CRITICS' CHOICES FOR RELIGIOUS BOOK WEEK
Higgins, George G & lmbelli, Robert & McCauley, Michael F & Patrick, S Anne E & TeSelle, Sallie McFague & Cohen, Arthur A & Merchant, Norris & Swidler, Arlene
as he stands in the rubble of his house near Suez, point- ing out where his room was, where the dining room was, etc. After a while, I'm afraid, we begin to tune this out because the young man has...
...Would the Arabs ever acquiesce and go on about their normal business...
...In other words, it behooves us to recognize that our own favorite paradigms or models of the Church, however excellent, do not re-solve all questions and that "much harm is done by imperialistically seeking to impose some one model as definitive...
...However, the work is a penetrating psychological and philosophical reflection upon the human condition as wedded to death and upon the human individual's myriad subterfuges to deny that reality...
...A first-rate contribu- tion is Religion and Sexism, edited by HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN Toward the Future Foreword by N. M. Wildiers Translated by Rend Hague A HELEN AND KURT WOLFF BOOK $6.95 than in the Dulles book...
...But the thesis is not heavy in the book, and many of the contributors are independ- ent spirits who agonize with perception and power about the intricacies of com- ing to a sense of Christian vocation...
...sents them mediated through the questions and concerns of the twentieth century, whose sensitivities have been shaped in the school of Marx and Freud...
...The great theological teachers of modern Judaism--Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Herberg--have raised up no disciples who seem willing or able to carry on the work of clarification, and what passes as Jewish thinking in the periodical literature that comes to my view is devoid of elemental theological method, imagination, and eloquence...
...An interesting source volume in that excellent series, the Library of Jewish Studies, is Michael A. Meyer's anthology, Ideas o/ Jewish History (Behrman House, $12.50) which brings together documents of Jewish historical thinking from Hellenistic times to the present...
...presents the major arguments for and against the highly symbolic and value- laden cause of women's ordination, and should be required reading for anyone who cares about the pastoral mission of the Roman Catholic Church...
...O/rice of Admis- sions, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Te--~ 37240...
...Here is a book of theological reflection on the situation of women today which draws on Black and third-world theol- ogy as well, but always---unlike Mary Daly's recent book--within a Biblical framework...
...Speaking of sin, Bernard H~ing's Sin in the Secular Age (Doubleday, $5.95) has to be included on my list, despite the fact that this daring and demanding contribution to Roman Catholic moral theology itself "sins," in my opinion, by omitting substantial treatment of the sin of sexism...
...Perhaps the most significant question about the value of this TV series concerns its ultimate broadcast in the countries involved...
...My interest in and appreciation of The Book ol Kells (Knopf, $65) has little to do with my ancestry...
...lOS01...
...But where, if not in the church, does not the reality of what is co-exist with the reality of what should be...
...that the truth of religion must address the heart of this human condition, if it is to advance the adventure of spirit and not degenerate into a rule of safety, comforting but irrelevant and unrelated to the liberation the Gospel proclaims...
...cago, IlL 60630...
...Frederic Joseph Kelly, S.J...
...Study hl Farmpe SUMMER PROGRAM in June, Fell semester pro...
...Italics added) Many churchmen at every level of the ecclesiastical Establishment will un- doubtedly balk at such a far-reaching conclusion, but if they are presump-tuous enough to reject it out of hand without first having read Tavard's im- pressive book from cover to cover, they will not deserve to he taken seri- ously...
...Such a book is Callings!, a reprint of an issue of Katallagete, Be Recon- ciled, the journal published by the Committee of Southern Churchmen...
...As absurd as the claim that this is a right, or a "moral right," is the claim that it is "realistic...
...vnlldhlngl Clubs located Notion-wide...
...Is this to be a permanent occupation...
...7SOC, I*1 W. 42 St., New York, or call 212-PE 6-7634...
...It would be a military conquest of sovereign territory with all the terrible, proliferating and endless consequences of conquest...
...Religion and Sexism: Images o[ Woman in the lewish and Christian Traditions...
...The result is the single most satisfying introduction to Christian spirituality with which I am acquanted: a valuable guide in the perennial and ever actual quest ''to be, rather than to seem to be, a friend of God...
...Having put the institutional model into proper perspective, Dulles proceeds to analyze four others in turn: The Church as Mystical Communion, Sacra- ment, Herald, and Servant...
...own negations and scepticism...
...each must decide if its national interests are served by the mediation efforts of a tele-vision organization based in Boston...
...Single...
...Finally, the last year brought, to me, the rather revealing dialectic of two works concerning women and the Church: Mary Daly's updating of The Church and the Second Sex "With A New Feminist Post-Christian Introduc- tion" (Harper Colophon, $3.45), a sub- title that almost speaks for itself...
...Rather than examining the array of theological intricacies shrouding the sacrament, Guzie instead goes right to the essence: 'Whe real Jesus took bread and wine and identified himself with it...
...Reasonable cost...
