Fall reading: Getting serious (and a bit controversial)

New book releases assess the Bible, the Vietnam era, the existence of Jesus and lay ministry.

The power of words as a catalyst for discord — or unity

The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide and Define a Nation, by Stephen Prothero. HarperCollins (San Francisco, 2012). 531 pp., $29.99.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, has compiled diverse texts and genres — song lyrics, letters, legal documents, essays, proverbs and fiction — into an American bible, a canon to illustrate our short but contentious history.

Prothero's bible is an abbreviated version of the Christian one: Genesis, Law, Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets, Lamentations, Gospels, Acts and Epistles. The documents he has chosen cluster logically in these books: early documents in Genesis, fiction in Chronicles, song lyrics in Psalms and letters in Epistles. Within each book he mixes documents from different times and different authors.

Law, for example, includes the Constitution (1787) and two Supreme Court decisions: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Roe v. Wade (1973). Psalms includes the lyrics of "The Star Spangled Banner" (1814); "God Bless America" (1938) and "This Land is Your Land" (1940.) Proverbs, the most diverse section, ranges from Chief Joseph's "I will fight no more forever" (1877) to Calvin Coolidge's 1925 declaration that "The business of America is business" and Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" in 1983.

Prothero's criteria for inclusion is that a text must have "served as a catalyst for later controversy." Each of these documents had, and have, an afterlife, and illustrate how "the American people talk back, agreeing, disagreeing, or in some cases creatively misreading what their forebears have said."

Prothero introduces each text with a concise explanation of its author, context and influence on our national conversation. We are able to read the original document (in full or as illustrative excerpts) and so gain a better sense of how honestly and accurately it has been interpreted. Finally, there are pages of commentary that illustrate how the text has been used — or misused.

The format of the book makes it a wonderful resource for a history class, debate team or book club. The cacophony of the American voice would overwhelm anyone who attempted to read it straight through. It is better to read it slowly, one biblical book at a time, carefully listening to the commentaries elicited by the text. Reading slowly allows us to participate in this "heritage of voices as deep and high and different as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Boys Choir of Harlem."

The melding of text and commentary is the book's most distinctive focus: it shows, rather than tells us, what the American conversation has been. But it is also the area where we have to trust the editor — who, like all of us, has his own political and religious biases, whether they are made explicit or not. This is not a reason not to read this valuable book, but simply to be aware that this is an edited book.

The range of authors is remarkable; any book that includes Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Henry Hyde, Wendell Wilkie, William Faulkner, W.E.B. DuBois, Sarah Palin and Daniel Webster (to name just a few participants in this national conversation) deserves to be called catholic, in the sense of universal. It is surprising, though, to find so few Catholic voices (why Father Charles Coughlin and Mary Daly and not Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Dorothy Day?) It is a particularly disappointing omission because the church has given deep thought to the common good, which is really Prothero's subtext.

The inclusion of voices of reason, instead of polemics, could have shown a way to ameliorate the partisanship that "The American Bible" rightly rejects. "What ails us is not just a matter of the words we choose or the tone we adopt. There is also the matter of our collective amnesia. The chain of memory linking us to the great voices of our collective past ... has been broken."

"The American Bible" can help restore that chain of memory. It isn't a perfect book, but it's good enough for a less than perfect experiment in democracy.

—Rachelle Linner

Retelling of Vietnam protest brought to life
The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era, by Shawn Francis Peters. Oxford University Press (New York, 2012). 364 pp., $34.95.

In "The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era," Shawn Francis Peters shows himself to be a thorough, detail-oriented and entertaining author and historian. Fascinated his entire life with the nine Catholic anti-war activists who in 1968 looted a draft board and burned with napalm draft files in Baltimore's suburban Catonsville, Peters had been writing this book in his mind and on paper since he was a child.

Peters, who teaches in the integrated liberal studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, admitted as much in the book's preface, and the author's revelation is exemplified in his ability to tell a good story while sharing a vast amount of facts within religious and historical context.

Peters' near-obsession is understandable, as the story of the Catonsville Nine is quite juicy. Its colorful characters include a pair of rebellious priest brothers and an ex-nun and ex-priest who wed after being exiled from Guatemala and leaving Maryknoll.

The story took place predominately in 1968, a time of change within the Catholic Church and unrest throughout the country related to the Vietnam War, poverty and civil rights. During this election year, then-candidate Richard Nixon's chosen running mate was none other than Spiro Agnew, the governor of Maryland with a reputation as a law-and-order hardliner ready to quash frivolous protesters. This vice presidential pick drew protesters who not only supported the Catonsville Nine but hoped to affect the general election with their rallies.

