Collections on faith offer smorgasbord of ideas, some quite tasty
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Reviewed by Bob Zyskowski
Catholic News Service
Why do people think differently from you about religion?
Why do some who call themselves believers not seem to believe things you believe?
Cradle Catholics who have never had a crisis of faith, never gone through a time when they didn’t go to church wouldn’t seem to have any use for books like “Faith at the Edge,” edited by Angelo Matera, or “How to Believe” by Jon Spayde.
These two works – the former a collection of commentary pieces and the latter a collection of interviews – are targeted for those seeking something to believe in or perhaps a spiritual home in which to land.
But both works contain nuggets of wisdom, insights into the mystery of God that will nurture the faith of those looking for a place to call home as well as those who long ago found a faith where they belong.
That’s not to say that all that’s written here is good.
Look at the offerings in both books as you would dishes on a luncheon buffet: Some are tastier than others. Some are better for you than others. Some might be hard to swallow. But you don’t know if you like something until you try it.
Don’t be scared away by a chapter titled “Gay and Catholic” in “Faith on the Edge.” Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, writer David Morrison notes, “The Catholic Church looks at me as an adult and says, ‘You might live with same-sex attraction, you might even define yourself as a homosexual, but we think that you can and will be a saint.’ And that, I believe, is head and shoulders above what anyone else says on the topic.”
Note, though, that there are also thoughts like that of a candidate in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: She sees the church as authoritarian – that it puts the rights of the institution ahead of an individual’s rights – and she thinks this may be OK: “An easier choice might not do the job, might not be able to tame this thing in me that needs taming.”
Taming?
Could it be that that’s what some people need from the church?
Easier to digest is the column by the young adult mom who found comfort in the rituals of prayer from her own Catholic school childhood and who is determined to give this as a gift to her own children, especially the connection with Mary.
Other pieces, however, show naive perspectives on life, on women, on women religious, on bishops. You read some of it and you want to shout “Grow up!” and “Get a life!”
“How to Believe” interviews Christians somewhat all over the map – if your map included mostly “blue” states. Again, some of the stuff is really pretty good.
The Rev. James W. Jones, an Episcopal priest, says that in the last three or four decades North America has secularized so rapidly that millions of people have lost touch with what a genuine religious tradition is all about.
“So the field of Christianity is left to the noisiest and the most media savvy to define,” Rev. Jones said. “Many people are doing this noisy defining with a political purpose. And the press, which knows nothing about religion, has seized on the noise and the battle, created this dramatic but simplistic dichotomy between secularism on the one hand and fundamentalism on the other – as if those were the only alternatives.”
And theologian Kosuke Koyama shares this: “I can’t help wondering what my experience and understanding of God would be like, what my picture of Christ would be, and what faith would mean to me if I could summon up more generosity and compassion and act on these impulses.”
Tasty morsels as satisfying as that aren’t on every page, of course. As you work your way around the smorgasbord in “Faith at the Edge” and “How to Believe,” you’ll find enough food for thought to fuel a curious appetite.
Zyskowski is associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He blogs about books online at: www.bobzbookreviews.blogspot.com.
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