...Trinity Co|leqe~ Burlington, Vermont, 0Sa0i, Juan IS-20...
...S4c, seven times...
...gram...
...George H. Tavard...
...MICHAEL GOODAY 5tandlay Springs Co., ~ W. Foster Ave., Chi...
...everything will be changed...
...The best examples of course occur in in-volved passages too long to quote here, But perhaps the problem can be sug- gested by noting that the first sentence under a large heading WOMEN AND COM- MANDMENTS reads, "The over-all aim of Jewish observances is to make man more sensitive to the ethical and religi- ous dimensions of life...
...Paulist Press, $1.95...
...Remedy to that defect will come to us in Lucy S. Dawidowicz's new book, The War Against the Jews 1933-1945 (Holt, Rinehart and Win- ston, May, 1975, $15...
...Father Squire, an English Dominican, opens to his readers the treasures of spiritual wisdom and psycholosical insight which lie buried in the musty volumes of the fathers of the Church (hence the book's title...
...John T. McNeill's The Celtic Churches: A His- wry, A.D...
...William F. Lynch, S.J...
...So it did in Vietnam---and because there it was always dealing with an abstraction, it was continuously wrong...
...Doubleday, $7.95...
...It is a truly impressive achievement...
...I am glad these books reminded me of the relativity of sexual politics too...
...M. A. Augustine, S.D.E., c/o Saluslan Missions, 141 Main St, New Rochelle, N.Y...
...These are the first of the fifth century Coptic manuscripts discovered near Nag-Hamrnadi, upper Egypt in 1945/46 to be made available in English...
...Unfortunately this is not the case...
...Ernest Becker...
...That may or may not be an exagger-ated claim, but, in any event, it's by all odds the best book I have ever come across on this very timely sub- ject...
...Also worthwhile is Letty M. Russell's Hu-man Liberation in a Feminist Perspec- tive--A Theology (Westminster Press, $3.95 paper...
...The Shape of the Church to Come...
...To call the military seizure of oil territories in Libya, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait "a risk" is a misuse of language, probably deliberate...
...Two other paperbacks which I picked up almost by chance and found myself enjoying thoroughly were T. Patrick Burke's The Reluctant Vision (Fortress, $3.00) and Geoffrey Hub- bard's Quaker by Convincement (Pen-guin, $1.95...
...A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation...
...A fundamentalism of the symbol may once have fostered 'death of God' reactions...
...Various subjects...
...The distrust on both sides, needless to say, runs deep...
...monthly In ndvunca for more than three times...
...A mature faith must educate itself to endure the un-expected, "for faith knows that the promises will be kept, but in what form it does not know" (p...
...From P re Tel/hard...
...Like Callings...
...Kennedy further explores the enor-mous gap that often exists between what people say they believe and what their everyday lives expose as their be- liefs...
...12208 An Offer You Can Refuse "Give away what you have.., and come follow me," Jesus said...
...and on the other side, the publication of a group of Anglicans in determined nega- tion of the ordination of women, Sexuality.Theology-Priesthood, edited by H. Karl Lutge (Concerned Fellow Episcopalians, San Gabriel, Calif., $2.25), an ecumenic anthology includ- ing among its contributors Fathers Schmemann, Bouyer and Macquarrie...
...The War Against the Jews is the single his-torical work which every Jew and Christian concerned to know the avail- able historical sources for the murder of six million Jews must read...
...The excellent text by Franfoise Henry traces the book's laborious execution-- at least three scribes' styles are evident --in the late eighth century, the perils it has survived and its place among other medieval manuscripts...
...As a social action bureaucrat, I find this a rather sobering thought...
...The PLO would be a child's charade compared to what we then might expect...
...George G. Higgias Man Before God: Thomas Merton on Social Responsibility...
...For information write: Brother Walter K. Oherster, S.M., Reverend Patrick L.Tonry, S.M., Director of Vocations, 4301 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21210...
...James Joyce's designation of it as the "most purely Irish thing we have" notwith-standing, its importance supersedes the ethnic allegiance of Irish Catholics...
...It is also unfortunate that there is no effort to include any ma-terial relevant to historical thinking about the Jewish apocalypse of this century...
...Rahner wrote it (presumably on his own initiative and not at the invitation of the German bishops) because he felt that the members of the German Synod had "plunged into individual questions as individual . with such . . great eagerness that they may (have failed) to grasp clearly enough the task before them as a single whole...
...He writes with extraordinary clarity and with great scholarly preci- sion and pastoral balance...
...Nonetheless, this initial suspicion (which led to my buying the book) in no way prepared me for the brilliance and depth of the author's analysis of our common human predicament...
...Models o[ the Church...
...l'he ages of faith are the ages of rationalism" wrote Whitehead at his aphoristic best...
...In other words, he thought they were in danger of missing the forest for the trees...
...Mm~f new people, make new friends...
...The Seabury Press, $6.95...
...correspondingly we appear to espouse the communal nature of any property we need but do not possess...
