Galileo

By Mitch Stokes. Thomas Nelson Publisher.

Stokes carefully lays out the historical and scientific setting in which the Galileo drama unfolded. He explains step-by-step the relevant mathematical and philosophical issues related to Aristotelian cosmology. He shows the close connection between scholastic theology, based on Aristotle's philosophy, and Aristotelian science, and how if the science unraveled the Catholic Church would fear that its scholasticism would unwind too.

Stokes reminds readers that the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-centuries were the high point of the Counter Reformation, a time when Pope and Inquisition feared Protestantism and hoped to arrest its development, chiefly through the intellectual work of the Dominicans and Jesuits.

Readers get a strong sense of the great faith of Galileo. He not only believed deeply in Christ, but also in the reasonableness of the Catholic Church. He was confident that if he could explain the heliocentric system, famously described by Copernicus, it would be accepted. Galileo's own faith was untroubled by the unwinding of Aristotelian science, because he had, as Descartes and other scientists and early-modern philosophers, separated philosophy from faith.

Thus in Galileo's mind if the Bible contradicted science, the Biblical passage in question could be regarded as allegorical, something akin to Augustine's understanding of Biblical interpretation.

Stokes shows the various personalities involved, though because it is a short book, we don't get to know many of the characters outside of Galileo. The author provides an excellent introduction to the Galileo case, successfully arguing that science and religion did not turn against each other.

Thomas More, A Lonely Voice Against the Power of the State

By Peter Berglar, 230 pages, Scepter Publishers.

A decent, deeply religious lawyer, Christian, family man, and government servant, Thomas More found himself at the center of a controversy from which he couldn't escape. A humanist scholar and friend of the great Erasmus of Rotterdam, he stayed firmly on the papacy's side when Henry VIII decided to make himself head of the English Church .

While More himself tended to do the right thing, the Church's corruption had led to its eroded position in society and the target of criticism from scholars, churchmen, and the people. Berglar is particularly skilled at portraying the historical roots of the problems, religious and political, faced by More.

The author is also good at portraying the more human side of a saintly man. More could be arrogant, and a people-pleaser who went along with the abuse of power of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, who preceded More as Chancellor, the head of government.

More opened the Reformation Parliament of 1529-36, during which time, Berglar writes, "medieval England came to an end, [and] More's career was at its peak." More knew in 1529 that his time was up, and that he would be dismissed, allowed to resign, or murdered by the increasingly tyrannical king.

Throughout A Lonely Voice, the author brings out the biographies of those with whom More dealt. Rather than a cold political history, readers get a sense of the personalities involved, above all More's and the king's.

To Be Like Jesus: Inspiration from the Gospel of Luke

By Sister Ann Shields, 130 pages, Servant Books.

Sister Shields interprets for faithful modern living various passages about Jesus from Luke's Gospel. She keeps the reader focused on the larger meaning behind the Lord's words and deeds. Clear explanations of the passage are made relevant to readers' lives, as she applies the meaning to today's busy, secular world.

Her interesting discussion on Jesus among his own people, proclaiming the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, offers a step-by-step interpretation of the passage. At first, Jesus' audience is happy and amazed, for this is Joseph's son. As Sister Shields explains, their acceptance turns to shock then disappointment and hatred, as Jesus challenges their beliefs about the Chosen People and the work of the Messiah for whom they are so eagerly waiting.

Sister Shields shows how we too act like this when someone threatens our belief system. This passage speaks to us today; we are the audience listening to Jesus, and the Messiah, who we already know has come, is challenging us as deeply as he did his original audience.

Behind gentle Biblical interpretation and spiritual teaching lie a few challenges for the reader. Shields shows that the Gospel challenges us deeply, because faith does not come as easily as we think it does.

She applies Gospel imagery to her spiritual teaching for the reader: "Your faith might really feel like a mustard seed, so small that it looks as if it can't be the source of life for anything. But water it with God's grace in frequent confession and reception of the Eucharist. Lay your heart bare before God. Decide to obey his command to forgive."

