Education for Justice/The Faith that Does Justice
Marciniak, Ed
sisting negative lines about Carter, to the point by late 1977 of dismissing him as a one-term President. "But the two need each other--that is to say, the nation and its capital city need what is...
...Small townness, farming, self-made businessmen, deacons in Baptist churches, district of- ricers of the Lions Club...
...But if the end result of his educa- tional method has already been pre-determined, how likely is it to enjoy the universal acceptance which Wren seeks for it...
...He may begin to assert whal he personally believes more strongly when the frustrations of political horse- trading overwhelm him...
...Now they have value because they are not...
...Hill argues that Milton's ideas were more radical than is generally supposed, that his radicalism can be known only by thoroughly examining his cultural and political milieu, and that the knowledge so gained illuminates all his writing, es- pecially the three great poems...
...Outside...
...It was a political gold mine, of course, not because it is representative but because it isn't...
...Miller concludes: ~'The capital and Carter pulling on each other represent once again what Niebuhr called, in a phrase that Jimmy Carter marked, 'the self-correcting powers of democracy.' " Carter's roots are also revealing, Mil- ler writes...
...problems of poverty...
...First, it seems, Carter has always been most confortable when acting from inner conviction...
...New York, N.Y., 10016 be expected to follow this impulse, espe- cially in the field of foreign affairs...
...A persistent theme in the reflections is the difference between "faith and reli- gious camouflage.9 In distinguishing be- tween the two, Berrigan accurately de- scribes the conflict that Catholics face, in the post-Vietnam era--not with the church, but with its leadership.9 He offers no easy comfort, however, to either party...
...Perhaps it is more of a peeve.9 In this otherwise tightly-written, 126-page book, Wren re-peatedly (nearly three score times...
...these were once coins of value in the democratic politics of the American nation because they were the reality of much of the nation's life...
...I I for justice f movements, whether reformist, radical, or revolutionary...
...Supreme Court, succeeded in legalizing abortion upon demand, ques- tions about the rights of an unborn infant, the duty to protect life and the future of the family persist, agonizing consciences and challenging national mores...
...Might he finally take a stand that consciously defies some of his critics and advisers--on energy policy, health care, or defense...
...Both books find the rationale for political and economic change in the justice generated by a Christian faith...
...others may feel inadequate before Hill's knowledge of literary criti- cism...
...And this scandal is so nearly uni- versal among the authorities that some of us, for sanity's sake, must stay out in the cold...
...Such adult educa- tion is subversive by nature, exposing injustice and upsetting the status quo...
...Wren's express purpose is to propagate Freire's educational method among teachers everywhere--in both develop- ing nations and highly technological so- cieties...
...In 1975 the Jesuits convened a general congregation, the thirty-second in their 400-year history...
...ROBERT L. KING teaches English at the College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Massachusetts...
...Richard R. Roach, one of the eight Jesuit contributors to The Faith That Does Justice, writes revealingly of that meeting: "the members of the Society of Jesus solemnly affirmed that Christian faith absolutely requires the pursuit of justice in the world...
...But the two need each other--that is to say, the nation and its capital city need what is symbolized by the intense man from the provinces, and such a man needs what is symbolized by Washing- ton...
...Even though the women's lib- eration movement, with unprecedented aid from the medical profession and the U.S...
...The authors of The Faith That Does Justice and Education for Justice hope that during the remainder of this century a thirst for justice will enliven social internal inconsistencies in his foreign policy...
...With Hill as guide, we understand Mil- ton partly on the basis of what he does not say, because--with so much opposition to suppress--seventeenth-century Eng- land forced its radicals to write in code...
...The Middle East seems to hold a special fas- cination for Carter...
...ROBERT L. KING UNCOMMON PRAYER: A BOOK OF PSALMS, by Daniel Berrigan, Seabury, $7.95 [141 pp...
...13] is a welcome contemporary re- statement of the dilemma posed by Lipset fifteen years ago--equality of opportu- nity is not compatible with an equal dis- tribution of success...
...As a word, problem can serve as a handy crutch in an emergency A forest of rhetorical crutches, however, loses open-minded readers.9 In brief I MILTON AND THE ENGLISH REVOLU- TION, by Christopher Hill, Viking, $20...
...The Jesuits were not dealing with an intramural matter affecting only their order...
...One listens out of respect and admiration, especially to the prose sections, agreeing, as Berri- gan wrote in the preface to his other re- centA Book of Parables (now in a second printing), that "there is something to be said for the struggle of living a life, writ- ing a book" from his perspective...
...For equity in dis- tribution there has to be some restraint upon opportunity by legislation, com-munal values, or religious prescription.9 Commonweal: 824...
...At first, some students of litera- ture will find it hard to distinguish the various sects (Ranters, Familists, An-tinomians...
...MICHAEL TRUE Correspondence (Continued from page 802) [Oct...
...WILLIAM LANOUEI-IE is on the staff of the National Journal, Washington...
...If Carter is true to the principles and the persona revealed in these books he can be expected to be what he has always been--a politician of substance and surprise...
