[Scholar's Corner]
[Summer-Fall 2005]
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. God and The World. A Converstion with Peter Seewalt. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000.
During his tenure as Prefect of the Congretation for the Doctrine of the Faith (in the 1990s), the now Pope Benedict gave in-depth interviews to journalist Peter Seewald. The exchange in this book seems an outstanding source for all of us who wish to know where the new Pope stands on selected spiritual issues. He's clear, insightful, deep. This is what I'm (i.e., MS) reading this summer and being inspired by. This is one of those books that, I sense, could enhance the generic articulation of spiritual issues in our professional outreach, and in our personal, lives.
For instance, to Seewald's question, "Can we not suppose that Jesus had a sexual or erotic relationship (i.e., with a woman), the then Cardinal Ratizinger replied:
"The sexual or erotic dimension plays no part in his kind of friendship. On this point, Jesus simply belongs to another order of being. But we can see, in his relationships as portrayed by the Gospels that he was capable of deep personal friendships and of real life....
...in special ways [Jesus] drew [women] into his company... achieved something like an emancipation of women. Because of [their] social status [i..e., at the time] women belonged somehow in the category of little ones, who were assured of God's special love and special attention. And by doing so, he called forth the special charisma of women. ... from then on women play an essential part in the living and active members in the building up of the Church." (p. 249)
Scholars of the qualities of spiritual wholeness could do worse than spend a leisurely summer re-reading Percy (one presumes everyone has read this body of work). Percy was born in 1916 to an esteemed, self-styled Southern family -- a melancholy family (nearly every generation had its suicide). In fact, Walker Percy's father had committed suicide. Walker went to medical school, planning to be a psychiatrist, quit after getting T.B., married, converted to Catholicism. His body of work reflects his spiritual experience and progression toward wholeness.Scholars might find The Moviegoer an easier read than The Thanatos Syndrome (a comedic novel-thriller, with perhaps a few side-plots too many). Both books serve as a decent first step for those who'd like to see how empathic, knowledgeable and whole-spirited Percy is about the human condition.
Most often it's his contemplative anti-heroes and heroines, bumbling and alienated though they seem, who are most real, most rooted in reality. It's their subtle empathy, their nuances of patience, generosity and love of neighbor and God, that lets them escape the megalomania and phoniness of modern life.
Two other lovely books -- featured in the Scholar's Corner -- explain Percy's unique contribution this way:
In Paul Elie's The Life You Save (see Fall 2004)...
"For [Percy] literature would not be a private affair, but the stuff of influence and exchange and dialogue, which the books themselves called forth. The literary life would consist of friendship, and of spirited disagreements over books and their implications... " (p. 20)
Robert Ellsberg (see Winter 2005) describes Percy as a saintly man, a writer who addressed the "soul-deadening allure of self-gratification," and who saw that human beings have a sort of sacred identity; our despair comes from the fact that we were not truly at home -- that, as another saint once said, "Heaven is our home, one earth we are like travelers," homesick for our true home. (p. 233)
The understanding of our sacred identity, the grasp that books not only can offer us a vivid look into our true Home, but also provide a framework for friendship and spirited dialogue -- all this makes Percy's body of work worth reading.
(Catholicism; Spiritual Formation)
This lovely little book is not new, may be out of print, but worth trying to obtain. It seems one of the most complete glossaries of its kind that we have seen and rich in the generous spirit described above. It seems fairly comprehensive of Christian-metaphysical terms, well worth having in one's library if a serious student of spirituality.
Charles Fillmore, with his wife Myrtle, were founders of the Unity movement (i.e., Unity School of Christianity), which includes a College, a Silent School of Prayer, a Library, an Archive collection-- an entire dedicated Village to which thousands turn each year for prayer, ministerial degrees, study and even tours. Both of the Fillmores authored a number of books.
Fillmore's glossary is devoted to "words that have religious significance," hundreds of words that most use daily perhaps with little true understanding. For example, abide -- to continue a fixed thought of God, the All-Good; to dwell in the Christ consciousness.
"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (Jn. 15:17), p. 7.
Abundance, spiritual -- Ideas in consciousness of the omnipresent supply and support of the one Mind; invisible substance, with infinite capacity of expansion when held in mind, affirmed and praised. "All things whatsoever the Father hath are mind" (Jn. 16:15), p. 8.
Rich young man -- (Mk.19:17-27). Personaity; the state of consciousness in man that lays hold of the world of form, seeking satisfaction in personal possessions and in fulfilling the letter of the law, p. 179.
(New Thought/Unity School of Christianity)
A very different vocabulary is found in these collected sermons (delivered throughout the mid-nineteen hundreds by the legendary Evangelical plumber-preacher, Wigglesworth). Scholars who study this title will a unique, inspirational universe -- or mind-set -- of anyone who grows bold enough to dare to prove God's word.
Wigglesworth, a former plumber with no formal theological training, relied on his amazing "thunderous" voice, charismatic style and music. He employed the "robust singing of gospels and hymns"and read "faith passages" from the Bible to lift his audiences to new demonstrations of active faith.
At first, the press and audiences ridiculed him for his unorthodox preaching style, for making up words and getting tangled up in his convoluted sentence structures. Nevertheless, he got results.
Until he himself suffered intensely from gallstones, he was reputed to be unusually rough when laying on hands; he often struck people in the very area of their pain in his anger "at the devil." We read that once he hit an Irish immigrant so hard while laying hands on her for healing, she misunderstood his intent, drew back her fists and shouted, "Begora, if it's a fight you're wanting, it's fight you'll get!"
After his own trials with gallstones, Wigglesworth mellowed, becoming much more gentle. Smith Wigglesworth's impressive legacy of healing is remarkable. He taught us that faith is the audacity that rejoices in the fact that God cannot break his own Word.... Faith is not simply emotional agitation. Rather, it is quiet confidence that God means what he says and lets us "act on his Word." ( p.21 , Introduction)
(Christian Charismatic; Pentacostal; Evangelism)
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