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n Holy Week my mind turns toJerusalem, as I recall my participa-tion in the liturgies and pilgrim

devotions there. It is also a time forremembering the Church of Jerusalem.Palm Sunday is a special day for HolyLand Christians as they turn out forthe procession from Bethpage down theMount of Olives, past the graves ofthose buried facing west toward theGolden Gate, where by Jewish traditionthe Messiah is expected to appear toestablish the kingdom, to St. Anne’s inthe Old City. During the last twodecades, the Palm Sunday processionhas become a festival of PalestinianChristian identity, with the faithfulpouring in from all over the region,from Galilee and, if possible, the WestBank as well as Jerusalem.

The route is so crowded the bestword to describe it is “thronged” withpeople. Boy scouts in uniform, somequite beyond adolescence, providecrowd control along the margins of theroad. Religious in a great variety ofhabits are strung throughout the crowd,and prelates of the different Catholicchurches in their distinctive robes cometoward the end, with the canons of theHoly Sepulchre and the Latin Patriarchat the very end. When the processionends at St. Anne’s, those privileged tosqueeze into the monastery garden hearan exhortation from the patriarch fol-lowed by blessing with a relic of thetrue cross.

The Palm Sunday procession, a walkof a few kilometers under the hot sun,pressed around with sunburned, dustypilgrims from many lands, may be asclose as today’s Christians will ever getto feeling what it was like to celebrate aholy day in St. Helena’s Jerusalem.

I associate Holy Thursday with theCenacle or Upper Room, but that sitewas taken over by the Muslims cen-turies ago, and the lower floor is nowoccupied by a yeshiva. Elsewhere theday might be an occasion for interreli-gious dialogue. In Jerusalem, it prompts

scrupulous observance of the StatusQuo agreement, which allows variousdenominations and religions to sharethe same holy sites. On Holy Thursday,I think instead of the OlivetanBenedictine double monastery of AbuGosh, built on the ruins of a 12th-cen-tury Crusader church, where the monksand nuns chant the liturgy in antipho-ny. “Ubi Caritas,” beautiful wherever itis sung during the washing of the feet,is ever so beautiful reverberating withinthose ancient stone walls.

On Holy Thursday night and earlyGood Friday, I think of St. Peter inGallicantu, the traditional site of Jesus’imprisonment, the trial beforeCaiaphas and Peter’s denial (see Am.,1/24). The Pit, the hollowed-out cis-tern where Jesus is said to have beenkept the night before his death, is thevery best place to share in his hour ofdarkness. St. Peter’s is also where in1998 I watched the announcement ofthe Northern Ireland Good FridayAgreement, and so I pray that day forpeace with justice and forgiveness inthe Holy Land, too.

On Good Friday, I also think of theCalvary Chapel at the Church of theHoly Sepulchre. The chapel itself,though I have been privileged to cele-brate Mass there a number of times,does little for me until I think of thefrail Pope John Paul II making his wayback there, up the very steep steps, atthe end of his pilgrimage in 2000, topray in solitude for 45 minutes. He hadmore true feeling for the marbled-overGolgotha than I ever will.

The nearby Holy Sepulchre, with itslow entrance, recreates the sensation ofthe disciples bending down low to peerinto the empty tomb. But for Easter, Ithink of the Easter Vigil service at AbuGosh, where deep in a crypt beneaththe church, amid candlelight, for cate-chumens and infants baptized intoChrist’s death and rising, the resurrec-tion is made real again.

DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J.

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES

IOF MANY THINGS

Cover: Detail from “The Disputationof the Sacrament,” a fresco byRaphael. CNS photo courtesyCatholic Communication Campaign

EDITOR IN CHIEFDrew Christiansen, S.J.

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www.americamagazine.org Vol. 204 No. 14, Whole No. 4931 april 25, 2011

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O N T H E W E B

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15

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CONTENTS

A R T I C L E S

11 HOLDING ONEven in death, Christ never let go. Vincent J. Miller

15 THE GOOD FIGHTHow Christians suffer, die and rise with JesusJerome Kodell

C O L U M N S & D E PA R T M E N T S

4 Current Comment

5 Editorial Easter Peace

6 Signs of the Times

9 Column Dawn Out of Darkness Margaret Silf

36 Letters

39 The Word Conspiratory FaithBarbara E. Reid

B O O K S & C U LT U R E

21 SPRING BOOKS God’s Century; Townie; Clouds of Witnesses; In the Valley of the Shadow; God’s Invitation; A Widow’s StoryFILMMAKING Searching for Hart Crane

Richard Rohr, O.F.M., right, talks about his new book,Falling Upward, on our podcast, and Karen Sue Smithreviews the film “Poetry.” Plus, the editors offer video reflec-tions for the Easter season. All at americamagazine.org.

O N T H E W E B

4 America April 25, 2011

CURRENT COMMENT

Goldstone Reports AgainDepending on one’s view, the distinguished South Africanjurist Richard Goldstone has either once more demon-strated the honesty of his thinking or has cravenly capitu-lated to Israeli pressure. In an op-ed article in TheWashington Post on April 1, he admitted that if he hadknown what has recently been revealed by internal Israeliinvestigations, the U.N. report he chaired on Israel’sOperation Cast Lead, a 2008 military campaign againstGaza, would have been different. Israeli officials, who haveheretofore reviled Goldstone, praised him and played hisstatement as if it were a renunciation of the report’s con-clusions. The former Israeli ambassador to the UnitedNations, Gabriela Shalev, went so far as to contend that “ifin the future we have to defend ourselves againstterror...there will be no way to deal with this terror otherthan the way we did in Cast Lead.”

But Goldstone later told the press that, with one excep-tion, “as presently advised I have no reason to believe thatany part of the report needs to be reconsidered at thistime.” According to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rightsgroup, the internal Israeli inquiry cited by Goldstone “byno means absolves Israel of all grave allegations regardingits conduct.” Among the issues still deserving scrutiny, thegroup said, “are the levels of force authorized; the use ofwhite phosphorous and inherently inaccurate mortar shellsin densely populated areas; the determination that govern-ment office buildings were legitimate targets; and theobstruction of and harm to ambulances.” In addition,because of lack of Israeli cooperation, the Goldstone teamwas never able to look into Israeli policymaking. For theseand other reasons the U.N. process ought to continue.

At the same time, Hamas, the governing party in Gaza,needs to be held responsible for its use of rockets againstIsraeli civilians and for failing to conduct investigations ofalleged war crimes on its side.

Tough Talk From DublinDuring a lecture at Marquette University last week (report-ed in America, “Signs of the Times,” 4/18), the archbishopof Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, known as a tough talker onthe topic of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, talkedtough. He described, among other things, the inevitableresults of a clerical culture that refused to take basic precau-tions against abuse (one priest’s residence featured a swim-ming pool open only to children), the difficulty of “bringingan institution around to the conviction that the truth mustbe told” and the benefit of government-sponsored audits,

something resisted by many bishops and religious superiors. The most surprising admission was this: “...with perhaps

two exceptions I have not encountered a real and uncondi-tional admission of guilt and responsibility on the part ofpriest offenders in my diocese.” The inability of manyabusers to feel remorse has been well documented. Somepsychologists note that the two most prevalent traitsamong abusers are narcissism and grandiosity. The narcis-sist cares only about his own needs; others exist simply togratify him. The grandiose person acts as a kind of PiedPiper, easily drawing children into his terrible orbit.Archbishop Martin’s comments make clear that thesemalign pathologies run deep and that the church is, inmany places, still resisting a complete truth-telling. Weneed more bishops to speak the truth as bluntly and fre-quently as Archbishop Martin has done.

Budget Cuts Hurt WomenMany proposals to cut federal spending on entitlementstend to gloss over a significant fact: entitlements benefitwomen—particularly the nation’s poorest women—to amuch greater extent than men. The reasons are obvious:women on average earn less than men but live longer. Singleparents, who are overwhelmingly female, must stretch theirincomes across decades as they rear their children. Manywomen with young children work part time, and employersseldom offer health insurance or other benefits for part-time work. Wage parity, which would help women and chil-dren enormously, still would not close the gaps produced bylongevity and childrearing. Here is the problem: since enti-tlements disproportionately benefit women, cuts in entitle-ments disproportionately harm them.

Consider Medicaid, the state-federal program for thepoorest, sickest and/or most disabled Americans. Womenmake up three-quarters of the adults covered. That totals17 million women between the ages of 18 and 64; most arepregnant or have children under 18. Few voters realize thatMedicaid finances 41 percent of all births in the UnitedStates. These are births among the poor. Medicaid alsocovers 43 percent of all nursing home spending. Theseentitlements are vital, not just for the poor and not just forwomen, but for a healthy society.

Unlike abortion, these services are authentic women’shealth issues. As such they ought not be cut even to reducethe deficit. Other expenses—administrative duplication, forexample—should be cut and are already being removedthrough the Affordable Care Act of 2010. A clear linkbetween women and entitlements is crucial information forthe ongoing debates about the budget and deficit-reduction.

eace be with you.” That first Easter evening Jesus’greeting burst through the gloom and confusion ofthe upper room. The disciples’ grief over Jesus’ death,

their dismay over Jesus’ rejection by Israel’s leaders, theirshame over abandoning Jesus at the cross, their bewildermentover the empty tomb and Mary Magadalene’s wild report—all those feelings came to an abrupt halt with the familiarsalutation: Peace be with you. But at that moment, Jesus’ salu-tation must have been more shocking than reassuring. Theirheads must have been teeming with questions, with doubtsand phantom terrors. What could these words mean?

When we Christians hear this Easter greeting anewthis year, we too should be dismayed as much as consoled.For the peace of the risen Christ ushers us into a new exis-tence, where nothing will ever again be the same. Because itis soul-transforming, Christ’s peace is a costly gift thatdemands radical conversion. Because that peace is all-embracing, uniting us with all sorts of people we would oth-erwise avoid, it rips away our prejudices and tears asunderthe protective walls that afford us comfortable assurance. AsJesus explained, “Not as the world gives, do I give.”

The peace of Christ heralds the beginning of a newage. We are being drawn into a new way of life where theworld as we know it—the world of black and white con-trasts, of rivalries and wars, of domination and oppression,of zero-sum solutions and justified inequality—should loseits grip on our minds and hearts. Christ’s peace should castout the fear that runs the world and too easily takes ourimaginations captive. In the glow of Christ’s peace, the fearthat chills our hearts, puts us on guard and sets us, howeversubtly, against one another should seep away. We should beset free to live boldly in hope and to challenge those whowould shackle our Christian visions.

A primary effect of Easter peace is to unite the churchitself. For St. Paul “the bond of peace” Christ gives his disci-ples defines the church. It unites its members across class,gender and ethnic barriers: slave-free, male-female, Jew-Greek. The bond of peace is more essential to the church’sidentity, in Paul’s estimation, than any charisms or officeshis disciples may exercise, and in the Christian communitygenuine unity ought to weigh even more heavily than anyclaims of religious lineage or preening orthodoxy.

Insofar as any of us in the U.S. church today may beon the prowl to catch out anyone else in a dissident positionor find ourselves perpetually on the attack, Christ’s greetingof peace will be an uncomfortable challenge. Insofar as we

deny the gifts of others and steam-roll over them in pursuit of unifor-mity of opinion, we have severedourselves from the bond of peace,which is the risen Christ himself.Insofar as we drag the church intopartisan political rivalries or seekfrom it petty political advantage, weare corroding the bonds of charity.Wherever the charism of unity is atwork, where bridges are built, wherecommon ground is celebrated and where enmities are over-come, there Easter peace is at work, healing, strengtheningand making the many one in the body of Christ.

