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Self

Jul29

MFS at Mental Multivitamin makes me think, and that’s a very good thing. Especially lately, my mind is so caught up in daily concerns and necessities that it is renewing to stop and think for a moment.

Yes, the images of Amish teenagers attending what amounts to rave parties fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, drugs, and bad music are, as one reviewer describes it, ‘jarring,’ but it was the reminder that if a child returns to his church community following rumspringa (and ninety percent do), he is, in effect, denying his sense of self: Amish religious convictions are predicated on the erasure of self.

SHUDDER.”

I haven’t seen the documentary Devil’s Playground that MFS is writing about in this post, but I have read about it. And I would probably have some disagreement with what I perceive from a distance as a legalistic theology in Amish Christianity. Nevertheless, denying self is a very Christian concept. In fact, Jesus commanded us, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross, and follow me.” I was reminded of this quotation from Methodist missionary Stanley Jones’s The Christ of the Indian Road, published back in 1925.

Greece said, ‘Be moderate—know thyself.’
Rome said, ‘Be strong—order thyself.’
Confucianism says, ‘Be superior—correct thyself.’
Shintoism says, ‘Be loyal—suppress thyself.’
Buddhism says, ‘Be disillusioned—annihilate thyself.’
Hinduism says, ‘Be separated—merge thyself.’
Mohammedanism says, ‘Be submissive—assert thyself.’
Judaism says, ‘Be holy—conform thyself.’
Materialism says, ‘Be industrious—enjoy thyself.’
Modern Dilettantism says, ‘Be broad—cultivate thyself.’
Christianity says, ‘Be Christlike—give thyself.'”

The self-denial that Christians preach is not self-annihilation, but rather a giving of self as God created it to service in His name. Are we sure that the Amish are advocating “the erasure of self”? Or could it be that they believe in giving a higher priority to Christian community and to the glorification of God in that community? And could a lifetime of this sort of self-denial lead to a greater sense of self within a Christian community than most of us experience in our rush for self-fulfillment?

Again Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:25-26.

It’s the daily working out of this concept that gets sticky, and I agree that self-annihilation or self-erasure is not the way to go. Neither is a mad race for self-realization or self-assertion.

Evangelism?

May20

A scary film about motivating the evangelizers.

A much more thoughtful post on evangelism: the when, the where, and the how by Dr. Mark DeVine.

My very favorite evangelistic blog post (I wish I had written it!): “. . . what I want to invite you to explore is what Christianity really is, which is, actually, to experience what it means to be really human, really alive, pain and grief and all that as it really is. The difference, and of course you can’t know this until you’ve been on both sides, is that following Jesus actually gives substance to grief and pain and all those other hurts.”

May your Sunday be filled with Good News that gives substance and meaning to whatever you are experiencing in your life today.

Resurrection Reading: The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock

Apr4

It was Easter, two years after Father Peregrine had come to be their abbott. Easter, the greatest feast of the Christian year, and all the local people had come up to the abbey, and the guest house was full of pilgrims come to celebrate the feast of the Resurrection. So many people, so many processions, so much music! So many preparations to be made by the singers, the readers, those who served at the altar and those served in the guest house, not to mention those who worked in the kitchens and the stables. The abbey was bursting with guests, neighbors, relatives, and strangers.

The Easter Vigil was mysterious and beautiful, with the imagery of fire and water and the Paschal candle lit in the great, vaulted dimness of the abbey church. Brother Gilbert the precentor’s voice mounted joyfully in the triumphant beauty of the Exultet; all the bells rang out for the risen Lord, and the voices of the choirboys from the abbey school soared with heart-breaking loveliness in the music declaring the risen life of Jesus. Easter Day itself was radiant with sunshine for once, as well as celebration. Oh, the joyful splendor of a church crammed full of people, a thundering of voices singing, ‘Credo –I believe.’

Another trilogy, another book for the whole family, children, teenagers, and adults, another resurrection reading. I re-read The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock over the Palm Sunday weekend and found it as inspiring and insightful as ever. In the books, an English mother tells her daughters, especially her fifteen-going-on-grown-up daughter Melissa, stories about their long ago ancestor, the abbot of a Benedictine abbey, and the monks under his care. The stories are deceptively simple and quotidian: stories of forgiveness asked and given, monks who are injured and need healing, others who don’t fit into the abbey life and must learn to do so. However, these are the same issues that Melissa, her mother and sisters must deal with in daily family life, and they’re the same things we try to iron out and work through here at Semicolon House.