...It is also precisely according to the Secretary's interpretation of the right of self-defense that in 1941 Japan sent her forces into Southeast Asia...
...Classified payable with order...
...Funds should be sent to Ray...
...Gustavo Gutierrez, trans...
...A compelling, vivid, gripping account that recreates, in part, that same spiritual feeling, Alive is perhaps the most effective religious book of the year...
...Rosemary Ruether...
...A Theology of the Old Testament offers new insights which arise from a sound appreciation of the thought pat- terns of the past...
...Jesus and the Eucharist is a re-freshing return to origins, a concen-tration on vital symbols and their essential meaning, reestablishing the eucharistic action as the center of theological reflection...
...Each came to regard the ordeal as a rich spiritual experience...
...Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagieson...
...and it is hard to believe that the TV audience in Cairo or Tel Aviv could not recognize much of themselves in the suffering and the hopes shown in the opposite camp...
...Speaking of 'existential' saints, the late Prof...
...Yet Cardinal K6nig agrees that "we are simply worn out .9 we don't have the energy to reflect on the ultimate and deepest things of life...
...He readily admits that his attempt to look into the future is fraught with diffi-culty and immediately eomes up against what is obscure and vague...
...The first book, however 'revolution- ary,' still lacks confidence, I felt--a fact which might support Ms...
...Ferflm, dnmcm, din- hare, hikes, community service, lecture~, bcmch ..ha.use, skiing, week-end trill, theater, bridge, re-ligious events...
...The substance of their arguments could be as Gothic as any Mary Shelley might have con-cocted of more worldly ingredients...
...He was pleading for the creative interaction of religion and science as indispensable to humanity's continuing adventure of the spirit...
...The book's insightful intensity calls forth so personal a response from the reader that often I felt myself able to manage no more than a few pages at a time...
...Ecclesiastical hierarchs rarelymif evermsearch so publicly for the meaning of God in today's world...
...Even so, at a screening of several of these programs in New York, a number of journalists leapt into argument with a representative of WGBH, suspicious that a fair case for both sides had not been made...
...Thus (a vast non-sequitur) we claim the "right" to steal it whenever we feel sharply the need for proparty belonging to others...
...Toward the end of his life, Thomas Merton said: "I don't get too excited about climbing on every bandwagon, because where I am the bandwagons never come around...
...The Shape o/ the Church to Come...
...The Hour Is Now is for anyone who has ever questioned, searched for meaning in the enigmas of life...
...ISBN 0-87343-046-8 $12.95 Ask for our catalog too...
...The multi-farious social, political, and intellectual oriL.ins of Nazi anti-Semitism are ex-posed and fully documented...
...Father Kelly amply dem- onstrates in his highly recommended study that "the originality of Merton's views and insights was a direct con-sequence of his contemplative approach to life...
...If the feelings expressed in this series are in fact shared by many people on both sides as the producers claim, this use of television might indeed make a contribution toward understanding...
...He explores the use of models and para-digms in science and religion, and con- cludes that "science is not as objective, nor religion as subjective" as is often uncritically assumed, though each is related in diverse and complex ways to reality, "to what is the case," An important consequence of this view is that religion (and the theology which brings it to systematic expression) makes "cognitive claims...
...It grows harder to appreciate a contemporary volume that does not betray some sympathy with the move-ment, either formally, as in the use of language (ideally, all new works would conform to the standards accepted in 1974 by McGraw Hill) or in more substantive ways...
...It would seem, however, that a long-standing distrust between the people of Israel and of the Arab states is itself a basic obstacle to negotiation by their governments on specific issues...
...O@OOOOOOO Abl~sil MeCarthg (Cut...
...and that the defenders of each can creatively complement one another, if they come to realize that, since models are not necessarily exclusive, mutual anathemas do not serve ecumenism, either within or without the Roman communion...
...Far from being a handicap, Merton's geographical, po-litical and ecclesiastical isolation help- ed to make him one of the most rele- vant and most influential social thinkers of his times...
...Women in Christian Tradition...
...He portrays, for instance, the coura-geous Celtic peregrini, pilgrim saints, and notably Columban, as surprisingly existential combatants: independent of ecclesial discipline (truly vagranti), morally fierce towards authority, but refining towards the chaotic Europe they everywhere missionized (now even Slavic Christianity is seen to have had a Celtic foundation), meanwhile living obstinately below our poverty level and beyond even the monastic ascetic mean of those desperate days...
...Catholic...
...Michael F. McCauley Purely as an adventure story of heroism and human endurance Alive: The Story o/ the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read (Lippincott, $10), is absolutely riveting...
...Contrastingly, I found Prof...
...The Vatican's Commission for Reli- gious Relations with the Jews recently issued a series of guidelines and sug-gestions for implementing the Second Vatican Council's Declaration, Nostra Aerate...
...Here are the men, like Farrar, who had a generous aversion to the doctrine, and others who so overindulged a taste for metaphors of retribution they might al- most be said to have inhabited hell, essentially, thenmbut they were very much alive, even so...
...Free Press, $7.95...