From the church, God’s peace ripples out to fill theworld: “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Thebaptized are charged with extending Christ’s work of rec-onciliation. We are fortunate to live in a time when, in theface of many armed conflicts, people inside and outside thechurch are taking up the challenge of peacemaking.Whether it is lay communities like Focolare and theCommunity of Sant’Egidio, Catholic nongovernmentalorganizations like Caritas Internationalis and CatholicRelief Services or teams of academics and fieldworkers inthe Catholic Peacebuilding Network, women and men areworking to make Christ’s farewell gift of peace a reality inzones of conflict. Leading this movement, Pope BenedictXVI himself has reached out not only to the interfaithcommunity but also to agnostics and secular activists,inviting them to join in a common witness for peace atAssisi this coming October on the 25th anniversary of theAssisi Day of Prayer. Through all these peacemakers,Christ’s greeting, “Peace be with you,” echoes where itmost needs to be heard.

To help others find peace and to sustain themselvesfrom crisis to crisis, year after year, Christian peacemak-ers need themselves to draw deeply on God’s peace, whichis “so much greater than anything we can understand.”From the depths of the divine beauty they will draw inspi-ration, from the reserves of divine strength they will drawenergy, and in their vision of God and God’s kingdomthey will find unfailing hope. For those ready to be chal-lenged by Christ’s greeting of peace, for those open tohearing the call to be peacemakers in the broken places ofchurch and world, the risen Jesus’ Easter greeting por-tends a springtime of abounding grace.

Easter Peace ‘P

April 25, 2011 America 5

EDITORIAL


1952 in an apostolic constitution byPope Pius XII, who also noted thatstates may control the flow of migra-tion, but not for arbitrary reasons.

Immigrants make up 7.5 percent ofItaly’s population. Demographers saythat immigrants, most of whom areyoung, help balance Italy’s aging popu-lation and low birth rate. But somepolitical parties maintain that immi-gration has reached the saturationpoint.

Archbishop Antonio Veglio, presi-dent of the Pontifical Council forMigrants and Travelers, has said thatwhile governments have a legitimateright to regulate immigration, “there isnevertheless the human right to be res-cued and given emergency help.”Behind that statement lies a fact some-times cited by church experts: Overthe past 23 years, more than 15,000migrants have died trying to reachEurope—a toll that grows daily.

ore than 22,000 boat people, many fleeingpolitical unrest in North Africa, have arrivedon the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa this

year. The growing intensity of the fighting in Libya hasspurred more people to flee in recent weeks. Not all sur-vive the trip. About 150 people drowned on April 6 whentheir boat capsized in rough seas. The new flow of NorthAfrican immigrants into Italy is putting church teachingon immigration to the test.

Church leaders have underlined the broad right toemigrate, the specific rights of refugees and the responsi-bility of wealthier nations to welcome those in need. Buttheir moral advocacy has provoked criticism and evenderision among some Italians. Because Lampedusa liesonly 90 miles off the North African coast, it has longbeen the gateway to Europe for North Africans.Residents have complained that the island’s infrastruc-ture is overwhelmed. Authorities have been relocating

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

new arrivals to other Italian regions—whose residents seem not to wantthem either.

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, presi-dent of the Italian bishops’ conference,has called on Europe to recognize thatItaly cannot handle the migration flowby itself. European bishops meeting onApril 3 agreed, arguing that the crisis“requires the solidarity of all Europeancountries and their institutions.” ButCardinal Bagnasco also remindedItalians that the current immigrationemergency stems in part from long-standing global inequities. He saidEurope cannot keep out the world’spoor simply by patrolling its borders.

“It is an illusion to think that onecan live in peace, keeping at a distanceyoung populations that are burdenedby deprivation and that are legitimate-ly trying to satisfy their hunger,” thecardinal said. Persuading these peopleto remain in their homeland willrequire implementation of “policies of

true cooperation,” he said.The church suffered a significant

political backlash in the current cli-mate. Several groups and newspapersproposed that the Vatican open upconvents, seminaries and its ownunrented apartments to immigrants.In fact, Caritas Italy has alreadyarranged to lodge some 2,500 inchurch institutions. Church leaderssaid they wanted to show that theypractice what they preach and calledon all Italians to make a “new effort ofsolidarity,” despite the nation’s ownprolonged economic downturn.

This is not a popular message thesedays, but it is very much part of tradi-tional church teaching on immigra-tion. The responsibility to welcomethe stranger has roots in the Bible, andas Pope Benedict XVI recently noted,Jesus was himself a refugee when theHoly Family fled into Egypt. The“right to emigrate” was defended in

I T A L Y

Church Teaching Tested By Immigration Crisis

Migrants from North Africa are met byItalian security near the southern Italianisland of Lampedusa on March 14.

M


S E C U R I T Y

World Bank: 1.5Billion TrappedBy Violence

ome 1.5 billion people live incountries affected by repeatedcycles of political and criminal

violence, the World Bank reports in itslatest development study. Noting thatmilitary and development disciplinestoo often work on separate paths,World Bank President RobertZoellick called for bringing securityand development together to break thecycles of fragility and violence that trapstates in conflict and rob their citizensof economic and human developmentopportunities.

“While much of the world hasmade rapid progress in reducingpoverty over the past 60 years, areassuffering from political instability and

criminal violence are being left farbehind and face stagnation, both interms of economic growth and disap-pointing human development indica-tors,” said Justin Lin, the World Bank’schief economist.

People living in countries currentlyaffected by violence are twice as likelyto be undernourished, and 50 percentmore likely to be impoverished. Theirchildren are three times as likely to beout of school, researchers report. Morethan 42 million people are displacedglobally as a result of conflict, violenceor human rights abuses. “And theeffects of violence in one area canspread to neighboring states and toother parts of the world,” saidZoellick, “hurting developmentprospects of others and impeding eco-nomic prospects for entire regions.”

The World Development Report2011: Conflict, Security andDevelopment found that “no low-income, fragile or conflict-affectedcountry has yet to achieve a singleMillennium Development Goal.”Those goals, accepted by Westernnations in 2000, aimed to cut in halfthe worst effects of global poverty in,for example, sanitation, health, hungerand educational attainment by 2015.Fixing the economic, political andsecurity problems that disrupt devel-opment and trap fragile states in vio-lence requires strengthening nationalinstitutions and improving governancein ways that prioritize citizen security,justice and jobs. It is a process thatmust be counted out in decades, notyears, researchers said.

According to the report, in the 21stcentury organized violence appears tobe spurred by a range of domestic andinternational stresses, like youthunemployment, income shocks, ten-sions among ethnic, religious or socialgroups and drug trafficking networks.

Conflict over resources, as in theDemocratic Republic of Congo, or vio-lence generated by drug trafficking, asin Mexico and Central America, exem-plify the style of violence in the newcentury. Unemployment was over-whelmingly cited as the most impor-tant factor for recruitment into gangsand rebel movements. Risks of violenceare greater when high social stressescombine with weak capacity or lack oflegitimacy in key national institutions,as indicated by the recent turbulence inthe Middle East and North Africa.

Building or restoring capable, legit-imate institutions is crucial becausethey are able to mediate the stressesthat otherwise lead to repeated wavesof violence and instability. More than90 percent of civil wars in the 2000soccurred in countries that had alreadyexperienced civil war in the previous30 years. The report suggests short-term measures aimed at successfultransitions from violence to rebuildconfidence between citizens and thestate. These include improving govern-ment transparency, special budget allo-cations for disadvantaged groups,removal of discriminatory laws andcredible commitments to realistictimelines for longer-term reform.S

Soldiers patrol in Goma, North KivuProvince, in the Democratic Republicof Congo.


ses only in their church’s traditionalterritory; otherwise, the responsibilityis left to the pope, often in consulta-tion with the Latin-rite bishops of theregion concerned. Bishop Puthur toldPope Benedict that the Syro-Malabarchurch’s traditional territory was all ofIndia until Latin-rite missionariesarrived in the 15th century. Now anyof its faithful who live outside KeralaState are subject to the authority of thelocal Latin-rite bishop.

U.K. Quakers BoycottIsraeli Settler ExportsQuakers in Britain have agreed toboycott products from Israeli settle-ments in the West Bank. The Quakersconsider the boycott a nonviolentmove for peace between Israelis andPalestinians. Half a million Israeli set-tlers live illegally in the West Bank,

including East Jerusalem. The settle-ments on Palestinian land are pro-tected by the Israeli government andmilitary, and they prevent or restrictaccess by Palestinians to their land,water supplies, education, health ser-vices and more. Extensive settlementinfrastructure divides up Palestinianland, creating obstacles to peace.Palestinian Quakers are calling forQuakers around the world to consid-er boycott, divestment and sanctionsbecause of the worsening situationcaused by Israel’s occupation. “Peoplematter more than territory,” said astatement from the Quakers. “Wepray fervently for both Israelis andPalestinians…. We hope they willfind an end to their fears and thebeginning of their mutual co-exis-tence based on a just peace.”

The attorney general of Virginia, Kenneth T.Cuccinelli II, issued an advisory opinion on April 8that while “personal protection constitutes a good andsufficient reason” under commonwealth law to carry aconcealed weapon into church, it was still acceptablefor places of worship to restrict or ban handguns fromtheir premises. • Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest,refused in a letter on April 11 to recant his belief thatwomen should be ordained to the priesthood andnow faces dismissal from the order and laicization. • James Martin,S.J., author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and America’sculture editor, will be honored with a Christopher Award at the 62ndannual ceremony in New York on May 19. • On April 12 the Vaticanordered the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, 74, whoadmitted to sexually abusing his nephew, to leave Belgium and under-go “spiritual and psychological treatment” as a final decision on his sta-tus was prepared. • On April 6 Virginia became the seventh state tobar abortion coverage from being offered by private insurance com-panies joining its proposed state-run health insurance exchange, whichis mandated by last year’s health care reform legislation.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

N E W S B R I E F SBishops Divided on Pro-Choice PoliticiansAsked why there was so much disuni-ty on the question of pro-choiceCatholics receiving Communion,Denver’s Archbishop Charles J.Chaput told the audience at theUniversity of Notre Dame on April 8:“The reason...is that there is no unityamong the bishops about it.” He said,“There is unity among the bishopsabout abortion always being wrongand that you can’t be a Catholic and bein favor of abortion…but there’s justan inability among the bishops togeth-er to speak clearly on this matter andeven to say that it you’re Catholic andyou’re pro-choice, you can’t receiveholy Communion.” There is a fear, hesaid, that if bishops speak clearly onthe issue, they would make it difficultfor Catholic politicians to be electedand would disenfranchise the Catholiccommunity. The strategy clearly hasfailed, he said. “So let’s try somethingdifferent and see if it works. Let’s bevery, very clear on these matters.”

Church Conflict in IndiaThe Vatican and many of the Latin-rite bishops of India are not treatingthe Syro-Malabar Catholic Churchwith justice, Auxiliary Bishop BoscoPuthur of Ernakulam-Angamaly inKerala, India, told Pope Benedict XVIon April 7 during an ad limina visit toRome. While other Christians andother religions enjoy the freedom tobuild churches and conduct servicesanywhere in India, the EasternCatholic churches “are denied it, para-doxically not by the state, but by ourown ecclesiastical authorities,” thebishop said. Generally the leaders ofEastern Catholic churches, like theSyro-Malabar Church, enjoy full free-dom to elect bishops and erect dioce-

James Martin, S.J.

From CNS and other sources.

caught in the branches. She gazes at itbut now, in her mind’s eye, she nolonger sees a parachute hanging therein the tree but the possibility of a silkwedding gown, a gift from God. Forthe next weeks she spends every sparemoment with her needle, painstakinglytransforming an abandoned parachuteinto a uniquely beautiful weddinggown.

From his bed in the military hospi-tal, a lonely young Germanairman, recovering from dis-aster, sees the bridal couplepass by. His heart leaps witha sudden surge of hope.This time next year, per-haps, he will be with hisown young bride once more.He little guesses that thisEnglish bride is wearing hisparachute.

This time next year! Easter is a time tolook forward. Too often the Christianstory is told backwards, as if it weresolely about God’s rescue mission,God’s parachute, bailing us out of thewreckage of our sin. Easter is the timeto change the direction of our gaze andsee the rescue mission for what it canbecome: an invitation to participate inthe great adventure of becoming thepeople God is dreaming we can be andof transforming planet Earth into theseedbed of God’s kingdom.