In the other two books in the trilogy, the brothers of St. Alcuin monastery continue to work together and grow in community. They also grow older and must confront the difficulties that old age brings in its train. In fact, the third book in the series is about death and dying and living with serious impairments —all to the glory of God. It’s quite timely in these days of “death with diginity” and compassion redefined as hurrying the dying into death, but it may be a bit too much for children. Again, I think the entire family will enjoy the first two books in the trilogy.

A few more excerpts:

“Theodore saw his hopes of a new beginning turn to ashes in the miserable discovery that even men who had given their whole lives to follow Christ could be irritable, sharp-tongued, and hasty.” How many new Christians upon becoming involved in a church have stumbled over that particular realization? Monasteries, and churches, are simply places for imperfect people to come and begin to learn to serve and show kindness and love, not places where the already perfected live in flawless harmony.

Fifteen year old Melissa to her teacher in English class: “Mother says, that love is only true love when it shows itself in fidelity, —ummmm, faithfulness. She says if a person has the feeling of love, but no faithfulness, his love is just self-indulgent sentimentality. And that’s what Shelley was like, isn’t it? He wrote fine peoms to his wife and his lovers, but he wasn’t a faithful man. So how can his poetry about love be worth anything if his love in real life wasn’t worth anything?” From the mouths of babes, can an untrue person write truly? Can he write true poetry that he hasn’t lived in some fashion, however imperfectly?

“Mother said these stories were true, and I never knew her tell a lie . . . but then you could never be quite sure what she meant by “truth”; fact didn’t always come into it.”

I assure you that the stories in Ms. Wilcock’s Hawk and the Dove trilogy are quite true —as fiction sometimes is.

Books Shaping Evangelicals

Oct8

Christianity Today published this list of the Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals. The rule was that they only included books published since World War II. I’ve put in bold the ones I’ve read. I’ve heard of or know something about almost all of the books listed. I thought it was interesting that they listed Paul Tournier’s The Meaning of Persons. I haven’t heard anyone mention that book, by a Swiss psychiatrist, in years. But it was very popular among a certain group of Christians that influenced me when I was in college.

50.Revivalism and Social Reform by Timothy L. Smith
49.Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer. Mr. Tozer and I have not had the pleasure although I have heard many people recommend him.
48.The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill Corrie Ten Boom I do know. Of course, evangelicals have been influenced by the story of Corrie and her sister Betsy. “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
47.The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F. F. Bruce
46.Out of the Saltshaker and into the World by Rebecca Manley Pippert I read this one while I was still in college. I’m not sure I became a better evangelist, but I did realize how insulated I had allowed my self to be.
45.The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark A. Noll. I was supposed to read this book last year. Eldest Daughter read it at college, and I told her I would read it. However, I didn’t. I suppose I never could get interested because I think I already know what it will say. I’m tired of hearing about how anti-intellectual, “poor, uneducated and easily led” evangelicals are. Sometimes we are, but I’m not sure we’re any less interested in the life of the mind than any other group of people in the United States of America.
44.The Gospel of the Kingdom by George Eldon Ladd. Never heard of it.
43.Operation World by Patrick Johnstone.This one is not a reading book but rather a book of information and statistics about the state of missions and the Christian church in the countries of the world. It’s probably been quite influential in giving evangelicals a worldwide perspective on church growth.
42.The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren Yes, I read it. No, I don’t think it’s the last word on Christianity and how to live the Christian life. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad start. “It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. . . If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God.”
41.Born Again by Charles W. Colson. Chuck Colson’s spiritual autobiography shaped evengelicals, but even more it told non-evangelicals who we are. After all, I knew what “born again” meant long before Jimmy Carter or Chuck Colson used term. In fact, I remember thinking that journalists back in the mid-seventies were making fun of evangelical Christians by pretending to have never heard the phrase.
40.Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson Engineer Husband has made a more thorough study of the subject of Darwinism and creationism than I have, but I’ve read enough to be skeptical of the answers we have now from both sides of the debate.
39.Desiring God by John Piper. I haven’t read Piper either although I have one of his books on my TBR list.