...Closer in time is the civilization remembered in Father Geoffrey Rowell's Hell and the Victorians(Oxford U. Press, $15.75), summarizing ex-changes on the infernal subject, ranging from eloquent to ghastly, by men as diverse as Coleridge, Newman and Archdeacon Farrar, posing, at one ex- treme, universalists of Origen's per-suasion against those who forthrightly sought to implement social order via the theological inculcation of terror...
...Aggression, or piracywand this is surely thatwis in the end never realisticmas Japan, Germany and we have found...
...That the analysis of-religious reality in terms of models permits justice to be done to its polymorphous richness without lapsing into a total perspectival relativism is well illustrated by Avery Dulles' Models of the Church...
...The freedom of the Christian, imparted to all in bap-tism, should remove all man-made bar- riers between human beings...
...The publisher's blurb claims that this is the first book to provide the theo- logical background indispensable to a meaningful discussion of the place of women in the Church and in society...
...However, the di-mensions of compassion, intense spirit- ual fortitude and extraordinary faith with which author Read enhances the basic narrative elevate the book to that elusive level of art...
...Karl RahnerL Seabury, $6.95...
...con-cerned from first to last with God...
...A sort of reflex goes into operation as I start to read, and I find myself inquiring whether or not the writer is sensitive to the fact that the women's movement exists, and that ordinary pronoun usage and much traditional religious language reinforce the subordinate role our cul-ture has prescribed for half its mem-bers...
...After a while, I'm afraid, we begin to tune this out because the young man has really nothing to tell us...
...Robert Imbelli Myths, Models, and Paradigms: A Comparative Study in Science and Re- ligion...
...Send for free information...
...That the original has survived thefts and other indignities is ample testimony to the sensitivities of those who have appreciated its wonders through the centuries and the faith that inspired and sustained its crafters...
...In the face of some ominous signs of sectarian and theological retrenchment, which Whitehead would have deplored as "a rule of safety," it is encouraging to report on these works whose com-mon bond is their union of religious sensitivity with critical and catholic openness...
...Harper and Row, $6.95...
...In the light of these materials, he is led to conclude that "all ecclesiatical disabilities of women should now be raised, that women should be admitted to all sacra-ments and to all positions of authority~ ministry, and service...
...Camara's brief essays and poems are arresting for their simplicity and depth of vision, feminist cause, and two would like very much women's revolution had goals fifty years ago...
...The effort to restore spirituality to the center of Christian consciousness is certainly one of the hopeful signs of the present...
...The confusion remains...
...Other essayists appear so ardent for the retention of a Pauline metaphor, taken literally, (Christ and His bride, priest and people), they seem to acknowledge exhaustion of its spiritual meaning...
...People, he says, will find it easier to cope with the resulting crisis of faith if they can learn to practice theo- logical tolerance and to accept theo-logical pluralism...
...Father Dulles starts from the propo- sition that much of the "polarization, mutual incomprehension, frustration and discouragement" so prevalent in the Church today stems from the fact that in recent decades the Church has been rocked by what he describes as a revo- lutionary shift in paradigms or "mod-els...
...Classified RATES: 60c .9 word, ~one time...
...India PPojeets The S. J. KATHIVAKKAM Social Welfare Centre of Madras plans .9 health end catechntical center, resettlement of 230 families, a handicrafts and weaving centre, three more wells end an agricul-tural and dairy-development pro|act...
...Indeed they will have only themselves to blame if they are com-pletely ignored in the continuing debate on a subject whose importance it would be impossible to exaggerate at this stage in Church history...
...COMMONWEAL, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...HAILItlNGTON, COL-LINS, MURPHY, O'COLLINS...
...Ordinarily a book of this sort might rate 0nly modest notice...
...l~ft-Wlig IAtet-atmre WANTED: Left-wing literature, March '72 to prus-ant...
...Priests (and bishops) of this review- er's generation were tempted, by reason of their pre-Vatican II training and ex- perience, to canonize one model in particular, the so-caUed institutional model...
...Ian G. Barbour...
...The producers have not given these mod- erate voices enough hard issues to be moderate about...
...For the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of Vatican II has experienced an acrimonious and debilitating confrontation of different visions and understanding of Church...
...Write: Director...
...but the rich Pentecostal poem shows no such signs of incapacity...
...WGBH has scheduled an eighth half-hour, "To Be Announced," in case coin-plaints become overwhelming and have to be dealt with...
...Its negative consequences are not a risk...
...The implications of this new fact for church organization, for the ex-ercise of church office, and for ecu-menism are set forth with a concrete, a piquant and masterly directness that make this book one of Rahner's most accessible and opportune offerings...
...Sic, thlrteen rims...
...It is a boldly candid book--its publication caused a stir among some of the survivors whose actions were portrayed a bit too hon- estly-treating the survivors' agonizing decision to eat the flesh of their dead friends and relatives...
...Hiiring does, however, prepare the ground for others to state this case, and what he says about racism and oppression in general, including the oppression of conscience by moralists, deserves a wide hearing...
