Book Reviews – November 2023

Science at the Doorstep to God: Science and Reason in Support of God, the Soul, and Life After Death. By Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. Reviewed by Thomas P. Sheahen. (skip to review)

The Faith Once for All Delivered: Doctrinal Authority in Catholic Theology. Ed. by Kevin L. Flannery. Reviewed by Daniel B. Gallagher. (skip to review)

Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers. By Courtney Mares. Reviewed by Lawrence Montz. (skip to review)

Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore: Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration. By the Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic. Reviewed by Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP. (skip to review)

What Is Christianity? The Last Writings. By Benedict XVI. Reviewed by K.E. Colombini. (skip to review)

Science at the Doorstep to God – Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.

Spitzer, Fr. Robert J., S.J. Science at the Doorstep to God: Science and Reason in Support of God, the Soul, and Life After Death. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2023. 315 pages.

Reviewed by Thomas P. Sheahen.

Fr. Spitzer’s Science at the Doorstep to God is an extremely good book. He follows many consecutive steps that enter through the door of science and build a very solid case for acknowledging the transcendence and supremacy of God as our Creator.

An Introduction tells the reader where the book is going, and that provides an incentive not to give up at the difficult parts. A browsing potential customer who reads the introduction and conclusion will be motivated to read the six intervening chapters.

Chapter 1 covers the Big Bang, the required condition of very low entropy, and shows that the universe definitely had a beginning. That would be a stunning surprise to physicists of even one century ago, and incomprehensible to ancients such as Newton, Aristotle, etc. A century ago (1920s), Einstein dismissed the idea of a “beginning” to what seemed an eternal universe of infinite time-duration; but later, new astronomical evidence changed his mind.

Therefore, it is no surprise that a novice reader will find chapter 1 daunting, because in a only 17 pages Spitzer condenses the essential physics and cosmological information that put a time limit on the age of the universe. It must be conceded that some undergraduate scientific knowledge is a prerequisite.

Chapter 2 addresses the implications of the fine-tuning of the universe. That fine-tuning points very directly toward the universe being created by a super-intelligent transcendent being. But for half a century (since the anthropic coincidences were first recognized in the 1970s), scientists who are desperate to avoid The God Hypothesis have imagined a variety of excuses, to call this fine-tuned universe just an accident. Spitzer goes through each of those attempts, notably the Multiverse hypothesis, and shows how each one fails. Spitzer explains how the fanciful concept of ever-emerging universes leads to absurd outcomes such as Boltzmann Brains. To believe in the Multiverse, you have to NOT understand what the word “infinity” means. The conclusion of Chapter 2 will be convincing to any doubter who has paid attention: our universe was created by a Transcendent Intelligence.

Chapter 3 exits the realm of physics and enters territory more familiar to theology students. After quickly dispatching the canard that “science disproves the existence of God,” Spitzer presents a Thomistic proof of the existence of God, followed by Bernard Lonergan’s exposition of God as an Unrestricted Act of Understanding. One key property of that Act is simplicity, which defeats Dawkins’ standard atheistic argument.

With God firmly established as the Creator, in Chapter 4 Spitzer returns to a different branch of science (biological life and medicine) in search of evidence for a soul; that is, a trans-physical aspect of human life that survives bodily death. He reviews the evidence from Near-death Experiences, Terminal Lucidity, and Hydrocephalic Intelligence, each of which demonstrate consciousness and intelligence that goes beyond merely the brain. A reader unfamiliar with this medical evidence may be stunned by what it implies, but there is no escaping the conclusion that there is more to human beings than the body, and that “more” continues beyond death.

Chapter 5 looks at the soul in more detail. It is well established that human thought and language are unique, not shared by lower animals. Furthermore, the human property of self-consciousness is also unique and cannot be reduced to anything merely physical. These characteristics (intelligence and self-consciousness) are very essential aspects of the soul. Spitzer reasons to the existence of creativity as a property of the human soul that no AI can duplicate. Chapter 5 concludes by enumerating 6 lines of evidence that describe the human soul, which is an entirely trans-physical entity.

