Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 238

"My Brother, the Pope" praised as an "honest and very illuminating memoir"...

... by Publisher's Weekly:

The first thing many people want to know when talk turns to the pope—any pope—is "What is he really like?" That curiosity is a natural reaction not only to the power and prestige of the Roman pontiff but also to the aura of mystery that seems to make him so remote as a person. So who better to provide insight into the life of the current pope, Benedict XVI, than his own brother? Georg Ratzinger is no Billy Carter, but rather a lifelong priest, like his brother Joseph, and he provides a warm but also honest and very illuminating memoir of their life together, from their childhood in Bavaria to Georg's insider view of his brother's life as pope. This volume is as revealing about Benedict as any other analysis of his beliefs and policies, because it provides a first-person account of the familial and religious dynamics that shaped, and continue to direct, Benedict's approach to the Catholic Church today. And if this isn't a celebrity tell-all, there are plenty of entertaining details, such as the real story about Benedict's cats and his complete lack of any kitchen skills.

More about the book, which is now available from Ignatius Press:

My Brother, the Pope

by Georg Ratzinger, with Michael Hesemann

t wasn't always the case that Msgr. Georg Ratzinger lived in the shadow of his younger brother, Joseph. Georg was an accomplished musician, who for over 30 years directed the Regensburger Domspatzchor, the world-famous boys choir of the Regensburg cathedral. Brother Joseph was a brilliant young professor, but mostly known in German academic circles.

Now Georg writes about the close friendship that has united these two brothers for more than 80 years. This book is a unique window on an extraordinary family that lived through the difficult period of National Socialism in Germany. Those interested in knowing more about the early life of Benedict XVI will not be disappointed. They will also learn of the admirable character and inspiring example of the parents, and see how the Catholic faith can shape not just a family, but an entire culture-in this case, that of Bavaria.

Georg's reminiscences are detailed, intimate, and warm. And while they begin with the earliest years of the Ratzinger family, they continue right up to the present day.

This is not simply a book to satisfy curiosity about a "celebrity", though it certainly does that. It's a beautiful portrait of Catholic family life and, in the most literal sense, of enduring fraternal charity. Georg has a talent for telling a story, and the co-author fills in some of the larger historical background. The many photographs, both in black and white and in color, round out a thoroughly enjoyable and inspirational book. Illustrated with 47 photographs.

Georg Ratzinger (born 1924) is a Catholic priest and musician. From 1964 to 1994, he was the conductor of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the world-famous cathedral choir of Regensburg, Germany. He is the elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI.

Michael Hesemann, (born 1964) is a German historian, journalist and internationally published bestselling author, specializing in Church history.

"Msgr. Georg Ratzinger's evocative portrait of the Bavarian Catholicism in which he and his brother, the future pope, were raised, offers 21st century readers an intimate glimpse of a lost world that clearly lives on in the minds and hearts of a great musician and a great theologian. The scenes sketched so ably by Msgr. Ratzinger also shed new light on the experiences that shaped some of the thinking of Benedict XVI about the reform of the Church and the future of Europe."
- George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center 

"I have no hesitation in saying that My Brother the Pope is not just a fascinating book but a unique one, as well.  In its pages we are shown not just a Pope, a Cardinal, or even a great theologian; we are granted an intimate look at the life of one beloved brother through the eyes of another. Here we come to know the world that formed Pope Benedict XVI, from the gentle love of his deeply Catholic Bavarian family to his struggles with the brutal Nazi regime that ruled his country during his youth.  Anyone who reads this book from beginning to end will truly come to know and admire the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI."
- Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Author, Arise from Darkness

"In My Brother, the Pope, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, gives remarkable testimony to the inestimable role of parents and family in the life of a young man called to the priesthood. The careful and rich account of the life of the family of Joseph and Maria Peitner Ratzinger, provided by their second child and eldest son Georg, permits the reader to see directly how God works through the family in calling a young man to the priesthood. The family assists him in responding to the priestly vocation and accompanies him, as both priest and son or brother, throughout a lifetime. Georg Ratzinger has, in a most special way, provided the world with a treasured means to understand more deeply God's great gift of its universal shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI, who remains always his brother."
- Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

"Nobody knows the Holy Father better than his brother, as is evident in this heartwarming and engaging memoir. On the one hand, Monsignor Ratzinger offers an intimate portrait of the Pope's family life, granting us privileged access to the inner sanctum of Pope Benedict's childhood and youth; on the other hand, the chilling accounts of life in Germany during the rise and fall of the Nazis are nothing short of startling. Pope Benedict is not likely to write his autobiography; in its absence, this is the next best thing."
- Joseph Pearce, Author, Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile

Photos from the book:

"We have been taught to think that 'democracy' is ...

... automatically "the best regime," the only alternative to any totalitarian state power. Though it has been coming for some time, within these past couple of weeks, we are seeing clearly that the desire, force, and will to subsume all subsidiary social institutions, especially religion and family, under the control of the state is also endemic in current democratic societies. Religion is seen to be, not the "first right," that popes speak of, but the principal opposition to the utopian move to provide everything for everybody under the benevolence of the all-caring state.

