"The truth has a power of its own"

Contemporary political conceptions among American Catholics and others, even (or perhaps especially?) among those who are more or less loyal to either Commonweal or First Things (just to pick two examples), are so narrow and relatively uniform, in my view, that the offer of a genuine alternative will strike many as effrontery simpliciter, regardless of its possible merits.  

"Virtually all Americans accept the principle of keeping religious and civil authority separate," as Archbishop Charles Chaput observed in his fine book Render Unto Caesar (2008).  Chaput's description is spot on.  The author I wish to introduce here, John Rao (D. Phil., Oxon.), wouldn't disagree with the description, but he'd certainly lament what it accurately reports.  Rao's new book, Black Legends and the Light of the World: The War of Words with the Incarnate Word (2012), offers a normative alternative with counter-narrative punch that deserves the critical attention of the serious.  

I intend to blog more in future about specific theses of Rao's learned, inspired,and challenging book.     For now I'll just add the blurb I am honored to have on the book:  "We live on the edge of chaos, and meanwhile conservatives long for a world that no longer exists and liberals bounce from one thing to the next.   Something categorically different is needed if we are are to avoid the chaos conjured by the world of willfulness.  That something different is a determination to use all of the tools that Faith and Reason offer to make the necessary transitions one at a time with the care that only supernatural hope makes possible.  John Rao excels as a guide to believers in the Word incarnate who believe that the power of the supernatural to transform all of creation is by no means finished."

Rao's project is by no means a piece of archaism.  It exudes life and hope.  His judgment of the failures of the Papacy in centuries past is arresting.  But he doesn't stop there.  Rao recovers the Tradition, traces its varied and sometimes unfortunate applications, and indicates a way forward.   

John Rao's important book can be ordered here