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 EMBRYO: A Defense of Human Life, by Robert P. George and Christopher
Tollefsen. Doubleday. 240 pp. $23.95,
hardcover.
Reviewed by the REV. ALFRED CIOFFI, a
Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of
Miami, Florida. He has a doctorate in
moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian
University in Rome, Italy, and a doctorate
in genetics from Purdue University
in Indiana. Presently, he is a staff ethicist
at the National Catholic Bioethics Center
in Philadelphia.
THIS BOOK PROVIDES very solid reasons—in accessible language—for recognizing
the human embryo as a
person from the moment of conception.
The logical consequence of this
claim is that even the pre-implanted
embryo deserves full protection under
the law as a member of the human
family. Therefore, authors Robert P.
George and Christopher Tollefsen argue
forcibly against any manipulation or
research done on the early embryo (e.g.,
embryonic stem-cell research) that
would endanger his or her health or
life.
These authors hail from Princeton
University and the University of South
Carolina, respectively. Their arguments
come mostly from biology and philosophy.
To engage today’s secular world,
the authors have refrained from using
theological arguments.
Certainly, this does not mean that
the authors are against the inclusion of
revealed truth into the equation of figuring
out when human life begins. In
fact, they are very amenable to the possibility
that the human soul exists, and
that the soul is an integral aspect of
what it is to be a human being.
George and Tollefsen systematically
demolish the positions of a number of
contemporary writers who find it
morally acceptable to experiment with
human embryos.
The book also presents the current
state of affairs regarding noncontroversial
stem-cell sources, such
as adult stem cells, umbilical cord
blood, placenta, amniotic fluid, etc.,
and some bio-technological attempts
to generate “embryonic-like” stem-cell
lines without actually creating
(or destroying) a human embryo.
Who should read this
book? Anyone interested in
the question of the current
status of the human embryo
or anyone who wants arguments
for why we should
not experiment with human
embryos.
Accordingly, pro-lifers
should read this book because
it provides both up-to-date
scientific evidence and
common-sense arguments
to combat abortion.
Scientists should read this book
because some experiments done today
are giving science a bad name, for example,
the human embryonic stem-cell
research and cloning fraud that
was uncovered in 2006 in Korea, last
year’s United Kingdom’s decision to
fund experiments to create human-animal
hybrids, and the continuously
unfulfilled promise of cures from the
destructive-embryo research in our own
country.
Politicians should read this book
because of mounting pressure to use
billions of dollars (i.e., California’s
Proposition 71) for experiments that
kill live human embryos.
Philosophers, sociologists and academicians
should read this book
because silence assents, and life-and-death
matters have lethal consequences.
All taxpayers should read this book
because this has now become a public
issue. There are now at least half a million
human embryos frozen in the
United States alone, all potential targets
of destructive research and experimentation.
In the meantime, ethical sources of
human cell lines—such as adult and
cord-blood stem cells—are moving forward,
curing real people with real
injuries and diseases. Those who read
only the secular press would assume
that research and cures from these
ethical cell line sources are
practically nonexistent. But
at www.stemcellresearch.org breakthroughs in human
trials using alternative
sources are described.
Now, for a couple of
recommendations and a
critique: Throughout the
book, the authors are very
consistent in arguing for the
humanity of the embryo
from conception. And, in
fairness to them, they prefer
to use the more scientific term fertilization.
But they get somewhat
bogged down on precisely when, during
fertilization, the zygote becomes a
new human being: Is it as soon as
the sperm penetrates the egg, or by
the end of the fusion of the two pronuclei,
or somewhere in between (the
entire process taking up to 24 hours)?
The process of fertilization, however,
is ontologically equivalent to the moment
of conception. In other words,
when I say, “I am having dinner,” I
could be swallowing the first spoonful
of soup or the last bite of dessert, or
be somewhere in between. Having dinner
is a time-lapse process and is understood
as a single event.
When the authors mention that, generally,
a new human individual begins
at conception, they are accounting for
the formation of identical twins. This
can happen naturally up to about two
weeks after fertilization.
I was totally disappointed that the
authors did not condemn the practice
of in vitro fertilization (IVF) as one of the most flagrant and massive attacks
on the human embryo today. It’s not
enough to propose, as they do in the
concluding chapter, that the IVF industry
be more strictly regulated by
government. If human life begins at
conception, and if this nascent human
life deserves full protection under the
law—as they have admirably argued
throughout their entire book—why
strictly regulate an industry that highly
endangers and often kills those embryos
they are attempting to create?