There is yet another key property of a soul, and Chapter 6 develops the topic of free will. Experience of the numinous (or totally other) leads to a sense of religion; people have consciences; people desire certain transcendental goals: knowledge, truth, beauty, goodness, love. These originate from God, not from within the self. Next Spitzer addresses the question that’s been on everyone’s mind for centuries: Is our will really “free”? Spitzer discusses the struggle between competing desires, as the urges of the body compete with intelligent choices made by the soul; and human freedom decides what action to take.

The book concludes with a summary of all 6 chapters, which makes a very helpful supplement to the introduction to the book. The summary also observes that we haven’t really learned who God is, and that leads into a forecast of Spitzer’s forthcoming companion book, Science at the Doorstep to Christ.

Science at the Doorstep to God is written pretty tightly and covers a lot of very important ground. It is extremely well-documented, with 447 citations and a 19-page bibliography. By examining our universe carefully, Spitzer convincingly demonstrates the transcendence of the Creator, and identifies the transcendent nature of the human soul. Spitzer is careful never to claim to have proven anything; rather, he stresses the importance of making an Informal Inference based on how science shows the extremely high probability of certain propositions (e.g., the universe was created by God).

I consider Science at the Doorstep to God a “must read” for anyone who is attentive to the intersection of faith and science. Many new challenges are likely to arise from biological advances such as genetic engineering, cloning, and interfering with life. Science at the Doorstep to God provides the foundation needed to deal with them.

Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen, director emeritus of ITEST, earned BS and PhD degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During his 45-year career as a research physicist, predominantly in energy sciences, he worked for various industrial and national laboratories.

The Faith Once for All Delivered  – ed. Kevin L. Flannery

Flannery, Kevin L., ed. The Faith Once for All Delivered: Doctrinal Authority in Catholic Theology. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Academic, 2023. 344 pages.

Reviewed by Daniel B. Gallagher.

No one would doubt that the Church is living in confusing times, both within and without. Whether the confusion is the result or cause of widening divisions is a matter of debate. Yet one thing is for sure. As in the past, a return to solid theological reasoning will help us find a way forward. Podcasts, blogs, tweets — all make for good entertainment, but it is the silent, inconspicuous work of serious theologians that will ultimately lead to a more vigorous living of the Gospel in years to come.

Such theological rigor resounds in The Faith Once for All Delivered. Each of the contributors elucidates a fundamental issue rooted in the faith of the apostles and the Church’s age-old wisdom of how that faith is authoritatively transmitted.

The first essays focus on speculative theology and its influence on the present crisis. In “The Rise and Fall of Modern Catholic Theology,” C. C. Pecknold exposes the underpinnings of historicism and its claim that “theology must always be understood and assessed ‘in context,’ according to the exigencies of the time and place in which those theologies arose and, therefore, in a way that cuts them off from the larger context of the Church’s Tradition since it holds that defined doctrine is subject to historical change” (17). Pecknold contrasts this with metaphysical realists who believe that “the intelligibility of this world was derived not from us but from the Creator” (18). He retraces the intellectual iter that has undermined metaphysical realism, running through the nominalism of Ockham, Kant’s critique of Anselm, and Hegel’s denial of gratuity. These challenges to metaphysical realism “tended to make God utterly inaccessible to the natural light of the human intellect . . . or it tended to make God so utterly immanent within time as to deny that God truly is raised high beyond all things” (22).

A significant portion of Pecknold’s discussion centers on Karl Rahner’s “supernaturalizing” of the natural. While traditional teaching on the Trinity entails a distinction between God’s eternal nature and his “missions” to his creation, Rahner finds a dialectical identity between transcendence and immanence that runs the risk of relativism. In other words, “Rahner’s fundamental axiom conflates the divine, eternal order and the economic order of space and time” (27).

Christopher J. Malloy continues this discussion in “Rahner: The Withering of Faith,” in which he frankly admits that Rahner — via Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger — embarked on “theological ventures” that “led to the distortion of the deposit of faith” (32), such that the promise of his brilliance “was darkened by his sacrifice of faith upon the altar of modern reason” (66).