Perhaps no organization has been more reluctant to grasp and acknowledge the operative logic of this total control ideology than the Catholic Church. It has prided itself in its subtle accommodation in recent times to what were thought to be reasonable principles for understanding of the political order, the nature, limits, and place of revelation within it. Catholics have striven to show that its beliefs and organizations are able to accept a limited state, a state that understands its own nature and does not claim competence over all spheres of human life.

On the surface, we might be tempted to look on the move to extend what is called "health care" to everyone, including religious institutions, to be something wholly neutral and well-meant. The fact is, however, that it is but one aspect of a world-wide logic, by no means limited to this country. It demands, under the name of the universal common good, the complete control of the state over all aspects of human well-being, especially those having to do with matters of life, death, human reproduction, and efforts to prevent or control the same.

— from "Under the control of the State", by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., on the CWR blog.

Teresa Tomeo on "free birth control" and contracepting Catholics

The author of Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture is interviewed by Kathry Lopez on National Review Online:

LOPEZ: What does the new "free birth control for all" policy of the United States mean to you?

TOMEO: That according to those in the current administration, there is only one acceptable ideology in this country — pro-contraception and pro-abortion. It's their way or the highway, as the old saying goes; and it is very eye-opening as the lines are becoming much clearer. I see this, though, as a great opportunity for all people of faith — particularly in the Church — to lead the way in the fight for our basic constitutional rights.


LOPEZ: What do you think when you hear Catholic conscience protests dismissed because so many Catholics don't practice what priests don't even preach?

TOMEO: Most people go at least ten miles over the speed limit; that doesn't make their actions correct. There is a very high percentage of young people who engage in underage drinking. That doesn't mean we should lower the legal age limit to 14 just because "everyone" is supposedly doing this or that. To me, this is such an immature response. Just as with particular laws we have established in society, the Church has also established her own set of teachings for our benefit. It seems that this type of argument is only brought up when we are dealing with issues below the belt. I also question some of the statistics that the anti-Catholic pundits are using when it comes to the number of Catholics using contraception.


LOPEZ: Why is the Catholic Church worth being a part of or defending? You have noticed that its leadership is male and you're not, haven't you?

TOMEO: The truth of Church teachings is proven right over and over again in the natural law. Theology of the Body expert Christopher West says, "The truth of Church teaching is proven in the pain of those who reject it." All we need to do is look at the continual breakdown in society to know that the Church teachings are spot on. If what the world is selling is so wonderful, why is there so much misery attached to it? For example, if we were meant to jump from relationship to relationship, then why do we see so many problems attached to sexual promiscuity — namely, extremely high rates of sexually transmitted diseases and the emotional turmoil that comes from this type of existence? This is just one example of why the Church is worth being a part of and defending. What the Church teaches not only offers what's best for Catholics but what is best for all of humanity.

In terms of the male hierarchy, we need to see it as the servanthood roles established by Christ as opposed to roles of power. We need to stop thinking of the Church as some sort of a company with a glass ceiling that needs to be broken. People need to stop thinking in terms of sound bites or catch phrases when it comes to the Catholic Church. If they took the time, as I finally did, to sit down and see what the Church has to say — particularly about women's rights — they would be very pleasantly surprised. I would highly recommend a reading of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Papal Letter to Women as well as his ground-breaking document Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). I don't have too much patience for people who throw stones at the Church when they haven't given her reasoning, writings, and teachings the time of day.

Read the entire interview. Learn more about Tomeo's book here.

Making "The Way" His Way | A Catholic World Report Interview with Emilio Estevez

Making "The Way" His Way | A Catholic World Report Interview with Emilio Estevez

The film, "The Way", written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his father, Martin Sheen, is an inspirational story about family, friends, faith and the challenges faced navigating a complicated world. Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to France to collect the remains of his adult son (played by Estevez), killed in a storm in the Pyrenees while walking the famous Camino de Santiago, "The Way of St. James." Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage to honor his son's desire to finish the journey, unprepared for the profound impact the journey will have on him. He meets other pilgrims from around the world with their own issues and looking for greater meaning in their lives. From the unexpected, moving and amusing experiences along "The Way," and especially when he reaches the pilgrim's destination, the beautiful Shrine of St. James the Apostle, Tom learns what it means to be fully human again.

Catholic World Report recently spoke by phone with Estevez about the making of "The Way", the themes explored in the film, and his thirty-year career as an actor and writer.

CWR: What was the original inspiration for the script for "The Way"?

Estevez: It really was inspired initially by my father. He had traveled to Spain to walk a part of the Camino de Santiago in 2003.  And he went with my son, who was working at the time; he was nineteen.  And so off they went; and one of the first nights they stayed in a bed and breakfast that took in pilgrims.  My son met the innkeeper's daughter and fell in love and he's been living there almost nine years now.  They were married in 2009—and that was the true inspiration.  I figured that if I was going spend some time with my son, I better figure out how to make a film in Spain, and we did.  So that was sort of the origin of it.  And then we began to talk about actually doing a project there and what it would look like. Through a series of conversations we developed what would ultimately be a dramatic journey wherein a father loses his son on the Camino—because that's kind of what happened to me, although not tragically. And the end developed from that, once we had that hook, and we built on that.