38.The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Leslie Newbigin. The name of the author sounds familiar, but I cna’t say I’ve heard of it.
37.God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill I remember being quite impressed by Brother Andrew’s Bible smuggling operation. Such adventure!
36.Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Never read it, but I feel as if I have.
35.The Stork Is Dead by Charlie W. Shedd. I must admit I got my first dose of sex ed from reading All You Ever Wanted to Know . . . , but I did read The Stork Is Dead somewhat later.
34.This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti. Read it. Thought it was interesting. Didn’t let it influence my theology or my prayer life.
33.The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey with C. C. Carlson. About the time I read this book, back many years ago, I decided that I would most likely remain undecided on matters eschatological.
32.The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Oh, yes, what a great story! Nicki Cruz, gangs, the dangers of drugs, the power of Christ to redeem anyone.
31.The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins. Never heard of it.
30.Roaring Lambs by Robert Briner. I always intended to read this book, but somehow I never got ahold of a copy. Is it still relevant, or have we moved on?
29.Dare to Discipline by James Dobson. I read it and don’t think there’s anything terribly controversial here. Correct, discipline and teach them when they’re young.
28.The Act of Marriage by Tim and Beverly LaHaye. We got a copy of this book and of Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat when we got married. Influential? Maybe. Helpful to a couple of virgins who were just starting into this marital relation thing? Definitely.
27.Christy by Catherine Marshall. Christy is a wonderful story, too. Yes, I would say it shaped me, besides being one of the few “Christian romance novels” I would recommend.
26.Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little This book sets down in easy to understand language just what Christians and why.
25.Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. I think I started this book once, and I know it’s about setting boundaries and learning how to say no.

24.The Meaning of Persons by Paul Tournier I said I was surprised to see this book on the list. I thought my friends and I were all reading it as a result of a much more popular book (as I remember it), The Edge of Adventure by Keith Miller and Bruce Larson. Mr. Miller and Mr. Larson refer to Tournier frequently in their book(s), and because of them and the recommendations of a friend I read some Tournier. I wonder how it would sound now if I went back and re-read it.
23.All We’re Meant to Be by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty. I’ve heard of this book—frequently and usually negatively. Never read it.
22.The Genesis Flood by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb. We have this one, but I’ve never read it. Did I ever mention that I’m not a science sort of person?
21.The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Emerson Coleman. Never heard of it.
20.A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle I love A Wrinkle in TIme, but I’m not sure how it influenced or shaped evangelicals. I’d say all of Mrs. L’Engle’s books together influenced and shaped me and other evangelical lovers of story to see that Christanity could be discussed in fictional terms as well as nonfictional ones.
19.The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Of course.
18.The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. I’ve read something else by Mr. Willard, but I can’t think of the title. I’m left with the impression that the book I read had to do with Christian disciplines and reminded me of Rachard Foster’s book, The Celebration of Discipline.
17.What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. I’ve read oter books by Yancey, too, but not this famous one.
16.Basic Christianity by John Stott. Good, basic stuff.
15.The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism by F. H. Henry. Why is our conscience uneasy? I’ve read about it, but I don’t recall.
14.Let Justice Roll Down by John M. Perkins.
13.Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. I was quite impressed with this compilation of evidences for the reliability of Scripture and the historicity of the Resurrection back when I was first introduced to it in high school. I daresay I’d still be impressed.
12.Power Evangelism by John Wimber with Kevin Springer. I heard all about this one —signs and wonders.
11.Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster I read it; now if I could only practice what I read.
10.Evangelism Explosion by D. James Kennedy. One of those books I don’t feel as if I need to read because I already know all about it. I attended the Baptist version of EE, called WIN Institute, and I, too, learned the famous question: “If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven?”
9.Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot Inspiring story of martyr Jim Elliot. However, I think some of Elisabeth Elliot’s other books ave been just as mind-shaping as her biography of her husband.
8.Managing Your Time by Ted W. Engstrom
7.Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider. As a poor college student, this book made me feel really guilty without giving me much idea of what to do about it. Eat less meat? Would that help anyone else?
6.The Living Bible by Kenneth N. Taylor I had a green puffy Bible. Did you have a green puffy Bible? It really was helpful because I could read the Bible and share it with friends and it made sense!
5.Knowing God by J. I. Packer. Never read it, to my shame.

