangelists
in the Gospels. And as we finesse
our way through the sand traps of life,
what more “ultimate caddy” can we
find than the Holy Spirit?
Once Graf has successfully pitched
out of these somewhat tricky transitions,
however, he is on much more
solid ground. As he admits, he is
not a biblical scholar or speculative
theologian. But I was impressed with
the genuine maturity and lively
insights with which he presents our
Catholic faith.
Other features in this book will
delight the heart of any avid golfer, for
example, plenty of golf lore from Walter
Hagen’s double eagle to win the
U.S. Open to Tiger Woods’s “miracle”
putt to capture the Masters.
So it is easy to recommend And God
Said, Tee It Up! to any golfer also interested
in religion. But for those who
view golf through the eyes of Mark
Twain as “a good walk spoiled,” look
elsewhere for your spiritual inspiration.
Gary Graf is the author of two previous
ventures into the field of sports
and theology—one on football and the
other on baseball. Perhaps we should
keep our eyes open for another volume:
And God Said, ‘Tennis, Anyone?’
You can order AND GOD SAID, Tee It Up!: Amusing
and Thought-Provoking Parallels
Between the Bible and Golf from St.
Francis Bookstore.
ROME AND CANTERBURY: The Elusive
Search for Unity, by Mary Reath.
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers,
Inc. 158 pp. $19.95.
Reviewed by TYLER BLUE, who graduated
in 2008 from the University of Dayton
with journalism and religious studies
degrees and is now a graduate student in
journalism at Northwestern University.
Last summer and fall, he was an intern in
the St. Anthony Messenger Press book
department.
“I ASK NOT ONLY on behalf of these,
but also on behalf of those who will
believe in me through their word, that
they may all be one. As you, Father,
are in me and I am in you, may they
also be in us, so that the world
may believe that you have
sent me” (John 17:20-21,
NRSV).
The current climate in
Christianity should disturb
all believers from every
denomination in light of
Christ’s plea for unity
among his followers. But it
seems we are content with
the way things are, taking
the current state of divisions,
disagreements and
disunity for granted, as the
way things always were and always
will be.
In reality, each separation is the
equivalent of a gaping, open wound
on the Body of Christ. For the most
part, these wounds not only aren’t
addressed, they often aren’t even recognized
by members of the body as
wounds.
Mary Reath documents the little-known
efforts of a small group of individuals
working to diagnose and
reconcile the murky doctrinal disagreements—
not to mention unfortunate
historical misperceptions and vile
animosity—between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Anglican/Episcopalian
Church.
This work, Reath asserts, is vital to
the worldwide mission of the Church:
“The Church’s redeeming message of
love and hope for all is compromised,
when it itself is divided.”
And so Reath begins with a brief
overview of the turbulent 16th century
that led to the great splits in
Christendom: first the Protestant Reformation
and, a little later, in England
when Henry VIII, formerly a staunch
defender of Catholicism against the
reformers, issued the 1534 Act of
Supremacy that made him, and not the
pope, head of the Church in England.
The rest of the book focuses on
Anglican and Catholic efforts since
then to come to terms with exactly
what caused this split—in the hopes
of a future reunion. Before Vatican II,
these efforts were never official and
were extremely sparse. But that ecumenical
council opened the doors to
more fervent ecumenism, culminating
in the foundation of the Anglican/
Roman Catholic International
Commission in 1970.
This commission has published
nine documents on
such matters as the Eucharist,
salvation, Mary and
Church authority. This last
issue, the biggest obstacle
to reconciliation, receives
most of Reath’s attention.
Anglicans believe that the
Catholic view that infallibility
lies in the personhood
of the pope (as opposed to
the body of bishops only) is tough to
find in both the Bible and the early
Church.
A practicing Anglican who grew up
Catholic, Reath gives a fairly balanced
look at both Churches, though Catholics
may take issue with her explanation
of indulgences (at one point she
claims they forgive sins) and her assertion
that the doctrine of infallibility
started surfacing only in the 13th and
14th centuries.
But the biggest question raised by
this book is, “What’s the point?” While
there is no doubt that relations among
these two bulwark institutions have
dramatically improved, do joint statements
that more or less say, “We
basically believe the same thing, but
we have different ways of expressing
it,” really affect how individuals of
these faiths practice and live their lives?
Are we really any closer to a full
reunion?
As Reath herself admits, “Reunion
could never come solely or even primarily
from above; a paper reunion
would be meaningless. In the end,
without the laity involved, this will
never happen.” After reading this book,
I can only conclude that we are much
closer to a “paper reunion” than a genuine
one.
You can order ROME AND CANTERBURY: The Elusive
Search for Unity from St. Francis Bookstore.
THE POPES OF AVIGNON: A Century
in Exile, by Edwin Mullins. BlueBridge. 256 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by MARK LOMBARD, managing
editor of www.AmericanCatholic.org and director of the Catholic Press Leadership
Institute. He is a student of history’s
great news stories.
