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Book Review
Author echoes tone of Benedict’s papacy
Reviewed by Andrew Junker, ajunker@catholicsun.org
April 17, 2008
A week before his trip to America, Pope Benedict XVI released a video message outlining the purpose of his apostolic visit.
“I shall come to United States of America as pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition,” Pope Benedict said.
“Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through Him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father,” he said.
Both the content and the tone of this message are familiar to anyone who has followed the pope’s writings, homilies and speeches these past three years.
Pope Benedict — much to the surprise of many who predicted that “God’s Rottweiler” would rule harshly and unforgivingly from the Vatican — has preached what many commentators call an engaging and positive message.
That is, he presents the truth of the Catholic faith, its doctrine and morals, unflinchingly, but presents it also positively, as a way for men and women to find sanity, meaning and happiness in their lives, rather than as a list of proscriptions.
That’s why, in a way, it’s fortuitous that “A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World,” written by Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, was published so close to the pope’s American visit.
The national connection is nice enough: the American priest Michael McGivney founded The Knights of the Columbus, the universal Church’s largest fraternal organization, in 1881.
But even better is that Anderson’s book echoes Benedict’s vision of the Church and the challenges and opportunities facing modern Catholics. It’s a vision that is positive and practical, hopeful and realistic.
In his introduction, Anderson speaks directly to the reader.
“The issues addressed in this book strike at us every day — in the frantic atmosphere of many workplaces, in the increasing isolation of the family from society and of family members from each other, and in a deep internal confusion in the individual that may well be the cause of so much of the anxiety and depression that we see in today’s America,” he writes.
“I would go further and say that if you have ever felt you were trapped in a soulless world, or that the world seems to be headed in the wrong direction, that the values you see in society around you are not those that you hold in your inmost heart, this book, this call to active hope, is for you,” Anderson writes.
This active hope calls Catholics to engage the world with faith and reason, which will translate into right action. It’s an energetic hope, based on the love and example of Christ.
In many ways, modern Catholics find their surroundings similar to the Athens St. Paul preached in, which is recounted in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul presented Christ to the polytheistic Athenians. He told them about His resurrection and the resurrection of the dead.
Many sneered at the message, some put Paul off, saying they would listen to him another time, and a few believed and became Christians. But no one argued that his speech was more of the same rhetoric they were used to hearing.
“He was not preaching a message that would easily coexist with the existing pagan gods,” Anderson writes. “Instead, his message proposed a fundamental transformation of that culture.”
Likewise, Anderson continues, “the responsibility of Christians in our own time remains as it was in Paul’s — to radically transform culture, not by imposing values from above, but through a subtler yet more powerful process — living a vocation of love in the day-to-day reality of our lives.”
As his book progresses, Anderson outlines ways to live this vocation in the home, at the office and in the world generally. But “A Civilization of Love” goes far beyond most books offering advice on how to live an integrated Christian life.
Throughout his book, Anderson engages the writings of Nietzsche and Freud, Studs Terkel and Leo XIII, T.S. Eliot and Thomas Merton, Albert Camus and John Paul II.
His tastes are catholic, as is the scope of the book, and it all points to a main message: As Catholics, we must know our history; we must know the arguments that have been made against the faith since the beginning; we must know the positive reasons for believing what we do.
But most importantly, we must know the person of Jesus Christ and seek to be, think and act in union with Him. That’s the only way to transform a selfish and hollow culture into one of peace and love.
Or, as Anderson better puts it, “What is at stake from a cultural standpoint is not the imposition of Christianity on society, but expressing a living presence of Christ within society through our personal relationships,” he writes.
“Cardinal Ratzinger, writing shortly before his election as pope, noted: ‘Our greatest need in the present historical moment is people who make God credible in this world by means of the enlightened faith they live … We need men who keep their eyes fixed on God, learning from Him what true humanity means.’”
Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.
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