...The splendid contribution of Dulles' work to this holy year of reconciliation and renewal lies in its discernment that the various models of Church as insti- tution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald and servant express without ex-hausting the reality of Church...
...There are those who would argue that John L. McKenzie had retired from the pursuit of serious theological scholarship and settled for the role of institutional gadfly...
...Eugene Kennedy's Believing (Dotsbleday, $5.95), is not concerned with beliefs as dogmas, doctrines, or articles of faith...
...Let us be honest at least: this is, and always has been, robbery not principle, even when we feel the pinch...
...Okay, if it is really "for them," then let us speak of acting in concert, and only in concert...
...Although "generalist" titles that I even if the achieved its books on the subject of women and religion continue to come off the press, there seems to be a trend toward more "focused" books, a fact which to me indicates the move-ment is maturing...
...In some instances it attempts to surface books that probably will not be on other people's lists and might be overlooked...
...The gist of their argument seemed to be that moderation on the part of Egypt was a strategic ploy, not to be taken at face value, or that, at best, these moderate statements and raw emotions, however genuine, had nothing to do with the nation's policy...
...But these very personal reflections and meditations come from a Cardinal of the church...
...OOOOOOOeO CORRESPOIqDEIqCE (Continued/ram page 415) if it is our property...
...Doubleday, $5.95...
...Eighty 8V2" x 11" pages, beautifully printed and bound...
...Rahner does not pretend to be a prophet...
...Theology degree program.Ciassus teugk~ in English...
...Russell's book is an extensively researched effort to work constructively rather than simply to point out the sexism pervading so much of past theologies and present church practice...
...Avery Dulles...
...University of Notre Dame Press, $9.95...
...426 pages, with 6 pages of photographs...
...He thinks the Church of the future must be "spiritual," "open," "ecumenical," "democratized," "socio-critical...
...If the motive to writing books is the persist- ence of confusion and the 'wish to dissolve it, the predicaments of Juda- ism would be sufficient to call forth a whole literature...
...And, as he well knows, Germany felt "saran-fled" without Lebensraum prior to World War IL In those cases, when others seized by military force terri- tories and resources they considered necessary to their survival, we called it "naked aggression" and not self-defense--and we were right...
...Such a look into the distance, he says, "is necessary if we are not .to be cowards, remaining com- fortably stuck in the present and only passively awaiting the future...
...All the more reason to regret that many of their senti-ments are generalizations--wishes and dreams, no matter how heartfelt...
...But he pre...
...Aelred Squire...
...In utter contrast to the typically serene Hasidism that preceded him, the zaddik of Kotzk's warning aura has been revealed now by Dr...
...Undergraduate scholarships provide $5000 per year for four years...
...Karl Rahner...
...Rahner's telescopic look into the fu- ture of the Church was prepared orig- inally as a working paper for the Synod of German bishops in 1971...
...This particular reproductionmnot a facsimile --is a large, handsomely bound volume whose full-color pages convey the intricate delicacy with which the illuminators interpreted the faith...
...University of Notre Dame Press, $6.95...
...Abraham Joshua Heschel's A Passion/or Truth (Farrar, Strans, & Giroux Noonday Books, $3.65) com-pares two of them, rather evocatively: Sctren Kierkegaard, and the nineteenth century Hasidic teacher, Rebbe Mendel of Kotzk...
...it purports to be not merely useful, but true--though its scope and self-involving character as "an interpretation of his- tory and human experience" does not admit of any simple-minded verification or falsification...
...Once a work is through that filter, then I can more easily evaluate it on other grounds...
...But, the Secretary insisted, it is the world that is here in danger of being strangled, not just ourselves...
...Some of the documents included, such as Exegesis of the Soul and the Book of Thomas, have been previously inaccessible...
...island, every day she is being told: 'You are a part of the mainland.'" This is the rhetoric of a comparatively few women church leaders (and also of the canny and political who see women as a tool for radical change...
...Throughout the series, exhortations to talk, to understand, to visit, to share, and to live in peace are plentiful on both sides, and the viewer feels a constant, almost astonished admiration for these people...
...Father Schmemann, opting simply for undefended Tradition, dis-dained to take up the question, a man- ner hard to reconcile with the great creative Orthodoxy of our century (Berdyaev: "The third creative revela- tion in the Spirit will have no holy scripture...
...Dulles' systematic effort to show that all of these models are mutually com-plementary and should be made to "interpenetrate and mutually qualify one another" is a truly masterful per- formance...
...The implication is that Christians should assume voluntary poverty, both material and spiritual, in VanderbUt Untvendty an-nounces the Harold Stifling Vanderbilt Scholarships...
...In at least three of the essays the use of the generic man is actually confusing...
...Myths, Models and Paradigms: A Comparative Study in Science and Religion...
...The second work, by eloquent Levites, fails to overcome an occasional stolidity, and dubious argu-ments based on unconvincing threats--- of schism...
