Book Review: Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy by Adam Deville

I am very excited for Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille, his new book, Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy has just been released by the University of Notre Dame Press. Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy is the result of his tedious and detailed research in the important 1995 Papal Encyclical Ut Unum Sint, a document which discusses Christian unity. DeVille, an Eastern Catholic (also known as Byznatine Catholic or Greek Catholic) looks at Ut Unum Sint through the lens of Orthodox and Catholic dialogue for greater unity.

First of all I love the cover. It's bold yellow background with Pope Benedict XVI and Bartholomew in the foreground is very attractive and through images shows what unity is all about, the East and West coming together. Unfortunately, like most families, the Church has a long history of divisions, arguments, and ad hominem attacks. Ecumenical relations have been off and on and then off again. Hopefully with a renewed interest in dialogue, and with the publication of this new book, both East and West will begin talking again, at least I hope so.

DeVille is hopeful. Without giving too much of the book away I do want to mention a few hallmarks of his work. DeVille looks at commentaries from major theologians from both Eastern Orthodox as well as Roman Catholic (and Eastern Catholic) sources. He then attempts to shed light on how the Papacy could be transformed to include greater conciliarity and sobornost among the Eastern Patriarchates and Rome.

DeVille's clear prose, combined with his copious footnotes reveals that he has done his homework. As a reader not very familiar with Ut Unum Sint it would have been helpful perhaps to include either an outline or the entire document at the back of the book as a handy resource. Additionally, I would have liked to see more discussion of the basic structure and themes of Ut Unum Sint in the first chapter. However, those two minor comments do not take away from this book. If you are remotely interested in ecumenism or you are a theological student interested in the Eastern Catholic or Orthodox traditions I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you read Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy. With greater interest in ecumenism in general, and in Catholic and Orthodox dialogue in particular, I can see this book having a long shelf life. I commend DeVille for his hard work and certainly we look forward to seeing more books from him in the near future.

To order a copy of Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy click here

For more information about Dr. DeVille and his book click here

To read the Papal document Ut Unum Sint click here

Book Review: Into the Depths by Meg Funk

I have been following the work of Meg Funk now for some time. Funk is a Benedictine nun at Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana and the author of several books on the spiritual life: Lectio Matters (Continuum, 2010), Thoughts Matter (Continuum, 1999), and Humility Matters (Continuum, 2005). Funk is very active in ecumenical dialogue and at one time was the Executive Director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.

Her new book, Into the Depths: A Journey of Loss and Vocation (Lantern Publishing, 2011) is a spiritual memoir. The book is divided into three parts. In Part 1 Funk outlines her early faith formation as a Catholic but then soon after as a Benedictine nun. She entered monastic life on the heels of the Second Vatican Council but her monastic formation was clearly pre-Vatican II. Stories of control, authority, and “following the rules” in the monastery were eye opening. Her stories reminded me of a friend of mine who is a Trappist monk who entered monastic life in the early 1950’s. He told me that when the monks were called into the abbot’s office they were supposed to kneel during the conversation, only later receiving a blessing and a piece of candy before leaving! Talking about "old school" geesh! Thankfully monastic and spiritual formation has changed since then. Eventually Funk's superiors allowed her to enter a graduate program at Catholic University in Washington, DC and a new world emerges as she learns more about theology, scripture, and liturgy. Her wonderful blog and her books attest to her love for life-long learning.

The second part of the book focuses primarily on a tragic incident in Bolivia where five of her friends die in a tragic car accident. Funk was the only survivor. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but needless to say this accident sends Funk into a spiritual tailspin and sets her on a journey to find healing and wholeness. This was my favorite part of the book and Funk lets the reader into her mind as she discusses her most intimate spiritual questions and concerns.

The third part of the book shows the reader the results of these efforts. Her coming to grips with her previous faith formation, what it means to be a Christian, as well as really living a Christian life which is healthy and wholesome.

The only shortcoming is that this book was too short! I felt that Funk held back too much when discussing her early faith formation in the monastery as well as her deep spiritual questions. Funk has been a nun for almost all of her adult life and surely she could have offered more insight into how monastic life changed in her monastery, perhaps offering some short anecdotes or vignettes. We see little for example of her fellow nuns and authority figures. We hear little about her friends in the car crash, all the people seem rather “flat.”

However, Into the Depths is a powerful book. Funk does not sugar coat the spiritual life nor does she idealize it, but shows the reader her own faults and foibles and her long-term bouts with depression. In the end we see Meg Funk as a real Christian, a real nun, and a real person striving to find God in the everyday. She should be commended for writing this book.

For for information about Meg Funk click here

To order a copy of Into the Depths click here

Coming Soon---Review of A Life Together by Bishop Sigrist

I am excited about reviewing a new book from a friend and colleague , Bishop Seraphim Sigrist, former bishop of Sendai in Japan. This book, A Life Together: Wisdom of Community From the Christian East (Paraclete Press, 2011) looks at community life from the Eastern Christian perspective.

Sigrist looks at the concept of sobornost or conciliarity as the foundation for our life together. Sobornost is a Russian word which basically means "togetherness." Sobornost means that the Church is not just the bishops alone or the priests alone or the laity alone but everyone working together for the common good of the entire Body of Christ. Unfortunately, many parishes and eucharistic communities do not work on this model. The priest or bishop in many cases (too many!!!) think that they "rule the roost." Well, this is just false. The entire community is responsible for the well-being of everyone else.