4.The God Who Is There by Francis A. Schaeffer. I did read Francis Schaeffer, but I think the books by his wife Edith (What Is a Family? and The Hidden Art of Homemaking) were much more influential in my life and in that of many other evangelical women. Mr. Schaeffer wrote very dense prose and tended to repeat himself. I got a lot more out of his film series, How Should We Then Live?.
3.Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis Of course. However, I think Lewis could have taken places 1-6 on the list with his other books, too. What about The Great Divorce and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Till We Have Faces and The Screwtape Letters and ?
2.Understanding Church Growth by Donald Anderson McGavran. Never heard of it, but at #2, it must have shaped someone.
1.Prayer: Conversing With God by Rosalind Rinker. Ah yes, I’m a little surprised to see that CT places this book at #1, but I agree it was revolutionary for its time. In my youth group we began to talk to God in regular words, and I became impatient with those who were older than I and used “thees” and “thous” in their prayers. I’m ashamed of the impatience, but I’m glad I learned to talk to God in colloquial speech and read his word in Ken Taylor’s paraphrased words.

It’s a pretty good list. I’ve read twenty-six out of fifty, and I’m familiar with many of the rest. I haven’t heard of a few of the books on the list, but it’s supposed to be list off the books that have shaped evangelicals as a whole, not just the books that shaped me as an evangelical. There are only four works of fiction on the list, but that’s probably about right. Fiction is not as easy to point to as mind-shaping; the ideas in fiction are more nebulous, encased in story, and therefore more enduring perhaps, but that’s another discussion. Still, I would add the following books to the list (in addition to the C.S. Lewis books I mentioned above):

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Not just the story itself, but the whole idea that you could write a great work of fiction without even mentioning God or Christianity and still have it be infused throughout with a Christian worldview and atmosphere . . . that was mind-bending and exciting. Yes, I know Tolkien was Catholic, not evangelical. He could still shape the evangelical mind.

Joni by Joni Eareckson. I don’t know why this book wasn’t on the list. As much as anyone, Joni helped me and other evangelicals understand that God allows suffering for His own purposes, that God doesn’t always heal, that He is always there even when we don’t understand what He’s doing, that handicapped persons are valuable to God and can glorify Him in their afflictions. What a wonderful gift to the Church of Jesus Christ and to evangelicals Joni’s life and work have been!

The Kingdom of Cults by Walter Martin. I know there are all sorts of controversies about Martin’s life and his writing, but I’m just stating facts when I say that he drew the lines that evangelical Christians still hold to today in differentiating between Christian denominations and cults.

Visit Semicolon’s Amazon Store for more great book recommendations.

Catholics and Calvinists

Sep20

Eldest Daughter says that at her Southern Baptist university there’s a resurgence of both Reformed theology (Calvinism) and Catholicism. Not the the same people are becoming Catholic and Reformed at the same time, but many are converting to one or the other.

Here’s a reprint of a Christianity Today article called “Young, Restless, Reformed” detailing the popularity of Calvinism among young people especially.

My question is: where are all the traditionally wishy-washy, Calvinoarminian, Southern Baptists? Or why can’t we all just get along, and why does predestination matter anyway?
(Yes, I know that I please no one and offend almost everyone with that question, as well as creating deep doubts among you all about my own intellectual and theological maturity. So be it.)

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Aug4

Some people told me I should add Waugh to my list of books and authors with a touch of Catholicism. However, since I had never read anything by Mr. Waugh and I was only listing books with which I was at least familiar, I couldn’t very well add his books to the post.

Well, I can now, but Brideshead Revisited doesn’t have a touch of Catholicism; it’s all about being Catholic, particularly being Catholic in the early twentieth century in England. And I can’t decide whether Waugh thinks it’s an overall good thing to be Catholic or a very bad, mess-up-your-life thing. The Catholics in the book all come back to their faith in one way or another, but they are all really confused and thwarted by their Catholic upbringing and heritage in the meantime. So can someone else tell me, is this book pro-Catholic or anti-Catholic? Or neither?

I kept comparing the attitude toward Catholicism and growing up Catholic in the book to my childhood culture of contemporary evangelicalism. But I just didn’t and don’t still have the issues that these characters have in Brideshead Revisited. The basic problem seems to be that they can’t enjoy sin and its pleasures because their Catholic-trained conscience gets in the way. Or, alternately, they can’t live life to its fullest because they listen to Catholic doctrine and attempt to follow it. However, there aren’t many sins in evangelical churches that would get you excommunicated. Even divorce and adultery have been known to fail to get so much as a reprimand. In the Catholic church it’s necessary to at least express some kind of repentance and remorse in order to obtain assurance of forgiveness. So it’s harder for the family in the book to reconcile their actions with their beliefs. Since my temptations lie more in the areas of bitterness, anger, and gossip and since nobody talks much about those sins, I can get off without so much as a trip to confession in my church, and my level of discomfort depends on the activity level of my conscience, not on the disapprobation of the church authorities or of fellow Christians.