...but it scans the concrete social context in which the Church is immersed and seeks to discern its meaning and pos-sibilities in the light of the Gospel...
...It has taught me that theology and spirituality run the risk of ideological evasion, unless they are rooted in a profound appreciation of our common plight and of the illusions and decep- tions to which it inevitably gives rise...
...It presents a marvelously lucid and co-gent example of that new style "prac- tical theology" which Rahner has urgently called for, if the Church is adequately to respond to signs and challenges of our time...
...The outsider says to himself, "How alike these people are...
...I cannot think of a single work of Jewish religious writing during the year just past which deserves to be re- called or commended to others...
...155...
...Rosemary Radford Ruether...
...In de- veloping these chapter headings, he is characteristically blunt in his criticism of past and present failures in the life of the Church, but always construc-tively, and never carpingiy, so...
...In the final chapter, Kennedy shares his own reflections on the meaning of faith and belieL The eucharistic experience is the focus of Jesuit Tad Guzie's Jesus and the Eucharist (Paulist Press, $5.95...
...It would have been better if Meyer had taken the risk which Collingwood, for instance, took in his Idea o/ History, and articulated the problematic of Jew- ish history and its theoretical alterna- tives as the groundwork of crRical method in his selection...
...even without perceiving the equal dependence upon Freud and Kirkegaard, Otto Rank and Norman O. Brown, the suspicion dawns that the theme is of fundamental impor-tance to the religious project...
...Orbis, $4.95...
...It is concise, vivid, authoritative, making use of the literature and archives of the Germans and the Jews in virtually all European languages...
...Alive also com-municates the physical suffering---sub- zero temperatures were a minor inconvenience considering the other tortures the sixteen survivors were subjected to---as well as the intense faith of the young men who endured seventy days high in the Andes largely because of their Christian heritage, their faith in God, and their prayers...
...The fundamental insight which struc- tures Rahner's analysis is that "the Church of the future must grow in its reality quite differently from the past, (namely) from below, from groups of those who have come to believe as a result of their own free, personal deci- sion...
...The Committee--and Callings!uis dif- ficult to characterize since, on the one hand, it could be called "conservative" (influenced as it is by Jacques Ellul who has a major essay in the book) and yet, on the other hand, is led by Will Campbell, a maverick Southern prophet who was a leader of the civil rights movement (and more recently, to the dismay of many, a self-appointed chaplain to the Ku Klux Klan...
...Unfortunately the problem of such a volume is that the sources are not self-interpreting...
...Appreciate all you have...
...Questions of policy are involved for these governments: each must decide, of course, if the moment is ripe to dwell upon the reasonableness and hu- manity of the adversary...
...The publication of A Theology of the Old Testament (Doubleday, $7.95) should put to rest any such rumors and reatfirm McKen- zie as an eminent scripture scholar...
...Subtitled "Im-ages of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Tradition," this collection of new essays traces the problem of sexism in relation to scripture, tradition and male "establishment" theology...
...Introduction by Gregory Baum...
...Rosemary Ruether's book will be helpful to all of us in implementing these two guidelines and a number of other suggestions set down in the docu- ment referred to above...
...For boz numbtrs add SOc per Insertion...
...It would have made the volume perhaps more ten-dentious to some eyes, but Meyer would have emerged as a man with a docta (which he is) rather than an anthologist...
...These bloodbrothers in re-ligious disquietude (Mendel: "Holy revelation has deteriorated into habit") fervently dispelled security and petty attachments, on the trail of a precarious Transcendence...
...For counsel, details, write: STUDY IN EUROPE, Box 214H, Commonwenl...
...Asking the Fathers...
...Yet this crisis of faith does not have to be terminal...
...33 Buckingham Dr...
...Father Tavard is in complete com- mand of the theological and historical source materials on the role of women in Christian tradition...
...Sallie McFague TeSelle Callings...
...and in the process provides data useful for those who, unlike the postchristian feminists, still hope for a reconciliation between a theology that values woman as fully human and the religious tradi- tions that have promoted misogynism in the past...
...Reasonable doubts about the "faith of our fathers," as-sures Kennedy, are essential to adult maturation, despite pious admonitions to avoid these "temptations...
...she was, as she then argued, "being strangled alive without those resources...
...10016...
...Harper and Row, $6.95...
...We w6uld have to occupy with military forces other countries--with no support, even via the most puppet-like governmentswfrom the populations...
...The results are personal and candid, honestly reassuring without being doctrinaire...
...Would we, if...
...Guiterrez' Theology o/ Liberation, recently translated into English, is also, in its own way, a painful reflection on what it means to be a Christian in the modern world...
...In a simple, heartfelt little volume, Cardinal Franz K6nig shares a number of "pastoral talks on faith in our time...
...I don't under-stand why this should be so...
...Ernest Becket's The Denial ol Death, recipient of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, may appear out of place in a listing of "religions" books...
...A unilateral action on behalf of others not privy to the action, as if we had been appointed by heaven or themselves as their guardians and protectors, is also traditional practice,' but one worthy of infinite suspicion and odiferous with hypocrisy...