Read the entire interview at www.CatholicWorldReport.com...

"Anything Goes": Reproductive medicine grows ever more disturbing

Anything Goes | Chuck Weber and Sister Renée Mirkes | Catholic World Report

Reproductive medicine grows ever more disturbing.

In 1978, when doctors introduced Louise Brown, the first "test tube" or in vitro fertilization (IVF) baby, to the world, the international media hailed the event as something just short of the definitive answer to infertility. In Time magazine, Dr. Robert Edwards—one of the brains behind Baby Louise's birth and the acknowledged godfather of the assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry it spawned—boasted: "This is the first time we've solved all the problems at once. We're at the beginning of the end—not the end of the beginning." 

Now, more than three decades later, a critical look at the direction of the ART industry's agenda and actions leaves Catholic observers with several troubling ethical and medical questions that might be summed up as: "Where will it all end?"   

Coming precisely one decade after the publication of Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae, the initial Catholic response to Baby Louise was ambiguous. Just days before being named Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani expressed his "best wishes to the baby," suggesting that the parents may "have great merit before God for what they have decided on and asked the doctors to carry out."  

Many Catholic scholars, scientists, and laypersons adopted sentiments similar to those of the pope, only without the helper verb, "may." Unencumbered by meaningful opposition, the ART industry, a consortium of researchers, medical school professionals, pharmaceutical companies, and others, formed an unofficial alliance with the secular media and quickly evolved into a formidable and profitable presence worldwide.

Read the entire essay on www.CatholicWorldReport.com...

"The Screwtape Letters" to be performed in Sacramento at March 3rd

From our friends at C.S. Lewis Society of California, this news:

We cordially invite you to join with us in attending the sensational and hilarious, stage production of C.S. Lewis's bestselling novel and masterpiece of religious satire, The Screwtape Letters, starring Max McLean, at the Community Center Theater in Sacramento, on March 3rd (Saturday) (please see below for further information)!

The Screwtape Letters explores the theme of spiritual warfare from a demon's point of view. This funny, provocative and wickedly witty theatrical adaptation—critically acclaimed in New York; standing room only at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C.; and called the "most successful show in the history of the Chicago Mercury Theater" by the Chicago Tribune—will change the way you think about the problems in your everyday life. The Screwtape Letters entertains and uplifts people with its hilarious, sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, the highly placed assistant to his demonic "father below."

Visit the Society's website for further details and information.

New: "The True Icon: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil of Manopello" by Paul Badde

Now available from Ignatius Press:

The True Icon: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil of Manopello

by Paul Badde

The Shroud of Turin is one of the most famous relics in the world. Scrutinized by scientists and studied by debunkers, it is also honored by countless faithful devoted to the mysterious image of a crucified man that appears on the cloth.

In this lavishly illustrated book, best-selling author Paul Badde sets out on a journey through Europe and the Holy Land as he traces the rich history of the Shroud. With the investigative skills of a seasoned journalist, Paul Badde uncovers many of the mysteries surrounding the Shroud and also researches another relic honored as a burial cloth of Christ-the Veil of Manoppello, which bears the image of the Holy Face.

Drawing upon his years in Jerusalem and his many visits to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Badde gives a riveting account of the discovery of Christ's countenance by Peter and John in the dawn of the first Easter. Badde powerfully presents the case that their awe and wonder at the sight of the True Icon needs to be rediscovered in our own time.

When the image on the Veil of Manoppello is laid over the image of the face on the Shroud of Turin, the two images match perfectly. It is the same face.

"The Veil of Manoppello is the sudarium of Christ. This is the mysterious second cloth from the tomb of the crucified Christ that John the Evangelist discovered about 40 hours after the death of Jesus-together with another linen sheet, which is today preserved in Turin."
- Paul Badde

"The Shroud is an Icon written in blood; the blood of a man who was scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and whose right side was pierced. The Image impressed upon the Shroud is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life."
- Pope Benedict XVI

Paul Badde is a historian and a journalist. After years with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he became a foreign news correspondent for Die Welt, reporting first from Jerusalem and now from Rome and the Vatican. Among his books published in English are Maria of Guadalupe: Shaper of History, Shaper of Hearts and The Face of God.

Sample images from the book:

Three False Christs: The Myth, the Mortal, and the Guru

by Carl E. Olson

Albert Schweitzer, in the opening pages of his famous and influential 1906 book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, wrote, "And so each subsequent epoch in theology found its own ideas in Jesus, and could find no other way of bringing him to life. Not only epochs found themselves in him. Each individual recreated him in the image of his own personality."

Examples abound:

Many atheists insist that Jesus didn't even exist or that, if he did, he is either lost in the mists of time or misused by Christian zealots.
Rationalists tend to depict Jesus as a philosopher of good or questionable abilities and intentions.
Socialists often present Jesus as a protoMarxist and liberation leader whose struggle was ultimately political, not religious or spiritual. Other leftists paint a portrait of Jesus the community organizer or community agitator.
Denizens of the New Age realm regularly equate Jesus with Buddha and speak of "Christ-consciousness."
Some Christians speak of a friendly, all-inclusive Jesus who hardly warrants interest, let alone worship, while others preach a Jesus who is judging and angry and hardly warrants charity, let alone discipleship.