The intersection of politics and Catholicism surrounding the act of civil disobedience also was compelling. According to Peters, priests and Catholic laypeople acting out in such a bold and illegal way shook many preconceptions about seemingly apathetic Catholics, especially during a time of war. Pope Paul VI's call for "war never again" and Dominican Father Gustavo Gutierrez's liberation theology were among the things that fueled the nine to raid that draft board, ironically located in a Knights of Columbus hall.

It is no wonder that plays have been produced to showcase this event rooted in religious and political turmoil. But it is not Peters' straightforward retelling of the events and characters in the story that make this particular book stand out. It is his painstaking attention to detail that keeps the reader engaged. It is his research and writing that make "The Catonsville Nine" seem like a firsthand account of the planning, execution, trial and aftermath of that fateful protest.

Peters not only shares anecdotes and stories about the upbringing and adulthoods of the activists and draft board clerks, he offers interesting insight about the defendants' and prosecutors' legal strategies. For the prosecution, Steven Sachs, then-U.S. attorney for Maryland, assembled a team of a by-the-books lawyer partnered with an antiwar sympathizer. Peters included in the book an account of that persuasive conversation between boss and skeptical younger attorney, creating a sort of behind-the-scenes episode of "Law and Order."

For the American church history and politics enthusiast, Peters offers a solid account of this interesting story of the Vietnam era. But with his ability to entertain with details and anecdotes, Peters also grabs the attention of those only vaguely familiar with and interested in anti-war protests of the late 1960s. It is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone interested in American history.

—Regina Lordan

Agnostic author effectively argues for Jesus' existence
Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, by Bart D. Ehrman. HarperOne (San Francisco, 2012). 361 pp., $26.99.

In "Did Jesus Exist?", New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman successfully refutes the idea that Jesus never existed, pointing out the weaknesses and irrelevancy of points raised by the so-called mythicists, who fight belief in God partly by denying the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Ehrman uses well-known writings to prove his point. The differing and independent traditions we have about Jesus, many of which are found in the New Testament, show that Jesus wasn't simply made up by a group with an agenda.

These sources show that Jesus really lived. Ehrman points out how St. Paul cites older Christian traditions in his writings, such as ancient hymns which acted as creeds. Luke uses many ancient authorities in Acts of the Apostles, usually in the form of speeches. The Gospels, with much in common, also differ greatly in many areas, which indicates the variety of groups attesting to Jesus' existence.

How could so many Christian and non-Christian sources exist independently about a man who had been made up? Such a diverse collection of stories shows that many had seen and heard Jesus, and talked about him to others. Mostly just common sense, this reflects the author's point that the mythicists mislead people with faulty logic that hides their atheist agenda.

Ehrman takes things one step further, showing how religious history sheds light on Jesus' existence: "The idea of a suffering Messiah ran so counter to Scripture and the righteous expectations of God's people that it was completely unthinkable, even blasphemous." Jews at the time did indeed believe that the coming of the Messiah was at hand. Yet he would be a triumphant anointed one, a king ready to overturn the social order and install God's chosen ruler.

The crucifixion of Jesus certainly happened, then, because it was such a terrible shock, something that people had no notion of ever happening. What would anyone gain from making up something so at odds with Jewish messianic expectations?

A big book, "Did Jesus Exist?" leaves no stones unturned. Ehrman spends at least one chapter examining each of his major reasons for believing that Jesus existed. Much more than a narrow polemic against mythicists, Ehrman offers a general introduction to the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, with a particular focus on the surrounding cultural milieu.

Ehrman argues forcefully that mythicists themselves often misunderstand this culture. In refuting Jesus and indeed Christianity, they have argued that Mediterranean peoples worshiped dying-rising gods, and that Christians had simply copied this.

James Frazer's "Golden Bough" supposed this, as did mythologist Joseph Campbell. Campbell claimed that all religious belief originated in a few key, identical concepts, and that all religions shared the essentials.

Ehrman shows the uniqueness of basic Christian belief. Frazer and others were simply projecting Christian doctrine onto these other religions. Their arguments have been strongly refuted by scholars. No precedent existed for the basic Christian belief in the Son of Man dying and then rising.