I was recently in Ireland with afriend. As we ambled along the coun-try lanes, we saw our first lamb of theseason, staggering around on its shaky,spindly legs. My friend turned to greetme with the traditional Irish prayer forsuch occasions: “Go mbeirimid beo aran am seo aris,” which means, “May we

still be alive when this time comesround again.”

It is a lovely way of praying that wemight live to see another year, anotherspringtime, another new beginning.

May we be alive when the first lambof 2012 appears. May we be more thanjust alive—may we have grown, in theintervening year, a little closer to thefullness of life that Jesus incarnates.May the suffering people in all the

world’s places of anguishbe brought to newbeginnings on thereturning tides of hopeand trust and love thatEaster promises. Andmay we work and prayuntiringly to make thathope a reality.

You might ask: Butwhat can we do aboutthese situations? Per-

haps more than we think. Theparachute in the story did not changeovernight by magic into a bridal dress.The transformation took time, effort,energy, patience and perseverance, asthe bride-to-be changed it, stitch bylaborious stitch, into something radical-ly new. God invites each of us to work atthis transformation. We do it everytime we speak or act in ways thatincrease, however slightly, the level ofhope and trust and love in the world—by a word of encouragement, a small actof courage in confronting injustice, arefusal to join in the general grumblingabout life that leads us and others downthe track to despair and cynicism.

Stitch by stitch. Choice by choice.Moment by moment. These are theways we are called to work with God totransform Good Friday into Eastertide.

ere is a parable for Easter.The world is at war. TheBritish Isles are cloaked in

darkness. Into the midst of this blacknight a German pilot, his aircraft dis-abled by hostile fire, bails out to savehis life. Perhaps he prays as he plum-mets to the ground into the heart ofenemy territory. Perhaps, as he strug-gles to release his parachute, he has aflashback image of the girl he leftbehind and dares not hope to seeagain. Minutes later his parachutebecomes entangled in a tree, and he liesunconscious on the ground.

Dawn breaks. A young womanpasses by. She is lost in thought. Herlover has asked her to marry him. Shelongs to say yes. But who can afford tocelebrate a wedding in these dark days?Where will they find the ingredientsfor a wedding cake? Whatever couldshe wear for a bridal gown? Warningvoices tell her to wait until the war isover—but who knows when thatmight be, and she loves him and longsto be his bride now…for tomorrowmay never come.

And then her reverie is brutallyinterrupted. She almost stumbles overthe German airman lying in her path.Her heart knows what she must do.She covers him gently with her coatand places her jersey under his head.There is still a pulse. There is still life.She fetches help. The casualty will becared for—at least in his immediateneed. Beyond that, who knows?

The next day her path takes herback past the spot where she foundhim. The torn parachute is still there,

Dawn Out of Darkness

H

God invites each

of us to work attrans-

formation.


MARGARET S ILF

MARGARET SILF lives in Scotland. Her latestbooks are Roots and Wings, The Way ofWisdom and Compass Points.

An Easter Sunday procession in the townof Cospicua, Malta, in April 2003.


oments come that demand everything of us. A partner’s illnessrequires much more than we bargained for. An ethical conflictat work forces a decision that puts our job at risk. A politicalcrisis demands that we take a public stand amid imperfectchoices. We are pushed to our limits perhaps; but even more

we are entangled, hemmed in, held by our relationships and must decide if we willhold on to them in return.

Squeezed between our finitude and the brokenness of the world, we are tempt-ed to turn away, to wish to be dealt another hand. Isn’t there some other relation-ship that will better fulfill me? A less dysfunctional workplace? Couldn’t I have beenborn in a time when politics were clear and I would have stood with the angels? Weare tempted to hedge our bets, to give as little as possible to preserve our sense ofrighteousness. I stay in the relationship but hold back, subtly communicating howunfair this is to me. I finesse the ethical or political challenge, doing just enough ofthe right thing to save my self-respect but keeping my head down.

Such moments force us to decide who we really are. Reality puts our daydreamself-imaginings to the test. The world in its brokenness gives us the opportunityto say yes in the concrete, to love and to give ourselves in love to what is. Ourtemptations are as total as the demands placed upon us: not merely to refuse aparticular responsibility but to refuse reality itself. Do we embrace the world orflee into fantasy?

Such crises open into the hard grace of the paschal mystery. When creationwas broken by human sinfulness, God did not turn away or reshuffle the cards.The Creator doubled down on creation: insistently loving it, refusing to let it dieof its self-inflicted wounds, respecting its finitude by entering into it bodily—becoming subject even to its sin and violence.

NailsJesus’ embrace of sinful humanity was a free act but one that involved nails. Nailssignify both suffering and irrevocable binding, a frightfully demanding embrace ofwhat is. The paschal mystery is a strange freedom to commit fully. The world thatnailed Jesus to the cross was held firm in God’s saving embrace by those samenails.

At the heart of the paschal mystery lies not the cross but Christ’s body

MHolding On

BY VINCENT J. MILLER

EVEN IN DEATH, CHRIST NEVER LET GO.

VINCENT J. MILLER holds the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the Universityof Dayton in Ohio. He is writing a book on globalization, the church and discipleship.

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stretched out upon it. The Dutch theologian EdwardSchillebeeckx, O.P., attended to the human cost of Jesus’absolute commitment to his Father’s will. Jesus experi-enced God’s kingdom coming into being in his ministry.The same fidelity in which he preached the good news,healed the sick and practiced reconciliation also broughthim into conflict with the powerful and led to his aban-donment by the disciples. Jesus died watching it all fallapart. His faithful living of God’s gracious salvationstripped him of everything.Through that complete giving,which looked so much like fail-ure, God worked resurrection.It was through Jesus’ holding onamid complete loss that everything was saved.

God’s graceful giving has the last word. Paradoxically, lifeis found in death. Less paradoxically, life is found in a lovethat holds on through death. Such strength was not placidand assured for Jesus. He saw the loss of all that God hadbrought about in his ministry. It is no less difficult for us.Our dogmatic knowledge of the unity of the cross and res-urrection does not remove the darkness of the cross.Although we can talk about it from the outside, the passingover remains a mystery that we must live into. Real sufferingis always a surprise. We undergo not simply temporary pain,but real loss. There is no guarantee that any given crisis willturn out well, that our sacrifices will not be in vain or thatwe are holding onto anything more than a delusion.

Truths IntertwinedWithin the bounds of the paschal mystery—between givingto the point of death and the surprise of resurrection—liethe intertwined truths of suffering and gift, freedom andbinding. All of this can, of course, be twisted into amasochistic celebration of suffering for its own sake or anuncritical codependence that gives whatever the otherdemands no matter how destructive or pointless. These,however, pervert the cross into a passive acceptance of theworld’s sinfulness. What distinguishes the paschal mysteryfrom these debasements is the activeness of love. We followin God’s refusal to let the world remain unsaved.

Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, found in the heart of theeucharistic prayer, are the fundamental form of discipleship:“This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and ever-lasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so thatsins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me.” We “dothis” not simply in the Eucharist, but in our lives. We pourout our lifeblood as Jesus did, in love for the part of the “all”we encounter in our own lives.

The paschal mystery is the fundamental form ofChristian hope and grace. In it we are strengthened to faceand to embrace the suffering and violence of the world.

Isaiah’s Servant Songs portray our fearful response to theworld in straightforward and stark words. From the “man ofsuffering” we “hide our faces.” We simply turn away. If ourmedia-saturated world renders us callous to violence, westill have precious little tolerance for the victims of suffering.We still look away, having no patience for those “aching oneswhose wounds cannot be nursed” of whom Bob Dylan sang.

It is not easy to tend wounds that heal more slowly thanwe can observe, to accompany the friend whose life careens

from one crisis to another or towork with the powerlesscrushed in a system stackedagainst them. Myths ofprogress and success infect our

imaginations. The endless enthusiasm for healing and self-help programs on daytime talk shows, business trainingseminars and the like are shiny glosses over our deep anxi-ety about finitude. Our everyday language betrays ourdenial. We exhort the sick to “get well soon” but have littleto say to those who will not.

In the paschal mystery we are given the strength to lookin the eyes of the overwhelming need of the world—suffer-ing, disability, misfortune, injustice—and the courage torespond somehow in love.

We are not God. Precisely as we are squeezed betweenour finitude (our limited power, the short spans of our lives)and the searing need around us, we are thrown into thegrace of the paschal mystery. There are times that demandaction. Others present burdens so heavy that one can onlyhold on, trying to remain faithful, feeling powerless in theface of overwhelming need. And there are times when ourmost sincere efforts are not enough. Whatever the adequa-cy of our powers to the situation, we do what we can to helppush the world and those who inhabit it toward the fullnessit lacks. We give, haunted that we are fools, and sometimesexperience shocking moments and long tides of grace.Things work out in a way that did not seem possible andour seemingly insignificant contributions play a part.Things heal. Justice is done. Salvation takes place.

Truth in the MundaneLife is, of course, much more than crisis and struggle. Ifmajor challenges trumpet the unavoidability of the paschalmystery, the same truth whispers in the mundane rhythms oflife. To love is to bind oneself to others’ finitude. Theirbreath, in which we thrill, will one day cease. To commit one-self to any meaningful project is to court frustration and loss.

In this, the mundane teaches the full truth of the paschalmystery: sacrifice is subordinate to love. We hold on notwith stoic tolerance of suffering but in love illuminated byfaith in the possibility of salvation.

We are well aware of the weakness of our love manifest


We follow in God’s refusal tolet the world remain unsaved.

from the outside. Full clarity comes only with the eschaton.Our bodies are a fundamental touch point of the

paschal mystery. Finitude, need and gift are all embodiedexperiences. The Gnostic dream of escaping the body isprecisely a refusal of the paschal mystery’s insistence on

bodily redemption. Films like “Avatar”and online experiences like “SecondLife” herald the virtual fulfillment of thisancient dream. Our off-screen lives,however, are haunted by a much morepervasive disconnect. Globalizationstretches economic relationships across

the world: I am fed by Guatemalans and clothed byBangladeshis. Distance renders these life-sustaining rela-tionships abstract if not invisible, impoverishing our abilityto imagine our own interdependence and to respond to thedependence of others.

In the headline dramas and quiet corners of life weencounter the challenge, truth and grace of the paschal mys-tery. Do we flee from the needs of others in denial of ourown finitude, or do we hold on, giving our lives for others?In Bruce Springsteen’s words, “In the end what you don’tsurrender, well, the world just strips away.” In the paschalmystery, we surrender not to the world as it is but to its sur-prising salvation woven by God through our mortalembrace.

in interpersonal relations. But the same temptations ofescape and refusal mark the social and political as well.There is an apocalyptic mood in the church and abroad thatseeks to separate the world into the good and the bad. Thechurch’s public engagement is hamstrung by a novel use ofthe category of “intrinsically evil” that par-tisan activists, with the assent of manybishops, use to separate candidates intogood and evil. Lost in the process is thechurch’s moral witness to the many pro-found evils that (conveniently for the pow-erful) cannot be reduced to such a simplemoral calculus. Lacking the will for a complex debate ofissues and policies, we seek instead scapegoats, villains andrevolutionaries. We demand clarity and instant solutions.We are disgusted with the morass of compromise and poli-cy talk necessary to govern in service to the common good.

Hans Urs von Balthasar’s great insight into the drama ofsalvation can point us back to the paschal mystery. TheIncarnation does not bring clarity but a deepening of thedrama, he wrote. Good and evil become ever harder to dis-cern as God works on many fronts and evil reacts with evermore frantic vigor. Bright lines cannot be drawn; there isneither a safe reservation from sin nor a realm outside thebounds of God’s grace. We must engage the world as it ison all fronts amid a drama we live within rather than watch


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This Our ExileA Spiritual Journey withthe Refugees of East Africa JAMES MARTIN, S.J.

With a New Afterword by the AuthorWith stories that are darkly comic,inspirational, tragic, always provocative, and frankly incredible, this compellingwork is a wonderfully realized tributeto our shared humanity.

Jim Martin takes us on a journey to the heart of Africa, when he worked as a young Jesuit with refugees in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. His seamless combination of spiritual writing, reportage, travel narrative, humor, and recent history, will enlighten and inspire readers.

