NO TIME FOR BAD BOOKS by Karl Keating - Like Karl I was hesitate to purchase and read The Da Vinci Code for exactly the same reasons, but with it now at a low cost due to the release of its mass marketplace paperback my wife and I finally got it. Becky read it and said it is very well written. It is well written from an English standpoint and/or writing style, not in regards to the amount of truth contained therein. Dan Brown is a very talented author and deserves a response. Carl Olson, Amy Wellborn, Ted Sri, among others, have done a good job in giving a response. Is this not the purpose of apologetics, the defense of our faith? I think its fair to say Karl (personally not Catholic Answers in general) is missing the boat on this topic.
Like the Harry Potter phenomenon (books & movies), we should read his book(s), watch the movie and then engage our children, friends and family which includes the culture in general. We should not run from it or ignore it pretending as if this reality is not occurring. As Catholics we should not live with a castle mentality by pulling up the draw-bridge thinking as if we are surrounded by a large stone walls and a moat. (On a side note I find this to be a big problem among homeschoolers.) Both Balthasar and Giussani have been helpful to me in understanding how we should engage our culture.
Must read On the Square post by Joseph Bottum... Interesting note on Alasdair MacIntyre at the bottom as well!Radical Preaching - The System, or just Sin?
Washington, Jefferson and the Apostles couldn't be citizens in a Reconstructionist Theocracy
George Washington, is not known to have ever been a communicant. Washington was known to regularly leave church before communion at the same time with the non-communicants. When an Episcopalian minister preached during a sermon that it set a bad example for role models to leave before communion, Washington responded by ceasing to attend church services on communion Sunday. Washington did not ask for any clergy even on his deathbed. Washington appears to have been a Deist, or someone who believes that God can only be known by reason and not through revelation or organized religion. Deists believed in the strict unity of God and not in the trinity; that Jesus was subordinate to God; and that salvation was earned by character.Books & Culture Newsletter
Of the first six presidents, all were either deists or unitarians, or both. Unitarians do not believe in the trinity and have come to be associated with Universalists, who believe that all religions are vital pieces of the puzzle...
...There's nothing like the Monday morning paper to bring you down to earth with a thud. I'm not a big fan of Rick Santorum, to put it mildly, but I nevertheless hope he will be re-elected this fall, so my eye was caught by a piece on the front page of Monday's Chicago Tribune. Jill Zuckman, a national correspondent for the Trib, assesses Santorum's chances in a very tough race. Skimming my way through the piece, I alighted on a subhead that looked all too familiar: "Confrontational stands." As we all know, that is Pravda-speak for positions that enlightened types find offensive. Zuckman writes, for example, that "Santorum sparked an uproar when he told a reporter that the right to privacy should not include 'man on child, man on dog' or other aberrant acts." No wonder an "uproar" was "sparked." Who does Santorum think he is, to set himself up as the arbiter of what's "aberrant"?Religion & Liberty - Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, Review by David M. Phelps
But it gets worse, as Zuckman explains; Santorum's recent book "upset many by arguing that more parents should stay home with their kids." I'm sure that many were upset. This is the kind of extremism that John Dean exposes in his forthcoming book Conservatives Without Conscience (coming in July from Penguin). They want more parents to stay home with their children! What next?
A few more articles like this, and I may send a contribution to Santorum's campaign. (Actually, the Santorum campaign might be able to use this article.) Maybe I should stick to the sports page...
Thanks for reading.
John Wilson
Editor, Books & Culture
Wanted: A Duke Lacrosse Team Hero
TCRnews.com - The Corporate Control Of Society and Human Life by Stephen Lendman
Gas Prices: Bush's Rebound Fuel by Dick Morris
I leave you with some great news... I know you guys/gals will be extremely excited (as I am) about the New 'Crunchy Con' Blog. Ensure to check it out!
5 comments:
I agree with you, David, that it's worth reading and engaging with the popular culture. I read it about a year and a half ago knowing that many of my students had. It was fine for a popular read. I wrote a brief review then and also responded to the Village Voice's criticism that an attack on mainstream religion should take place in a more serious forum. It's cheap to throw all this nonsense into a novel and then step aside and say it's just fiction.
Some people who don't read DVC prefer to "engage" other, better writers, say Rushdie or Pynchon. Life is too short to read hyped-up nonesense.
xc
xc is correct (as is Karl). One should not read hacks like Dan Brown or Alice Walker when there are atheists and nihilists of real quality available. Only the best applies to our opponents as well as our allies, n'est pas?
One teacher of mine who is a poet would routinely reply to urgings that she read this or that book, that her mentor would not permit her as it could adversely impact her writing. But if you must read DVC, for crying out loud, wait your turn at the public library: please don't make marketing crap more profitable than it already is.
here's a worthy book, freshly in paperback:
Jonathan Edwards at Walmart for under $10!
I "engaged" my daughter's teacher when she assigned the class, "The Outsiders." Daughter had a problem finishing it-- seems so much violence made her literally nauseous. I re-engaged next term, came "A Day No Pigs Would Die." The title is deceptive. It was 100 times worse than I thought. And in the third term, I, a fool who did not homeschool, engaged Mr. Literary Herself for yet another change of reading -- can't remember what marvel it was, probably Madonna's coffee table book.. She later said to my beloved child who was taught that love exists, "Wow, you must lead a very sheltered life." Ah, Ms. Enlightened, if only that could've been so. And in the first year of "facilitating" Confirmation class, I listened to your daughters, oh, 14? 15? planning to lose their virginity on the weeken, even as they prepared for the Sacrament. (That's more understandable when one factors in the faith-assured RE Director's reluctance to add the module from the Bishop about the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Uh, right after many scandals broke here..)
I rarely agree with Karl, but if the other option is to imagine Dan Brown is innocuous if engaged intelligently, not a chance. Jesus' unchasteness is exactly what the world did not need, not to mention that not every parent, teacher, etc is a Fr. von Balthasar or Fr. Giussani. Never, ever "engage" Satan as if he is innocuous. I also taught 4th grade religion-- preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation... to children who thought they'd been to Mass, but weren't sure.
not every parent, teacher, etc is a Fr. von Balthasar or Fr. Giussani.
Very few parents and teachers have the erudition of Balthasar or Don Gius. So, how can anybody educate their children? Buy a foolproof home schooling program?
To educate children, one needs to have something that Fr. Giussani had. One needs to follow Christ in such a way that the encounter with the Christian tradition happens through one's person. One can only transmit what one has, so the first step is to beg for Christ. If I can't be the opportunity for my kids to encounter Christ, then I don't have much hope for another way.
Post a Comment