...Together they try to understand the "problem" they have discovered and to find ways to solve it...
...9 problem-posing style.., problems of rational justice . .9 . problematize . . ." etc...
...In short, anyone seriously in-terested in approaches to literature and history can profit from this book, which should stand as a seminal study for dec- ades...
...The movements these men inspired are now in twilight as Freire's is not...
...But other gambles, such as the Camp David summit, are sure to occur again simply because they test Carter's stamina as a moralist and chal- lenge his ingenuity as a tinkering en-gineer...
...Yet, the issues which polarized the litigants in Alan Bakke's suit against the University of California (affirmative ac- tion vs...
...Having spearheaded the establishment of a free- standing Israel, Zionism is today con-fronting not without travail, demands of equity now for Palestinians...
...They now have the value of nos- talgia, of return, of romanticized mem- ory turned into a norm...
...What is one to do," he asks, "when the leadership 'carries on' with a war establishment, when the Vietnam scandal becomes the post-Vietnam scan- dal...
...If both books stress Carter's drive for self-improvement and change, what do they then suggest about his behavior now and in the future...
...Yet, he tints it ~,ith various meanings, without defining it at crucial points: "the first problem is...
...in- troduces the word "problem" which lies at the heart of consciousness-raising...
...ED MARCINIAK iS President of the Institute of Urban Life, Chicago...
...While Wren anticipates five objections--and supplies five answers--to consciousness-raising as a pedagogical process, he seems unaware of the moral dilemmas that he himself has set in motion.9 For example, what is to prevent someone from exploiting such education in order to replace one tyranny with another...
...Hill's title indicates that his concern is not with the categorical approach of the History of Ideas, but with the reality of one man's thinking: "I shall concentrate on the sub- stance of his unorthodoxies, not their names...
...According to Wren, it is in his own special brand of "radical socialism" which, unlike some socialist societies, will not become "dogmatic, domineering and oppres-sive...
...Hill often flatteringly assumes that his reader knows as much history as he does himself...
...The first of these paperbacks has a special history...
...If Plains had not really existed some adman might have wanted to invent it for us...
...MICHAEL TRUE is professor of English at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass...
...Might he renounce and resolve the Salvation: the thirst THE FAITH THAT DOES JUSTICE Edited by S. Haughey Paultst, $5.95 [295 pp.] EDUCATION FOR JUSTICE Brian Wren Orbis, $4.95 [145 pp.] Ed Marciniak A RE THE SOCIAL movements of the Western world, once fired by a pas- sion for equality or freedom, now giving way to a gathering concern for justice...
...reverse racism) were those re-volving primarily around justice, not equality...
...he enriches our experi- ence of the literature by insisting on that fullness of meaning that comes from a writer committed to the issues of his time as well as to his art...
...JOSEPH A. PAGE is ao associate professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington...
...Carter also finds exhilaration in taking on seemingly impossible tasks, and may JOIN COMMONWEAL AMIIOClATES Sust,'d'nin g Member: $5O C arter Member: $|00 or more Co~,,,onwoal Associates 2~ Madison Ave...
...His attempt to in-volve the Israelis and Egyptians in a renewed round of Geneva peace talks in 1977 backfired because of vociferous domestic opposition...
...544 pp...
...We come to see Milton from the point of view of his contemporaries, both the familiar figures (Cromwell, Marvell) and the lesser-knowns (Fludd, Muggle- ton...
...I refer specifically to the "observe-judge-act" method which Canon Cardijn popularized among the world's young workers and to Monsignor Coady's edu- cational programs which spurred Nova Scotia's fishermen to lift themselves out of poverty...
...It is too soon, perhaps, to tell...
...Why did earlier successes at consciousness-raising fade away...
...What then is that just society to which consciousness-raising leads...
...rather, as the largest Order I REVIEWERS JACK MILES is a California-based writer and editor...
...Father Berrigan chooses, from forty- two Old Testament psalms, a word, a hint, or a phrase, and goes with that, writing his own poetic adaptations and prose reflections.9 They are essentially cries of anguish or of praise and longing, utterances of a man on the edge of de- spair, who surveys the nuclear landscape and daily expects the worst...
...The book's Foreword, a tale of Buddha and Mara told by Thich Naht Hanh, and seventeen woodcut illustra- tions, by Robert McGovern, comple-ment Uncommon Prayer, written and drawn with a simplicity and directness that characterize Berrigan's recent, dis- ciplined style...
...The range of Hill's learning and the clar- ity of his style do more, however, than decipher terms...
...Might he continue to confront Congress with demands that he amazingly ends upwinning, like the Panama treaties, the mideast arms sale, or the end to the Turkish arms embargo...
...One final comment...
...But you keep on keeping on, praying.9 The nub: faithless- ness on our part is no response to derelic- tion on theirs...
...Commonweal: 822 lights the moral dilemmas latent in any discussion with "learners-teachers...
...Their experiences put to the test the capacity of conscientizacion to be ex-ported worldwide, as Wren proposes...
Vol. 105 • December 1978 • No. 25
