Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Too precious for words Spring Harbor, N.Y. To the Editors: I love John Garvey, however, his recent column "Standing in for Jesus'' [November 18] compels me to write-but only briefly...
...In the face of profound contemporary realities such as individualism in economics, isolationism in contemporary lifestyles, uncertainty about our place in an expanding cosmos, the disorientation that comes from rethinking our myths, this is the question we now face: Will institutional religion stay open (or reopen itself- aggiornamento) to the winds of change stirred up by our science and society...
...SALLY CAMPBELL The conception of Jesus Hollis, N.Y...
...The belief that the abortion problem is "cultural" rather than "political and economic" is also mostly myth...
...Hehir does not give us a strategy...
...To the Editors: Bryan Hehir is not exactly a Middle East expert, and neither am I, but I know the difference between a strategy and a debate [' 'Zero-Plus Game: A Strategy for the Middle East,'' January 27...
...The task for the U.S...
...To the Editors: Right on, Mark Searle...
...Bush was no more consistent than Mr...
...Any capsule outline trivializes a complex argument, so I hope that readers will turn to Schaberg's1 book to evaluate the case that it makes...
...THE EDITORS...
...It's not simply lack of understanding or motivation...
...Perhaps, but it will have to be a movement with a mighty wide umbrella...
...ROLAND LAIRD The author replies: I appreciate Mr...
...His response warrants a careful reading, as does the book itself...
...I wish we would...
...That is especially true, as Searle points out, of the council's great vision of a new way of thinking about and being church, of which the liturgical reform was the cornerstone...
...It is unlikely that a common agenda agreed on by the institutional organizations that you mention-including mine-would produce any of these three items...
...Second, a movement requires leaders with charisma...
...The countries of the European community seem ready to join in such diplomacy...
...Is the answer to that challenge a new liturgical movement...
...It was the economics of spending tax monies for poor women that raised the hackles of the political right...
...Dukakis, despite the avowed effort of the NCCB to persuade voters to consider all social issues rather than a single issue (abortion...
...Laird's careful reading and response to my "capsule reproduc-, tion" of Janet Schaberg's book...
...EDWARD DOHERTY The editors reply: Both the title and subtitle of Hehir's column were written by the editors...
...This difficulty accounts for much of the lack of success of the reform, I think...
...Given enough information we can reach reliable conclusions about most human births- who were the mother and father...
...Indeed, such exploration will lead to a "new understanding of the profundities of birth and death which surpass any structures constructed for their protection and control...
...The illegitimacy thesis portrays the Christian religion as being unable to withstand close scrutiny even on the level of common human experience...
...he invites us to a debate...
...Ancient tradition [of an all-male priesthood] should not be dealt with so politically...
...Sources are alluded to offhand rather than specified, and speculation is treated as substantiation...
...To the Editors: Your assessment of Mr...
...Is the United States...
...Within the last two years I have become more aware of a certain scholarly reserve in writing about Jesus' virgin birth...
...It obviously did not change many Catholic minds, including that of some very vocal bishops...
...Gerhart's capsule reproduction of the main lines of Ms...
...Searle's diagnosis of the current liturgical problem is absolutely on target ["Renewing the Liturgy-Again," November 18, 1988...
...Unfortunately, Ms...
...My impression has always been that there was a lot of politicking going on, between Arians and Nicenes, between East and West, between emperors and prelates, this person and that person...
...is to conduct a credible diplomacy to this end, not to arrange a public debate between the two parties...
...Gerhart gives no hint of what documentation author Janet Schage relies on or how thoroughly she formulates her inferences...
...He objects that politics have entered the discussion of whether women should be ordained or not, saying...
...The call for a new liturgical movement cannot be a mere development of themes and concepts...
...opines ["Oh, To Be a Hoosier,'' December 2], that liberalism is a serious drag on Democratic candidates for president, but I disagree with his advice that the Democratic party should reassess it's loyalty to "cultural liberalism...
...Schage's argument may have trivialized it...
...I think that's being too precious...
...There is no question in my mind that the council's vision has been misunderstood parochially...
...Gerhart gives an outline of The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives, which makes that book seem rather thin...
...Even most Catholics considered abortion a for-. givable sin, rather than an unpardonable crime...
...To the Editors: I love John Garvey, however, his recent column "Standing in for Jesus'' [November 18] compels me to write-but only briefly and only on one of the points where I think he goes wrong...
...Of course, the argument itself is a very disturbing one, even judged by modern exegetical standards which hold literal interpretation of much of the Gospels suspect...