Thomas Heinrich Stark aims at the next target: Walter Kasper (“The Historicity of Truth: On the Premises and Foundations of Walter Kasper’s Theology”) and the key issue of the relationship between truth and historicity. Kasper proposes that we focus on a new reality when articulating the faith today. In his own words, “Today this is obviously not a given nature and a cosmos encompassing us; it is instead a reality that human labor, civilization, and technology are helping to shape. Human activity enters this reality as a constitutive component of its makeup. It is a societally mediated reality” (71). The presumption here is that the world is involved “in a continuous process in which man and the world mutually change and determine each other.” In short, it is “not an eternal order but a historical world” (72). Stark understands Kasper to mean that truth is constantly emerging and is ungraspable in a way that transcends history. An important corollary is that the history of Israel is merely an example of salvation history rather than the definitive instantiation of it. In defense of the abstract truths which Kasper finds problematic, Stark asserts that dogmatics is nothing but a coherent system of abstract truths. Kasper too easily downplays the encounter with God that comes about through nature and the depths of the human soul. The turn toward historicism has contributed to the rise of “literary-essayistic forms of philosophy” as found in Nietzsche, Heidegger, existentialism, and postmodernism, and eschewed the “hard philosophy” for which scholasticism had been renown.

Next on the docket is twentieth-century moral theologian Bernard Häring. Edmund Waldstein, O. Cist., (“Bernard Häring’s Moral Theology”) argues that Häring “sometimes exaggerated and misunderstood the limitations of preconciliar theology, and that his own approach suffered from serious weaknesses” (101). Häring’s path can best be understood by contrasting it with the approach of John Paul II and Servais Pinckaers, both of whom represent a different view of the relation between nature and human history. Häring, Waldstein argues, was too wary of Greek metaphysical thought since, in Häring’s estimation, it was too static, devoid of historical dynamism, and lacking in a personalistic understanding of the moral good. In Waldstein’s estimation, this is precisely what led Häring to deny the Church’s perennial teaching on the immorality of artificial contraception.

In a very fine essay, John M. Rist (“Doing Heresy: Then and Now”) unpacks Saint Augustine’s fear that “we tend culpably to evade our responsibility when we ought to instruct and admonish . . . sometimes even with sharp reproof and censure, either because the task is irksome or because we are afraid of giving offence” (City of God, 1.9). Making a key distinction, Rist writes that “the Church identifies heresies not because their advocates lose the argument but because she judges them objectively misguided” (126). The failure to judge them as such relativizes truth, and as a result, “there can be no fundamental authority other than the power of those able to call the moral, social, political, and ecclesiastical shots” (129). Such a situation is extremely dangerous. It is even more dangerous when we go against the very words of Jesus rather than a teaching derived from his words. To do so amounts to correcting Jesus’s words, which, in turn, entails a rejection of his divinity, such that we “are not Christians at all, or only insofar as Arius was Christian” (144). Rist does a fine job of relating today’s heresies to earlier ones, especially Arianism and Pelagianism.

In “Magisterium: The Teaching Authority of the Church,” Edward Feser underscores the Church’s living Magisterium as articulated in pronouncements that vary in levels of authority. In a rather novel move, Feser wants to concentrate on errors that show an excess of respect for the Church’s Magisterium. To understand how it is possible for the Magisterium to transgress the limits of its teaching authority, Feser lays down two principles: (1) the Church has always taught that she has no authority to contradict Scripture and Tradition or even to add novel teachings to them, and (2) bishops, including popes, have no authority either to invent novel doctrines or to contradict the deliverances of Scripture and Tradition” (158). In Feser’s estimation, “the Church explicitly acknowledges the possibility that a non-infallible act of the Magisterium can be so defective that it is the theologian who respectively criticizes that act who is upholding ‘the truth’” (158). This is precisely, he argues, how theologians can facilitate the Magisterium’s mission.

One of the most difficult issues to unpack is the development of Christian doctrine. Saint Vincent of Lérins relied on a simile that continues to generate much discussion: “The growth of religion in the soul should be like the growth of the body, which in the course of years develops and unfolds, yet remains the same as it was.” Eduardo Echeverria (“Saint Vincent of Lérins and the Development of Christian Doctrine”) lays the groundwork for understanding Vincent’s meaning: “The truths of the faith are, if true, always and everywhere true; the different ways of expressing these truths may vary in our attempts to communicate revealed truths more clearly and accurately, but these various linguistic expressions do not affect the truth of the proposition” (183). As a result, the deposit of faith is not subject to continual reinterpretation based on the audience to which it is transmitted. This is not to deny, explains Echeverria, that alterations are possible provided they do justice to doctrinal continuity and constitute true doctrinal development. The work of the Second Vatican Council is a good example of changes to non-definitive teaching, particularly in its proclamations on ecumenism and religious liberty. Affirming religious liberty is not a permutatio or corruption of traditional teaching regarding the relationship between freedom and truth.

Echeverria identifies two ways in which Vincent’s work bears an enduring originality and relevance. First, Vincent attends to the question of interpretative pluralism, which was “nearly anarchic in his time” and explains why we need to justify our interpretations of Scripture in light of the Church’s authoritative Tradition. Second, Vincent shows that there is a historical dimension to the explication of unchangeable doctrinal truth. Echeverria emphasizes that inconsistencies between earlier and later ecclesial documents are only apparent rather than real contradictions.

Kevin L. Flannery, S.J., furthers the discussion by analyzing John Henry Newman’s logic of doctrinal development (The Logic of Doctrinal Development According to John Henry Newman). A general distaste for deductive logic in early nineteenth-century England led Newman to examine how reasoning and faith work together. Flannery draws attention to a key assertion of Thomas Aquinas: “The believer has simultaneously assent and reasoning, for the intellect is not brought to principles that are known in themselves” (203). A striking example of Newman’s thinking on this can be found in his teaching on Mary, who, in Newman’s words, represents “not only the faith of the unlearned, but of the doctors of the Church also, who have to investigate, and weigh, and define, as well as to profess the Gospel” (204). Newman’s seminal insight was that “the act of reason that grasps a syllogism is the same act involved in the most basic assent of faith” (207). Even the apostles had to reason about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and to use reason is simply to employ syllogisms, although logicians do it in a “particularly self-conscious manner” (207). Flannery includes a wonderful synthesis of Newman’s seven “notes” characterizing genuine doctrinal development.

Another vexing issue in contemporary theology is the meaning of sensus fidei and — more acutely — sensus fidelium. Roberto Dodaro, O.S.A., clarifies the meaning of these expressions, emphasizing that the latter is anything but a mere opinion poll. One opinion poll, for example, reveals that 72% of Catholics believe other religions can lead to eternal life, a teaching the Church ostensibly rejects (although individuals from those religions can indeed be saved). Dodaro explains the various ways in which lay persons can contribute to important theological discussions, such as through particular councils, diocesan synods, and pastoral councils, as well as ecumenical councils and synods of bishops convened by the pope. In fact, Dodaro wants to emphasize that there is “no lack of opportunity for the lay faithful to offer their viewpoints to bishops” (244).

In a penetrating analysis of apostolicity and historicity, John Finnis strives to retrieve the intrinsic but obfuscated connection between the two (Apostolicity and Historicity: Scripture, Development, and a Truly Critical History). The Council unambiguously affirmed the historical truth of the Gospels, yet scholars tend to present the Gospels as theologically motivated reconstructions of the beliefs of certain communities that “supplement” the “traditional material” of Jesus’s actual teachings. Finnis’ argument exemplifies the radical rethinking that needs to take place if we wish to redress the errors of much twentieth-century theology.