George and Tollefsen have forcefully
and convincingly argued throughout
the book that, whereas parents may
well “own” their respective sex cells,
the result of the union of such gametes
is certainly not an extension of either
parent, nor is it an attachment, or a
parental possession. Parents are not the
“owners” of a new human life. So why
don’t the authors condemn IVF as an
intrinsic moral evil?
Lastly, I found a few “technical difficulties”
in the bound galley I read.
Even though, overall, factual claims
are well referenced, several of them
slipped by unreferenced (e.g., “...with
nearly one percent of all live births in
the United States originating in vitro,”
p. 9). Also, typos and grammatical and
syntactical errors abounded. Lastly, a
listing of acronyms placed up front
could really help the reader.
Embryo is a must-read, especially in
the United States in 2008 where many
local, state and national vital issues
hinge on our proper understanding of
when we began to exist as individuals.
This book leaves no doubt.
You can order EMBRYO: A Defense of Human Life from St.
Francis Bookshop.
FINDING THE VOICE OF THE
CHURCH, by George Dennis O’Brien.
University of Notre Dame Press. 228
pp. $25.
Reviewed by NORMAN LANGENBRUNNER,
a diocesan priest ordained in 1970,
and currently pastor of St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Church in Cincinnati.
GEORGE DENNIS O’BRIEN, president
emeritus of the University of Rochester
and of Bucknell University, loves the
Church and earnestly wants it to find its voice and bring its message to the
world more effectively. He recognizes
that true communication depends not
only on what is said but also on how it
is said.
A mother’s tone of voice
in saying to her child, “Stop
crying,” conveys as much
meaning as the words she
uses. O’Brien believes that
the Church has been using
the wrong voice. It has been
speaking in tones dictatorial,
didactic, distant or demeaning.
He suggests that the
Church must learn to listen
so that it may speak with a
“forgiving voice.”
O’Brien’s critique of the Church’s
voice comes from years of personal
experience and reflection. He maintains
that liturgy is the primary voice of
the Catholic faith and affirms the tradition
of lex orandi, lex credendi—the
way we pray is the way we believe.
If ritual uses the wrong voice, then
faith is stifled. “In my experience,”
O’Brien comments, “it is rare to find a
priest who in his sermon ‘opens the
Scriptures’...the tendency is to ‘close
the Scriptures’ either in
sheer banality or in formal
heresy, usually both together.”
Further, he challenges the
custom of presenting theology
in strict philosophical
terms. Truth is to be sought
not only in philosophy and
science but also in art and in
what O’Brien calls “signatured
truth.” He suggests
relating Christianity to the
ways of art, and develops
the analogy of God not as creator but
as author, one like Shakespeare in a
world-play.
Original Sin, then, is the tragedy
of the actors’ refusing to follow the
author’s intent, and thus leading the
playwright to enter into the play itself
(the Incarnation) and affirm that what he has written is to be played as a
divine comedy.
No brief review of this book can do
it justice. O’Brien’s intention is herculean:
“to rephrase Christian doctrine
in nonstandard ways,” to investigate
“whether certain structures and practices
in the medium of the Catholic
Church subvert the faith,” to “uncover
the language game of faith” and to
insist that the real voice of the Church
must be “the voice that forgives sin.”
In developing his argument, O’Brien
presents God as a Supreme Shakespeare,
warns apologists not to equate Churchtruth
with anything like scientific
objectivity, suggests that the Church
has misapplied the notion of a patriarchal
hierarchy and proposes that
Catholics have misunderstood infallibility.
O’Brien is blunt: “The problem with
the papal office is whether it makes
sense to have an institutional father
who may, alas, be anything but a holy
father...when the actual papal voice is
neither holy nor fatherly, we may fault
the incumbent for failing his station
and duties.”
From the Introduction on, O’Brien is
aware that readers may judge what he
says to be unorthodox. He is, after all,
deliberately shying away from traditional
theological language and pious
tones. For example, his understanding
of infallibility and that of the Church
are miles apart. “My aim,” he says, “is
to show that the Church cannot sustain
a claim for infallibility on moral issues.”
He is especially critical of the pope
and bishops for their refusal to listen to
each other as well as to the people.