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n the early 1960s, when the racial struggle was white-hot, an interracial retreat was held at my monastery,Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas, sponsored by FriendshipHouse. One participant was a recent college graduate

at work in voter registration in the Mississippi delta area ofeastern Arkansas. In conversation we asked him, “Isn’tthat dangerous work you’re doing? We hear thereports of hatred and violence.”

“It’s true,” he said. “The hatred is vicious, and thepunishment is violent.”

“Have you ever been hurt yourself?” “Yes, I’ve been spit on, beaten with fists, with

pipes, with chains and left a bloody mess.” “But you’re pretty big. Weren’t you able to protect

yourself sometimes, to fight back?” “Yes. At first I did fight back. I made some of

them sorry they had attacked me. But then I realizedthat by fighting back I wasn’t getting anywhere. Thehatred coming at me in those fists and clubs wasbouncing right off me back into the air, and it couldjust continue to spread like electricity. I decided Iwould not fight back. I would let my body absorbthat hatred, so that some of it would die in my bodyand not bounce back into the world. I now see thatmy job in the midst of that evil is to make my body agrave for hate.”

We were all shaken by what this young man said.But what he was describing was the Gospel of Jesus.

We do not fight evil with evil. As Paul wrote to theRomans, “Do not be overcome by evil but overcomeevil with good” (12:21). The young man’s insight wasprofound, and his courage was great. But even hisinsight into what he was doing does not quite capturethe majesty of the Gospel of the death and resurrec-tion of Christ in us. Because when we make our bod-ies a grave for hate, the evil that we absorb does notsimply die. If we accept suffering in union withChrist, it becomes the dying of Jesus in us, and by the powerof the Holy Spirit it is transformed into resurrection. Insteadof simply dying and no longer having an evil effect, whatattacks us as sin returns to the world as grace.

Baptism, then DecisionIn St. Paul’s writings there are three kinds of death: physicaldeath, the common lot of all; sin, a step on the road to eter-nal death; and redemptive death, which leads to life. InJesus, without sin, the first and third types of death coincid-

The Good FightHow Christians suffer, die and rise with JesusBY JEROME KODELL

I


JEROME KODELL, O.S.B., is the abbot of Subiaco Abbey in Subiaco,Ark.

Isabel Rosado, 93, protests peacefully out-side the U.S. naval base in Vieques, Puerto

Rico, in May 2000. The white ribbonswoven into the fence symbolize peace.

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ed perfectly. His physical death became the sacramental signof his interior death.

We Christians, Paul says, are baptized into Christ’sdeath. At baptism we began a lifetime of growing intoredemptive death with Jesus. We empty ourselves of ego andself and lay down our lives in love and obedience as he did.As we move toward physical death, our interior death

should also be taking place. We have no choice about phys-ical death, but the other type is up to us: We decide whetherwe will die with Jesus.

We are not doomed by our circumstances. The choice isours. Will we live from our heart with Christ, pouring our-selves out in love? Or will we shield ourselves from theworld’s pains in fear and self-protection? Sometimes when Ivisit a person in a nursing home who is in a desperate con-dition, I am overwhelmed by the faith and peace that comefrom that person’s smiling eyes. Love pours forth from thedying of Jesus within. I recall Hemingway’s description ofthe fisherman Santiago: “Everything about him was oldexcept his eyes and they were the same color as the sea andwere cheerful and undefeated.” I return from the nursinghome as if I had made a retreat.

As the interior death grows, resurrection life also grows.Death and life are intertwined. Paul puts this beautifully:“Always carrying about in the body the death of Jesus, sothat the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body.For while we live, we are always being given up to death forJesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible inour mortal flesh” (2 Cor 4:10-11). The word for “death” hereis used only twice in the New Testament, both times byPaul, and it carries the nuance of “dying.” We carry about inour living bodies the dying of Jesus.

Where there is this kind of dying, there is always the res-urrection, the living of Jesus. And where the dying of Jesusis not happening, Paul says, neither is the resurrection hap-pening, no matter what kind of show we put on. “If I speakin the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not havelove, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).The life looks all right, but it sounds tinny. There is nothingto back it up.

Love as a DyingGospel love is not easy to do, but it is quite simple tounderstand. It means wanting what is best for the otherand doing what is best for the other. Feelings come and go,but love is a matter of decisions and actions. Love is a dyingto oneself and one’s own wishes and preferences, puttingthe other first. Jesus set the pattern for us in his self-emp-tying death.

During his public ministry, Jesus quoted the ancientproverb, “Do to others whatever you would have them do toyou” (Mt 7:12), but he set a higher standard with his newcommandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” ( Jn14:34). The norm for love among Jesus’ disciples is layingdown one’s life for others as he did. This was not only a sin-gle act at the end for Jesus but his life program, and now itis the program for his disciples. In Paul’s terminology this is“carrying about the dying of Jesus” (2 Cor 4:19) or being“crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20).


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the matter with you; don’t you know how bad it is? We fearto expose the subterranean river of joy that flows within us.

But when we spoil our interior dying by parading it, itloses its transforming power. Jesus himself speaks of a grainof wheat that must die in the ground or it will never sproutand give life. The dying has stopped, and there is no resur-rection. In another image, Jesus speaks of the foolishness ofsounding a trumpet when giving alms or of praying on a

street corner to get attention:“Truly I tell you, they havereceived their reward” (Mt 6:2).And as Georges Bernanos’scountry priest says: “When oursuffering has been dragged fromone pity to another, as from onemouth to another, we can no

longer respect or love it.” In Paul’s view, when we haul oursuffering onto the public stage, it decays.

Signs of ResurrectionWe ought never to hide the signs of the Resurrection, whichPaul calls the “fruit of the Spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, generosity, faithfulness (Gal 5:22). That is the dif-ference in the way death and resurrection are lived: thedying is the backdrop for the resurrection, which, by con-trast, is a public gift to the world, a light on a mountaintop,the light of hope. The world knows well enough the realities

We see the love, but ordinarily we do not see the innerdying of Jesus that supports it. That is the way it has to be.St. Maximilian Kolbe and Archbishop Oscar Romero wereable to make the ultimate sacrifice—martyrdom—at theend of their lives because in a mostly hidden way they hadbeen dying with Jesus in love for others moment bymoment, inch by inch, drop by drop in the time before.

The dying of Jesus is lived in secret. Even when we seeanother person suffering patient-ly, we cannot see his or her inte-rior decision for love. But whatbecomes evident if we are dyingwith Jesus, whether we are con-scious of it or not, is the resur-rection light that begins to shine.We keep hidden our pain, oursuffering, the injustice we suffer, the loneliness, the bitterdisappointments in other people, ourselves, the church. Wedo not hide the good we do, but we do not parade it either.We rely on Jesus to be with us as we walk with him on ourown road to Calvary.

Often, however, we prefer the reverse: to advertise theinterior dying and to hide the resurrection. We want every-one to know about our pain, our stress, our hard work, theway we are misunderstood and the sacrifices we make. Yetwe are embarrassed to show a resurrection face to the world,because if we smile people might think we are naïve. What’s


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of spiritual death: sin, hypocrisy, injus-tice, hatred and violence; it can createthose for itself. But the world will seethe Resurrection only through discipleswho interiorize the dying of Jesus. Thereis no other source.

Faithful disciples of Christ, includingthose who pass long lonely days in a hos-pital or nursing home after decades onthe front lines, need to know that theyare still fighting the good fight and thatby offering their suffering as the dying ofJesus in them, they are transforming theworld. That college student in Arkansaswho let his own body absorb racialhatred also seemed to understand this.

It is said that an earthquake oftenbegins when a sliver of rock is dis-lodged deep in the earth. The sur-rounding mass adjusts slightly, whichstarts a chain reaction of larger adjust-ments until on the surface there is acataclysm. The faithful disciple whojoins his or her suffering to Christ is asliver of rock upsetting the sinful struc-ture of the world.


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members while insisting on a sharpdistinction between religious andpolitical authority. Differences alsoexist among religious communitiesregarding the acceptability of violence,with some taking a pacifist position,others reluctantly accepting the use ofviolence in special circumstances, as inthe just-war tradition, and othersaccepting violence as a legitimate wayto advance their religious objectives.

Similarly important is a religiouscommunity’s relationship with politi-

cal authority. Consensual indepen-dence obtains when “religion andstate enjoy autonomy from eachother and are mutually contentwith this autonomy.” The classicexample is the United States.

Conflictual independence pre-vails where a religious body man-ages to carve out a sphere of inde-pendence despite vigorous pres-sures by the state to control it, asin the case of the Catholic Churchin Communist Poland.

Consensual integration is char-acterized by mutual supportbetween the state and the domi-nant religion, as in the case of pre-sent-day Iran.

Finally, conflictual integrationexists where religion becomes sointegrated with the state as to loseall autonomy, as with theOrthodox Church in SovietRussia.

Having laid out these cate-gories, the authors devote a chapter to“the rise of politically assertive reli-gion.” They contend that prior to1500, and despite important differ-ences, the relation of Buddhism, Islam,Hinduism and Christianity to politicalauthority was one of consensual inte-gration, but that in the ensuing cen-turies their autonomy steadily dimin-

GOD’S CENTURYResurgent Religion And Global Politics

By Monica Duffy Toft, DanielPhilpott and Timothy Samuel ShahW. W. Norton. 276p $25.95

ack in the 1960s, there wasalmost universal acceptanceamong social scientists of

the “secularization thesis,” thebelief that as societies becamemore modern—more economicallydeveloped, technologically sophis-ticated, democratic, etc.—theywould become increasingly secular,to the point that religious beliefwould virtually disappear. As aresult, social scientists and the pol-icy makers who looked to them forguidance were surprised by theprominent political role of religionin the late 20th and early 21st cen-turies, whether in fostering the col-lapse of Communism or inspiringterrorism. In God’s Century, thepolitical scientists Monica DuffyToft, Daniel Philpott and TimothySamuel Shah (who teach atHarvard, Notre Dame and BostonUniversity, respectively) argue thatthe secularization thesis has beenrefuted by the events of the pastfour decades in which we have wit-nessed a resurgence on a global scalenot simply of religious belief but ofrobust political engagement by reli-gious actors. They further contendthat this resurgence of politicallyengaged religion gives every indicationof continuing into the foreseeablefuture.

To explain this rise in politically


BOOKS &CULTURE

B

assertive religion, and why in somecases it assumed peaceful and demo-cratic forms while in others it assumedviolent forms, the authors focus heavi-ly on two key variables: 1) politicaltheology and 2) the type of relation-ship existing between religious author-ity and political authority. Politicaltheology refers to “the set of ideas that

a religious community holds aboutpolitical authority and justice.”Religious communities vary widely inthe kinds of political theology theyembrace. Some seek a theocratic con-trol of the state; others emphasize per-sonal piety so strongly that theyeschew all political involvement; stillothers urge active citizenship for their

S P R I N G B O O K S | WILL IAM J . GOULD

AN INFLUENTIAL FORCE

ished until by the late 18th centuryand up through the mid-20th centurytheir relationship to the state hadbecome one of con-flictual integration.With the state sodominant, the secu-larization thesisseemed confirmed.Yet late in the 20th century, aspects ofmodernization itself, like globaliza-tion, advanced communications tech-nology and democratization, all con-tributed to religion’s political resur-gence by giving religious communitiesthe freedom to operate and organizepolitically, to promote their beliefs andto receive support from their co-reli-gionists in other countries.

Drawing upon an enormous rangeof data and concrete examples, Toft,Philpott and Shah then discuss theinfluence of religion over the past fourdecades on global democratization,terrorism, civil wars and work forpeace and justice, demonstrating theimportance in each case of a religiousactor’s political theology and its levelof independence from the state. Forexample, in discussing the prominentrole of the Catholic Church in foster-ing the Third Wave of democratiza-tion that took place from 1974 to1991, they note the church’s adoptionat the Second Vatican Council of apolitical theology committed tohuman rights and political freedom,including religious freedom, as well asits decision to reject consensual inte-gration as its model of church-staterelations in favor of one closely resem-bling consensual independence. Thisnew stance, coupled with its transna-tional organization and formidableresources, enabled the church to beextremely effective in promotingdemocratization around the world.