Some of these "Christs" are simply false; some are, more specifically, also heretical. "Every heresy has been an effort to narrow the Church," wrote G. K. Chesterton in St. Francis of Assisi. Likewise, these heresies seek to narrow the person of Jesus Christ. Here, then, are three popular depictions of Jesus Christ that are not only flawed but dangerous to one's intellectual and spiritual health.

Jesus the Myth

The belief that Jesus Christ never even existed but was the creation of early Christians is increasingly common but also increasingly crude and crack-brained. It is summed up well enough by the skeptics at JesusNeverExisted. corn: "Christianity was the ultimate product of religious syncretism in the ancient world. Its emergence owed nothing to a holy carpenter. There were many Jesuses but the fable was a cultural construct."

The claim of syncretism is standard and has found its way into all sorts of popular fiction and entertainment, most notably The Da Vinci Code. The nonfiction The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light, written by former Anglican priest Tom Harpur, is a good example of an attempt at putting a scholarly veneer on the enterprise. Harpur argues that Christianity is almost entirely derived from ancient mystery religions–especially Egyptian–and based around Horus, the son of the goddess Isis. In turn, Harpur often draws upon the work of Gerald Massey, a 19th-century freethinker, who posited that true Christianity was thoroughly Egyptian in origin and Gnostic in theology. Harpur concludes that a human Jesus never existed but was created by a corrupt, power-hungry hierarchy, a recurring theme in such literature.

The roots of this approach go back to the 18th century, when Charles Francois Dupuis (1742-1809) wrote The Origin of All Religious Worship, one of the first attempts to show that all religions, including Christianity, are essentially the same and that Jesus was the mythical creation of early Christians drawing upon pagan myths. This position gained currency in the United States in the late 1800s with the publication of of The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors (or Christianity before Christ), written in 1875 by Kersey Graves (1813-1883). Jesus, the book asserted, was not an actual person but a creation based on earlier stories of deities or god-men saviors who had been crucified and who descended to and ascended from the underworld. Graves, born into a Quaker family, was an atheist who employed spiritualism to gain insights into historical events and personages. His methods and findings have been thoroughly discredited–even by many atheist scholars–but his book continues to attract readers online.

The first part of the loth century was dominated by this tantalizing notion that pagan mystery religions, especially the mythology of "dying-rising" gods, had strongly influenced, or even produced, essential Christian doctrines. The most famous example of this obsession is Sir James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough, a 12-volume study of folklore and religion. But scholars in the mid- and late-20th century, such as the anthropologist (and Anglican cleric) E. O. James (1888-1972) questioned and eventually rejected these assumptions. Rigorous studies demonstrated that the pagan mystery religions of the Greco-Roman world were different in essential ways from those religions of the ancient Far East.

Yet this didn't stop Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) from writing a best-selling book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and co-hosting a PBS program with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth (aired 1988), that drew upon the same dubious streams of thought. Campbell popularized the notion of "monomyth," which refers to a basic pattern of a hero's journey found in many narratives from around the world; this idea, for example, influenced George Lucas in his creation of Star Wars.

More recently, the same mythological shtick has been taken up by atheist Christopher Hitchens in his 2007 bestselling book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Hitchens denies that the four Gospels have any historical value at all, falsely states the Gospel authors "cannot agree on anything of importance," wrongly propounds that the "Gnostic gospels" give a "fractionally more credible" account than do the four Gospels, refers disdainfully to the "highly questionable existence of Jesus," says accounts of Jesus' life are "legend," and states that the "Gospels are most certainly not literal truth." Considering how stuck Hitchens is in the 1800s, it's not surprising that his book cites the arguments of just one Christian scholar from the past hundred years, the Anglican apologist and author C. S. Lewis.

Hitchens is either unaware or dismissive of the abundance of studies from both Christians and non-Christians that Jesus of Nazareth did exist and that the Gospels do indeed provide information that historians take seriously as providing real accounts of real people doing real things. No reputable modern-day historian of the ancient world denies that Jesus of Nazareth existed, which is why Graham Stanton, in The Gospels and Jesus (Oxford University Press, 2002), wrote, "Today nearly all historians, whether Christians or not, accept that Jesus existed and that the Gospels contain plenty of valuable evidence which has to be weighed and assessed critically." The amount of textual evidence for the existence of Jesus is overwhelming, especially for an ancient historical figure. The more scholars learn about first-century Judaism, the more historically accurate the Gospels show themselves to be. In addition, the thoroughly Jewish character of Jesus' words and actions are further revealed, destroying the tenuous theories linking Jesus to Greek myths or Egyptian gods.

Jesus the Mere Man

That Jesus was merely mortal is now standard fare among those who cannot deny the basic historical evidence but reject the uniqueness of the man from Nazareth. The variations are many: Jesus was just a misguided prophet, a Cynic philosopher, a Jewish rabbi, a political zealot, an itinerant guru, an agitator for social change. This is hardly new. From the beginning, some doubted or mocked Jesus' claim to divinity: "They said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, "I have come down from heaven"?'" (Jn 6:42). Jews, Romans, and other pagans of the early centuries mocked the first Christians for their belief that Jesus is the Son of God.