This book is not a theological work,
but a theologizing. It is a soul-searching
exploration, a challenge to the status
quo, a thinking-out-loud, an invitation
to reassess. It does not fulfill his hope
to be “comprehensible to the nonspecialist.”
His occasional excursus into
philosophy will put off many a reader,
and his critical attitude is likely to elicit
a “Whoa!” or a “No!” at one point or
another from all others.
But those who are open to the stimulation
of looking at the Church in an
unconventional way will be impressed
with the wit and wisdom of a grandfather
who loves the Church and knows
it can do better.
You can order FINDING THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH from St. Francis Bookshop.
THE SHADOW OF GOD: A Journey
Through Memory, Art, and Faith, by
Charles Scribner III. Doubleday. 292
pp. $24.95.
THE RIDE OF OUR LIVES: Roadside
Lessons of an American Family, by
Mike Leonard. Ballantine Books. 230
pp. $24.95, hardcover+DVD/$13.95,
paperback.
Reviewed by MARK M. WILKINS, a
teacher at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati,
Ohio. He has been reviewing books for
St. Anthony Messenger for 20 years.
AT FIRST GLANCE, these two books
seem vastly different in tone and content.
Mike Leonard has written a funny
travelogue/memoir, a “warts-and-all”
story about his family. Charles Scribner
III has crafted a spiritual
autobiography/tour of the
works of art, literature and
music that have touched his
life. But common to both
books is a Catholic life very
sacramental in nature.
Charles Scribner III is the
great-great-grandson of the
founder of one of this country’s
most notable publishing
houses. He is also an
expert in Baroque art with a
doctoral degree in art history,
who converted to Catholicism
while in college. Scribner writes with
great enthusiasm about the pivotal
truths he has discovered in the novels
of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh,
as well as the spiritual inspiration he
has found in art, music, opera and the
Bible.
Scribner represents a life of privilege,
wealth and connections, but at heart is
still a man on a lifelong search for
truth, beauty and God. Born Episcopalian,
he charts the story of his interior
life and the importance of the arts
in helping him choose the spiritual,
emotional and intellectual paths he
would follow, including conversion to
Catholicism. Written in the form of a
daily journal, this book reflects on a
year in his life from Epiphany to
Epiphany.
At the heart of his essays is the
insight included in Scribner’s introductory
remarks. He writes that he had
long taken for granted that spirituality
would generate great works of art—from Gothic cathedrals to Handel’s Messiah—yet now he realizes that it also
works in reverse: Works of art nourish
religious faith and spiritual growth. It’s
a two-way street. Art of all kinds shapes
the way that we view the world, ourselves,
even God.
Scribner writes that the arts have the
power to transform our very surroundings
as well as ourselves. They
alter our perceptions, our emotional
responses, our lasting memory of time
and place. He writes with equal passion
about photographs as he does of
the great canvases that have moved
him.
One of his best lines was about
music, but I believe that
Scribner would apply it to
all the arts. To play or to listen
to music is a religious
experience in the most literal
sense of the word. The
Latin root—religare—means
“to tie together.” He writes
that “[m]usic forges the ties
that bind us together, the
living with the dead, mortals
with immortals.”
Mike Leonard, a cradle
Catholic born to middle-class,
Irish-Catholic parents, lived in
the Midwest. He is a feature correspondent
for NBC’s The Today Show,
presenting his audience with people
who could generously be labeled as
characters. Leonard writes of his parents,
his wife, his children and the people
who have enriched his life and
provided him with stories over the
years. Here, they reminisce about their
loves and losses as they travel one last
lap together around the country.
Mike Leonard writes of a life so ordinary
that it seems like a prototype of a
generation. He celebrates the common
man: Joe Blow, James Bond, Crip
Cormier and Danny Wilson, to name a
few of the characters in this book. Each of these stories prompts further stories
about Mike Leonard, his life and his
family.
The starting point for Leonard is the
oil-and-water partnership of his parents.
His mom, Marge, holds a Ph.D. in “stinkin’ thinkin’” while his dad, Jack,
is a bundle of hope and conversation.
They both come from Irish-Catholic
families rooted in the same New Jersey
neighborhood.
The plan is that two RVs will carry
his parents, three of his children and a
daughter-in-law on a trip from Arizona
to Georgia, then to New Jersey and
Rhode Island, before swinging westward
to meet the first Leonard grandchild
and great-grandchild in Chicago.