...The Catholic Congress at Malines, Belgium-at which Lambert Beauduia made his initial call for a liturgical movement (1909)-was struggling with the workers' interest in socialism and disinterest in a bourgeois church...
...Lambert Beauduin, Virgil Michel, even Prosper Gueranger were passionate about the liturgy and, apparently, about the needs of the working class...
...And what do you think those early ecumenical councils were responding to as they whacked out our still current creeds and symbols...
...virgil c. funk President, National Association of Pastoral Musicians Democrats & abortion Baton Rouge, La...
...willingness to support Israel with economic and military assistance...
...The original liturgical movement found such irritations in history (the Latin liturgy had wandered far from its origins) and evangelization (the growing gap between a medieval liturgy and a modernizing world, to which the liturgy remained exterior...
...Hehir's examples include the positions of Abba Eban, Arthur Hertzberg, and Walid Khalidi...
...I must disagree with Searle's conclusions, therefore...
...While there is no outright denial, the belief is so circumscribed by literary and historical considerations that one wonders how essential and important this teaching is...
...If the courts declare it legal for the states to refuse to spend tax monies for abortions, abortion will no longer be much of a problem...
...It is public support of such positions in the current debate that could influence U.S...
...The word debate occurs seven times in a brief article...
...Dukakis's "principled, opposition to capital punishment" actually gained him any votes...
...I personally hope liberals (cultural or otherwise) will persev vere both in and out of the major political parties...
...They are looking for something new, a something that may be sketchy, over the horizon, but which is clearly different from what now exists...
...the elements of change envisioned by the council are difficult to implement, even in the best circumstances...
...While we stand to gain from scholarship which raises legitimate (pardon the word) questions about sacred matters, care should be taken that it is not overrated...
...It is asserted that suppression and erasure of an allegedly pre-evangelical tradition and the emergence of a "patriarchal form of Christianity" go hand in hand...
...policy for the better...
...There was very little public outcry as long as abortion was limited to rich and middle-class women paying for their own abortions, and calling them DNCs...
...That still sounds like a strategy to us...
...Dukakis's losing campaign ["A Door Swings Shut, Again," December 2] was accurate enough...
...Third, movements are change-oriented...
...I can remember when Roman Catholicism was a serious drag on presidential candidates, but it was perseverance, not reassessment, that overcame the obstacle...
...And he is right that practice is never as easy as theory, so that parish implementation has been and remains much more difficult than its envisioning in a conciliar decree...
...workers who were asking, as their European counterparts had been for some time, whether capitalism could work...
...however, your inference that many Catholics voted against the Democratic presidential candidate because he didn't exhibit a "consistent ethic of life," is wishful thinking...
...I wish we could, for it seems to me that we now face a new and much larger question...
...MARY GERHART Liturgical leaders Washington, D.C...
...RAY E. INGRAM A strategic debate West River, Md...
...A movement is a social phenomenon...
...First, it is a response to real issues and needs that become felt, experienced-a growing irritation, an unscratched itch...
...To the Editors: Mary Gerhart, in her review of six books by five feminist theologians, captioned "Theologians and Feminism" [November 18, 1988], seeks to assure her readers that "solid scholarship" can validly explore historical tradition and arrive at the proposition that Jesus was probably illegitimate...
...There are, on the other hand, instances when mascujine and feminine sexual behavior may raise doubts about who is the father of a particular baby...
...Virgil Michel's interest in social justice took on added force after the stock market crash of 1929, in the face often million unemployed U.S...
...We reasoned that the point of Hehir's column was not only to provide information for our readers, but to create among them support for those espousing positive "zero-plus" positions in the public debate on the Middle East...
...Helps to keep the church attached to reality, not nodding in nevernever land...
...I doubt it can be proved that Mr...
...The only life ethic that counted was his pro-choice abortion stand, for Mr...
...A strategy would seem to require that the United States make clear to Israel that its refusal to negotiate with the PLO will adversely affect the U.S...
...it follows certain rules...
...As to the link between social justice and liturgy, so central to Virgil Michel's thinking and so much a part of the foundation of the European liturgical movement before the council, it was the root of the popular liturgical movement...
...Scholars like debates because they sometimes clarify issues, but diplomacy is needed to resolve them...
...It is true, as David R. Carlin, Jr...
...I believe it would be fair to say that politics has always played a large role in church affairs-and thank goodness...
...To relegate the circumstances of Jesus' conception and birth to the latter, murky category may not be formally scandalous but it is a momentous reversal of a belief held throughout the centuries by millions, apparently without abdicating all claims to rationality...
...When you remember, and take seriously, that God is believed to work in history, how could he not operate politically...
Vol. 116 • February 1989 • No. 4
