Impassioned argument by one dissatisfied Catholic on taking back the church from its leadership.
Guide to lay Catholic renewal.
Don’t bother looking for the Vatican’s imprimatur in this book–Marren takes on every sacred cow in his salvo against the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Beginning with the simple assertion that Jesus himself was a layman, the author comes to the rather startling point that, "Neither Jesus Christ nor any of his disciples would qualify for leadership in the Catholic church as it is currently constituted." Moving onward, Marren calls for what he terms "lay Catholic renewal," a movement he likens to Jesus’ attempt to set the structure of Judaism on its head. In structuring his vision for renewal, the author looks toward the ancient church and its original structures and practices, based upon scripture and early surviving texts from the pre-Constantine era. Marren points out that women had important leadership roles, bishops were voted into office by the people and that Mass was performed in private homes by laity. The author delves into the history of the Mass to show how it has been changed over time, as well as to discover what a basic Mass would be for a renewed Catholicism. Perhaps Marren’s most damning critique is saved for the church’s teachings about Peter, traditionally seen as the first pope. He calls this view a "myth" and chastises the church hierarchy for interpreting "Jesus’ words to Peter in a crassly political sense, instead of a human and spiritual sense." Calling upon laity to address crises of leadership as well as of freedom of believers, the author advocates a church governed through consensus rather than by hierarchical rule. Though Marren’s work is clunky in places–such as his Declaration of Independence for the World’s Catholics–it is accessible and well-researched and will certainly add to the heated conversation over the future of the Catholic Church.
Impassioned argument by one dissatisfied Catholic on taking back the church from its leadership.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4401-9517-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fifth, final, and least satisfying volume of Merton's prodigious correspondence (The Courage for Truth, 1993, etc.). Previous books in this series have presented Merton's letters on writing, spirituality, friendship, and love. This time the prime focus is war, a subject about which Merton, a cloistered Cistercian monk, has little original to say. Mostly composed in the years just before and after the Cuban missile crisis, and usually directed toward peace activists like James Forrest or Gordon Zahn, these letters offer predictable mutterings about the dangers of nuclear holocaust, tendentious attacks on American right-wingers, and cracker-barrel advice on the idiocy of fallout shelters (``Lots of shelters that have been built have caved in or filled with water, etc.''). Occasional forays into religious themes reveal him to be a poor prognosticator as well, as when he misreads Vatican II as a ``tightening of the screws.'' More intriguing are letters concerning a meeting in 1956 between Merton and psychoanalyst Gregory Zilboorg, who, in the words of editor Shannon, labeled Merton ``neurotic in his need to get his own way and pathological in his demand for solitude.'' This harsh evaluation, which Merton seems to accept (``Zilboorg has been terrific''), is bolstered by letters surrounding Merton's vocational crisis of 1959, in which he applies for permission to leave his monastery for a hermitage. When the request is denied by his superiors, Merton at first accepts the decision but soon begins to agitate; tensions run high until he is allowed to enter a hermitage in the 1960s. In this episode and others, Merton comes off as Peck's Bad Boy, endlessly provoking Vatican officials and siding with mischief-makers. Some compensation for all this ego-preening comes near the end, in correspondence with unidentified monks and nuns to whom Merton offers simple, solid spiritual advice (``be patient, pay attention to obedience and to grace, trust God...''). Merton as bore. Try The Seven Storey Mountain instead.
Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-374-29191-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A scientific argument that foresees the evolution of computer intelligence into an equivalent of God is likely to be greeted with skepticism by the majority of readers, and those who wade through this densely argued text are likely to emerge more puzzled than enlightened. Tipler (Mathematical Physics/Tulane) offers a cosmological theory he calls the Omega Point, based on the expansion of intelligent life to fill the known universe. Since the distances between habitable planets are so great, only spacegoing computers can ever hope to colonize the universe, he argues. The constant increase of computer intelligence will allow future computers not only to equal human accomplishments, but to recreate in exact detail all human beings who have ever lived. Tipler's insistence on calling this recreation a ``resurrection'' seems to be overstating his case. Similarly, a universal computer intelligence may be the sort of deity suitable to science fiction, but not one that many church-goers would find satisfactory. As tests of his theory, Tipler makes several predictions, one of which, involving the mass of the top quark, is in agreement with recently obtained experimental data, but most of which the average reader has no way to evaluate. He devotes the concluding chapters to consideration of such traditional theological questions as the problem of evil, the nature of heaven and hell, and a comparison of the Omega Point theory to the views of the world's great religions. An ``Appendix for Scientists'' provides more rigorous presentation of his arguments for those capable of following advanced mathematics. Tipler is wrestling with issues of enormous importance, but in the end his answers seem highly idiosyncratic and unlikely either to convert the skeptics or to satisfy the religious. (20 line drawings) (Quality Paperback Book Club selection; author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 5, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-46798-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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