The role of the Reformation in this approach was significant. How? Anglican Scripture scholar N. T. Wright has noted that Martin Luther and other early Protestants were so intent on "the results" of Jesus' saving work they failed, in his words, to "ask about the theological significance of the ministry of Jesus" and also failed "to treat the Gospels with full seriousness, as they stand, that is, as stories" (Jesus and the Victory of God, 1996). Thus, Jesus was severed from his historical and cultural background as the emphasis was placed upon personal experience. "This is to know Christ, to know his benefits... . Unless one knows why Christ took upon himself human flesh and was crucified," asked Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), Luther's close friend and the first Protestant systematic theologian, "what advantage would accrue from having learned his life's history?"

The lineage from Protestant revolt to Enlightenment-era skepticism is not simple, but it is logical, and it is hardly a coincidence that 18th- and 19th-century German theology and philosophy were at the cutting edge of saying, in short, that Jesus "was just a man."

The philosopher Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) believed in a deist God who did not intervene in any way in history. Reimarus therefore denied miracles and the Incarnation, arguing that Jesus was "a Jewish reformer who became increasingly fanatical and politicized, and he failed." His work is often cited as the beginning of the division between the "historical Jesus" and the Jesus of faith supposedly created by the early Church. The theologian Christian Baur (1792-1860 rejected all supernatural elements in the Gospels, presenting Jesus as a mere mortal combining Jewish religious beliefs with Greek philosophy. He concocted the influential theory that Peter and Paul led radically opposed wings of early Christianity, neither of which was true to Jesus' higher (but only mortal) consciousness.

In 1835 the precocious and polemical David Strauss. (1808-1874) wrote Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet (The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined), the most influential "life of Jesus" of the 19th century. He presented Jesus as a fanatical Jewish preacher with delusions of messianic grandeur and insisted the Gospels were mostly legend and folklore. The influence of his bare-bones story of an itinerate preacher who proclaimed the Kingdom can be seen in the work of the modern-day Jesus Seminar, which has rejected as unhistorical or exaggerated nearly every narrative in the Gospels. Strauss is notable for interpreting Jesus' miracles as "mythical" in character, against rationalists (who found natural explanations for the miracles) and supernaturalists (who believed the miracles really were miracles).

Modern-day variations on this theme are numerous and appear in historical novels presented as well-researched and theologically sophisticated. The rogue historian Leigh Teabing, a main character in The Da Vinci Code, says, "[Jesus was] a mortal prophet . . . a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal." He and the novel's hero, Robert Langdon, declare that Jesus was "made" divine at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 and that prior to that time no one–not even Jesus' followers–believed that he was the Son of God. Never mind the obvious evidence to the contrary (see Mt 1:23, 3:16-17; Jn 1:1ff, 5:18, 8:56ff, Jn 20, etc.). A more recent example is found in a novel, The Book of Rachael, written by "academic, ethicist, activist" Leslie Cannold, which depicts a Jesus who died not for man's sins but for his staunch feminist beliefs. Thus, Jesus is again presented as a mere mortal whose wrong-headed disciples attempt to deify him after his tragic death. The cases of Brown and Cannold are ample proof of Schweitzer's statement, "Each individual recreated [Jesus] in the image of his own personality."

The Gospels and New Testament do not depict Jesus as a radical feminist but do clearly present him as being somehow divine. Jesus, to take just one instance, states, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" (Jn 8:58)

The Jews arguing with him understood what he meant, for they "took up stones to throw at him." What options exist, then, for the skeptic? C. S. Lewis famously offered the "trilemma" of "liar, Lord, or lunatic," to which Peter Kreeft has added "guru/teacher." And that is the third and final false Christ we will examine.

Jesus the Avatar

Jesus, according to this fallacy, is primary or completely "spiritual" in nature, one of many spiritual guides who have achieved an exalted state of spiritual enlightenment, free of doctrine, dogma, and authority. The ancient roots for this are found in Gnosticism, a broad movement that emerged in the second century against orthodox Christianity and that sought to reshape Christian doctrine by redefining key words and ideas.

"The first heresies," notes the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity (Gnostic Docetism)" (CCC 465). Docetism (from the Greek word for "appear") was the early Gnostic heresy holding that Jesus only appeared to have a body, whereas he was only spiritual, having attained freedom from the material realm. This essential premise is a constant among those who present Jesus as a spiritual guru, for they have little or no interest in the actions of Jesus in time and space. The "Gnostic scriptures," logically enough, have little or no historical narrative and are fixated instead on secret knowledge and hidden techniques of spiritual enlightenment.

The Jesus of the Gnostic writings is hardly recognizable as a Jewish carpenter, teacher, and prophet dwelling in first-century Palestine; instead, he is described as a phantom-like creature who lectures at length about the deficiency of aeons, the mother, the Arrogant One, and the archons–terms that only the Gnostic elite would comprehend. In some Gnostic texts Jesus and Christ are depicted as two separate beings: Christ coming from above and Jesus, coming from below, merely the bodily vessel that Christ dwelled in for a time on earth.