What I am familiar with and know that Waugh nails is the attitude of many unbelievers toward all things Christian. The narrator of the novel is an agnostic and just doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. Why do innocent conversations within this devout Catholic family turn into discussions about God and about the Church? Why do his friends have such a hard time shedding their Catholic heritage and rejecting Catholic doctrine? What’s the big deal? I have seen this attitude and the gap between believers and unbelievers so often. The first group, Christian believers, see that all life is related to and ends up in God/Christ. He’s the center. The other group, the agnostics and unbelievers, don’t understand why the Christians can’t just keep their “religion” in a box and pull it out in private. And never the twain shall meet.

Then, there’s another character in the novel who is essentially an unbeliever, too. However, because he wants to marry one of the Catholic characters, he decides to convert to Catholicism. The problem is that he doesn’t have a clue what being Catholic is all about, and he’s willing to say whatever he needs to say to get into the church because he doesn’t really believe or disbelieve any of it. I’ve seen this sort of person, too. Rex, the character in the book, is a little exaggerated, but only a little. I’ve seen husbands come to church, get baptized, attend faithfully, never knowing or caring what any of it is all about, just in order to make their wives happy or to be a member of the community or to make business contacts.

If you’re Catholic, I would highly recommend Brideshead Revisited for an examination of what it means to be Catholic, especially in a place and time where faithful Catholics are in the minority. If you’re not Catholic, I would also recommend the book as an examination of what it means to be faithful, the limits and psychological effects of legalism, and the possibilities of grace within a religious system. I thnk maybe (feel free to correct me) Brideshead Revisited is about how we can muddle through to grace and repentance and forgiveness and God even in our very human confusion and self-inflicted degradation.

Works For ME Wednesday: You Can’t Beat the Heat in Mexico

Jul26

The Headmistress at the Common Room offers some tips on keeping cool without air-conditioning.

She has some good ideas, but after my trip to Matamoros, Mexico a couple of weeks ago, I can safely say that most of her ideas just wouldn’t be enough for this wimp in that kind of heat. We were promised electricity and air-conditioning, but when we arrived, they said the electricity would be working mañana, and we all know what that word means in Mexico. So for the first few nights we didn’t sleep without air-conditioning. That’s right, we tried to sleep in box-like dorm rooms that trapped the heat and had little or no ventilation because the windows were blocked by—air conditioning units! There was a generator that produced enough electricity to run a few ceiling fans, but all the fans had to move around was hot air. The only thing that we found that would help was to sleep outside. First the guys moved their cots and beds outside; then the girls bought tents and moved outside, too. It still wasn’t cool, but we could sleep although the mosquitoes and gnats almost drove us crazy. (I’m still planning to post on what I learned in Mexico, other than the fact that I’m a spoiled American brat who has to have a cool house to sleep properly.)

I was reminded of a story my father-in-law told of growing up in West Texas. He said the whole family moved outside to sleep in the summertime under a big shade tree. Then, if it rained, they all scrambled to carry beds and mattresses back inside where it was hot, but dry. Luckily for them, it doesn’t rain much in West Texas.

I’m going to make this post my Works For Me Wednesday entry; at least you know one thing that works, and Headmistress can share a lot more useful tips.
More beat-the-heat ideas from Kathryn at Suitable for Mixed Company.

Go to Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for ME Wednesday tips.

A Catholic Taste in Books

Jun27

I’m Baptist born and bred, and by conviction, even though we are members of an Evangelical Free church now, but I’m not afraid of Catholicism or of talking about the differences between Catholics and Protestants with my children. Nor am I afraid of learning from my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ. There’s something attractive and intriguing about Catholicism, especially as a motif and spiritual background in books. I know there other Catholic-flavored authors (ones I’ve never read) —Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy—but these are some of the books with a Catholic taste that I’ve read and enjoyed.