Religiously inspired terrorism,meanwhile, often results from a repres-sive regime that privileges a particularfaith or branch of a faith to the exclu-sion of others. If the excluded faith

feels it should be privileged instead andhas a political theology that embracesviolence for religious ends, then reli-

giously inspired ter-rorism may result.A case in point isSaudi Arabia’s priv-ileging of a particu-lar brand of Islam,

the Wahhabi school, which gave rise toan Islamist opposition that ultimatelyled to the global terrorism of AlQaeda.

Of course, where political theologyis concerned, there is considerablevariation among and within differentfaiths. For example, as the authors


ON THE WEBRichard Rohr, O.F.M., discusses his new book, Falling Upward.americamagazine.org/podcast

RON HANSEN

FATHERLESS SONTOWNIEA Memoir

By Andre Dubus IIIW. W. Norton. 400p $25.95

When Andre Dubus III was 10 yearsold, his father, Andre, called “Pop,” lefthis wife and four small children to bewith a pretty, rich girl attiny Bradford JuniorCollege, where hetaught English and cre-ative writing. The for-mer Mrs. PatriciaDubus first found workas a nurse’s aide, thenreturned to college andgot a job in social ser-vices. But she was goneall day and exhaustedwhen home. Even withPop’s alimony, the fami-ly of five was forced to live in squaloron a diet of sodas and Frito casserolesin one cheap rented house after anoth-er in the failed mill town of Haverhill,Mass. Soon the oldest girl, Suzanne,was falling in with losers, and after-

noon parties with drugs and sullenstrangers were common in the house.Andre’s younger brother Jeb wasfocused on a hidden life in his room,practicing classical guitar and havingan affair with an art teacher some 15years older than he. And the oldestson, Andre III, was furiously learningboxing and inflating his muscles with

weightlifting in order toprotect his kin from thehorrific, jail-worthy vio-lence of “the Avenues.”

The senior AndreDubus was increasinglybecoming an acclaimedwriter of graceful, sensi-tive, acutely observed shortstories during this period,but he was stunninglyoblivious to what was hap-pening to his abandonedchildren. Immersed in his

fiction writing and teaching, heseemed not to notice the filth or lack offood in his former wife’s house, or per-haps he just felt he could do nothingabout it. Inviting Andre III over for arare Sunday alone with his father, Pop

note, despite Vatican II’s endorsementof democratization, there were thosein the church like the Argentine hier-archy who resisted this development.Similarly, Islam contains a wide rangeof perspectives, prominent amongwhich is Sufism, which rejects violenceand promotes tolerance.

God’s Century is a very rich andilluminating work to which it isimpossible to do justice in a briefreview. It will be read with profit bysocial scientists, students of religionand policy makers.

WILLIAM J. GOULD is assistant dean for ju-niors at Fordham University, New York City.


Picturingthe Scientific RevolutionVolker R. RemmertTranslated by Ben Kern

“Visual material has attractedincreasing attention from histo-rians of science in recent years.Volker Remmert’s meticulousand closely-argued study of aparticular class of images—theengraved titlepages, titlepagevignettes, and frontispiecesof seventeenth-century mathe-

matical texts—shows just how much they mattered in thereconfiguration of early modern disciplines, and how muchthey can convey to us now. . . . His treatment is as beautifullyproduced as it is carefully documented, with more than a hundredillustrations. . . . ”

Adam Mosely, Renaissance Quarterly

ISBN 978-0-916101-67-12011 | paper over board | 301 pages | 109 images | $65.00Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts Series, Vol. 4

Joseph of NazarethThrough the CenturiesEdited by Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S.

Joseph of Nazareth Through theCenturies is a profusely illustratedbook of collected essays by adistinguished group of internationalscholars. This volume surveys thedevelopment in art, spirituality,and literature of the veneration ofSt. Joseph from the New Testamentthrough the Church Fathers, Middle

Ages, and Early Modern period, to the early 20th century. Fourteenessays are divided into five topical sections.

ISBN 978-0-916101-70-12011 | paper | 368 pages | 200 images | $60.00

MetropolitanParadisePhiladelphia’sWissahickon Valley1620-2020

David Contosta and Carol Franklin

Metropolitan Paradise is the story of the struggle to establish andmaintain connected natural systems within the matrix of an increasinglypervasive urban landscape with a view to offering a possible model forthe world’s cities.

ISBN 978-0-916101-66-42010 | paper | 976 pp | 1,300 images | $85.004-volume boxed set

The Bible in theLiterary Imaginationof the SpanishGolden AgeImages and Texts from Columbus to Velázquez

Terence O’Reilly

The Bible in the Literary Imagination of the Spanish Golden Ageidentifies the distinctive ways in which knowledge of the Bible wasacquired, interpreted, and transmitted in 16th- and 17th-centurySpain by studying a cross-section of the genres that flourishedduring this period: accounts by travellers and explorers, narrativefiction, biblical exegesis, poetry, drama, and painting.

ISBN 978-0-916101-63-32010 | paper over board | 320 pp | 53 images | $65.00Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts Series, Vol. 3

Volker R. Remmert

Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S.Editor

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY PRESS5600 City Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19131 610.660.3400 www.sjupress.com

New Releases from Saint Joseph’s University Press


and I knew then that if I wanted tostay this awake and alive, if I wantedto stay me, I would have to keep writ-ing.”

Andre Dubus III would later pub-lish The Cagekeeper and Other Storiesand the novel Bluesman, but it was in2000, when Oprah Winfrey chose hisHouse of Sand and Fog for her bookclub, and which was later made into anAcademy Award-nominated film, thathe found a public recognition far widerthan his father’s.

Andre senior was dead by then,having suffered a heart attack at age 62after being confined to a wheelchairfor 12 years following a freak car acci-dent that dramatically changed and

softened him. And his son was achanged man, too, a husband andfather who had given up his viciousresponses to others after recognizinghow much his own aggressiveness costhim, both emotionally and spiritually.

Looking into the New Testamentin his distress, he chanced upon theline, “Love one another.” His franklyconfessional, even-tempered, oftenshocking memoir is a testament notjust to a stubborn, against-all-oddssurvival but to a healed man who hasfound the redemptive power in fulfill-ing that command.

RON HANSEN’s novel A Wild Surge ofGuilty Passion will be published in June.

seeks to fill the barbecuing time byplaying catch but finds out his son hasnever learned to throw a baseball andnever heard of his Pop’s beloved RedSox, since his father never thought toinvite him to a game. When he is laterintroduced to the woman who willbecome his father’s third wife, he’llhave to ask where Manhattan is, andwhen later he is serving drinks at aparty, he will hear about Harvard LawSchool and have no clue about it.

It is only when Andre III enrolls inBradford that father and son get toknow each other, but then it is as haleand hearty drinking buddies, with Popinterested in the same co-eds and toomuch impressed with his son’s willing-ness to launch himself into a mercilessstreet fight with anyone foolishenough to insult him. But Andre IIIcan still be humiliated by the under-graduate girl whom he overhears say-ing, “That’s Dubus’s son. Look at him.He’s such a townie.”

“I’d heard the word before,” hereports. “They used it for the menthey’d see at Ronnie D’s bar down inBradford Square, the place where myfather drank with students andfriends. It’s where some men from thetown drank, too—plumbers and elec-tricians and millworkers, Sheetrockhangers and housepainters and off-duty cops: townies.” Andre III escapedthe stigma by quitting school and thenheading west to the University ofTexas, where he became a Marxist,earned a degree in sociology and tookup meditation. And then, in discon-tent and desperation back inMassachusetts, he discovered the yento write fiction just as his father had,and he sold his first-ever story toPlayboy magazine.

“I felt more like me than I ever had,as if the years I’d lived so far hadformed layers of skin and muscle overmyself that others saw as me when thereal one had been underneath allalong, and writing—even writingbadly—had peeled away those layers,

THOMAS P. RAUSCH

MISSION-DRIVENCLOUDS OF WITNESSESChristian Voices From Africa And Asia

By Mark A. Noll andCarolyn NystromInterVarsity Press. 286p $25

If Protestants came late to missionarywork, at least in part because of theCalvinist doctrine ofpredestination thatmade evangelizationseem unnecessary, theymore than made up fortheir tardiness in thelate 19th and 20th cen-turies, and those theyinfluenced have helpedchange the face of globalChristianity. At thebeginning of the lastcentury, more than four-fifths of the world’sChristians lived in Europe or NorthAmerica. Today, about two-thirds ofthem live outside those areas. Thisbook, by Mark Noll of Notre Dameand Carolyn Nystrom, a freelance

writer from Chicago, tells the storiesof 17 men and women from Africa,India, Korea and China who playedsignificant roles in plantingChristianity in those countries. Theauthors acknowledge that their surveyis fragmentary and preliminary. It islargely limited to those formed by theevangelical movement, though they

include the stories of sev-eral others not easily cate-gorized and of one RomanCatholic, Ignatius KungPin-Mei, bishop ofShanghai, who spent 30years in prison, more thanone-third of his life, forrefusing to join the gov-e r n m e n t - s p o n s o r e dChinese Catholic PatrioticAssociation. In 1979 PopeJohn Paul II named him acardinal in pectore, though

Pin-Mei did not learn of this until 10years later.

The legacies of some were mixed.John Chilembwe, born in Malawi,studied for more than two years at

into a Christian family in the south-east of India, was an evangelist whocontributed to the growth of theY.M.C.A. in India and later becamethe first Indian bishop in theAnglican Church and its second non-Briton. Shi Meiyu, also known asMary Stone, was born in Jiujiang to afamily converted by Methodist mis-sionaries; she studied at theUniversity of Michigan. Returning toChina as a medical doctor, she found-ed a hospital and later a nursingschool at Jiujiang, which combinedmedical training with evangelism.Today her school is part of JiujiangUniversity, a four-campus institutionwith over 30,000 students.

A number of those whose storiesare told have helped shape bothchurch life and Christian theology intheir countries. Some recognized theimportance of developing a trulyinculturated theology. Byang Kato, aNigerian, early on saw the importance

of developing a theology by and forAfricans. Today there are evangelicaltheological schools and journals inNigeria and elsewhere in Africa thatreflect his influence. Others sought toestablish indigenous Christian com-munities free of denominationalentanglements. In India, SundarSingh, a mystic born of a Sikh familyin northwest India, sought to integrateIndian models of spirituality into hisunderstanding of Christian faith. Inhis words, “Indians need the Water ofLife, but not the European cup.” The“Three-Self Movement,” churches thatwere “self-governing, self-supporting,and self-propagating,” was not aninvention of the Chinese CommunistParty but grew out of the idea ofindigenous local churches encouragedby missionaries like the AmericansRufus Anderson (1796-1880) andJohn Nevius (1829-93) and theBritish missionary Roland Allen(1868-1947). In China, missionaries

Lynchburg, Va., where his contactwith American racism radicalized hisown views on race and justice. On hisreturn to Africa, he worked to protectAfrican rights and led an uprisingagainst British colonial powers inMalawi in 1915. John Sung, a Chineseevangelist with a doctorate in chem-istry from the United States, preachedin a histrionic style like that of BillySunday; at one point he spent sixmonths in a psychiatric hospital. Y. T.Wu (Wu Yaozong), a Chinese follow-er of the social gospel, moved frompacifism after Japan’s brutal occupa-tion of much of China to an embraceof Mao Zedong’s Communism. Theleading role he played in the growth ofthe “Three-Self Movement” was at thecost of other Christian communitiesthat remained unregistered orbelonged to larger ecclesial commu-nions, even if it helped ProtestantChristianity survive the dark days ofMao’s regime.