IN THE 14TH CENTURY, a quiet, relatively
small, insignificant town in
southern France grew to become one of
the great capitals of the world, the center
of Western Christianity and the
forerunner of greater papal authority.
In an intricately woven historical
tapestry, writer and journalist Edwin
Mullins brings together the drama,
intrigue and turmoil connected to the
reign of seven popes and two antipopes
in Avignon. This town grew into one of
the wealthiest cities in Europe and a
place of greed, nepotism, corruption,
abuse of power and unholy alliances.
Although it hasn’t been
home to any pope or anti-pope
for more than 600
years, Avignon has a labyrinthine
fortress and Gothic-spired
skyline that still draw
750,000 visitors each year.
Mullins successfully connects
the events surrounding
the popes to the broader
story of Europe’s turbulent
history, including the brutal
suppression of the Knights
Templar and heretical Cathars,
the onslaught of the plague, the
beginning of the Hundred Years’ War
and a Holy Land under the firm control
of Islam.
The author of the fascinating Cluny:
In Search of God’s Lost Empire (also published
by BlueBridge) convincingly
argues that the Avignon popes and the
events surrounding them became the
catalyst for transitioning from medieval
to early modern Europe.
It is the story that began in the late
13th century with the mysterious death
of one ex-pope (St. Celestine V), the
kidnapping of another (Boniface VIII)
and the crossing of swords between
the papacy and the most autocratic
monarch of the time (King Philip IV of
France). It seemed necessary to move
the capital of Western Christianity to
avoid the anarchy that beset Italy. The
years in Avignon represent the only
time in history the Church has moved
its headquarters.
Mullins describes a papacy that
became increasingly secularized and
“helped create an alliance of wealth
and patronage which set the pattern for
the glittering papal courts of Rome
more than a century later.” Yet his
study remains balanced, not degenerating
into an attack on the papacy or
the Church as a whole.
As both a cause and an effect, the
move to southern France placed the
papacy under the strong influence of
the French kings. And yet it would be
a mistake to see the pontiffs as puppets.
Mullins also emphasizes that the
popes in exile were not all cut from
the same papal cloth, as the College
of Cardinals “followed a well-established
tradition in Avignon, which
was to elect a new pope who
was as unlike his predecessor
as possible.”
Even the return of the
popes to the Eternal City
was marked by drama and
intrigue. It was the shrewd
political acumen of the fifth
Avignon pope (Innocent VI)
that included bargaining
with marauding mercenaries,
appointing a soldier-cardinal
to subdue feudal
warlords in the Italian papal
territories and cracking down on the
papal budget. These actions paved the
way for the papacy to come back to
Rome.
For Catholics interested in the
Church’s history, The Popes of Avignon illuminates the warp and weave of
the papacy in exile and through it a
glimpse of a continent moving from
the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
You can order THE POPES OF AVIGNON: A Century
in Exile from St. Francis Bookstore.
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: Living
Catholic Faith, by Jack Canfield,
Mark Victor Hansen & LeAnn Thieman.
Liguori Publications/Chicken
Soup for the Soul Publishing. 383 pp.
$14.95.
Reviewed by MITCH FINLEY, author of
more than 30 books for Catholic readers,
most recently The Rosary Handbook: A
Guide for Newcomers, Old-Timers, and
Those In Between (The Word Among Us
Press).
LAUNCHED IN 1993, the Chicken Soup
for the Soul series constitutes one of the
most successful publishing ventures
ever with volumes on many themes.
Now the editors have gotten around
to a collection of stories aimed at
Catholics, which was bound to happen
sooner or later.
Packed into the first 356 pages are
“101 Stories to Offer Hope, Deepen
Faith, and Spread Love,” according to
the cover blurb. Each two-and-a-half-page true story is by a different author.
Unless you’re related to, or a friend
of, one of the writers who contributed
to this book, you’re not likely to recognize
their names. I’m in the Catholic
writing biz myself, and I found only
one name I knew. Don’t let the lack of
big names disappoint you, however,
because the stories don’t come from
the lives of celebrities, not even Catholic
celebrities. These are true-life
accounts of faith lessons learned, stories
about where the rubber meets the road,
faith-wise.
These stories were chosen as the best
from, I would guess, probably four
times as many stories submitted for
consideration. Chicken Soup stories are
like potato chips; they’re habit-forming.
Titles of stories in this Catholic
Chicken Soup book include these: “The
Twinkie,” “The Holiday Lottery From
Heaven,” “I Spent the Night at a Homeless
Shelter,” “Lassoed by the Rosary,”
“Sacraments Make Me Hungry,” “Confession
Anxiety,” “Are You Catholic?”
Stories nourish faith in ways that
theology can’t, and the stories in this
Chicken Soup book do it better than
most.
You can order CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: Living
Catholic Faith from St. Francis Bookstore.
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