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Book Review
Book proves that Catholic writing is alive and well
Reviewed by Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
September 20, 2007
“The Best Catholic Writing 2007” begins with Pope Benedict XVI’s address at Auschwitz in May 2006 and ends with a brief personal essay by Brian Doyle about sin and forgiveness between a father and his son.
At first glance, the two entries could not seem more different. The Holy Father gave his remarks in front of hundreds of reporters and photographers. His words were parsed by newspapers and magazines across the globe.
Brian Doyle relates a modest story of a father wronging his young son and then seeking his forgiveness.
The pope addressed a matter of terrible historical significance; Doyle, a matter known to and affecting only two people.
And yet, the similarities between the two entries are only heightened by these differences. At their heart, both attempt to understand the mystery of sin and evil and both use the same lens for investigating their subjects.
The Catholic lens or imagination that Pope Benedict and Doyle employ is difficult to define, yet it holds the whole collection together.
In his note on the selections, editor Jim Manney defines this lens as having a “sacramental, incarnational perspective” and “a sensitivity to the historic Christian tradition that is properly called ‘Catholic.’”
That definition is helpful, if not a little bit dry. Another — dare one say a more “incarnational” — description might be that a Catholic writer gathers up 2,000 years of saints, stories, art, Scripture and tradition and carries it on his or her back. Then, the writer sets out in any number of directions, feeling lighter and freer for the load than without it.
The resulting discoveries made by the writers are exciting both for their divergent interests and subjects and for the common framework in which they exist.
Take the subjects explored in “The Best Catholic Writing 2007.” An essay on Blessed Charles de Foucauld sits next to a poem called “Confession.” A discussion of the Catholic images in Bruce Springsteen lyrics abuts a scholarly examination of evolution and faith.
Even the sources from which the entries were culled are wildly diverse: newspaper editorials, secular and religious magazines, sermons and posts on Web sites.
One of the longest selections in the book is an essay by Joseph Bottum, which appeared in First Things magazine. Titled, “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano: Catholic Culture in America,” the essay offers an intriguing look at American Catholic thought and action over the past 30 years.
The Catholic upheaval in the ‘70s — typified by Call to Action conferences on the left and deniers of the validity of Vatican II on the right — demolished a shared sense of what it meant to be Catholic in America.
What was left were ghettoized factions at turns ignoring and then fighting each other. Add to that a fear of causing waves and you get a dismantled and stultified culture, Bottum writes.
Out of this destruction, though, new life is showing. Bottum has met young Catholics exhausted and bored by the previous generation’s pet issues.
The pro-life movement and its necessary foundation of natural law have served as a rallying point, Bottum writes. Catholic scholars are interested again in Patristics and Aquinas. These younger Catholics have a deep, eucharistic faith and go to confession regularly.
That’s not to say that this generation views itself as “traditionalist,” though many may call them that. They simply want to be Catholic.
In many ways, this book shows the fruits that are borne by this movement’s traits. When the Catholic imagination is allowed to flourish, when people know their faith and love it rather than resent it, great achievement and new discoveries are possible.
The quality of writing and the breadth of subject in “The Best Catholic Writing 2007” prove it.
The book echoes the optimism of Pope Benedict XVI during his installation Mass.
“The Church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way toward the future,” the pope declared. “The Church is alive and we are seeing it.”
Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.
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