FROM THEOCRACY TO DEMOCRACY

A veteran Catholic scholar explores the historical tension within the Church between authoritarianism and grace.

Eighty years ago, at his First Holy Communion, Clarke recalls sitting in a gym with fellow 7-year-olds when a nun demanded to know if anyone had eaten or drank anything as part of their obligatory fast before mass. When one guilty girl attempted to hide behind her classmates, a group of nuns “reached down and picked her up by her hands and legs,” and threw her out of the ceremony. “Theocracy crushed that little bride of Christ,” the author writes; rather than seeing “Holy Communion as a celebration of the grace that liberates humans,” he says, the nuns prioritized authoritarian obedience and fear. This tension between hierarchical authoritarianism and democratized grace, argues Clarke, has been at the center of Catholic Church history since its inception. Focusing on the papacy, with myriad historical examples at his disposal, the author asserts that because the Church has “focused on being theocratic rulers,” it has left Christians with a “confusing…lack of clarity about grace,” despite its central place in the teachings of Jesus and the early apostles. Even Pope Francis, whom the author praises for his “affinity for the democratic dimensions of the Christian faith,” has “not totally abandoned” Church teachings on “divine punishment”—a doctrine, the author says, that has historically been used to justify authoritarianism.

As a former Catholic priest and a professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, the author brings a lifetime of study into this magnum opus of more than 700 pages. With over 900 footnotes and a 17-page bibliography, this is a well-researched book with a firm command over both contemporary scholarship and historical church writings. Perhaps most impressive is Clarke’s ability to distill complex doctrine into an accessible format that blends history, theology, and psychology. In addition to a doctorate in the history of ideas from Brandeis University, Clarke is a licensed clinical psychologist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (now William James College); as such, he often connects theological ideas to psychological theories. Although some of the book’s psychoanalysis feels dated, such as its use of Jacques Lacan's seduction fantasy concept, it excels at analyzing what the author sees as the Catholic Church’s obsessions with celibacy, homosexuality, birth control, and abortion. In the context of contemporary America, the book argues, the Church’s failure to embody and institutionalize grace has left a void within the faith that has, in part, been filled by authoritarian Christian Nationalists who “spread QAnon nonsense” and “perpetuate concocted election delusions.” Clarke challenges the Catholic Church to embrace “a faith that depends on human experience and human creativity” that does not dilute the biblical message that “God is love.” In a book that focuses on injustices of the Church, it would be easy to reduce Catholicism to its long lineup of bad actors; Clarke doesn’t shy away from grotesque history, but he also emphasizes that Christian theology is historically nuanced and “rigorously critical.”

A comprehensive history and analysis of attitudes within Christianity.