HOMEPAGE for this issue: November 16, 2011 // Download PDF Version // Click to install/update Adobe Reader on your computer

Authors offer fresh perspectives on an ancient church

By Brother Jeffrey Gros, F.S.C., Catholic News Service

Jesuit Father Norman Tanner's "New Short History of the Catholic Church" and Father Robert Barron's "Catholicism" give a fresh view to important perspectives on Catholicism. They are welcome additions for the Catholic reader interested in a brief overview either of the Church's story or of the central mysteries of the faith. They are also accessible and brief introductions suitable for the interested non-Catholic reader or the returning Catholic who has been estranged from the tradition or uninformed about its history and content.

The history, by the premier Jesuit English historian of the Church's councils, provides a remarkably brief, clear and readable account of the Catholic component of Christianity from its biblical foundation to the 21st century. It includes some penetrating questions in its conclusion about Catholicism's future as it continues to work out the implications of the First and Second Vatican Councils in the context of a newly globalizing Church, in dialogue with the great world religions; economic, technological and political forces; ecumenical progress among Christians; and a commitment to inculturation in a variety of new contexts.

Father Tanner's mastery of conciliar history enables him to give a harmonious and integrated account of the continuities, discontinuities and unresolved issues at each moment in history. His account of the relationship between Trent (1545-1563), Vatican I (1870) and Vatican II (1962-1965), and summary of their results and continuing contribution are worth the whole of the book.

Amid the debates about history circulating in popular Catholicism and the critics of the Church today are caricatures of these three councils and their results, in both the serious literature and in journalistic accounts. These caricatures are a burden on both the relations among Christians and their witness in contemporary society. This brief, comprehensive and careful history should be a good resource for correcting distortions.

The author balances the history of institutions, doctrines and leaders, with an account of popular religion, saints, the arts and the wider society within which the Church operated and operates today. As a brief account, his judgments will be challenged by those who have a broad knowledge of the story, and some of his factual errors will be corrected. However these minor quibbles will not compromise the usefulness of the volume in a variety of contexts.

Father Barron gives a fresh and appealing account of the Catholic faith, enhanced by a beautifully illustrated volume. The treatment of the Christian faith, while richly informed by Catholic doctrine, literature and the arts, is presented from the standpoint of beauty. The treatment exudes the enthusiasm of the author not only for the incarnational character of the Christian faith, but also its incarnation in the Christian imagination and concrete cultural expressions.

The book includes 10 chapters covering revelation, the beatitudes, the mystery of God and classical approaches to understanding, Mary, Peter and Paul, the Church, the Eucharist and other sacraments, the communion of saints, the Christian life in prayer and the Holy Spirit, ending appropriately with the last things: heaven, hell and purgatory. Ending, he returns to the beginning—God with us, the epitome of all the elements of the Christian faith centered on the Trinity.

Each of the themes are enriched by an aesthetic sense of the Catholic doctrine as well as a variety of imaginative and creative forms in which it has been embodied in the lives of Christians and the arts they have produced to honor God, Mary, the saints and the Church. This book is suitable not only for those who want to be informed and enriched by the Catholic faith. It will also make for serious spiritual reading for expanding and deepening the appreciation of all aspects of the rich treasures provided in Catholic teaching. The book is a witness to the conviction that the Christian Gospel is about the abundance of life in Christ, and not just about the accuracy of orthodox doctrine or a disciplined life.

Both volumes provide a rich foundation for Catholic understanding and witness and could also provide resources for those who wish to enrich their Catholic witness within conversation among Christians, or to inform those outside who wish to discover the richness of Catholic self-understanding.

Brother Gros, a member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, is resident scholar in Catholic studies at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill.