The Final Revolution/The Christian Church in the Cold War:
Lavelle, Michael
sistance gave courage to...
...John Paul II...
...He shows sistency among Western liberals and Whatever one's assessment of Gor- the bankruptcy of the system against which scorned them for it...
...Owen Chadwick's The Christian Church in the Cold War, try to do this...
...His oslovakia, nor Hungary (in spite of Carlaborated with the courageous 1979 pilgrimage to Poland dinal Jozsef Mindszenty's long stay in the once-hated Communist regimes...
...However, George Weigel millennium of Polish Christianity, it was my experiences in Czechoslovakia, over Oxford University Press, $25, 255 pp...
...To make his (509)328-4220 x 3383 case, Weigel describes a watershed event (800)523-9712 (font...
...His thesis is per- recreation...
...The Final Revolution bears reading...
...He has entered We offer two exceptional programs which include excellent into the pain and staying power of the peo- courses, workshops, personal growth opportunities, rest, and ple and their churches...
...The Left, Weigel argues, Poland because of disastrous economic and would not let itself believe in the human political problems at home (what Weigel horror of the system behind the Iron calls the economic and Reagan theses...
...D 40: 9 April 1993 Commonweal...
...Religious Studies Department W Gonzaga University the Helsinki Act...
...It where Roman Catholic students are the presents hope that one man's courage, Pope largest group in the student body John Paul II's, can change a system that seemed embedded for eternity...
...and the despair of the people...
...A Slav, he was not true in East Germany, nor was it entered the Polish political scene as no true in Czechoslovakia, especially the How does the church in Italian pope could have...
...Using his astute Czech Republic, which lived in an uneasy Eastern Europe react to political sense, he set the stage for the col- truce with the Hapsburgs until 1918...
...The offi- seemed much more at peace with the by John Paul II...
...fervent new nation- lapse of the Communist regime in Poland, Moreover, neither East Germany, Czechalisms, to those who col- and encouraged church activism...
...a success, and enabled Poles to overcome twenty-eight years, lead me to conclude their fear of the regime...
...How, as a new society evolves, cluding Maly himself, were deprived of the spirit of the society in which the do we measure degrees of guilt in com- their rights to worship and enter society churches lived, the cynicism of the regimes,plicity and compliance with the old regime...
...cial deceit and meanness of the regimes American political Right than Left...
...He was the first pope not to take the tury-long history of political dissent...
...He describes the perStudies & the Counselor for Roman Catholic students secution of the Christian churches in Eastern Europe...
...For the answers, one must look to the Enjoy a sabbatical in the beautiful past forty years of oppression and pain...
...His election and subsequent someone who had not actually lived it, ef- theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, askactivities, together with Gorbachev's being fectively depicts a corrupt Eastern Eur- ing him how he could participate in a. at the helm of the Soviet government in opean society...
...Our For information on admissions & financial aid: knowledge of their past is useful if we are Admissions Office, Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 495-5796 to aid the development of these churches in the future...
...Ending in 1966, the history of the twentieth century...
...x 3383 GONZAGA (800)572-9658 tWashington)x 3383 in Poland: Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski's UNIVERSITY (509)484-2818 FAX nine-year novena of religious instruction Commonweal 9 April 1993: 39 It is true that Czechs and Slovaks gained How much cooperation and collaboration courage after seeing fellow Slavs in Poland was too much...
...How allowed all of Eastern Europe to realize American embassy in Budapest) had a cardid the church perform in the political that something different from commu- dinal of the stature of Wyszynski, who, tragedy that stole fruitful lives from so nism was possible...
...This Yalta Agreements as a given...
...tant, was not as significant as it was in Allen Lane The Penguin Press, $25, 230 pp...
...The book is not foBoston Theological Institute cused, and no specific theme emerges...
...However, without ly clean...
...Independently, the then Jesuit provincial in Prague asked me how the Society of Jesus could allow Father Daniel Berrigan to come to a "freedom" HARVARD DIVINITY conference in Prague when over a hundred S C H D D L of his Jesuit brothers were unable to function legally in the country in which he was Theological education in an ecumenical setting speaking...
...the weight of econom- Spokane, WA 99258-0001 ic and historical pressures...
...As pope, John that the impact of the pope in the rest of THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE COLD WAR Paul II carried on the traditions of Wys- the Iron Curtain countries, while imporOwen Chadwick zynski...
...Weigel's book, well-written and wellargued, presents an accurate and moving picture of the church behind the Iron Gonzaga University Curtain from 1948-89...
...of Solidarity and the church in their re- stood up against the Communist regime...
...church, particularly in Poland, not to have Poland was unique because of its cenMichael Lavelle fear...
...Weigel suggests that the pope's actions THE POPE WHO COULD created a domino effect moving through the rest of Eastern Europe, ending with the complete collapse of the Communist regimes...
...Almost no one was totaltake on the system...
...Mikhail Gorbachev's actions in liberaliz- Weigel is also keen to discuss the ing the Soviet Union the Polish revolution bankruptcy of the Western Left in its unitself would not have taken place...
...sistance gave courage to everyone...
...What role did the church play in the 198889 revolutions...
...Weigel captures amined...
...His continued support backed by popular support, consistently many people during the cold-war years...
...He has made me a believer in the strength of Pope John Paul in changing the THE FINAL REVOLUTION for the Polish people...
...True, there was a strange confluence of were systematic, and Weigel, in a feat I To highlight this point, Weigel quotes events that followed Karol Wojtyla's being would never have imagined possible for a letter from Father Vaclav Maly to the made pope...
...The answers are not easy...
...It did not believe that Marxism, in East Germany, we must remember, the as practiced in Eastern Europe, was as virevolution followed Gorbachev's indica- cious as any rightist totalitarian system...
...understand both the why of the revolution ...and its how...
...as full citizens...
...The churches in East and Central Europe now face the same difficulties that loom in the future for all civil societies...
...Focus on Leadership • renewal for ministry in the future church emphasizing Weigel evaluates and rejects four al- skills for creative, compassionate and collaborative ternative theories for the fall of the leadership Communist regimes: Mikhail GorFor more information call or write: bachev's liberalization of the Soviet Sabbatical Office Union...
...Prague colloquium on human rights while the mid- I980s, were both major catalysts The dilemma of complicity is also ex- so many of his own coreligionists, infor change in the East...
...In many places the book reads a bit breathlessly as if the professor were trying to give an hour's lecture in forty-five minutes...
...Heroically, Pope John Paul II called the Poland...
...tion that an overthrow of Erich Honecker Intellectuals in the East saw this inconwould not result in a Soviet invasion...
...He then turns to the church in Western Europe, focusing more Rigorous academic & practical preparation for lay & on religious changes that have taken place scholarly ministries, enriched by the resources of the since World War II...
...But Curtain...
...George Weigel's The Final Revolution, and PACIFIC NORTHWEST...
...without taking con- CREDO siderable account of the Catholic church • personal, self paced renewal in a community setting and preeminently of its supreme pastor...
...one reason, perhaps, bachev's motives, these events seemed to Pope John Paul II pitted his considerable why Catholics I knew in Czechoslovakia have occurred independent of any action political and spiritual strength...
...Perhaps derstanding and criticism of the ComGorbachev was forced to acquiesce in munist system...
...Ronald Reagan's hardline policies...
...Both programs satisfy prerequisites for graduate suasive and cogent: "It is impossible to theological study...
...Special faculty resources include the Owen Chadwick's, The Christian Church in the Cold War, is not in the same ball Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological park with Weigel's...
Vol. 120 • April 1993 • No. 7