The stories of many in the bookcontinue to inspire. Albert Luthuli, aZulu chief born in 1898 in Bulawayoin what is now Zimbabwe, was a laypreacher inspired by the doctrine ofcreation in the imago Dei, the image ofGod. A leader in the African NationalCongress, he fought for justice all hislife and received the Nobel Peace Prizein 1960. Janani Luwum, from north-ern Uganda, was a member of theAcholi tribe. As Anglican archbishopof Kampala, he worked regularly withCatholic leaders. After the diverting ofan Air France flight to Entebbe airportand the dramatic rescue of its Israelihostages, he became increasingly activein criticizing Idi Amin’s government,even though he continued to try towork with its representatives. He wasmurdered on Feb. 16, 1977, possiblyby Amin himself.

Pandita Ramabai was a Hinduwoman, born in 1858; after her con-version she devoted herself to theeducation of women and the securingof their rights. V. S. Azariah, born


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like John Sung and W. T. Wu favoredhouse churches, which are now grow-ing rapidly in China.

Because of the evangelical focus ofthe book, Catholic missionary work ismentioned only in passing, but it wassignificant. Beginning in the 16th and17th centuries, Jesuit, Franciscan andother Catholic missionaries in Chinaand Japan created Christian communi-ties that endured to modern times. In1952, when Western missionaries hadto leave China, there were one millionProtestants and three millionCatholics. These Christians paid ahigh price for their faith. An estimated8,000 mostly lay Korean Catholics

were killed in the mid-19th century.During the Boxer Rebellion (1900-1),some 4,000 Protestants and 30,000Catholics died in China. But theremarkable stories of these Africanand Asian men and women, ordainedand lay, professionally trained orcharismatic, whose zeal and commit-ment planted the faith so widely isinspirational for Catholics as well asevangelicals at a time when theCatholic Church is becoming moreconscious of its evangelical mission.

THOMAS P. RAUSCH, S.J., is the T. MarieChilton Professor of Catholic Theology atLoyola Marymount University.

the memories, but he regards the factthat “they keep following me around”as a “privileged insight.” For him, theeerie proximity, the sense of his life asa “compact, little thing,” of having a“semi-permeable soul,” of inhabiting “astark world”—the book is poetic, asobsessed with naming and renamingthe condition as analyzing it—is boththe door to faith at its elemental leveland the reason moderns find itincreasingly hard to enter.

For if Kugel’s subject is the “small”state of mind, his goad was his hospi-tal-bed reading on scientific explana-tions for religion and the New Atheistliterature that cites them. In the Valleyis Kugel’s own idiosyncratic volley inthe God/no-God wars. He foundhimself both fascinated and exasperat-ed by evolutionary biologists’ con-tention that religion is a “hyperactiveagency detection device,” the reflex ofattributing agency to every randomripple of the tall grass because back inthe day, a saber-tooth tiger wouldoften jump out. As big predatorsdeclined, goes the argument, thehypersensitivity to inexplicable phe-nomena lived on; and God or gods, theultimate Agent, became the (erro-

neous) receptacle for allthe corresponding emo-tion.

Kugel demurs. Heconcludes that howeverarchaic our agency detec-tion device may be, itremains valid regardingthe one irreducible mys-tery of material life:death. Our error, reallyour calamity, which hetracks back as far as theearly Middle Ages, is that

as we have gradually subtracted phe-nomena from the inexplicable list wehave come to think of our own role asprogressively “bigger,” to the pointwhere all agents outside of those hugeselves have been crowded out, render-ing faith incomprehensible. At which


DAVID VAN B IEMA

REASONS TO BELIEVEIN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOWOn the Foundations O f Religious Belief

By James L. KugelFree Press. 256p $26

One of the abiding mysteries in theBook of Psalms, a work that JamesKugel, Starr Professor of HebrewLiterature emeritus at Harvard, hasstudied probably as fruitfully as anyliving person, is the sudden pivot inmany of the so-called Psalms ofLamentation (or Complaints). Four-fifths of the way through, songsintensely devoted to bemoaning theirauthors’ dire straits abruptly shrug offtheir sackcloth and seem to proclaim,“Despite the fact that my bones aremelting and my heart failing, I assertmy faith in You.”

In his latest, most personal book, Inthe Valley of the Shadow, Kugeladvances a proposal that solves thatparticular mystery, although it extendsbeyond the psalms: that rather than“Despite all that,” it is “because of allthat”—because of the experience of

helplessness, because of the “eerieproximity” to death illustrated in theComplaints—that we profess faith.Tragedy lies in the loss of that sense ofhelplessness.

This insight did not come cheap.Ten years ago, when he was 54, Kugel’sdoctors diagnosed him with cancer (henever specifies whatkind) and gave him twoyears, perhaps five, to live.Obviously, he has beatenthe odds—the doctorsnow say he is cancer-free.(In the years since, in fact,he produced his magnifi-cent and provocative Howto Read the Bible.) Butduring his illness andgrueling treatment, heinhabited the placewhere, as he puts it, thebackground music suddenly stopped—that is, “the music of daily life…ofinfinite time and possibilities…nowsuddenly…replaced by nothing.”

Most people lucky enough to expe-rience that state and survive wouldhurry to forget it. Kugel does not chase

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Combining spiritualwriting, travel narrative,and humor, James Martin recalls his time

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978-1-57075-923-9 pbk $18.00

Judgment DayThe Struggle for Life on EarthPAUL COLLINS

A powerful warning of the perils of global warming and a mobilization of the Christian conscience to change our think-ing, our ways of acting, and so to save our planet. Collins examines the current crisis and the mental habits of thought that have contributed to our dilemma.978-1-57075-920-8 pbk $22.00

Time and EternityThe Uncollected Writings of Malcolm MuggeridgeEdited with an Introductionby Nicholas FlynnForeword byMother Teresa of Calcutta

Gathers together for the first time some of the

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Life Is Hard but God Is GoodAn Inquiry into SufferingADELE GONZALEZ

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The Christian Future and the Fate of the EarthTHOMAS BERRYEdited by John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker

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No Turning BackMy Summer with Daddy KingGURDON BREWSTER

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point death, the exception, becomesunbearably terrifying. Nor does Kugelthink that moderns can recover ourformer sense of the cosmos: “There wehang, so big that we can barely see thatwhich is real but…outside ourselves,and utterly unable to return to whatwas an earlier, truer sense of things.”

This is plausible but hardly conven-tionally uplifting, first, because onehates to feel this lost. And also becauseeven if we could recover the old way ofseeing, we would regain our reason tobelieve, but not (by this particularargument) any content for that belief.This is an occupational hazard ofarguing God/no-God; but Kugel oncewrote a book called On Being a Jew, sopresumably there was some kind offaith ready when he needed it. He doesnot explore it here.

Offsetting the aridity of his desti-nation, however, is the ride. Kugel hasalways worn his great erudition notjust lightly but alluringly, and a mem-oir/polemic frees him as never before.He unveils a stream of perfectlyframed illustrations, associations anddigressions featuring everything fromAfrican witchcraft to the psalms(exemplifying art that expresses both

death’s starkness and the only usefulresponse) to Leonard Cohen toWittgenstein to the ancient radiopunch line “Was you dere, Charlie?” tothe enduring puzzle of why we hit theelevator button when it clearly hasalready been pressed.

In the Valley of the Shadow’s othervirtue is Kugel’s indelible insistence onhis experience, in all its small, eerieparticularity. At one point he com-pares himself to Tiresias, the mythicalGreek who (involuntarily) shuttledback and forth from male to femaleand back again. This rendered himuniquely wise, but inquirers some-times found his wisdom disquieting.In the admittedly vast American genreof near-death tales, it is hard to imag-ine another book simultaneously sotough-minded, so uncanny and yet,despite all, so enjoyable. Kugel’s lastline is, “From way up here…I can seeyou all, floating.” What makes thisunnerving is that he is still down here,writing. What makes us grateful is thesame thing.

DAVID VAN BIEMA is writing a book on thehistory and cultural interpretation of thePsalms.

potter: “He does not understand” (Isa29:16).

Are such words blasphemous? WasGod foolish making us as we are? Orwas God inept? Did the one who fash-ioned us misunderstand our makeupor our propensities? But who of us hasnot at times harbored some of thesesame questions? Who has not asked:Why did God make the world the wayit is? Realizing that these are questionsposed by believers, and devout believ-ers at that, we can turn again to thefirst words of the poem and perhapseven make them our own.

The poems in God’s Invitation:Meditations on a Covenant Relationshipflow from Thomas Flowers’s reflec-tions on episodes from his own life,coupled with aspects of various bibli-cal characters or events that somehowrelate to those episodes. The 20 reflec-tions are creatively gathered under fiveheadings, each directly correspondingto one of the Old Testamentcovenants: the covenant that God ini-tiated with creation (Gn 9:16-17);with Abraham and his descendants(Gn 17:5-7); with the Israelites atSinai (Ex 20:5); with David and hisdynasty (2 Sm 7:16); and with allthose open to a new covenant ( Jer31:31-33). Flowers, a Jesuit scholastic,artfully weaves together threads thatare variously colored by his own expe-rience, vivid strands taken from bibli-

cal accounts and othersthat bear especially thehue of covenant theology.The poems are Flowers’sresponses to the ways hesees God active in his ownlife. They are personalprayers that reveal aspectsof his own spirituality andexplain the familiaritywith which he speaks toGod.

Poets always revealthemselves in their poetry.

Flowers’s self-revelation is twofold, inhis poem-prayers and in his recollec-


GOD’S INVITATIONMeditations on a CovenantRelationship

By Thomas Flowers, S.J.Paulist Press. 128p $12.95 (paperback)

If you made us for yourselfYou truly are a fool.

—“Credo”

If the first words of this poem do notget the reader’s attention, very littlewill. They are obviously words of abeliever, one who acknowledges theexistence of the Creator. Though defi-

DIANNE BERGANT

GOODNESS IN OUR MIDSTnitely a believer, thispoet still appears to besomething of a skeptic,wondering about God’sintentions, the value ofthe Creator’s creationand perhaps the skillwith which God creates.Nonetheless, the senti-ment in the poem isreminiscent of a passagefound in the Book ofIsaiah. Employing theimage of God as a potter, the prophetwonders if the vessel dares say of the

A WIDOW’S STORYA Memoir

By Joyce Carol OatesEcco. 432p $27.99

Millions of readers are familiar withthe oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates, whohas written well over 100books of fiction, shortstories, plays and poetryand is the recipient ofnumerous literaryawards.

In A Widow’s StoryOates describes inwrenching detail herexcruciating grief afterthe death of her hus-band, Raymond Smith,following a short illnessthree years ago. She isovercome by a “kind of visceral terror”and sinks into depression, losesweight, endures sleepless nights andblames herself for not taking bettercare of her husband.

“I just feel exhausted, groggyaround people and want to crawl awaysomewhere and sleep,” she tells afriend.

She struggles with resentment,despair, rage, bitterness, fury and guiltand often thinks about suicide, but inthe end rejects that option. Within

days of her husband’s death, theauthor’s “consoling fantasy” is to “swal-low as many pills as seem feasible, toput myself to sleep; that is, to sleepforever; for truly I want to die, I am sovery tired.” Oates accumulates bottlesof pills for depression and worries that

she will become addicted.Oates is assailed by a

voice she identifies as abasilisk, a mythical lizard-like monster that insistsshe is “utterlyunloved…of no moreworth than a pail ofgarbage.” She is so para-lyzed by grief that she hasneither the physical normental energy to beginwriting again. “No morecould I plan a new novel

than I could trek across the Sahara orAntarctica,” she says.

Momentary consolation comeswhen she discovers an unsentValentine card “To My Beloved Wife”and a short phone message left thevery night Smith died: “This is yourhoney calling.”

The author effectively uses repeti-tion, returning again and again to thedays before and immediately after thedeath of her 77-year-old husband, thehighly regarded founder and editor of


BILL WILL IAMS

REMEMBERING RAY

tions. Though very personal, thesereflections are not self-indulgent ors e l f - p r o m o t i n g .Rather, they presentto the reader exam-ples of how one’sreflection on events inone’s life can illumi-nate the deeper meaning of biblicalstories and how, comparably, reflectionon biblical stories can provide insightinto the religious significance of per-sonal events. The events that hedescribes are quite commonplace—struggling as a teacher, working in aretirement center, enjoying the ocean.But he came to see a much deeper real-ity in these everyday experiences—realizing that God had accomplishedmuch good through him, seeing thebeauty of human beings in the broken-ness of life, allowing the magnificenceof creation to recreate him. His reflec-tions invite the reader to ponder her orhis own life in order to discover therethe goodness of God, even in themidst of the ordinary.