Ehrman, an agnostic himself, doesn't aim to destroy anyone's faith, though he avoids discussing the virgin birth, Jesus' miracles and the resurrection as historical realities.

Readers are not forced to agree with his agnosticism on these points, so believers can still take a lot away from the book.

Based on the available scholarship, Ehrman provides a clear image of who he thinks Jesus was. A first-century apocalypticist, Jesus believed in the supernatural world of angels, demons and the devil, and that God would come within a very short time to overturn the social order. Jesus followed the Jewish law, but not as the Pharisees did. He preached the heart of the law as loving God first, and then your neighbor as yourself.

He was concerned with the poor, yet without having an agenda of fixing society himself. He left that in God's hands.

"Did Jesus Exist?" offers a wide-ranging assessment of Jesus and the early Jesus movement. Those overly sensitive to challenges to their faith will find the book troublesome and unhelpful. Readers with a greater thirst to be challenged and learn something will find it a satisfying read without having to compromise their deeper convictions.

—Brian Welterr

A serious discussion of lay ministries
In the Name of the Church: Vocation and Authorization of Lay Ecclesial Ministry, edited by William Cahoy. Liturgical Press (Collegeville, Minn., 2012). 221 pp., $19.95.

For Catholics who have grown up after the Second Vatican Council, lay educators, liturgical ministers, social servants and a host of other ministers in the parish are a familiar sight.

Some may presume these are helpers for the religious and priests, others that these are employees or volunteers. However, there is a deeper understanding and practice of the church behind the presence of these ecclesial lay ministers, which is both new and evolving in the Catholic theology of the church.

"In the Name of the Church" makes an important contribution to this discussion, featuring the vocational and authorization dimensions of these new ministers and ministries.

The council moved from an understanding of church, often focused on its institutional and clerical elements, to a theology rooted in the vocation of all the baptized in the differentiated body of Christ, where ordained and lay are common disciples of Christ in serving the one mission of the church. Within the variety of the lay vocation, many are called to marriage, most are called to labor in the world, but some carry a vocation to service within the church.

The understanding of these roles and the structures of the church that support and form them are early in their evolution. The U.S. bishops have given helpful direction to the development at this stage of its history: "Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord" (2005). This volume is the result of a consultation among the bishops, theologians and experienced ministers, providing an interdisciplinary exploration that will inevitably contribute to the development of these ministries.

Characteristic of these ministries is leadership, authorization, collaboration with priests and bishops, and appropriate formation.
The volume ends with eight conclusions: Lay ecclesial ministries are the work of the Holy Spirit, are rooted in baptism and are a genuine vocation. They create a distinctive set of relationships within the church, serve in the name of the church, are authorized by the bishop or his delegate, are invested by rituals which affirm and celebrate the particular ministry, and require systems of support and consistent policy across the church in the United States.

The book, divided into 10 chapters, includes a keynote address by Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George and an appendix listing the 43 networks, universities and institutions that sponsored the 2011 Collegeville National Symposium on Lay Ecclesial Ministry, on which the book is based.

The first part of the book includes an overview of the church's teaching on this category of ministry and the collaborative theological approach serving the process outlined in the volume. The second part focuses on vocation from a theological and biblical perspective, with an exemplary essay on one of these ministries, directors of religious education. Three essays on authorization follow, from theological, canonical and episcopal points of view. The last part includes two essays on the ritualization appropriate to these ministries, using the formation, certification and commissioning ritual of the Archdiocese of Chicago as the example.

Ecclesial lay ministries were developed out of the mission needs of Africa and Latin America before the council. The renewed understanding of baptism, ministry and communion developed in the council gave a doctrinal basis and universal impetus to a renewed lay vocation, including ecclesial vocations within them.

The variety of cultures and ecclesial needs and leadership around the world have begun to fill out this vision of the council with an emerging theology and practice of ministry. This volume harvests some of the best U.S. thinking on the understanding and implementation of ministry. It will be important reading not only for ecclesial ministers, lay and clergy, but for all informed Catholics in leadership, so that this vision may imbue the full life of the church in the 21st century.

—Brother Jeffrey Gros, FSC


The Reviewers
—Rachelle Linner, a freelance writer and reviewer, has a master's in theological studies from Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
—Regina Lordan is former assistant international editor of Catholic News Service.
—Brian Welter is studying for his doctorate in systematic theology and teaching English in Taiwan.
—Christian Schools Brother Jeffrey Gros is resident scholar in Catholic studies at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill.