Summer Book Report

Alas, the downside of letting a bunch of law profs operate a blog, as MoJ readers have invariably realized, is its tendency to ebb and flow with the rhythms of the law school calendar, and August represents the last gasp of the summer break. In that regard, I've just returned from an extended visit to the heartland, with infrequent internet access. But I have spent some time with books, and one in particular deserves a mention. I haven't always embraced everything George Weigel has written, but his Letters to a Young Catholic is well worth reading. He offers glimpses into various physical landmarks of the Catholic faith, using them to reflect on broader aspects of the Catholic self-conception and worldview.

Weigel has an uncanny ability to capture the essence of complex ideas in accessible language, as reflected in his discussion of G.K. Chesteron's espousal of orthodoxy as a bulwark against oppression. Weigel brings Chesteron's thought forward into the debate over the biotech revolution, noting that for today's scientist revolutionaries,

Humankind . . . is infinitely plastic; remanufacturable, if you will. And that's what they intend to do -- remanufacture the human condition by manufacturing human beings.

Anyone who imagines that that can be done without massive coercion hasn't read Huxley. The brave new world . . . is a world of overwhelming coercion in the name of the highest ideals. The sacramental imagination is a barrier against the brave new world because it teaches us that the givens in this world have meaning -- including the final givenness, which is death. (96-97)

I was reminded of this passage when I heard news reports of the Vatican's purportedly anti-feminist statement on women. Extracting meaning from "the givens" was the task undertaken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in its letter on The Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World. Tackling an uncommonly volatile topic, the CDF concludes that "[t]he defence and promotion of equal dignity and common personal values must be harmonized with attentive recognition of the difference and reciprocity between the sexes where this is relevant to the realization of one's humanity, whether male or female." The challenge, of course, is to identify the contours of authentic human realization, which requires distinguishing gender differences embodied in creation from differences constructed by society. (You can read a critical religious take on the CDF's letter here.)

In any event, Weigel's highly personal glimpse into what it means to be Catholic is a refreshing read for those accustomed to seeing the Church defined primarily by its rejection of prevailing cultural norms; he offers an affirmative articulation of the faith through an array of its real-world embodiments.

Rob