Doing Virtuous Business

By Theodore Malloch, Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Theodore Malloch excels at his perspective that people should buck up, quit their whining, and get back to work.

But not so quick. He is not a heartless conservative businessman, but rightly shows how this is good for people. Entitlement and resentment, the foundations of the feminist-welfare dependency state we now have in western countries, hurt most those with the entitlements and resentments.

Faith is the way for people to lift themselves up again. Malloch calls out anti-capitalist liberal crusaders who frame capitalism is very negative terms and call businessmen greedy and money-hungry. He shows that faith and business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, faith is essential to running a company.

Malloch's many anecdotes clarify his beliefs. He centers much of his argument on the virtues, such as honesty. Acting honestly will aid a company by forming close, loyal relationships with customers and other businesses. Dishonest businesses eventually face the fallout of their immoral ways.

He calls business leaders to live their religion and morality at work, even citing the example of a Southern Baptist-owned restaurant that closes on Sundays, yet remains profitable and continues to expand. He argues that such a business plan allows the employees regeneration time, so they can better serve customers on Monday.

Profit is not the most important thing in a business. Living the vision, virtues, and values of the company are more important, and these will bring profit as well, Malloch argues effectively.

Why Priests? Answers Guided by the Teaching of Benedict XVI

By Paul Josef Cardinal Cordes, 204 pages, Sceptor Publishers.

The priest acts "in persona Christi." This heavy responsibility has many related issues that Cardinal Cordes investigates. He emphasizes the Christ-centered nature of the priesthood. Christ makes the priest; the ordained man does nothing of his own accord.

The "power" of the priesthood, a sacramental power, is bestowed at ordination and is the power of Christ. With this cultic view of the priesthood, Cordes opposes the sociological view of pastoral ministry he has seen in the Church since Vatican II.

In the sociological practice, pastoral teams and pastoral areas consist "of priests, pastoral assistants, and other laity. The result is administration according to a sociological model. The delegation of pastoral care to 'experts' reduces the chance of arousing or promoting faith among the community through personal contacts, personal witness, and greater trust. "

This sidelines the importance of the sacraments and emphasizes the therapeutic aspect of Christian life, according to Cordes, who argues strongly for greater emphasis on the sacramental role of priests without putting these men on a pedestal and thus placing a barrier between them and the laity.

Rather than psychological or counseling roles, the priest above all, through his sacramental office and his close relationship to Christ, works for the spiritual welfare of the parishioners. Cordes repeatedly stresses the evangelical character of the priest through this special means. While Vatican II called for evangelization by all Christians, laity included, priests nonetheless play a special part in the spreading of the Gospel.

Priests are part of the hierarchy. While Cordes avoids reducing "the Church" to the ordained and consecrated, he nonetheless values the importance of hierarchy and its hardworking members. All religious life has at its base authority.

He writes, for instance: "That theology exists at all is only by virtue of the fact that its truths are able to break into the closed circle of our own thought."

Theology, like the priesthood itself, plays a spiritual rather than therapeutic or psychological role in our lives. This spiritual role demands that the priest have a special relationship with Christ. The priest is above all a man of Christ, totally consecrated to the Lord.

Again, Cordes rejects a sociological view of organizations or leadership, and emphasizes the spiritual nature of the priesthood: "Being a presbyter receives its decisive quality not in the activities he performs as part of his ministry, but in the priest's subordination to Christ."

When we remember this Christocentric nature of the priesthood, we avoid a "utilitarian" view of priests whereby they are merely functionaries carrying out a canonical task such as marrying a couple according to Church law. When we keep in mind the sacramental dimension of the priest's work, the full sacramental meaning of marriage is clear. The priest is not just used as part of a nice, postcard wedding.

The Christocentric notion of the priesthood also emphasizes that it is Christ, and not the community, that creates priests. The ordained man is anchored firstly in Christ, not the community. Cordes, not surprisingly, therefore also rejects a utilitarian relationship between the priest and Christ.

The ordained man is a priest in his very being, and not simply because he has a parish function to undertake.