Both of these authors’ lives point to
God. Whether they are led there with
a Louisiana bayou resident or through
a Baroque painting, God is present.
That’s the richness of the Catholic faith
and tradition.
You can order THE SHADOW OF GOD: A Journey
Through Memory, Art, and Faith and THE RIDE OF OUR LIVES: Roadside
Lessons of an American Family from St.
Francis Bookshop.
INFINITE SPACE, INFINITE GOD, edited by Karina and Robert Fabian.
Twilight Times Books. 288 pp.
$18.95.
Reviewed by JEAN M. HEIMANN, a freelance
writer from Wichita, Kansas.
OVER THE YEARS, many of the great
Christian science-fiction writers have
been Catholics, such as Walter M.
Miller, J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Lafferty and,
more recently, Gene Wolfe and Tim
Powers. Few, however, have written
about the Catholic Church itself and
the future role of the Church. The stories
included in Infinite Space, Infinite
God not only project Catholics living
and working in the future, but depict
the Church as very much alive, highly
influential and a vital part of its members’
lives.
Infinite Space, Infinite God is an
anthology of 15 Catholic science-fiction
short stories, which won an
EPIC (Electronically Published Internet
Connection) Award in 2007. Edited
and compiled by Catholic science-fiction
writers Karina and Robert
Fabian, Infinite Space, Infinite God depicts Catholics and the Catholic
Church of the future, with some of its
members living in a world of clones
and genetically altered humanoids.
Other characters are involved in time
travel, interplanetary and deep-space
exploration. Various science-fiction
themes challenge the characters’ practice
of Catholic morals and beliefs and
pose interesting questions for the
reader, the kind that keep catechists
dreaming and theologians debating.
As with any anthology, the quality
of the writing varies from
story to story. It also reflects
the writer’s experience. Although
these variations
exist in Infinite Space, Infinite
God, I enjoyed all these
stories and found each of
them to be well-crafted,
unique and entertaining.
The characters in all of the
stories are very imaginative
and come alive in vivid
detail.
Different themes and
writing styles added variety and heightened
my interest, as I anticipated what
challenge each new story would bring.
Among my favorites were “These
Three” (Karina and Robert Fabian),
“Understanding” (J. Sherer) and “A
Cruel and Unusual Punishment” (Maya
Kathryn Bohnhoff).
“These Three” introduces us to the
Order of Our Lady of the Rescue, a
group of religious women dedicated to
rescuing others in space. It is the captivating
and suspense-filled story of
Peter, a goal-oriented and idealistic
young man with limited skills who
wants to become a spacer. During his
flight, he becomes seriously injured
and scrambles to stop his spaceship
from colliding with a space station. In
the process, Peter not only faces the
challenge of a physical injury, but also
struggles with an interior conflict that
must be overcome if he is to save himself
and others from a potential disaster.
This is where his Catholic faith
enters in as he receives encouragement
and spiritual advice from an unexpected
source. Will he heed the advice
of the mysterious stranger? Will he
trust in God or in his own resources?
“Understanding” combines mystery
and intrigue with science fiction in the
tale of two men living in a genetically
altered world–-one, Errius, a serial killer
who believes he is acting in a just manner
by cleansing the Catholic Church
of its “misfits” when he murders four
Catholic priests, and the other, Tack, a
detective assigned to his case, who has
lost his faith in the Church.
Both men base their actions on misperceptions
and consequently suffer in
many ways. How they deal
with these life-and-death
spiritual trials determines
their fate. What is Errius’s
hidden motive in murdering
these priests? Will he be
discovered and caught? Will
either of these men repent
and return to their faith?
“A Cruel and Unusual
Punishment” is my favorite
short story in the anthology.
It is an intriguing crime
story which challenges each
of us in our faith. Liam Connor is an
Irish-Catholic terrorist and convicted
murderer. He rationalizes all his violent
actions and lacks remorse, but now
is presented with the option of death or
a secret “psychological treatment” that
turns fellow inmates into madmen.
Which will he choose?
Infinite Space, Infinite God is a wonderful
selection of very imaginative
and colorful stories that capture the
reader’s interest and attention, while
also presenting a thought-provoking
look at the Catholic faith in the future.
These stories provide a refreshing look
at Catholicism from a positive and
uplifting point of view.
I highly recommend this anthology
not only to science-fiction fans, but also
to those who are new to this genre.
You can order INFINITE SPACE, INFINITE GOD from St. Francis Bookshop.
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