Something similar can be found in the Christ of the New Age movement, a movement that generally embraces pantheism or monism, the belief that "all is One" and this One is impersonal. An excellent and recent example can be found in the writings of the prolific Deepak Chopra, especially in his best-selling book The Third Jesus (2008; see "Chopra's Christ: The Mythical Creation of a New Age Panthevangelist" for a detailed review and critique). Chopra purposely seeks first to remove Jesus from any historical context and reality then detaches Jesus from theological reflection and doctrinal formulation. The "first Jesus," then, "is historical and we know next to nothing about him." Of course, Chopra goes on to say specific things about the historical Jesus but still insists that he is completely unknowable. Why? "This historical Jesus has been lost, however, swept away by history." Actual historical studies and evidence are not considered or even acknowledged; rather, this anti-historical approach is taken for granted, as something of an act of blind faith. The "second Jesus," says Chopra, is "the Jesus built up over thousands of years by theologians and other scholars." This Jesus, Chopra insists, "never existed" and "doesn't even lay claim to the fleeting substance of the first Jesus." Again, no evidence is offered and there is no engagement at all with the rich theological tradition of the Catholic Church. But this isn't surprising, as Chopra, like most New Age adherents, is anti-theological and anti-metaphysical. He considers theology to be either pointless or propaganda.

The "third Jesus" is Chopra's Christ, the epitome of a subjective savior, although Chopra has no need to be saved from sin and evil. Rather, "Jesus intended to save the world by showing others the path to God-consciousness." This journey to "God-consciousness" happens through "Christ-consciousness," the ambiguity of which can be tweaked and molded as one wishes to one's personal tastes. Christ the "guide" is a spiritually advanced being who helps seekers achieve "spiritual evolution." He is compared to or even joined in some way to Buddha. Chopra–having done away with history and theology–conveniently sees no difference between the two, stating that "the Christian seeker who wants to reach God is no different from the Buddhist. Both are directed into their own consciousness."

Since the emphasis in Gnosticism and in the New Age movement is on elite teaching, the death of Jesus and his Resurrection from the dead are of little or no importance. The result is that a significant part of the Gospels–about a quarter of those texts–is simply ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. Since historical context is of no interest, specific details from the Gospels are either ignored or wildly misinterpreted. Chopra, for example, enjoys interpreting texts about "light" in a most hazy and vague manner, ignoring the fact that references to light in the Gospel of John are in the context of Genesis 1, the Feast of Lights, and the Shekinah glory of God.

Ultimately, this false Christ is part of the tired but popular theme, "Religion is bad, spirituality is good." It is highly individualistic and unrelentingly subjective; it is openly opposed to logic, history, and traditional authority. One might say that it is the result of faith divorced from reason, but only if that "faith" is understood to be, finally, in oneself as a part of an impersonal, cosmic whole.

God, Made in Man's Image

These three false Christs are rooted in three faulty views of God and the world: atheism, deism, and pantheism. Each fails, in essential ways, to take seriously as historical events what is described in the Gospels and proclaimed by the Church. The importance of this is stressed by Pope Benedict XVI in the first volume of Jesus of Nazareth: "For it is of the very essence of biblical faith to be about real historical events. It does not tell stories symbolizing suprahistorical truths, but is based on history, history that took place here on earth."

Each false Christ also results from a failure to see the entire picture and take into account all of the historical information. "If you want to understand the Scripture in the spirit in which it is written," wrote Benedict XVI, "you have to attend to the content and to the unity of Scripture as a whole." In addition, each misunderstands or misrepresents the social, religious, political, and cultural context of first-century Palestine. Ignored or overlooked is the Jewish character of Jesus' teaching and how it is nearly impossible to get an accurate sense of who Jesus is without some understanding of the Old Testament and first-century Judaism.

Finally, each of these false Christs relies, to one degree or another, on a subjective or esoteric way of reading and interpreting Scripture. Put another way, each rejects the authority and teaching office of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ cannot be rightly understood and defended apart from Scripture, and Scripture cannot be rightly read and interpreted outside the Church. Otherwise we simply recreate Christ in the image of our own personality, which is not and cannot be a basis for objective and ultimate truth.

[This article originally appeared in the January/February 2012 edition of Catholic Answers Magazine.]

Side Bars (representative quotes)

Jesus Is . . .

. . . a Cultural Construct

Christianity was the ultimate product of religious syncretism in the ancient world. Its emergence owed nothing to a holy carpenter. There were many Jesuses but the fable was a cultural construct. Nazareth did not exist in the first century A.D.–the area was a burial ground of rock-cut tombs. Following a star would lead you in circles. The genealogies of Jesus are pious fiction. The 12 disciples are as fictitious as their master, invented to legitimize the claims of the early churches. The original Mary was not a virgin. That idea was borrowed from pagan goddesses. – www.jesusneverexisted.com