Putting Down Roots: Father Joseph Muzquiz and the Growth of Opus Dei

By John F. Coverdale, 152 pages, Scepter Publishers.

While the author is a bit too idealistic, Putting Down Roots does highlight the importance of bold initiative to evangelism, as exemplified in the work and personality of Father Joseph Muzquiz. Opus Dei's growth in America and Europe was the work of individuals who had committed themselves to God. They let the Holy Spirit work through them, and had absolute confidence in their endeavors.

Brave, adventurous souls worked wonders as Opus Dei religious houses were planted in American cities such as Chicago , Boston , and New York . Opus Dei's American director, Father Joseph Muzquiz, repeatedly financed the purchase of enormous, university-area houses with almost no money. Perpetually stretched too thin, they were Catholic cowboys often living on nothing but hope and prayer.

Thus Coverdale notes, Muzquiz "was impatient with delays and with any tendency to just go on momentum. He had the mind of an entrepreneur who would rather act immediately than wait until everything was in place."

Father Muzquiz, the first priest ordained by Opus Dei, succeeded most of all because of his deep faith and prayer life, which gave him wisdom, strength, and endurance through constantly challenging times. Though too heavy on the details, Coverdale paints a good picture of the spirituality and personality of Father Muzquiz, who never stood still and carried a light, gracious attitude and smile on his face, no matter how tired.

As with many great priests who emphasized the confessional, people describe him as non-judgmental, fully attentive to the person at hand, and exemplary in following Christ.

Coverdale discusses Opus Dei spirituality in depth, as he notes Father Muzquiz lived the Prelature's charism more faithfully than almost anyone. He kindly, patiently corrected even small defects in a person, as he followed the Opus Dei dictum, "the spirit of the Work is in the specifics."

The author repeatedly notes that Father Muzquiz had a "supernatural outlook" that served him and those around him well in the early days when he and Opus Dei in America were growing quickly but lacked financial security.

This outlook also helped when an aggressive person or impossible situation seemed to be spoiling his plans. His great faith in God led him to believe that such people and events actually played a part in his work. Rather than fighting directly, he used his love and humility to work things through.

The author paints a rosy picture here, and readers don't get sufficient sense of the real failures of the movement in its early days in America or when Father Muzquiz returned to Europe to build the organization there.

Readers do get a sense of his pastoral gifts, as he built bridges between rich and poor in class-ridden southern Spain and when he traveled out of his way to meet with local village priests.

As in his days in America when reaching out to university students, he strove to build a family spirit even amidst the isolation of these priests. This care for each individual made deep impressions on people and drew many into Opus Dei.

Putting Down Roots gives the impression that without Father Muzquiz Opus Dei would be a shadow of itself today in America and Europe .

In Constant Prayer

By Robert Benson, Thomas Nelson.

Bensen talks a lot about himself, and very little, if any, about Christ. "God" is sufficiently vague to be anything higher. The author claims that he doesn't want to get into theological mudslinging, but without Christ, and with "God" being so bland, who is he praying to?

So Bensen inadvertently portrays prayer as part of Christian individualistic narcissism. He shows how the American church has become a hothouse, a training ground, for self-absorbed baby-boomers and their children and maybe their children's children.

"I theology," the "theology of me": Prayer is discussed in terms of how I can pray, and in terms of how prayer affects me psychologically. One paragraph has "I" in every sentence, sometimes twice. Ten times in that one paragraph. Not uncommon in this book.

Another paragraph has the following expressions: "I spent"; "we spent"; "I finished"; "I am still"; "I can"; "I am not"; "than I was before I began"; "but I am still". This is a gem of a paragraph, with one sentence containing four "I"s alone.

This is ridiculous, Christless theology. Christ is found nowhere in this bewildering book. It's a book on prayer within the Christian tradition, but the author talks about himself (a whole lot), and everything / everyone else in his life that affects him, like his neighbors or friends.

This leads to a lot of boring nonsense: "One block north, two blocks west, and another block north gets me down Twelfth Avenue..." Who cares.

The church in America is in big trouble.