Relying on scripture, magisterial pronouncements, and canon law, Guy Mansini, O.S.B., explains why local conferences of bishops cannot be viewed as independent agents on the pathway to a renewed Church. In short, a conference of bishops cannot bind everyone in the conference to an authoritative teaching in the same way that the entire college, or the pope acting as head, can bind all bishops and all the faithful to a definitive teaching. He stresses that each bishop has a duty to ensure that his particular church remains in union with all other churches. He concludes that “the idea that a careful canvassing of the sensus fidei could independently revise or remake some aspect of sacramental practice or doctrine is . . . entirely mistaken” (297).

The Faith Once for All Delivered is a refreshing antidote to shallow criticisms of Pope Francis and his pontificate. Although one will find a few direct rebukes of Francis (such as in Rist’s understandable disgust at the Pontiff’s praise of arch-abortionist Emma Bonino as a “forgotten great”), these essays focus on real and pressing theological issues in a respectful, thoroughly educated tone. They deserve close attention not only from those who agree with them, but from those who should be held accountable for the confusion resulting from heterodox — if not heretical — teaching. The essays address both speculative and practical issues, but more importantly, they help the reader understand that there should be no dichotomy between the two, precisely because Christian speculative theology has inherent moral implications, and practice itself is always grounded in some speculative conviction rooted in Catholic truth. To navigate these confusing times, Church leaders would do well to elevate theological discussion to the level these contributors represent. Theology has never been a mere “add on” to the Christian faith, and the moment it is viewed as such is the moment the entire Christian faith begins to buckle under ephemeral forces.

Daniel B. Gallagher, Lecturer in Literature and Philosophy at Ralston College, holds degrees in philosophy and theology from the Catholic University of America and the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers – Courtney Mares

Mares, Courtney, Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2023. 185 pages.

Reviewed by Lawrence Montz.

This book will not be likened to The Story of a Soul, but that was not its intent. It relates the notable story of a modern saint, Blessed Carlo Acutis, who was very much a millenial figure growing up with Spiderman movies and action figure toys. Unfortunately for his family and friends, he died at the early age of 15, soon after the turn of the century, almost before the time of cell phones. Young Carlo had a deep reverence for the Eucharist among all his other worthy character traits. He was noted for saying, “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” which reflected a comment made by Pope St. Pius X. This was a firmly held belief and demonstrated that his childhood exhibited a mature spirituality far beyond his chronological age. His holiness had a strong influence on his family and friends. Carlo’s example helped replenish his mother’s faith and even spurred the conversion of his Hindu tutor.

The author, Courtney Mares, is a Harvard educated foreign correspondent for the Catholic News Agency in Rome. She has written over 1,400 articles on Catholicism and religion. In some respects the writing style of Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers is more akin to a feature article in a magazine rather than an expository of a saint’s life story. However, this fits the instant messaging style of Carlo’s generation if not the “highbrow” tastes of older readers.

The story is filled with detailed information on Carlo’s childhood and the Spirit-filled influences that shaped his life. While exposed to Catholic education and influences, his family was not deeply religious. Like many moderns, they were simply cultural Catholics. The growth of Carlo’s faith was positively impacted by his pilgrimages to holy shrines. He consecrated himself to Mary at the age of five and devoted much of his free time to prayer. Few children develop such a deep reverence for the Holy Eucharist and a desire to conform their lives to the will of God at such a tender age. Many like St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross mature in their faith only after long years of prayer and discernment. Even St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose autobiography is noted above, grew up in a deeply religious family.

Carlo’s mature love for the Eucharist was present before he was asked to use his gifted computer skills to help his mother prepare a slideshow presentation on Eucharistic Miracles that propelled him on a “lifelong” aspiration to not only learn more about such occurrences but to make them known, particularly to his self-absorbed generation. There is no doubt that Carlo was not a typical teenager but also no evidence that he was some zealous phenom as he loved playing youthful games and surfing the internet. Carlo was often disruptive in class and not an academically gifted student in non-computer subjects.

The invention of the web changed the world and in particular Carlo’s generation. Carlo showed that the internet could be a force for good if used properly. He was concerned that many of his classmates did not have their priorities straight but this did not make him judgmental. He was highly regarded by his classmates as he was always generous and helpful, certainly never a religious prig. While sharing his internet journey, he did not hound his peers with pious facts but preached more by example. He loved the joys of creation but his focus was always on the Creator.

Blessed Carlo became sick in the beginning of October 2006 and, after intense suffering, died within two weeks because of leukemia-induced cerebral hemorrhaging. He endured the pain and the awareness of his impending death in love, not fear or bitterness. Carlo’s last days impressed his nurse with his serenity and lack of complaints. He died on October 12, Columbus Day in America but more poignantly a local feast of the Blessed Virgin in Brazil, where most of the ascribed miracles attributed to his intercession occurred. Carlo was at peace near his end because he understood that he was headed to a wonderful goal, not the ending of his worldly experiences, but the beginning of his hoped-for destiny.

The young saint, whose remains are entombed in Assisi clothed in jeans and wearing sneakers, is not only an example to the internet generation but to all of us as the book helps us realize that God can use all things for good. In 1997, the Church made a seventh-century saint, St. Isidore of Seville, the patron saint of the internet because he was such a great holy scholar but it is possible that Blessed Carlo may also be chosen for that role because of his popularity and the important influence the internet had on his life — a wonderful example for this generation.

Lawrence Montz is a Benedictine Oblate of St. Gregory Abbey in Shawnee, Oklahoma, past Serran District Governor of Dallas, and serves as his Knights of Columbus council’s Vocations Program Director. He resides in the Dallas Diocese.

Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore – Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic

Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic. Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore: Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration. Hammondsport, NY: The Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic, 2023. 351 pages.

Reviewed by Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP.

As part of the effort toward Eucharistic Revival, the Dominican Laity have released an inexpensive new book on Eucharistic adoration, Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore: Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration. It is a unique and exceptional book worthy of the parish’s adoration chapel and also as a gift for a friend who has yet to discover the Eucharist. The book gathers together about 175 reflections of Lay Dominicans on what Eucharistic adoration means to them, what they do during a holy hour, ways that the Eucharist has transformed them, and their experience of the Lord Jesus in adoration. There are also some appendices with prayers and other useful tools for times of adoration. A few other Dominican friars, nuns, and sisters, who are linked to the laity, round out the reflections in a book that is accessible and substantial enough for the edification of laity, clergy, and religious alike.

The priority was given to drawing together a symphony of voices, with varying styles, rather than aiming for a well-crafted literary masterpiece. Hence the reflections are of varying literary quality, yet they all pulsate with life as they come from the heart. The collection nevertheless does contain many well-polished reflections, for instance, of an author who has published a half-dozen other books on Eucharistic adoration or from another Lay Dominican who is a published poet. There are eloquent prayers, including a litany, penned in honor of the Eucharist. There are moving personal testimonies demonstrating the difference between life before and after coming to know and love the Eucharist.

This book is true to life and shows how the Eucharistic mystery can also transform our own lives. If one reflection does not speak to you, you can simply move on to the next one. The particularities of the individual’s situation in these essays comprise something like a unique monstrance that displays the Eucharist at the center. And we get to ponder the Eucharist in the context of 175 of these distinctive, living monstrances.

The collection includes accounts of ways the Lord has worked marvelously through the Eucharist. There is the grandmother who would regularly let the Eucharistic presence of the Lord “bathe” over a chronically ill grandchild only to find out later, after a doctor’s appointment, that she now had to explain to the non-practicing Catholic mother how the child was cured! There are many more accounts of how time with the Lord in Eucharistic adoration has changed one’s ordinary life, like a Dominican nun who explains how all of space and time has been transformed for her after discovering the Real Presence and how she is now like a spider spinning a web of love out from the Eucharistic center point of all reality.

This book can be a tool that helps others share their own love for the Eucharist. Giving the book to a fallen-away Catholic can easily prepare the way for sharing one’s own experience and encounters with the Eucharistic Lord. The book can be an aid to laity in their work of bearing witness to the Eucharistic Mystery and so bring the efforts of the Eucharistic Revival to a broader outreach, to people in one’s own sphere of influence, reaching people that priests may not be able to reach as effectively.

I know of an instance already of someone leaving this book on the kitchen table only to find a curious family member — one who never goes to Eucharistic adoration — leafing through the book and who was still found reading it an hour later. It is a page-turner that can attract those most devoted to the Eucharist and those who have fallen away from the Faith or know nothing of Eucharistic adoration.

For the devout, the book helps confirm that the gentle and subtle invisible workings of the Lord in Eucharistic adoration are actually real as attested by the accounts of others’ experience of the Godhead here in hiding. For the indifferent, it opens up the prospect of the Eucharist, with all its variegated effects and spiritual treasures, as being a gift of God meant for them too — indeed, the gift of God Himself meant for them. For those looking for help in making the most of their Holy Hour, it offers the encouragement and examples of others who are seeking the face of the Lord and finding Him, only to seek Him more.

V. Rev. Ignatius John Schweitzer, O.P., is Prior of St. Catherine of Siena Priory (NYC), adjunct professor, spiritual director, and formator at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, and the priest promoter of the Eastern Province of Lay Dominicans.

What Is Christianity? – Benedict XVI

Benedict XVI. What is Christianity? The Last Writings. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2023. 232 pages.

Reviewed by K.E. Colombini.

Deep into this work, the collection of final writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, one comes across a poignant personal anecdote as the late pope reflects on the Church and the scandal of sexual abuse — a scandal he ties, at least in part, to the effect of the sexual revolution on seminary life.

“Perhaps it is worth mentioning that, in not a few seminaries, students caught reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood,” he writes. “My books were hidden away like naughty literature and read only surreptitiously, so to speak.”

What’s striking about this comment is that it comes as Benedict talks about how some bishops introduced pornographic films into seminaries, and the presence of homosexual cliques. Such a bold statement that it’s his works that were seen as “naughty” should come as no surprise to Catholics who have been paying attention. We’ve seen this sort of statement time after time, perhaps most notably in a controversial book about the plight of seminaries, Goodbye, Good Men, written by Michael S. Rose in 2002. Rose would go on, three years later, to write Benedict XVI: The Man who was Ratzinger.

Whether it was as Josef Ratzinger or Benedict XVI, the late pope emeritus has left us quite the library — Wikipedia lists at least 70 books — and as pope for just under eight years, he published three encyclicals and four apostolic exhortations. Striking in this collection is that, while he gave up the Petrine office in 2013, his mind appeared to remain brilliant and clear for some time thereafter. What the Church would look like had he stayed in office until the end is something armchair church theologians and historians will ponder for years to come.

If this book represents the final word from a great pope, then so be it. It is an eclectic collection of essays and speeches that, to be sure, taken as a whole help to define Christianity in a certain sense, especially to help men and women of good faith understand it in today’s troubled world. He dives deeply into religion and liturgy, the meaning of the priesthood and the Eucharist, and relations with Islam and Judaism.

Most touching of all, perhaps, are the final pieces in this short volume. He presents an essay on the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Paul II, written in 2010 for release in 2020, in which he praised his master. He clearly saw John Paul as a saint, but would leave it for history to decide whether he should be honored as “The Great.” Following this was a reflection written in 2019 for the 75th anniversary of the death of the Jesuit Alfred Delp, executed by the Nazis only months before World War II ended, and a brief 2021 interview on St. Joseph.

“His silence is at the same time his message,” Benedict says of his patron saint. For the many of us — this author certainly included — who regretted his resignation and saw it as a mistake, perhaps this is the answer we need to calm ourselves in the present crisis.

The last years of his life, he had promised, would be a time of prayer. This book demonstrates that it was not a fruitless time; if the world needs anything, it needs more contemplation, silence, and prayer. We need leaders like Pope Benedict was, leaders who speak clearly and forthrightly, without mental games and reservations, and yet also with charity — the love he sees, as he titles one essay in this marvelous little collection, as the true “origin” of missionary work.