Flowers’s observations on the bibli-cal stories stem from his interest inthem as stories. He does not analyzethem as a scholar might, nor does heread into them meaning that is notalready there. He lifts the charactersoff the biblical pages and introducesthem to the reader as women and menof flesh and blood, people who strug-gle with the realities of life as we all do.The difference between them and us isthe fact that their stories have endings,endings that we know. We, on theother hand, are still moving toward theendings of our stories. But that is pre-cisely why Flowers has us meet them.The ending of their stories assures usthat God will always be with us, asGod was with them.

The personal reflections in this vol-ume lay bare human limitations andneediness. The initial poem, with itsstartling beginning, and all the poemsthat follow reflect not on these limita-tions or neediness but on God’s gra-

ciousness in the face of them. Judgingby human standards, one might say

that it was foolishof God to makewomen and menwho, at the slight-est provocation,would fail to live

up to their potential. God is not boundto human standards, however, but lav-ishes extraordinary blessings on weak

and unreliable human beings. That iswhy this initial poem, after pointingout God’s graciousness, ends:

And so you are a fool,Which is, of course, Why I love you.

DIANNE BERGANT, C.S.A., a former Wordcolumnist for America, is professor of biblicalstudies at Catholic Theological Union inChicago.

ON THE WEBSearch America’s

book review archive.americamagazine.org/books

You’re standing on the fourth step ofan old brownstone stoop in BrooklynHeights, N.Y., on a cold, raw, cloudymorning in early December. It’s 7:30a.m. and you’ve been up since 6:00a.m., when two young women came tothe door and began transforming your70-year-old self into the 58-year-oldphotographer Alfred Stieglitz, whowas married to the painter GeorgiaO’Keeffe and who reinvented photog-raphy for the modern age. You’re wear-ing an authentic suit of clothes datingback to the 1920s, an overcoat that youcan barely button, a fedora and a pairof leather shoes that must weigh fivepounds, which you must negotiatewith. They have removed your ownglasses and given you a pair of wire-rimmed glasses with little oval lensesthrough which the world looks dis-torted and teary. Then there’s thefluffed-out graying hair and that gray-white moustache to top it all off.

The Ontario Review, who awoke earlyone morning in February 2008 notfeeling well. Oates insisted on takinghim to the emergency room at nearbyPrinceton Medical Center in NewJersey, where he was diagnosed withpneumonia. They both expected aquick recovery but within a weekOates received a call, at 12:38 a.m.,requesting that she come quickly.When she arrived at the hospital, herhusband was dead. She cannot graspthat awful fact and wishes she could“stop time…reverse time.”

Library shelves are filled with booksabout grief. Some people may comparethis one with Joan Didion’s affectingmemoir, The Year of Magical Thinking,which became a widely praised best-seller six years ago. But comparinggrief memoirs misses the point thatthere is no single way to grieve. ForOates, grief is “like a sodden overcoatthe widow must wear.”

We do not learn how long theauthor suffered or how she is doingtoday because the book covers a periodof only a few months after her hus-band’s death.

Oates struggles, without success, tofind meaning in her numbing grief. “Iam no longer convinced that there isany inherent value in grief,” she writes.“Or, if there is, if wisdom springs fromthe experience of terrible loss, it’s a wis-dom one might do without.” She won-ders if a widow’s grief is “sheer vanity;narcissism; the pretense that one’s lossis so special, so very special, that therehas never been a loss quite like it.”

The book quotes extensively frome-mail messages to and from Oates,although in many cases she leaves outthe sender’s name, believing it is“unconscionable” to humiliate othersin the name of full disclosure. She railsagainst a deluge of sympathy basketssent by well-meaning friends. Shetosses many of them into the trash andpleads, “No! No more of this! Pleasehave mercy.”

Oates becomes intensely curious


You look into the mirror and swearthat you are looking at the ghost ofyour father and grandfather, thosequintessential New Yorkers who livedjust across the East River in Stieglitz’stime.

Now you’re looking into the eyes ofthe actor James Franco, who is on thecement sidewalk below you. He isspeaking fast and reverently up at you.He is dressed in a handsome old camelcoat and striped sweater. He—orrather the poet Hart Crane, whom heis portraying—is telling you howmuch your photographs, especially thenew batch you took up at Lake Georgeearlier that year, have spoken to hisown sense of the kinetic possibilities ofthe image for the poetry he wants tocreate.

By which you (you meaning thebiographer and poet, but likewise thedead photographer Stieglitz standingthere) take him to mean the sense of a

about her husband’s early life, wonder-ing if she ever really knew him. Herhusband had grown up in a strictCatholic family at a time when manysuch families hoped that one of theirsons would become a priest. Smithentered a Catholic seminary at age 18,but within months he quit, which ledto estrangement from his father, whobelieved he would be held responsibleif his son went to hell. WheneverOates tried to bring up the subject ofSmith’s seminary experience and lossof faith, he refused to talk about it.

Oates, too, was raised in a Catholicfamily, although no one in her familydiscussed religion. Surprisingly, theauthor says almost nothing about herown spiritual beliefs. If she ever won-ders what happens after physical

death, she gives no hint of it here. Yetshe acknowledges being touched whenher friend Gloria Vanderbilt gave her asmall statue of St. Theresa.

On the last page of this intenselyfelt memoir, Oates briefly mentions asmall dinner party for some Princetoncolleagues, including a neuroscientistshe was meeting for the first time.What she does not say is that she andthe neuroscientist later married.

That tantalizing and unexpectedturn of events may have served as abridge that led Oates from cripplinggrief to a new, happier life, which I hopewill become the subject of a sequel.

BILL WILLIAMS is a freelance writer in WestHartford, Conn., and a former editorial writerfor The Hartford Courant. He is a member ofthe National Book Critics Circle.

F I L M M A K I N G | PAUL MARIANI

SEARCHERSJames Franco, Hart Crane and me


majestic, larger-than-life imagethat will lend a myth to God.You (the poet) take this to meana kind of dynamic stillness, thestill point of the turning world,what he—the poet—has foundin that icon of New York: the140-year-old Brooklyn Bridgethat strides the East River justblocks from here.

“Apples and gable,” you sayafter a nervous hesitation, whichyou hope will come across as aconsidered profundity. It is spo-ken with a slight Jewish-German accent to recreate whatyou take Stieglitz’s voice to be,considering he was raised inHoboken, N.J., and spent 15years of his youth studying pho-tography in Berlin beforereturning to the States. Youhave practiced those threewords before a mirror countlesstimes, and you are still afraidyou’re going to blurt out “applesand oranges,” but you don’t. Thescene is shot once to the quietapplause of the young film crewtaking all of this in. James lookspleased.

Good, he says, but let’s do a secondtake for insurance, and we do. Weshake hands and Hart Crane walks offdown the deserted street to see CharlieChaplin in the classic film“The Kid.”You turn and walk up the steps as yourmoustache begins to slide down overyour lips.

The Movie of the BookTwo years ago, James Franco’s agent e-mailed me to say Franco was interest-ed in turning my biography of HartCrane, The Broken Tower, into amovie. The book’s title is after the lastpoem Crane wrote before he killedhimself at the age of 32 by jumpingfrom the stern of the S.S. Orizabasomewhere off the coast of Florida. Hewas returning, broken in spirit, to the“chained bay waters,” as he called them,

of the East River and New York. Thedate was April 27, 1932, just beforenoon—eight bells. He had beenseverely beaten by members of theship’s crew hours earlier after trying tohit on one of them, even as his fiancéewas in her cabin sleeping.

Hart Crane—Harold HartCrane—born in 1899 in Garrettsville,Ohio, raised in Cleveland, was theonly child of a set of horribly mis-matched parents who seemed alwaysto be going at oneanother. The boyfrom the Midwestmeant to changeAmerican literatureas those other twoMidwesterners, Ernest Hemingwayand F. Scott Fitzgerald, would also do.In spite of everything, Hart (he took

his mother’s family name to replaceHarold when he reinvented himselfand moved to New York) was going toshow America a sense of new possibil-ities. He saw Walt Whitman as his gaybrother-in-arms and Isadora Duncanas the courageous figure who wouldremake dance and movement for theyoung century. When T. S. Eliot’s TheWaste Land was published in 1922—good, Hart thought, but so damneddead—he saw it as his duty to rewrite

that epic and give itan optimistic end-ing mirrored in theBrooklyn Bridge,which, against theodds of Tammany

Hall and business-as-usual, had actu-ally been built and stood now, like aNew World cathedral, replete with its

ON THE WEBKaren Sue Smith reviews

the film “Poetry.”americamagazine.org/culture

Three participants in the filming of "The Broken Tower"(left to right): Vince Jolivette, a producer; Paul Mariani(as Alfred Stieglitz); and James Franco (Hart Crane).

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the 1950s, James Dean, even to thepoint of taking his first name and ren-dering Dean in a biopic. His portrayalof that tragic actor, who died in a carcrash on a highway in central Califor-nia back in 1955, still awes me.

“If James says he’s going to dosomething,” Miles Levy, his agent, toldme one August morning 20 monthsago in a hotel down in Soho, “he doesit.” I took that statement with a NewYorker’s grain of salt, but the truth isthat—if James says he is going to dosomething, he does it. I’ve been luckyenough to work with him and his goodfriend Vince Jolivette, often viaBlackberry and e-mails back and forth,forth and back, about every conceiv-able question under the sun, such aspoets and biographers don’t normallydeal with, but which actors and direc-tors do—everything from translationsof Catullus’s salty language (in theoriginal Latin) to the Danish accent ofHart Crane’s lover, Emil Opffer, to themusic Crane would have heard inTaxco as he beat the ancient Aztecdrums in the broken tower of theCatholic cathedral there.

The Searching HeartJames recently flew into Boston’sLogan Airport on the red-eye out ofLos Angeles, where he was picked upin a black limo by his driver anddeposited at the Crowne Plaza inNewton, Mass., where I waited forhim with three pots of coffee, skimmilk, granola and fresh fruit. We sat

down at once to business. We wentover the most recent cut of the film—black and white, 100 minutes—thathad been delivered to me the nightbefore at my home 90 miles to thewest. What about Robert Lowell’stake on the poet in his “Words forHart Crane”? What was Lowell’s takeon Crane’s homosexuality? What wasHart Crane’s vision of America, com-ing as it did 70 years after Whitman’sLeaves of Grass and the bloodletting ofthe Civil War and the Spanish-American War and World War I?

What about Allen Ginsberg’s takeon Hart Crane? After all, James hadrendered Ginsberg in his film adapta-tion of the legal proceedings thatstemmed from the publication of hislong poem, “Howl,” back in the late’50s. What about the pacing of thefilm he was creating in what he callsTwelve Voyages—named after Crane’sown “Voyages” sequence? What aboutthe voiceovers? What about the flam-boyance of Crane’s lifestyle, wolfingdown sailors in Brooklyn or Paris orCuba or Mexico? How to reconcilethat with the almost mystical sensibil-ity of the man?

What about the juxtaposition of1920s jazz pieces against the recurrent“Dona nobis pacem” one hears? Or thecrash of waves against the shore, thewind brushing against the trees alongthe Seine in the Paris sequence Jamesfilmed months ago? Or the low bellowof a cow in a field somewhere on theIsle of Pines off Cuba? Or—even morepoignantly—the long, ineluctablesilence of the heart in search ofanswers?

It is the search that holds, I havecome to see over these past months,Hart Crane and James Franco and thebiographer together as one.

PAUL MARIANI, poet, biographer and mem-oirist, former poetry editor of America, is theUniversity Professor of English at BostonCollege, where James Franco’s adaptation ofMariani’s biography of Hart Crane, TheBroken Tower, was screened before a largeaudience of students on April 15.