... a Deified Human

"All the oriental nations, as well as Christian, taught that 'God was a spirit,' but no nation or class of people, not even the founders of Christianity, entertained a consistent view of the doctrine. Only a few learned philosophers saw the scientific impossibility of an infinite spirit being crowded into the human form. Hence they alone were contented to 'worship God in spirit and in truth.' Every religious nation went counter to the spirit of this injunction in worshiping for a God a being in the human form. Even the founders of Christianity, though making high claims to spirituality, were too gross, too sensuous in their conceptions, too externally minded, and too idolatrous in their feelings and proclivities, to be content to 'worship God in spirit.' Hence their deification of the 'Man Christ Jesus' to answer the requisition of an external worship, by which they violated the command to 'worship God as a spirit.'" — Kersey Graves, The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors

. . . an Enlightened Master

"Once we see Jesus as a teacher of enlightenment, faith changes its focus. You don't need to have faith in the Messiah or his mission. Instead, you have faith in the vision of higher consciousness. . . . Because the Gnostic movement was based on personal revelation, it triggered suspicion from the official Church, which was threatened by revelations that could happen to anyone, regardless of religious infrastructure. Therefore, Gnostic beliefs like these were condemned. But seen in the light of higher consciousness, what Jesus says is undeniable: Anyone who reaches God-consciousness will experience revealed truth." — Deepak Chopra, The Third Jesus

. . . an Atheist

"Jesus was a great moral teacher. Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist if he had known what we know today." – Richard Dawkins, Interview with The Guardian, October 24, 2011

The Myth That Is True

"The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens–at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle." – C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

Christ-Consciousness" Is Not of Christ

There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God; the God of which New Age speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and sustainer of the universe, but an "impersonal energy" immanent in the world, with which it forms a "cosmic unity": "All is one." This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic. God is the "life-principle," the "spirit or soul of the world," the sum total of consciousness existing in the world. In a sense, everything is God. God's presence is clearest in the spiritual aspects of reality, so every mind/spirit is, in some sense, God. When it is consciously received  by men and women, "divine energy" is often described as "Christic energy." There is also talk of Christ, but this does not mean Jesus of Nazareth. "Christ" is a title applied to someone who has arrived at a state of consciousness where he or she perceives him- or herself to be divine and can thus claim to be a "universal Master." Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, but simply one among many historical figures in whom this "Christic nature is revealed, as is the case with Buddha and others. Every historical realization of the Christ shows clearly that all human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this realization. – Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, "Jesus Christ: The Bearer of the Water of Life"

Jesus Is the One Savior of Mankind

The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). As a consequence, it is held that certain truths have been superseded; for example, the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of Christian faith as compared with that of belief in other religions, the inspired nature of the books of Sacred Scripture, the personal unity between the Eternal Word and Jesus of Nazareth, the unity of  the economy of the Incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit, the unicity and salvific universality of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the universal salvific mediation of the Church, the inseparability–while recognizing the distinction–of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, and the Church, and the subsistence of the one Church of Christ in the Catholic Church. – Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus (On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church)

 

And I, for the record, am a practicing CatholicBuddhistHinduScientologistLesbianMarxistRapper

Something is in the water, while a little less is between the ears:

Looking for a wild-and-crazy time at college? Don't sign up for Justin McDaniel's religious studies class.

The associate professor's course on monastic life and asceticism gives students at the University of Pennsylvania a firsthand experience of what it's like to be a monk. ...

he course, which focuses primarily on Catholic and Buddhist monastic traditions, stems in part from McDaniel's own history. An expert on Asian religions, he spent a portion of his post-undergraduate life nearly 20 years ago as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Laos; he says he's both a practicing Buddhist and a practicing Catholic.

Oh, c'mon, Mr. McDaniel! Set your sights higher, as did Sean Stone, the son of film-maker and conspiracy promoter Oliver Stone, and practice three religions at once:

US filmmaker Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam on Tuesday in Iran, where he is making a documentary, he told AFP.

"The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with. It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets," he said in a brief telephone call from the central Iranian city of Isfahan, where he underwent the ceremony.

The first story—which has no mention of God, Jesus Christ, or distinctively Christian beliefs and practices—concludes with this Really, Really Deep Thought about learning about the monastic way of life:

"It's not about individual restrictions," said McDaniel. "It's about building hyperawareness of yourself and others."

Nifty. But how about also building some awareness of the specific beliefs of Christianity and Buddhism that indicate they cannot, ultimately, be reconciled with one another? As for the second story, one doesn't have to be an expert in Islam to suspect that becoming Muslim does, in fact, involve a certain and obvious rejection of Christianity and Judaism. But, hey, that is just the hyperaware opinon of one CatholicBuddhistHinduScientologistLesbianMarxistRapper...

The Current Crisis and the Deepest Truths About Our Being

by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

"To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truths about our being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God."
— Pope Benedict XVI to American Bishops from the Washington Area, January 19, 2012 (L'Osservatore Romano, English, January 25, 2012.)

I.  

The ad limina visit of American bishops for January 19th, in L'Osservatore Romano, showed a photo of the Pope with Cardinals McCarrick and Wuerl. In the English edition, the address was entitled: "Convincing Witness to the Face of Radical Secularism". As these prelates are from the area where most of the recent direct attacks on Catholic teaching have occurred, and often sponsored by Catholic legislators or bureaucrats working for the President, this particular address of Benedict is of significant meaning.