...Father Dulles, for his part, is convinced that of the five complemen- tary models he chooses to discuss in his remarkably helpful book, the insti- tutional model, though useful in many respects and of permanent value, is the one that "cannot be taken as primary," for "of their very nature . . . institu-tions are subordinate to persons, struc- tures are subordinate to life...
...there is nothing to be learned from his oration except sorrow...
...Morehouse-Barlow, $5.95...
...however, the crucial ques- tion is whether this spirituality will grow realistic and reflective or inturned and romantic...
...The military mind deliberately abstracts away from political, social and diplomatic reality, and states "the operation is feasible, ifrisky...
...Also available in paper-back...
...Aelred Squire's Asking the Fathers (a book too little noticed in the United States) is a deeply traditional and richly relevant presentation of spirituality--finely written, erudite and systematic...
...Daly's arguments, or her antagonists'---even though, outside the Church, women of more essentially religious temper have boldly, charismatically founded move-ments, like Christian Science, and a species of Adventism, and gotten men to follow them...
...To the contrary, he frankly admits that "the Church's future is ul- timately an object of hoping against hope and not a matter of futurology...
...Such theolo-gizing neither perches precariously on the heights of general principle, nor does it descend precipitously to the particular and unique instance...
...S. Anne E. Patrick I find it increasingly difficult to read religious books without relating them to the women's movement...
...I am too far off the state highway...
...Somewhat chastening to the modern taste may be the often complex sexual imagery, e.g., in Exe-gesis of the Soul, with which cosmic power is here invested...
...MAGI BOOKS, INC...
...But this glance into the future can he one of faith and hope...
...Models o/ the Church: A Critical As- sessment of the Church in All Its As- pects...
...ISBN 0-87343-041-7 $12.95 JACQUES MARITAIN Homage in Words and l~'ctures John Howard Griffin and Yves Simon As a memorial, Griffin adds to Si- mon's biography his own diary notes and some 30 striking photo- graphs of the philosopher, many large-scale duotones, ranging from Princeton to the final years at Tou- louse...
...S7c, thrR times...
...Male' and 'female' imagery, applied transcend-entally, has been evoked before, and among the Gnostics it pushed mono-theism cruelly beyond its limits...
...The Denial o/Death...
...Heschel, post-Holocaust, as the transmission of a seemingly prescient and indeed divine intransigence...
...The you| man who accepts this offer and becomes u Marlanist brother or priest will find a rewardlnl[ life in a reliliious community...
...Karl Rahner's short but intense Shape el the Church to Come originated in the pastoral context of the 1971 Synod of the Catholic Church in Germany...
...Child-like faith is total and absolutistic, un- able to stand questioning, but mature faith, says Lynch, is able to put to-gether the expected with the unex-pccted, much as Abraham when told that his descendants would be as the sands of the sea had to "educate" his faith to the point that he could put that promise alongside the command to slay Isaac, his only son...
...lmstitmte BIBLICAL INSTITUTE...
...Ian Barbour...
...Since we in the United States obviously face the same danger, the publication of Rahner's book in this country, though belated, is very timely indeed...
...The Seabury Press, $9.50...
...This is surely ironic for a country established legally, economically, socially and in large part morally on the universal right of private property as prior to all competing requirements, even that of the survival of unpropcrtied members of our own community...
...My list is something of a potpourri...
...And a deeper appreciation of Israel's special relationship to the one GOd is valuable in the postconciliar church...
...All the causes add up, but the tremendum of the demonic remains...
...Yet the fact that it is alreadY widely appreciated and savored indicates the real need it meets...
...Norris Merchant There are scholars who, no doubt, have found the publication of W. Foer- ster's Gnosis: A Selection o~ Gnostic Texts, Volume 11: Coptic and Mandean Sources (Oxford: Clarendon Press, $24) an epochal event...
...It's a dull time, indeed...
...Yet, the book has a thesis: "job" and Christian '~ocation" are not necessarily one and the same thing, for as the autobiographies which com-pose this volume insist, professional Christian workers, men and women who have been involved in the "insti-tutions" of Christianity, find that their jobs are often barely distinguishable from secular do-gooding jobs...
...Vanderbilt: A lively intellect, sound schol- arship, tenacity of purpose, versatility, a commitment to excellence in worthwhile en- deavor," and "for exception- al accomplishment and hiqh promise.., in science, music, art, journalism, creative writ- inq, debate, dance, theatre, entrepreneurial activity and academic work qenerally...
...In fact, I plan to make it the subject of my next retreat...
...Ian Barbour's admirable ease in sci- entific and theological method makes his Myths, Models, and Paradigms a fascinating and imaginative study...
...Nonethe- less, when The War Against the Jews is done, one is still obsessed with the historical abyss...
...Seelal COLLEGE GRAD...
...Each has its own particular weaknesses, as does the institutional model, and none "should be canonized as the measure of all the rest...