Gothic towers and choiring stringsplaying on by the North Atlantic dayand night, sleepless and spanning theriver of time below.

“How many dawns, chill from hisrippling rest,” Crane would write fromhis rooms facing the East River andthe bridge itself, rising like Rip VanWinkle from his long sleep into thevision of those white buildings downin Manhattan’s business district, trans-figured by the morning light reflectingback across the river, the Woolworthskyscraper rising into the heavens likea vision of some New Jerusalem:

How many dawns, chill from hisrippling rest

The seagull’s wings shall dip andpivot him,

Shedding white rings of tumult,building high

Over the chained bay watersLiberty—

A new day, a new dawn, a new era,a brave announcement more than aquestion, shaped by this gull, this joke,this sod, this Charlie Chaplin figure inbaggy pants and bowler, who wouldeither prevail or die trying.

This energy, this promise, this bril-liance, this tragic dance that was HartCrane’s short life, I have learned to myamazement, is what the young JamesFranco, now 32, has captured in hisfilming of The Broken Tower. Franco isa brilliant young actor who seems tohave modeled himself after that icon of


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Not Much ChoiceSigns of the Times (4/4) reports ques-tions about the ethics of nuclear ener-gy. Oil is finite, and burning it to pro-duce electricity pollutes the air.Nuclear energy can irradiate the sur-rounding area and, to a lesser extent,the world. Natural gas might have tobe mined by “fracking,” which youmention in the same issue’s editorial,and that contaminates water and air.Hydroelectric power involves a dam,and dams are bad because the artificiallakes created are shallow and heat uptoo easily, so the fish die.

Let’s face it—any other so-calledbenign forms of energy (solar, wind,whatever) are years if not decades off,even if the market were competitive.We will have to fine-tune and come upwith better ways of using conventionalenergy sources for the time being. Thealternative is to regress 100 years ormore in destructive ways. Yes, safetyand ethics should rule, just not to the


Both Call It HomeRabbi Daniel E. Polish’s “A SpiritualHome” (4/11) puts in perspective thehistorical/spiritual roots of Judaism.As the author points out, there ismuch more than politics at work inIsrael; but it appears to me that hisargument could equally be made aboutthe Palestinians. With both groups(along with Christians) laying claim tothe land, I wonder how Jews,Palestinians and Christians (to a lesserdegree) will resolve this morass. Butthe violence only perpetuates moreviolence, and another generation growsup feeling persecuted. May Jerusalem(Israel) find a true path to peace.

SCOTT HILLOakland, Calif.

Both Off to a Bad StartAs an American citizen, I support anIsraeli state. I do so realizing, as Rabbi

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Daniel F. Polish hints in “A SpiritualHome” (4/11), that I do not fully graspthe essential meaning of an Israeli statefor the Jewish people. However, neitherdo I adhere to the anthropocentric viewthat God takes sides in military con-flicts. The problem with the original,biblical Promised Land is that it wasalready occupied, requiring a militarycampaign of conquest and expansion.

But before we throw stones at theIsraeli government, we should look atour own historical backyard. The ideaof “manifest destiny” was used to exter-minate the Native Americans andmake room for us. Now the descen-dants of the original Native Americansare relegated to isolation and poverty.The beginnings of both Israel and theUnited States are mired in the conceptof a God-given right to resort to mili-tary violence. The outcome is alwaysshort-lived and ineffective.

CHARLES HAMMONDSandusky, Mich.

the young, conservative priests, whoare all very provincial and speak in thepatois of the 19th century followingthe First Vatican Council. Nonegrasp the relation of the social prob-lems of today—poverty, disaster, cor-porate sin and war—to the weeklyScripture lessons read rapidly with-out drama or persuasion by a selectgroup of weak voices that never lookup at the congregation. Presumptionand despair!

THOMAS CHISHOLMChippewa Falls, Wis.

Colonialism Is BackRe “Air Campaign Broadens: BishopsApprehensive” (Signs of the Times,4/11): Europe and the United Statesare playing fast and loose with humanrights issues that make military inter-vention and wide expansion of a U.N.resolution appear “humanitarian” inLibya but not in the rest of Africa orthe Middle East. Certainly this willultimately be seen—probably isalready seen—as a neocolonialistapproach and an attempt to establishan African beachhead. Shame!

DAVID PASINSKIFayetteville, N.Y.

The Irish Are Not StupidIn “The Irish Question” (CurrentComment, 4/4), it appears thatAmerica’s editors agree with FintanO’Toole in calling the Irish stupid.Nice that. But the facts are differentfrom the way you present them andpeople now imagine them. No bankheld a gun to the head of anybody tomake anybody take a loan. I have

friends who have houses and paid overthe odds. When I told them this, theylaughed at me and called me a “scare-monger.” Now it is all the banks’ fault.But everybody is to blame, not justpoliticians and bankers. The Irish gov-ernment took the same route asObama; but I do not recall Americataking the U.S. president to task. Norshould you. If he avoided the depres-sion, how is that different from whatthe Irish government did? Populism ispopular in the short run but meetswith reality sooner or later.

DAVID POWERLondon, U.K.

Not ForgottenThank you for Christopher Pramuk’s“A Hidden Sorrow” (4/11), a tender,heartfelt and faith-filled reflection thatis at once prayerful and poetic in thebest sense of the word. As I read thisand cried, I remembered my ownmother sharing with me as a boy thatshe had lost a child before I was born.(He was stillborn at 5 months, misdi-agnosed as a tumor.) When she losthim, my dad was in Germany duringWorld War II. When I was 3 yearsold, my mother lost another child, abeautiful little girl born three monthspremature. It was 1949, and theycould not save those babies then. Myfather remembered that little girl allhis life, till his death at 81. Throughmy tears as I write this, I look forwardto the Great Day, when we will all bereunited in the home where there is nomore death.

KEN LOVASIKPittsburgh, Pa.

point of paralysis.Had we been doing this all along, in

small, modest, well-reviewed bits, bynow we would be in a much moreenergy-friendly environment and lessdependent on foreign nations. So thefoes of the current forms of energyshould continue to point out the dan-gers honestly, but they should drop theideological commitment many seem tohave against them.

PETER M. BLASCUCCINorth Baldwin, N.Y.

Priests and Nurses, Stay HomeWith regard to “Nursing Shift,”(3/28): For 10 years I’ve been listeningto foreign-born priests struggle to prayand preach in English. I know they arehere in part to help the church avoidordaining women and married men,but I have wondered who is preachingto their own people back home. Havewe created a kind of spiritual braindrain from third world countries in aneffort to fill our own pulpits?Meanwhile, qualified leaders sit in thepews. I welcome the cultural exchangeand service to immigrant communitiesthese priests represent, but I hope thiswill be balanced by the kind of recruit-ment Gary Chamberlain advocates fornurses. The developed countriesshould redouble their efforts to trainpriests and nurses of their own.

CATHERINE MARESCAWashington, D.C.

Too Old for Young Priests“Bless Me, Father...” by Frank Moan,S.J. (4/4), reminds me that I have notbeen in the confessional for decadesand it is unlikely that I ever will be.This is hubris, perhaps, or sins toogreat to acknowledge and share withanyone. And I am too old to speak to


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THE WORD

n ancient way of determiningwhen a person had died wasto hold a mirror under the

person’s nostrils to detect any trace ofmoist air indicating that there was stillsome breath of life. Before modernmethods of cardiopulmonary resusci-tation, a person who had stoppedbreathing was simply allowed to slipaway. In today’s Gospel, the risenChrist reinfuses the breath of life intothe constricted lungs of the believingcommunity, releasing them from thefear that choked their ability tobreathe together and to live fully forhis mission.

The frightened disciples are gath-ered behind locked doors “for fear ofthe Jews.” In the aftermath of Jesus’execution, their fear is understand-able—will they be next? In the fourthGospel, “the Jews” is code language foranyone who does not believe in andwho opposes Jesus, even though Jesushimself and all his first disciples areJews. The object of their fear is thosewho are like them in heritage yet notlike them in terms of belief in Jesus.

Sometimes what we fear most isseeing that which we do not want toface in ourselves reflected in “the other.”Into the midst of this fearful spaceJesus enters, inviting his disciples toaccept the peace he desires for them. Itis not a peace that ignores the brutalityinflicted on him, as he shows them the

still visible wounds. It is a peace thatrecognizes full well the horror of whathas occurred and results from awillingness to enterinto processes ofhealing, for-giveness andreconciliationrather thanretaliatory vio-lence. An abili-ty to see thewounds different-ly, not as somethingthat needed to be avenged butas something that Christ wasalready able to heal with his peaceand his spirit, enables the disciplesto let their fear give way to joy.

What results is a rebirth of thecommunity. Just as the Creatorbrings to life the first human beingby breathing into its nostrils (Gn2:7), so the risen Christ brings backto life the frightened community ofhis followers. This is not a painlessprocess.

Recently, a friend suffered a col-lapsed lung. The intense pain he expe-rienced when the lung was reinflatedmay be akin to the difficult process oftransformation that Jesus’ discipleshad to undergo. Before his death, Jesusspoke to them about this pain as birth-pangs that would give way to joy whenthe new life emerged ( Jn 16:20-22).

For some this rebirth takes place onthe first day of the week after the res-urrection. But not all are present andnot all are moving to the same rhythm.The next week there are still some who

are locked in their fear and who set upwhat may appear impossible condi-tions before they will come to believe.Thomas voices their doubts: They

need to see with their own eyesand touch with their own hands.It is not so much a stubborn

resistance to believe what oth-ers have experienced thatThomas expresses as it isthe necessity for each one tocome to faith through adirect, personal encounter

with Christ.

Conspiratory FaithSECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (A), MAY 1, 2011

Readings: Acts 2:42-47; Ps 118:2-24; 1 Pt 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31

“He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22)

A

PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE

• As you pray, focus on your breath, wel-coming the divine breath of life that dis-solves fear.

• What do you need to see and touch tocome to greater belief?

• How do you “conspire,” or “breathetogether,” with others in your believingcommunity?

BARBARA E. REID, O.P., a member of theDominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Mich., isa professor of New Testament studies atCatholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill.,where she is vice president and academic dean.

ar

t:

ta

D D

UN

Ne

There can be no secondhand faith.The testimony of other believers leadsone to Jesus, but it does not substitutefor the tangible experience of Christneeded by each one. The Gospel alsoallows that there are different ways thatpeople come to faith: some through see-ing, some without. Both are blessed. Nomatter how one comes to believe, it iswith a “conspiratory” faith communi-ty—people who “breathe together”through the Spirit, who dissolves fearby the use of peace, forgiveness and rec-onciliation.

BARBARA E. REID

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

www.fordham.edu/gre | (718) 817-4800

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

• M.A. in Religious Education: Concentrations: Adult and Family, Peace and Justice, Youth Ministry, Latino Studies, Pastoral Studies, Pastoral Counseling, Spirituality and Spiritual Direction

• M.A. in Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual Care (60 credits): with licensure eligibility for Mental Health Counseling

• M.A. in Pastoral Care (36 credits)

• Ph.D. in Religious Education

• Doctor of Ministry: Concentrations: Pastoral Ministry, Latino Studies, Spiritual Direction

• Graduate Certificate Programs: Spiritual Direction, Faith Formation

• Online Programs: M.A. in Religious Education (Youth Ministry), M.A. in Pastoral Care (36 credits), Faith Formation Certificate (18 credits). Some courses in all programs are offered online.

• Rose Hill Campus | Westchester Campus | Manhattan Satellite (31st Street)

Summer ProgramsThirteen courses are available for graduate credit or audit.

All of the courses in Summer Session I and II are offered for graduate credit or can be taken for audit.

For a list of the many prominent instructors and courses offered, please visit www.fordham.edu/gre.

• Session I: June 6, 13 or 20• Session II: July 5 to July 28• Online Courses: May 31 to July 26

• Rose Hill Campus • St. Francis of Assisi Church

(Manhattan Satellite)

Preparing Leaders in the Vision of Jesuit Education

the national catholic weekly april 25, 2011 $3gaza, would have been different. israeli officials,...

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