Like many of the American bishops, the Pope is aware of the threat to Catholic religious freedom and religious liberty posed by the regulations of the Obama administration. While awareness of the seriousness of this threat seems lost on many Catholics, academics, and politicians, it is quite clear that the Pope and the bishops are acutely aware of the rigid logic that has been at work in contemporary secularism and in particularly in this administration.

The Pope recalls his visit to the United States where he reflected on the "American historical experience of religious freedom and specifically the relationship between religion and culture." As always, Benedict XVI begins with principle. "At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is the consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions of human flourishing." Agreement or disagreement on the highest things will necessarily affect how we live and how we can or cannot live together. And, looking backwards, how we live will indicate what we hold as true. Benedict understood the worldview coming from the Founding Fathers as a generally healthy one.

"Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such." These are very startling papal words. How many American Catholics (let alone those in other parts of the world) acknowledge this increasing "hostility to Christianity as such?" It is a moment of what Hegel would call "world-historic importance." No matter, the hostility is there and incrementally increasing, if we are paying attention to what is happening almost daily.

The Church in this country is to propose "a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths, but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prosperity." These lines remind us that the agenda of those who, especially in moral matters, seek not merely to "allow" Church presence when necessary but more subtly to change Church teaching to conform it to the relativism of the culture, especially on life issues. This pressure to change doctrine is where the Church has finally realized that it must draw a line in the sand. The issue is no longer merely technical or practical. It is about the "unchanging moral truths." The administration has taken the position that if the Church will not change, then it will, usually in the dubious name of "human rights," be excluded from the public order.

Benedict points out that the source of this attack is "scientific rationalism" but also sheer "political power." We are now seeing the raw use of political power exercised by a government that is "democratically" elected. We cannot take refuge in "majority rule," as that too may be totalitarian; it too may and does at times impose doctrines against reason and faith. If this surprises us, it is only because we have not been paying attention to what has been happening in our political parties, in our media, and in our universities.

II.

What we are now witnessing is the Catholic intelligence focusing on the logical principles and their inevitable conclusions once the first principles of relativism are made operative in a culture and in politics. "When a culture attempts to  suppress the dimension of human mystery and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it necessarily becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionism and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society."

These are particularly strong words, spoken to Americans about America. The Pope does not hesitate to tell us that totalitarian principles are actively at work in our current political leaders. Clearly, the Holy Father has been paying attention to what U.S. bishops have been telling him.

Again we have to understand the whole coherence of the Catholic mind. "Our tradition does not speak from blind faith, but from a rational perspective which links our commitment to building an authentically just, human and prosperous society to our ultimate assurance that the cosmos is possessed of an inner logic accessible to human reasoning." The doctrine of creation maintains that an order does exist in things and in human things, an order not simply put there by the human mind but discovered there. God's essence is not voluntaristic as in the Muslim world wherein no secondary causes can be attributed to God as that would impugn Allah's power. A science that finds nothing but human intelligence in the world speaks the same voluntaristic language. Science is only possible if the world is real—and real things actually have their own being and order, something open to reason.

Benedict tells us that the Church proposes her understanding of man and the world as a matter of liberty and not of constraint. We are free when we discover and conform to reality. Benedict adds something that he often repeats: "The Church's witness is of its nature public: she seeks to convince, by proposing rational arguments in the public square.

The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage, or be engaged by, the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation."  What is most disconcerting and dangerous about the recent HHS mandate is precisely this refusal, mindful of Callicles in Plato's Gorgias, to engage in conversation. It insists on limiting everything to its view of what is legitimate. The Church is merely a private thing for a few pious believers who do not count; its public reasons do not have to be engaged as it  has no power.

Thus, "it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize that the grave threats to the Church's public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasingly expression in the political and cultural spheres." Once radical limitations on freedom of religion are in place and freedom of expression is curtailed, the possibility of reversing the imposed laws becomes problematic.

The bishops have been wise to base their claim on the tradition of religious freedom. As Benedict puts it: "Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion." The Pope tells us that many bishops have spoken to him about this situation. It is up to the bishops, of course, to get down to names and numbers, but clearly the Holy Father sees the basic outlines of the issue. As usual, he spells things out clearly and frankly.

The Pope here tells us that this is an issue not primarily for the bishops but for the Catholic laity. At a time when the Church needs articulate and qualified politicians and leaders, it finds that many of the leading proponents of the positions inimical to Church teaching themselves claim to be Catholic. "No one who looks at these issues realistically can ignore the genuine difficulties which the Church encounters at the present moment." No doubt the Pope is aware of the sorry effect of clerical scandals and the episcopal handling of them.

Yet, we have here a new generation of bishops who are educated more in the models of John Paul II and Benedict, intelligent men who know what they are up against and determined to take as their models the great teaching and acting bishops of our tradition. For this, we might thank the current administration for carrying to its logical conclusion the secularist claim that the only thing that matters is whatever the government says and enforces. It is against this view that we must now fortify ourselves. The "deepest truths about our being" are at stake. We have never really heard them clearly and publicly articulated in our polity. Hopefully, we will hear them from now on.