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. I found this one a long time ago at a used bookstore. I’ve re-read it several times because it’s just fun. A little Catholic priest, Don Camillo, and a Communist mayor have a running feud in which they play out in comedic fashion the tensions and difficulties of post-WW II Italy. If you are offended at the idea of a priest praying before a crucifix and the Christ on the crucifix talking back to him, you won’t appreciate the humor in this book. However, I think it’s a delight.

Karen by Marie Killilea. This true story of a girl with cerebral palsy and her family was popular back in the 1960’s and 70’s. That’s when I first read it. This (Catholic) family is persistent, faithful and inspiring.

I just re-discovered In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, an excellent story about the lives of women within a closed community of nuns. Not only does the reader get to satisfy his curiosity about how nuns live in a convent, but there’s also a a great plot related to contemporary issues such as abortion, the efficacy of prayer, and the morality of absolute obedience.

The Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters take place in and around a 12th century monastery. This series of twenty medieval murder mysteries is perfect for those who like a taste of Catholicism mixed into their stories. G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries feature a simple, unassuming, but quite insightful, priest who solves mysteries by applying his intelligence and powers of observation.

The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock, along with the two other books in the trilogy, The Wounds of God and The Long Fall, is set in a medieval monastery and tells the stories of the monks who share in community there. Father Peregrine and the other monks are beautiful models of Christian love in community. I need to re-read these books. I’d recommend them for teenagers and adults.

I finally read A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller this year. I thought it was excellent, but a bit quirky. A different kind of sci-fi.

Tolkien is, of course, very Catholic in an understated way. Especially in The Silmarillion I catch glimpses of a world in which there are Catholic-like hierarchies of beings. Instead of saints and angels interceding before the throne of God, we have the elves and the Numenoreans and the Valar and Maiar serving Iluvatar, the One True God.

Also, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dameare very Catholic, but also generically Christian in the best sense of the word. Jean Valjean, the hero of Les Miserables, may be my favorite character in all of literature. And he is saved by the witness and compassion of a Catholic bishop who serves God in humility.

For children:

Tomie DePaola writes beautiful books and illustrates them. Several of his books are about Catholic saints and stories: The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Clown of God, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, The Lady of Guadalupe, and Mary: The Mother of Jesus. He also has written and published several Bible story books including The Miracles of Jesus, and The Parables of Jesus.

Pegeen by Hilda Van Stockumhas a Catholic setting because it’s set in Ireland, a very Catholic culture.

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite DeAngeli takes place for part of the book in a monastery, and Brother John is the wise mentor to a selfish boy as he learns to give to others instead of thinking always of himself.

Much historical fiction for children and adults has a Catholic flavor since it’s set in times when the culture was essentially Catholic. Read any book set in medieval Europe, and you should get a taste of what a Catholic culture looked and felt like. In fact, since Catholicism permeated that particular time and culture, if a work of fiction set in that time period does not have a distinctively Catholic taste, it’s probably not very historically accurate.

Added link: Joseph Bottum at First Things writes about another Catholic author, Morris West. has anyone read Shoes of the Fisherman or others of his books?

Do you have a Catholic taste in books, and if so, what are your favorites?

Easter Morning

Apr16

Easter Morning


Easter Morning
Bell, Karyn E.

What do you do on Easter Sunday morning? We usually have a sunrise, or near-sunrise breakfast outside in the backyard. We read the story of the resurrection from one of the gospels, pray, and then we partake of deviled eggs, cinnamon rolls, coffee, and juice. Then it’s time to go inside and get ready for church.

THis year our church is having a sunrise worship time at a local park, and the young adults in the family are committed to sing at the worship service. So I don’t know what we’ll do about our family tradition.

Easter Parade

Apr14

Easter Sunday



Easter Sunday
Carty, Leo

God expects from men something more than at such times, and that it were much to be wished for the credit of their religion as well as the satisfaction of their conscience that their Easter devotions would in some measure come up to their Easter dress.
Author: Bishop Robert South
Source: Sermons (vol. II, ser. 8)

Do you buy new clothes for Easter? Why? Where do you wear your new clothes if you don’t go to church? Did you get a new suit or dress on Easter when you were a child?

My girls have been asking for new dresses, but we haven’t managed to go shopping yet. Money’s a little tight, too. Maybe today or Saturday, we’ll go to the resale shop and find something for my five girls who are home–maybe even a new shirt for each of the two boys.