One of my greatest frustrations in parish life is reminding lay people that they have an essential role to play and that they need to take greater responsibility and ownership of parish life including visitation ministry and stewardship. Ministry is not just for clergy but for everyone. We can all contribute something to the community of faith. I know many clergy who try to "do everything" in the parish and therefore the lay membership do not need to participate. Thankfully the tide is changing. I am lucky to have very good lay leaders who have taken on more parish responsibilities. Hopefully this type of leadership will increase over time.

For more information about A Life Together click here

For more information about Bishop Seraphim and his ministry click here

For a brief biography of Bishop Seraphim click here

A review of A Life Together will be coming soon, make sure to check back.

A 30 Day Retreat (one year later!!!)

Wow, I am amazed at how fast time goes by. Just one year ago my book, A 30 Day Retreat: A Personal Guide to Spiritual Renewal was published by Paulist Press. The book was started years ago and took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to see the light of day. I had to deal with revisions, marketing, creating a new website, starting a blog, not to mention more revisions and changes! It's amazing authors continue to write given the sheer difficulty of publishing these days.

It has been a good year though. I received some very nice compliments from readers and it is good to know that some parishes and small groups are using the book for retreats and Bible studies.

For more information about A 30 Day Retreat click here

Oh yea, don't forget to buy a copy for yourself, for your pastor/priest, and for a friend, spread the good news about the Good News!!!

Book Review--- Speaking Christian by Marcus Borg

I am jealous. Why am I jealous you ask? Well, I am jealous because I wish that I wrote this book! When I saw the title advertised in Harper Collins' new releases I knew that I had to read it. For the past ten years I have taught introductory courses on the Bible to undergraduate and graduate students and pastored a parish. During sermons and in the classroom I constantly have to define, explain, and often critique commonly used words and phrases such as forgiveness, love, sinner, mercy, salvation. More often than not I find that people use these terms but have no idea what they mean. My job is to help them.

Marcus Borg does a great job of explaining these terms and phrases in his new book Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power and How They Can Be Restored (Harper Collins, 2011). First I just love the title, a collection of pins with words such as God, Jesus, the image of a cross, WWJD, and so forth. The cover is very catchy. If the cover grabs your attention than the content will certainly gain your attention too.

Borg is a great writer which shouldn't be hard to understand since he devoted the majority of his life to teaching, most recently as the Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture and Oregon State University.

While twenty five chapters may seem overwhelming to the average reader they are not enough! Take it from me, this book, is a page turner. Borg divides his book into various thematic chapters such as Jesus, Easter, Sin, John 3:16, Pentecost, etc.....common words, terms, and events that we hear about in Church but may not be very familiar with them. He weaves personal anecdotes and vignettes along the way too.

Do yourself a favor during this Easter season and buy a copy of Speaking Christian. No, buy two, one for you and one for a friend. Trust me, you will read and re-read this book again and again!

For more information about Borg's Speaking Christian click here

Being Real---A Lenten Challenge

Well, those of us in the Eastern Church have already started Lent. We started on Sunday March 6. In the East we have a forty day Lenten period which is then followed by Holy Week. The West however maintains a forty day Lenten period which begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday, but they do not count weekends as Lenten periods. The most important thing though is that we are all on a spiritual journey during the next few weeks and will celebrate the Lord's Resurrection together on Sunday April 24. Let God keep track of time!

One of the things in life which I detest is false spirituality. Once in a while I receive an email from a seeker or someone who wants to join the Church and they sign their name with "the unworthy servant so and so" or "I kiss your right hand father......" or "bless me a sinner." I mean come on already, give it up! St. Paul reminds us in his letters that we are all the chief of sinners, that no one is worthy but Christ alone, and that we are all in need of his saving grace and mercy, period. So why the continual stress on "I kiss your right hand" spirit-speak as I say? Its all fake, that's why.

Real spirituality is not talked about but lived. Real spirituality is love in action. Real spirituality is doing things that you really don't want to do at a particular moment but out of love for your husband/wife/child/neighbor/boss, you do it anyway. Real spirituality is putting someone else in life first rather than yourself. Real spirituality is not pretentious or fake. Real spirituality is quiet and unassuming and hidden. Real spirituality does not put on catchy spiritual phrases but is revealed in common plain language.

I wish everyone a good Lenten season and hope that you all become more and more real; more and more the person that God made you to be, not some cheap version that you put on just to please others.

Resilience

I am amazed at how strong people can be. The other day while driving I was listening to a very inspiring interview on NPR with the famous author Andre Dubus III, the author of The Land of Fog and Sand and most recently Townie. His father was the famous author Andre Dubus who died several years ago.

Townie is about growing up in a rough neighborhood. Since his parents were divorced his mom raised him along with his three other siblings. Her income was very meager so they lived in drug infested area with shootings, rapes, murders. He said that he missed at least 70 days a school a year. His sister was raped and was involved with drugs. His other brother became suicidal.

Thankfully everyone survived and they are now a close family.

What I was amazed at was the zeal to live. So many people have gone through some rough times: abuse, neglect, near death experiences, drugs, alcohol, divorces, rape, kidnapping, and war. Yet somehow they survived. They found some inner strength to move ahead. Andre Dubus III for example became a writer. Elie Wiesel, the famous writer, speaker, and scholar survived Auschwitz. There are countless others who have survived horrific things yet they managed to move ahead.

All I can say is "wow."

The interview also reminded me about the human condition and how broken we all are.