A Little Battalion

More stuff to dig out out the mines

Here is another outburst of Jesuity goodness, by Fr. Hugo Rahner, SJ, the less well-known brother of Karl Rahner, SJ the big-deal theologian. Naturally, if your brother was a big-deal theologian, you might not get all the airplay you deserve.

So, to rectify this, I hereby post one of his books that's back in print.

Fr. James V. Schall, SJ (himself no stranger to high-octane cogitation) said the following:

"The relations between private and public orders, between this world and the next, between empires, kingdoms, and Church, between the differing religions and their ways are fundamental in any understanding of human nature and history. Hugo Rahner was one of the most careful and clear writers in this field, a field that ought to be clear before any later understanding of relations between religion and polity can be well and properly clarified and ordered. This is an important contribution not to be neglected by any student of even American government."

As we ponder the Church position relative to issues such as same-sex marriages, abortion, euthanasia, "separation of Church and State," etc. some background of how the Church and the State have dealt with each other is crucial. A good synopsis is here.

AMDG,

-J.

Nihil novum sub sole.

The very estimable Shan, in his most recent blog entry, closed it off with a graphic of a certain book by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. (that's him on the sidebar, so you know he's got the ALB Seal of Approval). While Fr. Pacwa is probably the most widely seen Jesuit around, I think it's fair to say he doesn't flog his published output a whole lot.

So, in the spirit of Christian charity and all that, I s'pose I'll do that for him.

We're marking the 10th Anniversary of a book by Fr. Pacwa that proved so prescient I'm amazed people didn't stop him on the street and asked him for PowerBall numbers. I refer, natch, to Father, Forgive Me, for I Am Frustrated: Growing in Your Faith Even when It Isn't Easy Being Catholic. While the book was published well before the sex-abuse scandal, the book shows how the climate was right for something to break loose.

But that's not the point. The book is not a catalog of the faults and foibles of the modern Catholic Church in the USA. What it is, is a Coping 101 textbook for thinking Catholics* whose spiritual needs are ever-present -- much like a baby who gets hungry every 4 hours -- and is having a very tough time having them met.

The book will prove challenging to some, and tough-love to others...but it's good, solid stuff. It's especially useful for those of us who see that all kinds of manifest imbecilities go seemingly** unchecked. When we see Important Church Authority Figures ::cough, cough:: decline to take a stand against (or worse, be publicly approving of) a politician who sees no conflict between an ostensible Catholic identity and an explicitly pro-abortion agenda...well, that's the time to sprint to this book. In fact, given the current state of things, I'd reach for it like it was a defibrillator or a snakebite antidote.

AMDG,

-J.

* By this I mean Catholics who think, as opposed to Catholics who think they think.

** Is, or is not, the Holy Spirit in charge of His Church?

The Jesuit Way

The Jesuit Way is the subtitle of the little book I just completed: Contemplatives in Action, by William A Barry, SJ and Robert G. Doherty, SJ. It’s a good book, aimed at explaining Jesuit Spirituality (as distinct from Ignatian Spirituality), the core of what makes Jesuits, well… Jesuits. It’s all about tension and staying centered.

What makes the Jesuit order different from so many others is that it is not monastic, but apostolic. Jesuits don’t form cloisters in monasteries but are instead ‘in the world’ performing ‘apostolic works.’ This presents the order with different challenges, described by the authors as tensions. For example, the tension between trust in God and use of one’s talents, prayer and action, obedience and learning from experience, poverty and the use of the world’s goods, and so on. Orders that are based on the monastic style don’t have to worry so much about these things because the relative isolation of the monastery shields them from much of it. But for the out-in-the-world Jesuit, these tensions are exacerbated.

The solution to this tension isn’t to eliminate it, but to be aware of it and manage it. The authors basically say that to do this, Jesuits have to be spiritually mature, centered and solid. Ignatius was an over-achiever type of person, in my opinion, and he set the bar high. To keep meeting that bar takes work, effort and support – and from what I understand the authors are saying that without that, Jesuits are likely to get pulled to one side or another of these tensions.

This is a good little book, just a short 80 pages that deliver on the title – exploring and explaining the Jesuit way of these men who are Contemplatives in Action.