...It does not constitute a mini-course focused on a theme, but is composed of five books that I have personally found engaging and important...
...Catholics are also admonished in this Vatican docu- ment to see to what extent the respon- sibility for the tragically sad history of Catholic-Jewish relations is ultimate- ly theirs...
...Thus, even without noting that the concluding chapter is efltitled "Psychology and Religion: What is the Heroic Individual...
...Nevertheless he is willing to give it an honest try...
...Avery Dulles, S. J. Doubleday, $5.95...
...Rahner insists that a fundamental mark of the future Church must be its ability to manifest itself as a "Church of real spirituality...
...The literature has not been produced...
...2) What are we to do...
...1X;ords that divine the future of man and the future of man's faith...
...by James Y. Holloway and Will D. CampeU...
...In this volume McKenzie examines the Old Testament's special literary wit-ness to Israel's covenant experience and provides an understanding of Old Testament heritage for contemporary theology...
...A church which articulates hope, in the person of even one bishop, can bring the hoped-for into being...
...This is vintage Dulles: calm, clear and concise...
...MICHAEL MURRAY Seleetions for Religious Book Week 000000000000000000 CRITICS' CHOICES Arthur A. Cohen Annually it grows more difficuR not alone to single out the best or the most lively religious books of the year pro- duced by Jews (or non-Jews) about Judaism, but to find any Jewish books worthy of recollection, notation, addi- tion to one's library...
...200 to I200 (Univ...
...The Hour Is Now (Harper & Row, $6.95) is K~nig's personal search to fully understand the meaning of his own experience of religion as he faces the perplexities of our time...
...The action of the Last Sup- per is reunited with Jesus' death on the cross, emphasizing the perhaps ob-scured relationship of eucharist to the cross...
...The average woman around the globe does not even know that it should be the stuff of her hopes...
...A much shorter collection of essays, Women and Orders, edited by Robert J. Heyer (Paulist Press, $1.65 paper) also merits attention...
...The Burke book is what the author calls a "functional analysis" of refigion, proceeding by comparison of the Christian interpretation of life with those of other faiths around the world...
...the points made by Letty M. Russell in her Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective m A Theology (Westmin-ster, $3.95), in which she has con-sciously avoided sexist language...
...This work...
...the direc- tion is radical, taking as its text Matthew 25:31-46 ("Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger...
...CATHOLIC ALUMNI CLUB, Rm...
...Expect Father Guzie to make important contributions to contemporary theological discussions in the future...
...That problems like these can be avoided without discomfort is one of RAISSA'S JOURNAL Presented by Jacques Maritain The private diaries of Raissa Mari- tain's inner life covering the 54 years of her marriage with Jacques, who has heavily annotated his wife's experiences...
...Albany, N.Y...
...Those of us who have viewed our Gnosticism mediated through the Fathers, such as Irenaeus, or perhaps individualized in William Blake, can become fascinated by these first-hand glances at the deter- mined apocalyptism of the first Chris- tian centuries...
...Twelve words minimum...
...of Chi- cago Press, $10) a well-orchestrated account of a fabulous spiritual venture...
...Images o/ Faith: An Exploration o/ the Ironic Imagination...
...Convincement" is Friendly for conversion: Hubbard was formerly an agnostic physicist...
...To this end a section of the book contains revealing inter- views with such diverse believers as Theodore I-lesburgh, Ann Landers, B. F. Skinner, Eugene McCarthy and others...
...The Scholarships are awarded "to students who have dem- onstrated qualities charac-teristic of Mr...
...This having been said, he proceeds nevertheless--modestly but with great confidence born of his massive scholar- ship and wide pastoral experience---to answer three sets of questions: (1) Where do we stand...
...Simon & Schuster, $3.95...
...Rather, Kennedy examines the nature of belief--how ordinary people come to believe...
...I also recommend Dora Helder Camara's The Desert is Fertile (Orbis Books, $3.95...
...For it is the historical ex-perience of the Old Testament writers that forms the basis of Christianity...
...Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots o~ Anti-Semitism...
...Among other things, these guidelines call for dialogue which "de- mands respect for the other as he is: Above all respect for his faith and his religious convictions...
...Thus my list of recent favorites includes three books that in my judgment contribute to the best aspects of the Rosemary Radford Ruether (Simon & Schuster, $3.95 paper...
...3) How can the Church of the future be conceived...
...Building on the work of the theologians of hope and liberation, she invites the reader to deal with new understandings of matters such as service (she argues for a diakonia that is not subservient), religious language, and sin and salvation...
...Among the finest pieces are those of Robert Coles (as elegant an autobio-graphical sketch as I have ever read), Vine Deloria, Vincent Harding, and Will Campbell...
...He covers the history, beliefs and organization of the Society of Friends (especially the British variety) with detachment, good humor and style...
...they are a certainty...
...At this point, authorities in Egypt and Israel have expressed an interest in seeing the programs, and will then decide whether or not to put them on the air...
...it will be no voice from on high...
Vol. 101 • February 1975 • No. 15
