Book Review

Jesuit’s book explores future of modern Catholicism

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
December 21, 2006

The world of 2006 is one that forces the average person to make a multitude of choices every day. Even ordering a cup of coffee has become an exercise in decision-making.

Non-fat, low-fat or creamer? Decaf or regular? Flavoring or whip cream?

With the amount of consideration that goes into ordering a cup of coffee, Jesuit Father Thomas P. Rausch wonders how much thought people are giving to their religion.

In his most recent book, “Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice,” Fr. Rausch — professor of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles — addresses a collection of issues and concerns regarding everything from the future of the Catholic faithful to the formation of Catholic colleges and universities.

“Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice” reads more like a collection of essays than a book. The essays are well written and generally easy to follow. Fr. Rausch provides interesting insights without writing in an overly scholarly tone. Much of the content was pulled from other work Rausch has done on the topics.

“I’ve had other books where you start at the beginning and just work all the way through,” Fr. Rausch said. “But this was kind of a theme book so I was trying to find some projects that I had already done that would fit with these themes of ‘what does it mean to be a Catholic Christian today and how do we understand ourselves?’”

“Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice” jumps from issue to issue in every chapter break. Fr. Rausch focuses most particularly on two emerging groups of young adult Catholics, ranging from 19 to 39.

The majority group “likes being Catholic, they like the emphasis on social justice in the Church and they like the symbols and the rituals, but they know almost nothing about it,” he said.

Fr. Rausch cautions that because this groups “institutional commitment is very thin, the first time they have a problem with the Church they split.”

The second group he looks at is “a minority of young Catholics today who are just the opposite,” he said. “Who are very committed to the Church, more conservative.”

Fr. Rausch believes this group is often unfairly classified as “neoconservatives or restorationists.” He attributes their dedication to the tradition of the Church to growing up in “a completely secular culture” in non-practicing Catholic families, he said.

Ultimately Fr. Rausch hopes the two groups of young adult Catholics will begin to dialogue with one another “because they both have much to learn from one another.”

Although a large focus of the book is on young adult Catholics, Fr. Rausch also dips his pen into the Catholic imagination, “The DaVinci Code,” and what he calls the domestic Church.

“Catholics really have a different way of experiencing the world because we take symbol, sign and sacrament very seriously,” Fr. Rausch said of his chapter on the Catholic imagination.

In his writing on “The DaVinci Code,” he focuses of the role the Catholic Church played in the formation of the Christian church as a whole. Through this discussion he argues against many of the claims made in “The DaVinci Code.”

Fr. Rausch said the family is the domestic church where children are first exposed to religion. They come to experience God and Christ at home.

Thus, he points out, if the parents are unaware of their vocation to make religion present in their love for each other and God, then their children risk growing up without a true experience of religion.

“Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice” offers further reflections on the struggle for Catholic colleges and universities to define their Catholic identity as an academic institution, the notion of being spiritual but not religious, authority and uniqueness in Catholicism, and more.

Ultimately, it is an interesting read for any person with an opinion on any of the many subjects Fr. Rausch covers. Yet the book does not drown in opinions or theological arguments.

Fr. Rausch hopes the book will give insight in to the current state of the Church and her faithful while reminding readers what is special about Catholicism.

“We have a unique way of perceiving the world,” he said of Catholics. “We have a unique sense of how God’s grace is mediated to us through the community of the Church, through the Christian community — and that is to say other people, sacramental signs and stories. I would hate to lose that.”

“Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice” offers a few suggestions on how to avoid that loss.

Rebecca Bostic is a regular contributor the The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcomed. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.